Blocking and Armor

Shielding:

• Items used for defence are Shields, Axes, Swords or Clubs. Melee weapons' defence values ONLY count when a shield isn't worn, and then your weapon type melee skill is counted as your shielding skill in the dmg reduction formula.
• Only one defence source counts, which means only one of two shields works.
• If both a weapon and a shield are equipped, only the shield counts as a def source.
• You can block up to two physical attacks per turn (2 seconds) - any physical attack after the first two will bypass the "shield" damage reduction and directly hit the armor or target if no armor is worn.
• You can block both melee and distance physical attacks from creatures, but players' distance attacks will ignore your shield. Magical/elemental damage is not affected by defence.
• When physical damage is reduced to 0 or below by your "shield/defence", then a poof animation will appear on your character.
• Fist fighting has a default defence value of 7.
• Distance Weapons have 0 defence.
• Having 2 creatures hitting you while training is the optimal way to train your shielding skill. You need to bleed your target once every 15 turns (30 seconds) when blocking 2 creatures in order for your skill to continue advancing as you keep getting hit, since it counts the next 30 hits.
• Only "poofs" (shield-blocked hits) go towards increasing your shielding skill!

Shield Damage Reduction Formula:

The amount of damage blocked depends on your fighting stances,
these are the defence factors:
Offensive: 0.5 (50%)
Balanced: 0.7 (70%)
Defensive: 1 (100%)

a = Defense Value
b = Shielding Skill (or weapon skill if no shield)
c = Defence Factor

Maximum Shield Dmg Reduction Formula:
{a * [b^(6/5)] * c * 0.05} +10

The minimum damage blocked is 0, so on hit a random number is chosen between 0 and your Max Block Value.