Re: Vit vs. Block?
Pretty much everything in the game is based on random rolls and having a 75% chance to block physical attacks is nothing to sneeze at. It doesnt really matter for softcore whether you go high vit or high dex (for max block) since dying isn't really a huge deal. For hardcore, I'd rather have those odds on my side however.
Socialism summed it up best in his forb blind teleporter guide - which is better? Being able to take 7 hits but with a 75% chance of taking dmg each time? Or being able to take 5 hits with a 25% chance of taking dmg each time?
I personally agree with Socialism when it comes to hardcore - max block over max vit any time. In softcore I don't care so much and max vit is easier to plan for, simpler and lets you use a spirit monarch which has a tonne of nice bonuses that will sort out lots of problems you may have with +fcr, +fhr, +skills and +resistances all at the same time.
A few things to note:
1) You can block half the damage of exploder types like stygian dolls (who upon death deal a tonne of fire/physical damage). This was enough to seal the deal for me on hardcore meph MFers since stygian dolls and their exploding brothers pretty much killed every hXe character I ever made.
2) If you are playing untwinked then the amount of dex you need changes alot depending on the base + increased chance to block of the shield you happen to be using. So you need one of a handful of shields with a really good chance to block if you don't want to sink like 300 points in dex to achieve 75% blocking.
This is not going to go smoothly untwinked and you may find yourself holding back points in dex to save for the one shield you want (say, up'ed, elded visceratuant) which of course defeats the point of going max block which is to maintain 75% blocking at every level and massively diminish the chances of you getting killed by physical attacks.
Therefore if you are the type who obsesses over stats then this dillemma will annoy you like crazy unless you get grushed/uber levelled and start out twinked with the shield of choice right away. Or something like that.
Max vit sorcs basically need to get their strength as close to 156 minus charms and then you can just shift click points into vitality without even thinking. Much easier to deal with.
3) You seriously notice 75% blocking when you get mobbed by archers and blocking alot of hits in quick succession introduces a new problem - block lock. It is better to have to deal with that problem though than to deal with getting hit with most of the arrows. Eek.
Hopefully you understand that this is a tradeoff and there are pros and cons to going with either. Just be aware that the absolute priority in hardcore is to survive first, before anything else. In softcore it doesn't really make much difference since you respawn.
With the advent of Spirit runeword, possible choices are really simple now...