Perfect Block: The opportunity to execute a perfect block with a Fighter's or Assassin's Shield or a Mystic Knight's Magick Shield is best described as a series of frames that 'open' just as an enemy's blow is about to strike. This perfect block deflects the incoming damage back at the Cyclops, staggering it. The purple flash is the shield's elemental property, Lightning, proccing on the Cyclops.
The act of stopping an attack with a shield or magick shield is known as Blocking.
Once the core skills Deflect (Fighter and Assassins) or Reflect (Mystic Knights) are learned, Perfect Blocks become available. These are well-timed blocks that can reflect damage back to an attacker, with a strong knockdown effect.
Blocks[]
Holding the shield in front serves to block many attacks including melee, arrow, and some spells such as Ingle.
Stamina recovery is halted whilst blocking; every block also drains a little stamina. Stamina consumption on blocking is independent of the strength of the shield.
Blocks can be broken by either attacks that are too strong, or when stamina is totally exhausted by blocking.
Debilitations (such as from a Rusted Shield) are generally not inflicted from standard blocks, but can be from perfect blocks.
Effect on movement[]
Whilst blocking (eg hold [LB]/[L1]) the shield wielder will begin to "Z-target", they will 'lock on' to the nearest foe as long as the button is held, and motion will be converted to forward-back (↑/↓), and strafe left-right (←/→) control.
Furthermore attacks to a frontal arc whilst block will cause the shield wielder to rapidly face the attack and then lock on if in range.
Blocking Ability or "Stability"[]
There is a hidden stat ("Blocking Ability" or "Stability") that governs how strong an attack a shield can block without the block being broken. With sufficient 'stability' an attack can be blocked repeatedly without the block been broken (unlike being staggered), provided the attacks have not depleted the blocker's stamina.
A shield's blocking ability appears to be independent of the Arisen or Pawn's Defense, Stagger, or Knockdown resistances. It is also independent of the Stagger and Knockdown power of the shield in question.
Each shield appears able to reliably defend against attacks of certain power, but above that power the block will always be broken. For example, a Round Shield can reliably block a road guard's (Soldier) light attack (Onslaught), but cannot resist their heavy attack (Empale).
On enhancing, dragonforging, or rarifying a shield may gain Improved Blocking Ability allowing it to resist heavier blows. For example, at 3* enhanced, a Round Shield becomes able to resist the Empale attack of road guards. The augment Periphery also improves blocking ability.
Perfect Blocks[]
To be able to Perfect Block Fighters and Assassins must have learned the core skill Deflect; and Mystic Knights must have learned the core skill Reflect.
Shield bearing characters with only the basic core skills Defend or Repel are unable to perfect block at all.
A Perfect Block activates when the [block] button is pressed at the precise frame when an enemy attack connects with a character's Shield or Magick Shield. Success is signified by a special animation, sound effect, a white flash, and a brief time-dilation effect ("slow-motion"), which differentiates a regular block from a Perfect Block. Unlike regular blocks, Perfect Blocking expends no Stamina.
A successful Perfect Block also grants a small window of invulnerability to most attacks, excluding enemy grabs and pins.
The ability to successfully Perfect Block without being overwhelmed is affected in the same way as the Blocking ability of the shield affects the ability to normally block. If the guard is broken whilst attempting a well timed block the 'white flash' effect of the blocker will indicate the good timing, but secondary effects will generally not be triggered.
Perfect Blocking generally causes a strong knockback effect to small and medium-sized enemies in front of the shield, whilst the effect on larger foes can cause staggering and will eventually contribute to a knockdown. Even with an un-enchanted shield a reflected melee blow can cause significant damage to the assailant.
Fighter and Assassin[]
For Fighters and Assassins a Perfect Block with an elementally enchanted shield such as a Scorched Pelta or Dragon's Roost has a less powerful and dramatic visual effect than that of a Mystic Knight's elemental riposte, but it still damages the enemy, causes knockback and can inflict elemental damage. An enhanced Rusted Shield can also inflict torpor or poison with enough perfect blocks.
Elemental damage can be temporarily bestowed on Assassin- or Fighter-wielded shields via enchantment buffs. The existing element of an enchanted shield such as a Scorched Pelta or Lambent Shield can be temporarily overwritten with an elemental buff from a Mage, Sorcerer or Mystic Knight.
A permanently enchanted shield has strong debilitating power, however this power is much reduced when the shield is temporarily over-enchanted. (See Elemental Debilitation.)
Broken perfect blocks do not inflict debilitations or damage.
Mystic Knight[]
Mystic Knight vs Dark Bishop
- See also: Mystic Knight Shield Counters
When perfect blocking with a Magick Shield that has not been overenchanted with a spell the effect is much like that with a normal Shield.
A Magick Shield's inherent elemental property, such as a Thunder Kite Shield or Lustrous Greatshield has no real effect on the damage or effects from a perfect block, but there is an exception when the shield is overenchanted with Demonswrath. The magick shield cannot be enchanted by spells from a supporting Mage or Sorcerer (such as Fire Boon); such spells only affect the Mystic Knight's primary weapon.
However both enchanted and unenchanted shields can be given a useful elemental enchantment with a Mystic Knight's elemental Counter, Riposte, and Feint spells, in addition to the other specialized Magick Shield spells. When enchanted with counter type spells will return elemental damage and even inflict shield based debilitations (such as Torpor from Rusted Magick Shield) to to attackers even if the reflect core skill has not been learned.
