I do, to fight demon hosts, they are handy with all bosses plus ragers, or when rescuing team mates
It’s useful for Shield OG not instantly dropping the shield to ranged enemies.
I prefer to mitigate specialist damage or add health/toughness with those slots.
Used to use it as a mainstay without thinking because it was actually decent in VT2. Realized I barely ever block, and dropped it for ability CDR.
Even vs demonhosts I would still take the CDR though I notice revives a bit harder to pull off.
Basically, I think it’s too situational overall while having a minimum of 3.6 seconds off any CD (I think 30 sec is the lowest base CD amongst all the combat abilities) is actually far better, and more noticeable.
Might be worth it on weapons with lower mobility though.
Not me. When I look at the scoreboard and the person with the highest clock count has a total of 10 blocks for a 40 minute run, it seems pretty silly to invest in blocking.
i use block effiency all the time, it saves runs to make sure i get other guys up when half the team is console players and think the entire defense game is “dodge further from the team until you escape” so they get slaughtered off in the distance.
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It’s vital for clutch rezzing in auric damnation or well anything that can have a lot of melee, also the chaos spawn exists
People used BCR in V2 because you could easily get 60% of it. Having that much BCR made it mathematically superior to stacking +stamina properties in all cases.
The opportunity costs around using block efficiency vs stamina curios in Darktide is dramatically more complex, which obfuscates what the correct answer is in any given build. If someone cared enough to put in the legwork it would probably be possible to come up with a generalized equation as to what stat is preferable in a given build. But that would be a lot of effort for something that ultimately seems fairly trivial given current understanding.
Personally, I don’t bother seeking out block efficiency at all. Curio perks aren’t super valuable on the whole. Combine that with the fact that building curios is still quite the pain in the ass and I tend to stick to just one set for each character.
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Block efficiency is great on the few weapons that can block bullets. That is about the only thing I recommend using it with though.
Might be useful on an oGryn maybe.
Yes - I see your argument there.
It’s +3 on the curio to be fair. But I often take +2 stamina on a weapon perk. Guess your version probably gives more damage options, whereas I guess mine would be more defensive.
I’ve played Darktide since release, and on Damnation (and Aurics when they came out) ever since Dec last year. I don’t follow meta but I do have absolutely insane hours in the game.
Blocking is a funny thing in that for new players it’s super important, but for experienced players it’s almost worthless. It takes 2s of blocking to recharge dodges and most of that time is covered by a simple push. Rezzing likewise is trivially easy when you just nuke the enemies on the way to your teammate, and cover with blitzes, abilities and/or a push before you rez. Even if I get surprised by ragers and have to block (which rarely ever happens), the typical response is to hold block, dodge+slide backwards, and then nuke them down. Even if you get completely surrounded just blocking is just briefly going to delay the inevitable, where pushing & mixing attacks in there while your peril cools down and abilities recharge is what will actually let you win that thing. So no matter what the case, I’m never blocking for more than an instant.
Blocking, extra stamina and wounds were all considered pointless basically since release (with some novelty build exceptions, like the vet Deadshot). It’s only with the addition of all the new players that you again see people refer to them as something worthwhile, because they haven’t really yet grasped positioning, awareness and dodges to a point where they wouldn’t need to block.
But that kind of highlights the point here: Just because experienced players don’t need them doesn’t mean they’re useless. Anyone who does need them should absolutely get them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They are invaluable support tools for learning players. So what I’m saying is more that if you really want to master the game, then you should try to learn out of the habit of blocking at some point, and simply use better positioning, dodging, and just general awareness so you don’t get caught by surprise in a way that lets you actually take the enemy down instead of passively defending yourself and relying on your team to do that. 
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Nice post, thank you. But my suggestion/question was really that:
Stamina > Block Efficiency
I think Stamina has a big part to play. I’ve 800 hours in; YMMV on whether that’s insane 
You ask @Reginald and I’m sure he’ll agree. He loves a good stamina boost on his zealot. Stamina lets you block, run for longer, and increases damage if you take that tree node on the veteran. It feels more versatile like-for-like than block efficiency. There’re valid arguments on whether you trade it for damage or for health etc. - but it’s a great QoL boost if you’re not a scoreboard chaser.
