Would you find that the update the shield usage to be a good or bad thing? Do you think that since shield skill ups are supposedly easier that you will be using a shield for tanking more and more HNM/Gods or will you be sticking to Earth Staff for such things? Paladin is probably going to be my third or fourth job I'm going to level, so I'm trying to get an idea of what current paladins think to these changes. ;p

So far I'm actually liking the Shield changes, although I'm yet to really try it out on exp mobs.

On an easy prey mob, I'm able to block 4-5 hits in a row if I'm lucky, with a rough average of blocking about 1/2 of hits, that's on an Easy Prey with a shield skill of 250/276.

With my shield type (A Koenig Shield) a shield block was absorbing 75% damage. On that easy prey mob it was blocking the 40 dmg hits into 10 dmg (considering how much I was blocking that's a fecking lot). When I blocked Fafnir I took his 200 dmg hit down to 50 dmg, hot stuff. I just want to cap it now so I can block "hard" mobs more.

I gained 0.2 shield skill on a spider at the Aery zoneline, and I gained 0.5 shield skill from Fafnir, which dinged me to 250 skill, haha.

I'm just hoping that it does away with lame ass Earth Staff tanking completely.

As a die hard Club\Sheild WHM I didnt like the changes at first.

I think my shield does like 50% dmg reduction on a block. At first it was annoying because I was use to blocking 2-3 times per fight (when fighting an EP mob).

Last night I was goofing around and fought some skeletons in Xacarbard. I was blocking like crazy. I think the record was 6 blocks in a row. I also got .2 and .1 skill ups.

The only problem I have is that Im a WHM, I never tank anything. It was nice when I would randomly block a mob who came after me because of over healing.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

Earth Staff will probably still be better for kiting or on mobs that do rediculous amounts of damage per hit, like Kirin.

I'm going to work on skilling up shield for a while until I cap it. After that I have a variety of +Shield skill gear (about +20 i think) to put on and try blocking stuff to see how it measures. Maybe i'd try a parser on it to see which is better, but probably won't bother with that until it's nearly capped.

Oh, also... What makes Joyeuse so hot? Aside from the obvious hitting more thing.

Well that's exactly what makes it good, you hit more. The damage you deal isn't a whole lot better than a broadsword, over time. The main reasons are:

- Each double attack will double the TP you get in that round. I think it's about 6% TP per hit, if the double attack goes off (at least 2/3 hits with WAR sub) you'll be gaining 12% TP for a 230 delay weapon. Two-handed melee's would kill for that, hah. Obviously this extra TP in turn is good for Spirits Within and stuff.

- Enmity gear, by my experience, acts as a multiplier to hate for everything you do. Let's say I have Enmity+10, this means that if I provoke, I get X amount of hate plus some extra. For every hit I connect with a mob, I get that Enmity+10 bonus, the more often I hit, the more the Enmity gear is added to your hate as a bonus.

- It's a very stylish sword, you should be wearing one at all times anyway. :P

Greed Scimitar is like, the coolest looking model for a sword I've seen in-game. Haha, yet it's never been recycled like every other weapon in the game. ; ; Dunno, if I ever get my PLD that level.. not sure I want to bother camping Chary haha. So many other people I'd rather see with it first, Mikey being one of them.

So far, I don't like it at all.

I can't count the number of times a shield block has saved my Cure III casting.

Now, even if you block, you can get interrupted :x

i havent fought an exp mobs but i always have liked my blocking skills and before the update i've been able to block a few times in a row and during critical moments. right now i'm still not liking it..but maybe it is better in an exp party.

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"Its not always rainbows and butterflies, its compromise that moves us along"

I haven't played in about a week (taking a break) so I haven't got a chance to see the new shield blocking for myself. I bet I will like it. Blocking more often and taking less damage when I block sounds good to me.

