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Comment by mak484

I have broken down all of the current masteries into two categories: unique, interesting masteries and flat bonus masteries.

Unique, interesting masteries:

Flat bonus masteries:

Why this mastery is interesting
The flat increase to block chance may be boring, but this mastery also gives prot warriors the chance to critically block, which allows them to block double the amount of a normal block. It doesn't take long to realize how powerful that is, and seeing as how there is no other way to get a critical block other than with this mastery, it becomes very unique.

Comment by 224426

player: 20! I critically block!
GM: ...what?

Comment by 629499

80 mastery rating will then make you critically block every melee attack then?

Comment by 453520

At level 80 at least the only thing you gain by picking more mastery over more avoidance is that it's more consistent, but ilvl point for ilvl point avoidance is much better until possibly very late game when the diminishing returns makes this false.

Comment by 700511

Kinda surprised that no one has posted this yet, but...
How do you figure out what your active critical block % chance is? And does shield block increase your chance to critically block even if it doesn't push you over 100% avoidance?

And on another topic, why don't critical blocks generate critical Shield Specialization Rage? Get on that, Blizzard.

Comment by quizzlefix

For those looking for some theorycrafting:

A normal block reduces damage by 30%, a critical block reduces damage by 60%.
Your critical block chance only applies to attacks that you would have blocked anyway.

Critical block double-dips into Mastery, so the more you have, the better it gets (until you block cap and completely push normal hits off the combat table).

Each point of Mastery gives you 1.5% increased block chance and 1.5% increased critical block chance.
You get 8 points of Mastery and 5% block chance base, and 15% increased block chance as a Protection Warrior from Sentinel, giving you a base block chance of 32% vs. a level 85 attacker. By Mastery I mean actual value (including the 8% base), not rating.

Ignoring misses, dodges, and parries (so only considering blocked and direct hits) from a level 85 attacker (nb: raid bosses are level 88):

Block chance (CB) = Mastery * 1.5% + 20%.
Critical block chance (CBC) = Mastery * 1.5%.

Chance of an attack being critically blocked = BC * CBC = (M * 1.5% + 20%) * (M * 1.5%)
Chance of attack being non-critically blocked = BC * (1 - CBC)
Chance of attack not being blocked = 1 - BC

Damage mitigated by a critical block = 60% reduction
Damage mitigated by a block = 30% reduction
Damage mitigated by a normal hit = 0% reduction

Damage taken based on Mastery:
Unblocked hits = 1 - BC * 100% = 1 - (M * 1.5% + 20%)
Block damage = BC * (1 - CBC) * 70% = (M * 1.5% + 20%) * (1 - M * 1.5%) * 70%
Critical block damage = BC * CBC * 40% = (M * 1.5% + 20%) * (M * 1.5%) * 40%

Total mitigation by Mastery:
BC * (30% + 30% * CBC) = (M * 1.5% + 20%) * (30% + 30% * M * 1.5%)
= (0.015M + 0.2) * (0.0045M + 0.3)

What does this tell us?
This is a quadratic equation, thus mastery has ever-increasing returns. This is the opposite to the diminishing returns of Parry and Dodge.

NB: At 20 Mastery, Critical Block will mitigate more damage than Paladins' Divine Bulwark.
NB: these calculations ignore other effects, e.g. Hold the Line, Shield Block and the shield block metagem.
NB: block (soft) cap happens when block plus avoidance (chance to miss, chance to parry, chance to dodge) exceeds 102.4% vs. a level 88 raid boss.

Sample values (Mit refers to overall damage taken):

M BC CBC B Mit CB Mit Mit
0 20.0% 0.00% 94.00% 100.00% 94.0%
8 32.0% 12.00% 90.40% 92.80% 89.2%
10 35.0% 15.00% 89.50% 91.00% 87.9%
15 42.5% 22.50% 87.25% 86.50% 84.4%
16 44.0% 24.00% 86.80% 85.60% 83.6%
17 45.5% 25.50% 86.35% 84.70% 82.9%
18 47.0% 27.00% 85.90% 83.80% 82.1%
19 48.5% 28.50% 85.45% 82.90% 81.3%
20 50.0% 30.00% 85.00% 82.00% 80.5%
21 51.5% 31.50% 84.55% 81.10% 79.7%
22 53.0% 33.00% 84.10% 80.20% 78.9%
23 54.5% 34.50% 83.65% 79.30% 78.0%
24 56.0% 36.00% 83.20% 78.40% 77.2%
25 57.5% 37.50% 82.75% 77.50% 76.3%

Please highlight any logical/calculation fallacies.

Comment by pfunkmort

I don't have the wowhead cred to post replies, but regarding the above comments on blocking magical attacks, it's actually funny that inferno blade is mentioned. Because that, and some other magical attacks (melee attacks from elementals which are BOTH resistable and blockable come to mind - from my sarth 3d progression) ARE actually blockable, both by paladins and warriors. In addition, it's worthwhile to keep in mind the value of Shield Mastery, which was also unmentioned, as a way of dealing with magic damage - which is still relevant to the block conversation here.

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Critical Block

Critical Block

Critical Block
Increases your chance to block by 12% and your chance to critically block by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases your block chance by an additional 1.5% and your critical block chance by an additional 1.5%

Increases your chance to block by 12% and your chance to critically block by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases your block chance by an additional 1.5% and your critical block chance by an additional 1.5%.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

None

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

0 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Critical Block Chance % (8)
Value: 1% (SP mod: 1.5)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Modify Block %
Value: 1% (SP mod: 1.5)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #3

Apply Aura: Dummy
Value: 151
PVP Multiplier: 1
Server-side script

Flags

Passive spell
Aura is hidden
Cast time is hidden
Not In Spellbook Until Learned
Mastery spell

Critical Block

Buff

Spell Details

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