The two relevant affixes are: “x damage reflected to attackers” and “% of damage reflected”. Does the damage from these affixes scale with anything (like your % increased physical damage for example)? Also, what type (phys, cold, fire, etc) is the reflected damage? Thank you!
As far as I am aware it doesnt scale with anything… making them pretty poor… I think thats one of the reasons there isnt a traditional “thorns type” build available - at least not that I have seen. Closest is probably Sentinels retribution but thats not really the same…
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As far as I know, it reflects damage after mitigation. So you apply your resistances, your endurance, block etc… and the tiny little remaining damage is partly reflected.
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This is the best I was able to build, and it is what is referred to as “Z-DPS” meaning virtually no DPS. For example, it took him 52 minutes to kill Lagon in normal Monos…
Keep in mind, he is impervious to damage, but…
Grief… please dont tell me you sat in front of Lagon for 52 minutes…
I would have committed Seppuku…
It was all in the name of testing… at least that’s what I tell myself… I did have a video playing on my laptop next to me though…
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No, neither % reflect nor flat reflect scale with anything (other than the mobs’ hit speed).
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Thanks for your answers, guys! What about which damage type it is? Anybody know that?
It has no damage type. That’s one of the reasons it doesn’t scale with anything.
As said above, it applies after mitigation. So you can scale it with damage taken 
.
Only thing where it is (semi) viable is with a minion build: Have as many minions as possible and give them no resists and stack minion reflect + death rattle
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Thanks!
New Thornshell shield looks like a must have/build enabler for reflect (Attunement scales flat reflect)
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And the wand that has a % chance to cast Thorn Shield on phys spell cast.
It’s a real shame that Reflected damage scales so poorly, Thorns is one of my favourite styles of gameplay.
I suppose a quick fix could be if the reflected damage was to scale with the area level as a multiplier. Additionally, both the flat damage reflected and the percentage damage reflected should be based on the initial hit, before considering defensive stats - that should have been an obvious design decision from the start.
It was, they don’t want a “thorns” gameplay style (ie, stand there passively doing nothing while everything dies) to be viable.
That’s good to know, so I don’t lose my sleep trying.
I actually like that they dont want an AFK playstyle. I just hope it is viable enough to function as an “support role” playstyle with the new shield. Next to a main damage skill for example.
I also don’t understand why this style of play is needed and how to balance it.
The only + is an interesting implementation that I have come across, it was in D2, the curse of the “iron maiden”, but it works for practicing the Pets.
Basically, this is just another offensive skill, and an active one.
But the “thorns” of the paladin (still from d2), disgusting mechanics. Its sole purpose, in my opinion, is to be a content filler. They won’t use it, but let it be.
I could understand not wanting there to be passive builds such as “Thorns” in the game, but that makes having the affixes available really strange - why even offer it if they do not want it and won’t be supporting it?
Knowing that this has been something that has already been confirmed makes these affixes pollute the drop pool.
I suppose once the new crafting update comes out I will have to re-craft without these reflect affixes - they are too weak to even be considered in their current state, they don’t scale well at all.
Edit:
Upon further considering this reasoning… I fail to see how this logic can even be applied when there is a necromancer class in the game whose sole purpose is to passively be doing nothing while everything dies…
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What’s the problem with making Reflect perfect viable [strong enough] and adding a small cooldown [or how about every third hit or something] for it?
→ You could use it to break up individual enemies into groups and add another noticeable “blow” here and there on bosses.
I would run Reflect on the side in this way [see above] for some builds. It would have something like “Sentinel → Counter Attack” or “Vengeance → Riposte”.
+1 → I would say then.
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I actually like the way Grim Dawn handled thorns/retaliation. When they added the Oathkeeper class, they put some abilities that add a percent of your thorns/retaliation damage to the attack. The Oathkeepers shield throw skill can get up to 30% of your retaliation damage added to the skills damage. They did that to make retaliation builds more active. They also had it so retaliation only works against melee attacks (they have to be in range to get the damage put back on them), so the ranged shield throw was a way for you to hit far away enemies and still have a use for the retaliation.
It was a lot of fun to play.
On EHG not wanting the afk playstyle. I would just point out that if it were done like Grim Dawn did it, it is more an active playstyle than Warpath.