A Mystic Knight that Perfect Blocks with a shield enchanted with a Counter, Riposte, or Feint spell will trigger a powerful Elemental counter in addition to a very powerful knockback effect (see Mystic Knight Shield Counters). When the Magick shield is thusly enchanted the initial reflected attack also changes in form; it only strikes the attacker, and not all in the frontal arc and incorporates some magick power, though it is still mostly physical in nature.
Broken perfect blocks for Mystic Knight will not trigger riposte spells, but can still inflict elemental damage when the shield has been enchanted with a counter type spell, just as is obtained from normal blocking with the same spell.
Perfect Blocks also allow Demonspite and Demonswrath to charge faster, and enchanting with these spells activates any shield's innate elemental enchantment (such as Lightning from the Thunder Kite Shield) allowing to also do some magickal damage on perfect blocking.
Perfect Blocking gives better healing from Holy Aid and Holy Grace, and allows Holy Grace to heal past 'white' damage.
Related Skills[]
A number of skills allow variants of riposting, parrying, or countering attacks if done with good timing.
| Skill | Vocation | Weapon | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindsight Slash Hindsight Sweep Hindsight Strike |
Fighter | Swords | Timed evade has far greater knockback.
Melee attacks only |
| Clarity Clairvoyance |
Assassin | [Needs good timing for the counterattack]
Melee only | |
| Flight Response Enhanced Response |
Shields | A fairly wide time window to trigger the flying leap
[Precisely timed responses can trigger the leap without the stamina consumption of the skill, and cause the 'white flash' normally seen with perfect blocks] | |
| Divine Defense Perfect Defense |
Fighter | Timing activation of the skill to an attack negates stamina drain for the block. Does not reflect damage. (requires Deflect) |
Unblockable attacks[]
- See also: I-frames
Some attacks are unblockable: they can neither be blocked nor perfect blocked. These include all grabs; ground shockwaves (such as from Cyclops' stomp); roars (such as Dragon Roar); a Dragon's breath; skills such as Implicate; Ghosts' possession; and songs and area of effect spells such as Silentium.
Almost all melee and ranged attacks, as well as most damaging spells can be blocked. Exceptions include the Shield Storm of a Living Armor which will result in a broken perfect block no matter the shield stability. Additionally Divine Defense can protect against more attacks than a perfect block, but not all.
Enemy blocks[]
Foes will block but do not generally perform perfect blocks.
Enemies such as shield bearing Bandits and Skeletons and shield wearing goblins block attacks and Saurians can block using their spears. Additionally, some foes can take up a guarding stance, notably Ogres as well as Cyclops, which crouch and cover their faces with their fists; when an Ogre guards it takes no damage from direct attacks, just as if it were using a shield.
Notes[]
| Skill or Spell | Frames | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect Block | 5 | 1/6s |
| Prescience | +5 | +1/6s |
| Firecounter | +5 | +1/6s |
| Flame Riposte | +10 | +1/3s |
| Inferno Feint | +10 | +1/3s |
| Icecounter | +5 | +1/6s |
| Frost Riposte | +10 | +1/3s |
| Blizzard Feint | +10 | +1/3s |
| Thundercounter | +10 | +1/3s |
| Thunder Riposte | +5 | +1/6s |
| Boltstorm Feint | +5 | +1/6s |
| Holycounter | +5 | +1/6s |
| Blessed Riposte | +10 | +1/3s |
| Hallowed Feint | +10 | +1/3s |
| Darkcounter | +5 | +1/6s |
| Abyssal Riposte | +10 | +1/3s |
| Desecration Feint | +10 | +1/3s |
| Demonspite | +0 | |
| Demonswrath | +5 | +1/6s |
| Holy Aid | +0 | |
| Holy Grace | +5 | +1/6s |
- The term "Perfect Block" is from the skill descriptions for Demonspite and Holy Aid.
- The window of opportunity for perfect blocking is five frames.
- Perfect Blocking is made easier (that is to say, the window of opportunity is increased by five frames) by the Fighter augment Prescience.
- Mystic Knight Shield Counters increase the time window in which a Perfect Block can be performed. Other Mystic Knight shield spells also ease perfect blocking.
- The greatest window of opportunity for perfect blocking is twenty frames, four times easier than normal. This is accomplished by using Mystic Knight shield counters with the Prescience augment equipped.
- Pawns are capable of performing Perfect Blocks and will utilize them often. It can be very helpful to watch a good Fighter pawn in action to demonstrate the necessary timing to correctly perform a Perfect Block against different enemy attack animations.
- Enemy spells such as Comestion, Levin and Frigor can be Perfect Blocked.
- If a would-be perfect block fails due to lack of shield stability, stamina is not drained.
- Some Magick Shield enchantments benefit from perfect blocks: Demonspite charges far more rapidly, whilst Holy Aid recovers more health.
- The Rusted Shield, Rusted Magick Shield, Wooden Wall, and Magick Buckler all have particularly poor guarding ability and are often unable to block even weak blows from small foes such as goblin.
- For specific damage details see Skill multiplier data. (also Damage Calculation.)
- The damage from Perfect Blocked counter and riposte enchanted shields is in two stages: a close range shield blast followed by an element specific spell. For more details see Mystic Knight Shield Counters.
- The Dark Arisen Bonus Enhancements arm armor enhancement "Boosts the power of normal and magick shields" increases perfect block damage.