Okay, so I was looking to burn off some Bless from a weapon in preparation for Enchanting, and I noticed something interesting: even though I was standing there with my runestaff out, when I grabbed a shield also I started to see a few Block messages come up, along with my normal Evade and Parry with the runestaff.

Sure, it was only maybe a total of about 3-4 of them, in 200-350 swings; call it an average of 1%.
(And the DS numbers didn't change, so I am totally willing to believe that "If Holding Runestaff == You Get No Shield DS" is hard-written in.)

So, two questions then:
1) Is it in fact correct that a runestaff holder has the possibility of using a shield to gain Block, even if the DS does not change? (Specifically, "intended to work, not a bug being abused.")
and
2) If that is in fact kosher, then does single-training still roughly equate to 5% chance and double-training roughly equates to 10% chance of Blocking?

I am totally willing to forgo the DS benefit, if I can gain the Block. :)

I find that interesting, because the DS that I was seeing (in Defensive or Guarded) was precisely the number that I would expect to see while I was hunting with the runestaff.

So either the shield--with NO ranks of Shield Use to bump its DS--was giving exactly as good as what it was denying from the runestaff, or... ???

.

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When you say "hurt what you get" from the runestaff, do you mean "just DS", or do you mean "all of the benefits" (like parrying bolt spells, et cetera)?

Hasted Swings O' Plenty in my future, I see.

Thanks for the pointers.

I hasted the wizard and used an untrained weapon, so there was no danger and the time needed was reduced. This way, I got to see something interesting, and maybe open up some additional training that I can think about. :)