The blocking flow of the Great Blade Guardian is the most suitable career path for a guardian role. So, if you want to find some strong points of this flow, this issue on how to play the Star Trace Resonance Blocking Flow will introduce the talents and skills related to this flow. In fact, the skills you match yourself will better fit your operation. However, if you want to find a more beginner-friendly combination in the game, the combination introduced in this issue is more suitable for the balance needed by beginners.
The main attributes of the blocking flow are strength, mastery, and luck. This profession, following this path, has a certain output capability and powerful crowd-gathering effects, which can gather enemies around oneself and then use area damage to clear them. For skill combinations, it's recommended to use Sandstone Grip + Sand Cloak + Rock Fury Strike + Valor Barrier. When using the Sandstone Grip skill, it consumes rage, gathers nearby enemies around you, deals damage, and slows them down for 8 seconds, making it easier to quickly clear monsters with area damage skills.
When using the Sand Cloak skill, the character gathers sand, dealing damage to surrounding enemies, and then continuously deals damage for 6 seconds, while also regenerating rage and sand crystals, providing some area damage capability. The Rock Fury Strike skill consumes sand crystals, dealing damage to the target and reducing the damage they deal over the next 10 seconds. It has high output damage, and when there are enough crystals, it can be directly released for damage. When using the Valor Barrier skill, it forms a rock barrier around you, automatically countering dangerous skills and taunting surrounding targets for the next 8 seconds, increasing your block, making it a very strong survival skill.
For talent configuration, pay attention to the talent effects for special attacks in the blocking flow. The basic talent effect becomes Block Impact, consuming rage to deal damage to surrounding enemies, during which the block effect is guaranteed, reducing received damage, and increasing the reduction from lucky blocks.
The Shattered Rage Strike talent has a chance to turn a regular attack into a higher-damage area attack when Rock Fury Strike deals damage, triggering a weak point strike, with the probability increased based on the luck attribute. The Block Recovery talent restores health and rage after a successful block, triggering once per second, with the effect doubling if a lucky block is triggered, increasing sustain and rage recovery. The Block Counterattack talent reduces damage taken during a block and deals damage to surrounding enemies while generating threat, with lucky blocks having a chance to trigger multiple times, dealing damage and generating threat.
The Synchronization Field talent, when using the Rock Guard: Fracture Loop, additionally creates a field lasting 5 seconds that reduces magic damage taken within its range and shares some of the damage taken by teammates, ensuring their survival. The Block Blessing talent has a chance to make the next Rock Fury Strike not consume sand crystals upon a successful block, triggering every 3 seconds, reducing the pressure of sand crystal consumption. The Leader's Fang talent reduces damage taken from bosses, increasing survival and making it easier to attract boss aggro. The Enemy Shadow Shield talent increases the damage reduction of the block effect the more targets are present, up to a maximum of 3%, with the effect doubling against elite and above targets, further increasing survival.
The Rigid Rock Luck talent increases the chance of luck and the critical hit rate during block counterattacks, with a chance to trigger a lucky block for stronger damage, enhancing the luck attribute and increasing the probability. A recommended talent combination is Crowd Suppression + Sandquake + Sandstone Retrace + Rigid Rock Mastery. Among these, Crowd Suppression increases the damage dealt to targets with lower health than you, with the effect doubling against elites and above.
The Sandquake effect, while under the Valor Barrier, causes Block Impact/Rock Fury Strike to deal an area damage to surrounding enemies, which can be triggered multiple times, enhancing area damage capability. The Sandstone Retrace effect reduces the cooldown of Valor Barrier when a critical hit is landed with a rage attack, speeding up skill rotation, countering more dangerous skills, and increasing block damage reduction. Rigid Rock Mastery increases the mastery attribute by 600 points, with the mastery effect during Valor Barrier being further enhanced, increasing the speed and frequency of skill releases.
From the above effects, you can see that the blocking flow primarily focuses on block damage reduction, using rage to increase output during blocks. The key talent is the block effect, providing both high survival and output capabilities, with strong crowd-gathering and high damage.
In terms of how to play the Star Trace Resonance Blocking Flow for the Great Blade class, both flows have good survival capabilities. The Rock Shield flow is simpler to operate and has higher defense values, but both flows excel in crowd-gathering. The blocking flow, however, also deals damage to surrounding enemies when triggering damage reduction, and the talents include area damage, making it stronger for clearing monsters. Therefore, if you want to play the blocking flow, the combination introduced above is quite suitable.
