GLA sword n' shield

Hi was just wondering if not wearing a shield actually boost your attack with a sword or not. I was left slightly confused by the description, "there are practitioners who marry sword with shield, seeking to defend their fellow companions. Others opt for an empty off hand, choosing instead to focus entirely on their sword arm". I don't really see a difference though.

That information listed about GLA on the website is now actually out of date somewhat - it actually referred to the original version of FFXIV (version 1.0) where GLAs were more balanced between attacking and defending, and hence keeping their offhand free actually did help with the (now long-scrapped) 'stamina gauge' building up faster (this is also why GLA has a number of daggers and knives in it's repertoire - in 1.0 such weapons were usually faster but at the cost of doing less damage). In 1.0 shields actually added a sub-class called 'Sentinel' (or 'SEN' for short) which had it's own set of tanking abilities (which could only be used by GLA), hence adding a shield turned GLA into a straight tank. Towards the end of 1.0's life the whole Armoury System was changed, GLA became a straight tank, losing a little proficiency in DDing, and SEN was scrapped completely, it's abilities being given to GLA.

Hence the now inaccurate description for the class - SE just recycled the old class description from the old 1.0 website and never really updated it. So basically, although a GLA can function without a shield, this is only really suitable for low levels, and even then it's highly recommended to invest in one as soon as you can, as you'll take far less damage with one, even when soloing. And a number of GLA abilities cannot be used without a shield equipped (Shield Lob, Shield Bash, Shield Swipe etc).

Thank you for clearing that up.

GLA not equipping a shield, increases its skill speed. This is completely useless for a tank, since you lose all the shield skills, and was most like put in for its eventual 2nd job, which is supposed to be a DD.

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Originally Posted by Highlanderx

GLA not equipping a shield, increases its skill speed. This is completely useless for a tank, since you lose all the shield skills, and was most like put in for its eventual 2nd job, which is supposed to be a DD.

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Pretty sure this is not a thing

I've had mine sat at level 19 for nearly a week so I could unlock the Warrior class. The more I read, the more I think I'm gonna have to go back and level for the cross skills to compliment my main class for end game stuff. What are the skills worth having? And does the Gladiator play the same as my current tank class or is it a different ball game?