Creating "Job Abilities" for Throwing, Shield, Parrying, and Blocking

[Kimble]

Monk already has counter, which over all, is much more useful than guarding.

[kingfury]

Agreed, but this is all about bolstering these slow to proc combat skills, so these abilities would just be nice little bonuses to what some jobs can already do.

Like a PLD can already block like a champ with a shield, so any other shield abilities would only contribute to their efficiency. Other jobs however, that don't do so well at blocking with a shield but have decent shield skill might see new life while using these abilities so long as they're truly effective.

The goal is to just bolster the combat skills so players might see them more often during battle.

[Kimble]

Here is your problem though, by trying to bolster these combat skills for other jobs, you are going to overpower the job that is most proficient with said skill. Factoring all the other defensive skills MNK (guarding) and PLD (shield), your changes would make them almost unkillable and greatly affecting balance.

Only 2 jobs can use Guarding, MNK and PUP, and we already went over Shield. WAR as C skill and all other jobs have D-F skill.

[kingfury]

I think so long as the durations of these abilities are tailored to work for shorter amounts of time compared to our standard JA's, they shouldn't grant a player God mode status and make them ultimately non-killable.

From the OP "Note: The duration of these Enhancement Abilities could be relatively very short compared to most standard JA timers, with fair recast timers to uphold game balance."

A WAR can reach an A level skill rating with gear and merits easy and most other jobs could see some decent boost as well if they plan accordingly.

[Kimble]

Considering you can keep counterstance up 100% anything to guard wont be all that useful.

And, If a WAR is gearing to get their shield skill to A level, that WAR is doing everything wrong.

[kingfury]

^^ That's because Shield procs suck in the hands of any other job except PLD atm lol. Axe may be 2nd in line to GA, but it's still nothing to scoff at in terms of damage output when done correctly.

Of course I don't want to open the can of worms that is the "enjoying new and different ways to play the game for each individual" argument since it's very dependent on each players perspective of what they personally enjoy about playing the game, and most players simply follow what everyone else tells them to be instead of finding their own play style. I'll say, Shield + Axe combo can be fun on WAR, and leave it at that.

I can say this though, during solo or duo play (minus a stun caster) a battle against a pesky monster that likes to either spam nasty spells or annoying TP moves, Axe and sword have nice stuns that help even out the battle. GA melee attacks don't always interrupt casters like a nice smash axe can. If better shield efficiency through new abilities could be found, there's a few jobs that would find it very useful. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a GA stun ability, but till then, if I need to spam stun my trusty Axe and Shield will be whipped out.