Block

Blocking is a melee action that allows players to negate certain sources of damage at the cost of stamina.

General
Blocking is performed by holding the right mouse button (by default) while holding the melee weapon. The block is effective for all directions, not just in front of the hero. The hero can still be shoved and pushed away while holding block.

Blockable Damage
Only certain sources of damage can be negated through blocking.

Stamina Damage
Each instance of blockable damage deals a predetermined amount of stamina damage upon a successful block based on its source. This value can scale based on Difficulty. Below is a table of all scaling stamina damage values. For brevity, the term Roamer is used here to refer to Marauders, Clan Rats, Ungors, Gors, Savages, and Plague Monks. The Roamer attacks only refer to their basic swinging attacks and excludes headbutts and berserker combos.

Block Broken
If the hero's stamina pool is reduced to 0 by an enemy attack, the hero briefly enters a state of being block broken. During this time, the hero cannot attack or block, their movement and dodge speed are massively reduced, and they suffer from a longer stamina recovery delay, making them extremely vulnerable.

Block Angle
Each weapon has a block angle which is shown on the top-right corner of the weapon's hover-over tool tip in the inventory. If the character blocks an attack within that angle, the block consumes less stamina based on the weapon's inner block cost modifier, while blocking outside of that angle will use more stamina based on its outer block cost modifier. Melee weapon and necklace properties can increase the block angle.

Block Cost Modifier
Not to be confused with block cost reduction, which stacks multiplicatively with the weapon's block cost modifier. Incoming stamina damage is multiplied by the inner block cost modifier if struck inside the weapon's block angle, and outer block cost modifier outside of it.

Push
Pushing, also called Shoving or Block Pushing, can be performed by pressing the attack button (left mouse button by default) while blocking at the cost of stamina. A push applies a weak Stagger to enemies in a 180 degree arc in front of the hero and a strong stagger in a 100 degree arc. The default stamina cost of pushing is 2.0 for most weapons. The only exceptions are Saltzpyre's Rapier, Sienna's Dagger, Kerillian's Sword & Dagger and Dual Daggers, which all consume 1.0 stamina per push. The hero maintains block throughout the entire push animation and transitions back into the normal block state without interruption if the player does not release block.

Melee weapon and necklace properties can increase the inner push angle. All Shield weapons share the same base stagger strength among them and ignore enemy stagger reduction. All regular weapons also share the same base stagger strength that is distinct from shields. Likewise, most weapons share the same push radius (the frontal distance over which a push can stagger enemies). However, some push-centric weapons such as the Spear and Shield, Tuskgor Spear and Sword and Shield have a higher push radius.

Push Attack
Every weapon has a unique attack known as a push attack, also called a push stab. To perform a push attack, the player must first execute a normal push from block and continue to hold down the attack key. The hero is not considered to be blocking during a push attack. With the right timing, many weapons allow the player to follow up a push attack with an attack from the middle of its regular attack chains, both light and heavy. For example, the push attack for Kruber's Halberd is an overhead chop which Kruber can follow up with the 3rd attack in his light attack chain, resulting in a devastating double chop combo.