Why is Guarding just so...bad?

[Malacite]

If you have to take your offensive atma off, it's pointless. Why lower damage to guard when you can counter and still be one of the top DDs in the game? Besides, 70%+ counter rate is easily obtainable, let's say you could get a 70% guard rate (which you can't).

Which mitigates more damage? 70% of the time of taking 0 damage (as well as dealing damage yourself) or 70% of the time taking reduced damage?

Besides, you wouldn't even need have capped guard to test this. Capped guard for 75? Go to the lv 80 monsters in the earlier abyssea zones, fight mobs that are IT to a lv 75 mnk. Could test just like that, lol.

Until you get hit by something like Spike Flail or Ruinous Scythe, in which case Guard can end up negating the damage altogether (it can "block" WS)

[Cream_Soda]

Until you get hit by something like Spike Flail or Ruinous Scythe, in which case Guard can end up negating the damage altogether (it can "block" WS)

You post with incorrect information. It can block the first hit of a ws. Spike flail, you should never be getting hit by in the first place.

Ruinous Scythe, is 4 hits, you're not going to negate it with guard.

[Serj]

Until you get hit by something like Spike Flail or Ruinous Scythe, in which case Guard can end up negating the damage altogether (it can "block" WS)

Spike Flail is dangerous? I tank wyrms at that end so they solely/mainly use spike flail (in abyssea). Outside, how often do you fight wyrms? And you fight them so they don't use it.

[Cream_Soda]

Almost forgot about that. Dragua doesn't do flail , but yea if you're talking about Abyssea flail, shit ain't dangerous anyways.

[Franklyn]

Well, after a month of going out to random places for a few hours a night after events. Guarding is finally 354. Haven't had much room to test it yet besides when I was skilling. For anyone looking to skill their guard heres a summary of tactics.

LVL 75 __ 190 - 240 guard skill - The Boyahda Tree - Black Mandies
LVL 80 __ 240-285 - Abyssea La Theine - Hadal Gigas
LVL 85 - 90 285 - 354 Abyssea Altepa - Mandies, Abyssea Attowha Mandies/chigoes (whichever camps were least occupied)

Atmas - Mounted Champion, Savior, Sea Daughter
I had some help on the mandies in the boyahda tree but did the others solo. at 80~ the Gigas in la theine start off IT but after you kill a few they drop down in level usually. /DNC whenever I was solo, Sea daughter helped stay alive and Chakra along with atmas gave a decent cure boost when I overpulled. Tried the different skill up foods and have the skill up ring. Can't tell you if it made a difference or not, but I'd like to think so. I chose to skill while I leveled up so evasion stayed close to guard skill. Occasionally I reduced evasion merits since nothing else to use merits on. A friend took his pup and RDM mule out and skilled solely in altep and got his guarding to 290 that way but he had about 15 mandies on him at a time. If you have the means to do that, go for it. He went from 200-290 in 2 days. Start with small groups if you're solo and work your way up to see how many you can handle at a time. Know when the mobs seem to be a little more inaccurate and take off some gear accordingly like boxer's mantle. Abyssea mob levels vary widely so be prepared accordingly and take notes on what the mobs con as you pull them in and what seems to be giving you skills the best.

Side note: Started on parry skills more vigorously. I would have to say this skill seems much harder to skill than guarding. Anyone with War leveled can get it to 290 fairly easy by /DNC pulling loads of mandies and skilling up weapons with pretty much the same atmas. But once it caps for war it seems to be a little harder to work on. The jobs with the better parry skills have the defensive skills of paper. DRG and PLD are durable but cap at 310 I believe. I tried Sam/DNC seems to be ok but evasion noticably higher and mobs miss 15 times to every 1 parry and you'd go 20 parries before ever seeing a skill. Tested atma of the roaring laughter, it seemed to help with parrying more and evading less but skills are still far apart. Parry Skill 316 as of August 20th. Hope this helps anyone looking to cap there skills.

[Xilk]

There are no atma that directly influence guard, so I don't see why you'd expect capped guard at 75 to be any diff than capped guard at 90.

Atma of the Ducal Guard:
(Guard) Damage Taken -: Major

but yeah, this doesn't affect guard rate.

[Economizer]

Side note: Started on parry skills more vigorously. I would have to say this skill seems much harder to skill than guarding. Anyone with War leveled can get it to 290 fairly easy by /DNC pulling loads of mandies and skilling up weapons with pretty much the same atmas. But once it caps for war it seems to be a little harder to work on. The jobs with the better parry skills have the defensive skills of paper. DRG and PLD are durable but cap at 310 I believe. I tried Sam/DNC seems to be ok but evasion noticably higher and mobs miss 15 times to every 1 parry and you'd go 20 parries before ever seeing a skill. Tested atma of the roaring laughter, it seemed to help with parrying more and evading less but skills are still far apart. Parry Skill 316 as of August 20th. Hope this helps anyone looking to cap there skills.

I forget if you can or not, but if you can get parry skillups while taking no damage, just stack 50% PDT- gear, equip a dagger, and Aeolian Edge things. Get someone to Phallanx you and heal you. Good way to farm chest KI while you are skilling. I don't know about Parrying, but I know a Paladin who capped shield this way.

[Franklyn]

Capped Parry on the 26th, stayed with the same atmas, roaring laughter for the -eva, sea daughter for steady TP for healing and slower attacks, and Savior for the boost to AGI mostly but also for the mini heals in between. Didn't take long, total time I spent working on it from 316 was about 10~ hours I suppose, got a few tiger king hides for my dagger trials and broke even with NPCing weapons for the food used to skill. Feels good to finally look at THF, NIN, DNC, MNK and PLD and finally say I'm completely capped for 90.... except divine magic skill ><.

[Ophannus]

Guarding sucks because counter is so good and you guys have dodge and high ass HP. What does DRG have in terms of damage mitigation -_-

[Gokku]

the ability to drop ass loads of enmity , seigan / third eye / healing breath / gtfo loldrg