Shield Swipe- How often do you use it?

So far I usually use shield swipe once per mob as I assume that they will begin to resist it more after the first hit. Is there any reason to be using it more? It seems that the dmg to tp ratio would be better by using other combat skills, but I could be wrong. When I'm using a small shield, shield swipe is available every few seconds. It would seem to be too much to be using it every time. Thoughts?

I never use it when I'm surrounded by mobs unless it's only two and I know that I've advanced into my aggro far enough to use it.

On single target, I use it every single chance I can get.

I'd say there are six pros and three cons to this skill.

Pros
-Fast animation to deliver damage quickly
-Low TP cost actually makes you recover 20 TP after regeneration
-More damage than Savage Blade
-If you can use it consistently, the total damage output is better than just the standard Halone combo
-If timed properly, can be used as an interrupt to melee red aoe skills
-Does not cancel the Halone combo meaning it's meant to be used while the Halone combo is active (can get off 2 shield swipes in a row before reaching the limit to the combo expiring)

Cons
-Requires a block
-Low aggro buildup
-Window of use is only around 3 seconds

Not very useful, silence can be handy against casters but you need melee mobs to trigger it. Because it also lacks enmity bonus, it generates very little threat compared to Savage Blade (DMG*3) and RoH (DMG*5), so I'd say it's a waste of a global cooldown under normal circumstances.

Never used it in a dungeon or trial.
I have thought about setting it on my solo bar for PLD though.

But pretty much what Semont said, I've found the skill to be pretty useless when it comes to my job, you get better hate from Shield Lob, Provoke, FB>SB>RoH.

When you are tanking a single mob use it whenever it is available unless you are up to Rage of Halone in your combo chain, and using the Shield Swipe proc will time out your Halone window.

It's a strong attack with extremely low TP cost.

I use Shield Swipe in the following cases (which is quite often; it's awesome for single target DPS):
1) When I don't have Fight or Flight up, or it's not currently active
2) I'm on Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Rage of Halone rotation only

If i'm low on TP, be it either the fight goes for a long time or I have to use Shield Lob or anything that gives you net loss on TP gain, I'll pop Bulwark and go to town with Shield Swipe to let your TP recover while still putting out decent damage. By this point, hate shouldn't be an issue as you should have already been using your Rage of Halone combo at least a few times to solidify hate. Worst case scenario, you can Provoke and Flash to put you back on top of the aggro list. For reference, if you have a Holy Shield or Holy Shield +1, using Bulwark gives you 90%+ block rate so Shield Swipe will almost always activate for you. I personally save Bulwark for when I need to refresh TP a bit.

All the other points mentioned are good.

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Originally Posted by Jahaudant

When you are tanking a single mob use it whenever it is available unless you are up to Rage of Halone in your combo chain, and using the Shield Swipe proc will time out your Halone window.

It's a strong attack with extremely low TP cost.

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Shield swipe doesn't reset the FB>SB>RoH combo. Use while soloing , pacification is nice and allows more uptime on hard hitting mobs with 360 AOE ( if they can't cast it you don't have to avoid it.)

And a clarification to above poster: pacification causes the mob to be unable to use weapon skill abilities, for example, physical special attacks cannot be used by a mob under the effect of pacification. It's not just a silence.

Use every time it procs on a boss fight, when 1. You have established threat, 2. RoH isn't next in your skill chain. SS has low TP cost and hits harder than FB and SB and , while we're not a dps class, any extra damage is nice as long as threat doesn't suffer. :)

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On single target, I use it every single chance I can get.

I'd say there are six pros and three cons to this skill.

Pros
-Fast animation to deliver damage quickly
-Low TP cost actually makes you recover 20 TP after regeneration
-More damage than Savage Blade
-If you can use it consistently, the total damage output is better than just the standard Halone combo
-If timed properly, can be used as an interrupt to melee red aoe skills
-Does not cancel the Halone combo meaning it's meant to be used while the Halone combo is active (can get off 2 shield swipes in a row before reaching the limit to the combo expiring)

Cons
-Requires a block
-Low aggro buildup
-Window of use is only around 3 seconds

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but we dont have animation lock... of any kind why would the "fast animation" matter at all?

I generally use it when soloing or when I have everything under control and don't need to worry about threat anymore. It a strong attacked with very little TP cost.

For me its a 'set it and forget it' macro I add on to my Fast Blade.
Just simple 2 line macro.

/ac "Shield Swipe" <t>
/ac "Fast Blade" <t>

If SS is activated it'll use it if not, I'll get Fast Blade. I used to have it macroed on to all my combo builders but I missed how they were outlined when they were ready so I got ride of it and only put it on my combo openers. Can also put it ahead of Shield Bash if you want or one off skills. But I find puting it on Fast Blade is good enough for me.

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll use it more often when I'm on a single target that I have enough threat built up.

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Originally Posted by Junk4Brains

For me its a 'set it and forget it' macro I add on to my Fast Blade.
Just simple 2 line macro.

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I did this until I tanked a couple of instances with it. i'd really recommend not doing so - the problem was that when AOE tanking 2-3 mobs I was blocking so often that Shield Swipe was literally up ALL THE TIME. Thus I could never get any fast blades off because i'd end up spamming Swipe. Now for solo DPS this is really good, it's efficient. However for Tanking it's abysmal because Shield Swipe does -terrible- threat. Spamming it locks you out of using Savage/Halone and your threat dives.