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Thank you for your tone. <3 If it works for you, then it works! I have around 2k hours but your 800h is already so much that I think we have about the same level of experience tbh.
But yeah I haven’t found any need to do that on my zelly so far. I mean between the sprint speed & effiency boost talents and since I don’t block in fights, I always have far more than enough stamina to run around in battle and still spam push attacks when needed. Outside of it I either have to slow down so my team can keep up, or sprint so far and so long it would wear out anyway. Meanwhile skipping stamina gives me that extra toughness / hp that lets me do some really aggressive plays so I like that more.
To each their own. 
Edit: Oh also forgot to add to others that some weapons consume extra stamina on running. So that’s also another layer you can manage by remembering to switch your weapons when appropriate. Shields & shovels for example take 2x stamina iirc while sprinting, so I always switch to ranged unless it’s such a short distance or I need the melee ready. But there are little things like this about all things Darktide really that are worth learning.
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Block efficiency used to be the best stat you could get in VT
Scoreboard tells me people block less than 20 times per run (usually when people are picked up)
So it’s not useful one bit.
Melee in this game is not threatening
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Yes, Ogryn Shield with Block reduction and Rage ultimate with Block and Push.
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I did, until i realized the only time it was ever relevant was maybe vs a deamonhost or getting an occasional revive off without getting interrupted. Force swords are probably the only weapons i would consider it, because with the 30% on deflector + 3 curios you can get some decent value.
In vermintide 2 it was bit different, you could block many types of overheads and have some left over stamina with some bcr reduction, but realistically even in that game you never wanted to be blocking attacks if you could avoid it.
It also did not help that neck slot practically forced you into 30% bcr, because rest of the stats beside health were absolute meme tier in terms of value.
Hordes really are not dangerous enough in this game.
They should be a bit bigger, but mostly, if there’s never a need to block because dodging and the occasional push takes care if everything, then maybe the opfor needs more sustained offence.
If sufficient block cost reduction actually allowed you to block things you otherwise could not, or reduced damage when blocking a mauler overhead, it’d be a lot more attractive.
Isn’t it curious that there’s plenty attacks that can’t be properly blocked, yet very few that can’t be reliable dodged (and then only if you have insufficient dodge distance)?
But, to get back on topic, it seems that the two main arguments to have Block Efficiency are
- Blocking Ranged Attacks (if you can) and
- Reviving enemy players (but grenades and active abilities usually do the job better)
Not a long list.
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since i got a great katachan sword in ~50 hours of my play (with 550 now) i used to block melee attackers with special parry button. i was using it since update 13, and because my most hated enemies are ragers and flamers - it can block, attack and stun first ones with one button and one shot heavy swing others. i even use stamina and block blessings on veteran so i could stay in this block for long time if im surrounded or targeted by boss and leave the fight once im done with dodge that doesnt consume any stamina at all.
Agreed.
Like many here I was a huge fan of BCR in V2, and quickly went for it here… only to be pretty underwhelmed.
In general I’ve found revive speed to be more useful than BCR because it helps against melee, ranged, and situations.
Situations being any random thing the game is throwing at you. Mutant charging you, flamer running in, trapper approaching, reviving between sniper shots, boss bouncing agro…
For most builds I would say if you are taking BCR specifically for reviving you would probably like revive speed more.
Psykers with peril/bullet blocking and taunt ogryns probably get more mileage out of BCR becuase they will benefit in a larger number of situations.
DT is also better about mob stacking than V2 was. I just don’t see the equivalent here of 8 stormvermin stacked up for overheads or 40 slave rats in a death ball or chaos warriors on rollerskates sliding 20 yards during the overhead animation to pound you, all of which made BCR more valuable there because preserving stamina to push/stagger the predominantly melee enemies was important. DT having less shenanigans, and having a significant chunk of ranged enemies, makes BCR less worthwhile.
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