According to the patch notes the days of manually actiavting your shield are now gone. Honestly, I will miss this a little bit but its going to make things so much more easier. I'm wondering how this will effect our playstyle and at what rate we'll be blocking. I know heavier shields like Scutums would block more often and fall quicker, so how will they balance that? Its probably not a good indicator but the "Self-Preservation" trait has changed to giving you a straight 5% extra chance to block instead of increasing the time you keep your shield up by 50%. The old version was considered essential to keep yourself alive so will the base chance of blocking be fairly low, about 15% perhaps?