Originally Posted by
Martel
I'd think they get wasted far more by simple evasion than by shield blocking. Or mobs with shadows for that matter. Even if an attack is blocked, it'll still do some dmg, and thus still gain TP. Not a complete waste of ammo. Really, the same argument could be made against guard, or parry. Yet parry,at least(I can't speak for guard) can proc on ranged attacks, it just shows in the log as a simple miss(getting a skill up is the only way to tell).
Besides, the times where a mob blocking is even applicable are few and far between. Of all pld type mobs, only beastmen actually wear shields and can block. And only some of them even have shields. In those few cases RNG(or whatever ranged DD) could circumvent this entirely by simply moving behind the mob.
Ranged attacks extra advantage for being expensive can be found in their DMG mechanics. I'd think fSTR2 and highly stable physical dmg would cover that aspect.
I think it's far more likely that it was either miss-coded overlooked entirely. Or they just wanted an extra, rather nonsensical hole in PLD's defenses.