Just curious (note NB : not “curio”) …
With dodge being so effective for most classes, and stamina also being an overlapping option which feels to me to have a lot more general utility, does anyone have block efficiency as a weapon perk?
Happy to learn something new. But I can only think it’s useful if you plan to tank a daemonhost… ?
I use it on my psyker. He can block melee and bullets for a good while with his force sword with the deflect blessing and passive that uses peril instead of stamina.
Hmm. Interesting, thank you. It’s a blessing I was excited to get, but have actually never used as you can (usually) dodge and stop the damage.
What’s the use case? I mean; sacrificing (e.g.) slaughterer or something for that ~ pretty big investment.
Good though - thank you. Things I’ve just not thought about.
Tanking DH is one idea. +20% block efficiency on force sword, deflector, talent from bottom of the right and 3x block efficiency on curios and you’re good to go.
I personally don’t because I like to focus more on dodging, but how you make your build is up to you! If you wanna be able to use your blocks for combat and you can make good builds with it I don’t see a problem.
Alot of people used block cost reduction in Vermintide 2.
The main reason is to revive teammates under horde pressure, i believe.
But it was 30% reduction, not 12%.
I struggle to find use for those 12% reduction in darktide, since players have much more stagger options than in V2.
So you are usually able to utilize stagger to ress people, but if your build doesn’t have that option, it might be ok to use some block cost reduction.
My ideal set of curios in the last few patches all consist of: BCR, stam regen and then either ability CD, HP or toughness, dependent on build & class.
Block costs doesn’t often come into use but when it does it always saves a situation.
I’d go as far as to say that BCR is meta on any build.
I thought I’d use it more, truth be told.
I have some on a curio on my Psyker. In the end, though, it isn’t particularly relevant.
Knives just have bad block, trying to make them good at it is wasted effort.
Most weapons want to dodge heavy attacks anyways, and light attacks rarely break your stamina.
A Psyker with Kinetic Deflection doesn’t really need Block cost reduction for anything they can block - except maybe fire from a gunner patrol. But the Deflector Blessing already grants Block cost reduction, so I went with a single block cost efficiency on a curio and let it be enough.
Weapon perks can offer stats I usually prefer, like damage bonuses.
To me, the only case it makes sense is if I want to use the Ogryn Shield to protect my team from ranged enemies, but not lock down. It is rather niche.
Not sure if you use the scoreboard mod.
My personal experience: aside from blocking shots as a psyker, i generally block less than 10 attacks per mission.
That definitely does not warrant the use of any block cost reduction.
When i do get killed, it is not due to blockable attacks (or because i ran out of stamina) anyway.
Maybe you block enough that it would make it useful to have.
Maybe you are usually getting killed by hordes and ragers.
Then i could see how bringing block cost reduction could be a reasonable choice.
On my psyker in combination with deflector and my Bulgryn build (Ogryn with shield). As a result I can walk through dense hostile fire to force ranged enemies into melee.
Subtle jabs at competence aside, block cost efficiency is super useful for revives, the slight intermission between going into a block/push, being able to just tank hits from most enemies besides Crushers, and its extremely solid on Ogryn shield, especially if you take their Aggro on block talent, which turns off shooters, making them run into melee and then also blocking a few gunners for a while. Can be very helpful to the team if they need a bit of breathing room. Just because you choose to not block doesn’t make it less useful, especially on weapons that don’t get 5 dodges before falloff.
30% was on only one specific curio in Vermintide, it couldnt roll on the other 2 iirc, so technically if you want to invest into it on curios, 36% is better than what you got in VT2, granted you need to roll it on 3 curios. It seems to be a double downing on the playstyle as opposed to in VT2 where it was a why not? Weapons got it too, but iirc it was 20% same as Darktide weapons.
But again, surely having +2 stamina is more versatile in general than +12% block efficiency ?
No jabs at competence.
I didnt say that it is universally not useful.
I specifically said that it is not useful for me and i explained why.
(As well as acknowledging that players who block attacks frequently, cluld indeed profit from it.)
I see (scoreboard) that most players i meet, mostly dodge, but do not block a huge amount of attacks.
So based on that, block efficiency does not have very high value for most players i encounter.
Some players do block a lot, so of course it can be useful for them.
You said maybe you are getting killed by hordes and ragers, which is a jab at competence. Well, yes dodging is preferred because it mitigates the chance of damage completely, but blocking is much more useful for the heavy weapons who have bad dodge distance and limits. The problem is they buffed all the light weapons to the point you don’t really need the heavies except if you like them. The new chain axe buffs you can just run up and light attack half the maniacs and elites, using the special attack to one shot basically everything else. Its not surprising that dodging is the main factor for a lot of people.
If that is what you want to project into it…
Ok.
I was actually just referring to that happening due to weapon choice and teammates (potentially usually the same premades).
12% by itself maybe but thats a full curio effect versus a trait you can choose along with 2 others. Running 3 solid curios(combination of tough/health/wound for non ogryns) for your build and then slapping on 36% block efficiency, 24-36% stam regen and some combo of gunner resistance/corruption resistance is basically the most solid universal build you can make for every character.
Fair enough, thats not how it read to me, tone is hard through text
To directly answer your question: Yes I do. I may not check how many attacks I blocked per mission but I am aware that the number is never going to be particularly high.
Does this mean that BCR is bad since I am not using it the majority of the time? You may say yes but you’d be dead wrong.
I’ve had this discussion plenty of times in VT2 and so many times did people argue that “once you have to start blocking, the fight is lost anyways” and the other BS they came up with.
Not the first time someone “tried to slander” me for advocating for BCR only to later having them “see the way” and tell me I was right all along 
And DW, I never saw it as a jab at competence.
The point is that BCR increases your survivability by such a massive degree when you need it that not having it just leaves you in the limbo of “if I have to start blocking here, I just die so better not even let it get to that point”
But guess what, it sometimes does come to that point and then no amount of extra HP ever had the chance to save you.
I mostly run BCR because I am usually the most aware person on my team so I go for most of the revives and rescues and I usually do not wait to clear all enemies before attempting the res’.
Sometimes you can’t wait that long and the higher you go in difficulty, the more often that is the case.
It simply allows me to get that res more often than not and I see it make a difference almost every single time I go for the res’.
In my personal experience, BCR saved so many runs and situation, it’s hard to keep count how many times it was actually useful, if not downright game determinative. It’s also so hard to keep track of seeing my teammates to situations in which BCR probably would’ve saved them only to then exclaim that “there was nothing I could’ve done”.
The other point is: what else would you run? Resistances to specific enemies are not as valuebale and can be substituted by playing smarter, HP is the better corruption resistance anyways, stats only help you go so far but don’t actually solve the same problems BCR would solve and at that point, what’s left?
No it’s not because you have to run +2 stam on your curio blessing slots over 21% more HP or 17% toughness. Also, running 12% BCR is not that impactful but it already could make a difference but being able to stack it to 36% or even far higher if you add another 12% on your weapon.
I grab it for shield and deflection psyker but don’t find a ton of use beyond that since anything not dying or being knocked away in melee range is my own problem and the other two classes don’t have anti-ranged blocking powers.