Ranged attacks cannot be blocked

[watchyoursixx]

While researching ranged attack tables it became apparent that ranged damage is unblockable. Further tests done by Pyte#9182 on the beta have shown that ranged attacks cannot be blocked neither by NPCs nor players.

Vanilla evidence

Joana's 6-13 Durotar speedrun

Looking at Joana's unedited 6-13 Durotar speedrun video at the linked timecode we can see that when Joana starts attacking the Razormane Battleguard his Auto Shot hits for 13 damage - consistent with his damage ranage vs. similar mobs in other parts of the video (12-15), Serpent Sting ticks for 4 damage and Arcane Shot hits for 13. When the Razormane Battleguard uses Improved Blocking (Increases the caster's chance to block by 55% for 6 sec) some of Joana's Auto Shots are being blocked and are hitting for 6-7 damage. When the buff wears off Joana's Auto Shot is hitting for 12-14 again.

Vanilla PvP dueling video, Vuzdorlva R14 warrior [2006-11-22]

In this video in the linked timecode, we can see the warrior casts Shield Block. With about 2 seconds remaining the warrior is hit with another Auto Shot and the Shield Block buff is consumed by the attack.

Tests conducted on the beta

Warrior dueling a Hunter

This test conducted by Pyte shows a Warrior (Otari) with 3/3 Improved Shield Block dueling a Hunter (Ruggedorc). In the duel, the Warrior uses Shield Block and the hunter casts Auto Shot and Multi-Shot. We can observe multiple times in the log where the ranged attacks are never blocked and the Shield Block buff is never consumed but simply fades away afters its full duration.

Recreating the Joana vs. Razormane Battleguard fights

Recreating the fights from Joana's video in this log, Pyte repeatedly shows that when the Razormane Battleguard uses Improved Blocking his Auto Shots are never blocked.

[watchyoursixx]

As of beta build 30979 there are now ranged blocks!