No Guard Thank Guard!

[Reika]

Now I just wonder if shield 'Block rate' will be a number between 1 and 100, or if they are going to be silly like they are with parry and have some number you cant really determine a %rate with... or with they change parry to have a number between 1 and 100 on gear,,,

[Gidonoidon_Sur]

I’m just glad I got it finished; I remember what a pain Shield & Guard were to level in FFXI. So will there be some type of hidden Guard Skill? Will it only proc when you successfully block?

I hope it is similar. I mean, it makes sense that a Gladiator will gain skill over time as they fight more battles. So something similar would be good, however, hopefully the rate at which the 'skill' increases will be a little more forgiving.

[Reaujien]

Deflection was never a 100% chance to block to begin with...

Deflection and the other shield abilities put your "Guard" up, which gives you 100% chance to block - full or partial.

[Cycloptichorn]

Deflection and the other shield abilities put your "Guard" up, which gives you 100% chance to block - full or partial.

I didn't know this was true. I've never been able to get Phalanx to work while having Aegis boon on, but without my shield up...

[Physic]

you realise that your guard rate will probably drop dramatically now right? the advantage of having a manual guard was that it had a much higher rate of blocking. It was a prolly a little to hax/unbalanced with the stamina cost gone so they had to do this but ehhh.

Thats why they extend the durations of skills that proc on guard, it will be way more random now. Personally i think its overall a loss to the job as far as control goes, but kinda knew it was coming once guard had no cost (no stamina associated with it)

[Reaujien]

I didn't know this was true. I've never been able to get Phalanx to work while having Aegis boon on, but without my shield up...

Unless it's a bug (which could very well be possible), whenever I use either 3 shield abilities I can sit and spam Phalanx II provided that a) the mob is physically attacking me without TP moves, and b) I have TP. Also, I've never had to use "Guard" prior to using any ability either - in fact, I can never use "Guard" while either ability is still in effect (once the buff timer with 0:00 disappears).

[Reaujien]

you realise that your guard rate will probably drop dramatically now right? the advantage of having a manual guard was that it had a much higher rate of blocking. It was a prolly a little to hax/unbalanced with the stamina cost gone so they had to do this but ehhh.

Thats why they extend the durations of skills that proc on guard, it will be way more random now. Personally i think its overall a loss to the job as far as control goes, but kinda knew it was coming once guard had no cost (no stamina associated with it)

Aye, I'm sure it will. However, this will introduce the opportunity for us [tanks] to pursue gear/drops/materia that'll boost chances to block - I'm excited to see what's in store for that.

Plus, I'd sure be surprised if the Paladin job didn't have any shield block-rate boosting traits/abilities/whatever when it comes out; not to mention the "AF" gear too.

[Rentahamster]

I was happy to read about those too; however, I'm guessing that AB, Otm, and Defl won't give us 100% chance to block like they currently do now (which, essentially puts "Guard" up while under the effect of one of the three). Either way, all of this overall is nice because now I can focus on getting block rate gear, materia, etc. to help with damage mitigating.

Yeah, I'm assuming that your block rate stays the same as what it is normally, and if you have one of those skills active, you get the effect from that skill, should you happen to block an attack.

[Seikninkuru]

So now it will be a proc chance vs. guaranteed blocking correct? Basically, somehow I manage to not be able to block with a piece of metal half the height of my body glued to my arm?

For those of you who couldn't get past level 14 with your three weaponskills because guard was too much, seriously... wtf?

[Seikninkuru]

you realise that your guard rate will probably drop dramatically now right? the advantage of having a manual guard was that it had a much higher rate of blocking. It was a prolly a little to hax/unbalanced with the stamina cost gone so they had to do this but ehhh.

Thats why they extend the durations of skills that proc on guard, it will be way more random now. Personally i think its overall a loss to the job as far as control goes, but kinda knew it was coming once guard had no cost (no stamina associated with it)

This was what I felt too, I was kind of hoping that they would enhance the control over your def/atk boons/penalties rather then, YET AGAIN, removing systems and content.