Camping Chary sucks....I spent an entire day (last Sunday) in that room killing mantas with some good friends (SAM,BLM,WHM,THF,RDM) that always hear me talk about how bad I want a Joyeuse (it's the only PLD rare/ex item I don't have that I really want). More friends would gradually come down as the day went on. We were there a good 8-9 hours til it popped. What sucks is my NIN and BRD friends that were gonna help me logged off by then. So we tried getting more people down there and could not get a NIN or BRD to save our lives. Then word spread Chary was up and people started heading down there to get the sword for themselves. We rushed and tried to fight it with what we had...10 people 65-75 and got our asses kicked. That room is hard to kite it in and when it would land a hit, it would land 5 in a row for around 150-200 DMG each. Needless to say I didn't get the sword...I do know who ended up with it.

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Shield and sword are good for XP. The steady strikes get good hate, shield bash, most higher shields have enmity+ WS like spirit within or to help with SCs. Staff is really good to. I use it for hard hitting mobs, BCNMs, when low on HP, or for HNM tanking/kiting.

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Rank 10 Bastok - 75PLD - ZMs Complete - 100+2 Alchemy

Heh PLD still lose DMG based aggro credits from taking hits anyway right. Im shure theres a difference between a joyuese and some slow low dmg pos like earth staff. But between something like Durandal and Joyuese i wouldnt think its a huge difference, aside from the TP gain. Not that ive tried either or even bothered to unlock PLD but whatever =p. When you swing for 10 and get hit for 100 it doesnt seem like it would amount to much.

here is the general idea from a JP memo

monster attack ket...

Can ket dodge?

yes : no damage
no : can ket parry it?

yes : no damage
no : can ket use shield?

yes : damage reduce
no : normal damage

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after XPing i came to the conclusion that i didnt like the new shielding system. i rely heavier on my parrying now for some saving throws. i may block more often but not that much compared to my old shielding skill. also for some reason it seems my parrying kicks in more often though..

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"Its not always rainbows and butterflies, its compromise that moves us along"

I really can't stand the shield change. Getting my spell interrupted even when I block with shield really blows. That used to be the only thing to save my butt. Now i just take more damage ; ;

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I had my first exp party last night since the update, and I feel the same as you.

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I usually only healed immediately after a Flash but if you really need to heal when Flash isn't up you just have to get the timing on the mobs attacks and begin healing when the mob is almost ready to attack. Getting hit around 15-25% into cast usually keeps you from getting interrupted. Been a while since I exp party tanked though... haha

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75PLD 66RDM 50WAR
Rank 10 Bastok | Rank 10 Windurst | Rank 10 San d'Oria

i am hoping that they fix that interruption thing next time because my shielding also saves me alot of times with my casting when i cast at a wrong time but not it doesnt.

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"Its not always rainbows and butterflies, its compromise that moves us along"

My thoughts exactly. I haven't played with my PLD with the new shield system, however I usually only heal after Flash and right as I see the mob animation of it beginning to swing. With the new shield system you are gonna have to perfect/sharpin your timing. Since I already did this anyway, the new shield system should be pretty interesting to me. But I wont know for sure until I actually try it out, haha.

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San d'Oria: Rank 10 ~ Bastok: Rank 10 ~ Windurst: Rank 10
Rise of Zilart: Ark Angels / Chains of Promathia: Completed / Treasures of Aht Urghan: TBA

It definately activates a lot more often than it used to making skill ups a lot easier to get. Just one short skill up party on DC and EM mobs in sky got me to 252 from 249 and I was only using a shield to finish off the mobs cause me and Whisp would run out of MP before we could kill the stuff... lol

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75PLD 66RDM 50WAR
Rank 10 Bastok | Rank 10 Windurst | Rank 10 San d'Oria

Damn you and Ket are 250+ now... I got some major catching up to do

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San d'Oria: Rank 10 ~ Bastok: Rank 10 ~ Windurst: Rank 10
Rise of Zilart: Ark Angels / Chains of Promathia: Completed / Treasures of Aht Urghan: TBA