As posters above say, NEVER use shield swipe tanking unless you're happily ahead on threat already or -really- need the pacification.

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Originally Posted by Firescorpio

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Just delivery of damage.

Rage of Halone takes about 2 seconds after activation till it actually deals any sort of damage.

Shield Swipe is just as fast as Fast Blade on delivering damage but is more than twice as powerful.

Also it IS worth using on a single target in every chance possible.

Consider 12 turns (4 Halone combos).

100 > 200 > 260 > 100 > 200 > 260 > 100 > 200 > 260 > 100 > 200 > 260

2240 potency.

12 turns with Shield Swipe in every second attack.

100 > 200 > 230 > 260 > 100 > 230 > 200 > 260 > 230 > 100 -> 200 > 230

2340 potency.

Shield Swipe once every attack.

100 > 230 > 200 > 230 > 260 > 230 > 100 > 230 > 200 > 230 > 260 > 230

2500 potency.

Don't forget that if you miss anytime during your Halone combo, you'll lose a huge chunk of damage. Shield Swipe can help fill in your damage and it won't ruin your combo if you miss with it.

While there is slight increase in overall damage with Shield Swipe, as a tank I'm far more interested in threat/enmity generation. After converting those same figures into threat...

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Consider 12 turns (4 Halone combos).
100 > 200 > 260 > 100 > 200 > 260 > 100 > 200 > 260 > 100 > 200 > 260
2240 potency.

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100>600>1300>100>600>1300>100>600>1300>100>600>1300>
=> 8000 enmity

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12 turns with Shield Swipe in every second attack.
100 > 200 > 230 > 260 > 100 > 230 > 200 > 260 > 230 > 100 -> 200 > 230
2340 potency.

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100>600>230>100>600>230>100>600>230>100>600>230>
=>3720 enmity

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Shield Swipe once every attack.
100 > 230 > 200 > 230 > 260 > 230 > 100 > 230 > 200 > 230 > 260 > 230
2500 potency.

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100>230>600>230>1300>230>100>230>600>230>1300>230
=>5380 enmity

I tend to pop off a few when tanking a group of mobs along with throwing out stuns just for the damage mitigation of not being hit by any weapon skills (not all of them are red aoe marker abilities). Of course this is after I establish a comfortable threat lead.

When soloing I have it macro'd to every attack so it's constantly going off.

In dungeons I swap out the buttons so it's on manual control - as others have stated any attempt to automate it in a dungeon can interfere with threat generation, so I leave it on manual control there (though in some PUGs if the DPS is low enough, you can actually put some of the automated macro's back and still hold aggro).

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Originally Posted by Viik

silence can be handy against casters but you need melee mobs to trigger it.

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Shield Swipe does not silence, it pacifies. This means melee mobs can't use their abilites, but casters can keep right on casting.

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Originally Posted by Junk4Brains

For me its a 'set it and forget it' macro I add on to my Fast Blade.

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I don't like to do this because I find that having the GCD out of your control at any point to be a major flaw. When threat is low and mobs are attacking allies or are about to turn away from you, you can't spare the time to SS. You need to get your FB>SB>RoH combo out right away, and a macro like this could ruin that and wipe the party in the right circumstances.

I used to use SS every time it was up, but now that I'm at the higher levels threat management is becoming more difficult so I have to pick and choose my moments. I use it for the cheap damage output when threat is secure, but that situation is becoming rarer with every level.

I will shield swipe as long as I have adequate enmity lead, and I rarely don't.

Shield Swipe is best spread among all the mobs in a pack because it helps reduce damage done to you (no-ws has diminishing returns). In a long fight (such as chain-pulling in Stone Vigil) you are bound to slowly deplete your TP, and Shield Swipe becomes a very nice balance between enmity and resource. After all, you only need to do enough enmity. (I try to keep all damage dealers at least below 70% though. You never know the good ones are holding back their potential, because they're the good ones.)

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Originally Posted by Saltheart

I generally use it when soloing or when I have everything under control and don't need to worry about threat anymore. It a strong attacked with very little TP cost.

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Pretty much this. as long as I've got every monster RoH'ed I start popping this every often it comes out until I need to give the mobs RoH again.

I'd like it to interrupt at least though... BRD/ARC's 'blunt arrow' even though it casts silence, it can also interrupt casts as well, why can't pacification interrupt weaponskill charge-ups?

I think the fact that everyone seems to feel that Shield Swipe is better as a DPS increase than being used as intended is a sign of the big problem here. It needs to be removed from GCD. Sure, this would mean it would be OP as a DPS increasae, which is why the damage needs to be nerfed all to hell.

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Originally Posted by civilpaw

I think the fact that everyone seems to feel that Shield Swipe is better as a DPS increase than being used as intended is a sign of the big problem here. It needs to be removed from GCD. Sure, this would mean it would be OP as a DPS increasae, which is why the damage needs to be nerfed all to hell.

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To make it work in tank rotation without upsetting the balance too much, I think following things need to happen:
-Remove it from global cooldown
-Reduce damage and increase threat so it's somewhere between Savage Blade and RoH

Functionally, it's a fun ability and breaks the monotone of FB-SB-RoH combo, but it's just not worth using at the moment.