Soft cap - you reached your ''cap'' slightly and you're ready for pvp.
Hard cap - you reached highest cap of block value at the cost of other stats but you deal more damage.
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What kind of explanation is even that?
Soft cap is when you start to have dimishing return on every next point of shield block value. That means, after you reach 1950 sbv every next point of sbv gives you about 10% of its normal value (according to my recent calculations, percentage might differ though). Ofc it only applies to shield slam damage, the amount of how much you block is not affected by any cap.
Hard cap means that any amount of block value that exceeds the cap does not change the damage of shield slam. So if you have 2760 sbv and then change your gear to have 5000 sbv, the damage would be the same.
So 1950 sbv unbuffed is enough?
Imo yes, it is.
Although it's worth to notice, that shield block increase sbv cap (by x2 from what I know, didn't test it though). And from what I've tested, soft cap is not present while you use it. So more than 1950 might be useful, but only during shield block.
So it's up to you if you want to have more than 1950 sbv, so you'll have more burst during 10s of SB, or get more arp items in place of those with sbv, so you'll have more sustain dmg.
Man, I'd just love your guide, and the way you wrote it was neat and funny. I have a question for you. SM works better on warrior arms, or paladin for pvp? thanks in advance for your reply.