Diablo – Does any stat increase the Block Chance

Yes, dodge simply gives to attackers a x% to miss their attacks. It works on all attack types:

• Melee Attacks
• Ranged Attacks
• Ranged Spells
• Ground-based AoE

Dodge does not work only against status effect modifier like fear, jail, etc.

Dodge is linked to dexterity and seems not hard-capped but its formula has a diminishing effects like explained in this answer.

2000 Dexterity, for example, provide you a 40% dodge:

100*0.100 + 400*0.025 + 500*0.020 + 1000*0.010 = 40%

Well, I think the main issue is that a shield on your off-hand restricts the weapon you use on your main hand to a hand crossbow, as opposed a quiver on your off-hand which lets you use two handed bows as your main weapon.

But other than that, i can think of no reason why using a shield would be inherently bad, other than the fact that you need a good hand-crossbow to go with it. In fact, a shield with a good dexterity stat can increase your DPS as much as a quiver, while also increasing your defense and survivability much more than a quiver could.

I think it comes down to what specific items you have and what balance of DPS and survivability you want. Turn on advanced tooltips, and play around with equipping different weapon combos, and see how your damage/armor rating changes. Sometimes using a shield will be better, and sometimes it won't.