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Deflect Explained

Deflect Skill explained

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Deflect Explained


Welcome to this guide on the Deflect skill. Following patch 18.7, the old "Parry" skill was renamed and repurposed into the modern Deflect skill. It is a purely defensive statistic that provides a chance for incoming attacks to become Glancing Hits.

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The Core Mechanic: Glancing Hits


The Deflect skill increases your character's chance to turn a regular hit into a Glancing Hit. By default, a Glancing Hit deals only 50% of its normal damage. This applies to all standard attacks from monsters (PvM) and other players (PvP).

Your chance to cause a Glancing Hit scales directly with your Deflect skill, starting at 0% chance with 0 skill and capping out at a 10% chance with 3000 Deflect skill.

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Glance Chance Scaling


The chance to land a glancing hit scales linearly. Here are some key benchmarks:

Deflect SkillGlance Chance
00.00%
10003.33%
15005.00%
20006.67%
25008.33%
300010.00%


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In-Game Examples


When an attack becomes a glancing hit, it will be noted in your combat chat log. Below are examples for both outgoing and incoming damage.

Outgoing Damage (Your Attack):
You hit Sister Botanicus for 871 points of radiation damage. Glancing hit.

Incoming Damage (Enemy Attack):
The Collector hit you for 1344 points of energy damage. Glancing hit.

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PvP Special Attack Interactions


In Player vs. Player (PvP) combat, Deflect also affects a variety of special attacks, but the outcome of a Glancing Hit can differ significantly. The table below details how each special is affected.

Special AttackEffect of a Glancing Hit
Aimed ShotCounts as a complete miss, dealing 0 damage.
BackstabDeals 50% damage. (Note: The 50% reduction is applied before the backstab multiplier.)
BrawlDeals 50% damage.
BurstEach bullet that glances deals 50% damage.
DimachDeals 50% damage.
Fast AttackDeals normal (100%) damage.
Fling ShotDeals normal (100%) damage.
Full AutoIf the first shot is glanced, all subsequent bullets in the burst will also deal 50% damage.
Sneak AttackDeals 50% damage.


Last updated on 08.05.2025 by lopnk - Thanks Faffy!

[Source: AO-Universe]