Shield changes

[Rentahamster]

What??? No, no no nononononono. Don't do this. Now anyone (current and future classes) who use a 1h weapon will have to level gladiator to learn any shield skills.

Good. The current shield skills were designed with the gladiator in mind, anyway. They're not mage skills at all.

[Alhanelem]

Good. The current shield skills were designed with the gladiator in mind, anyway. They're not mage skills at all.

They aren't <insert class here> skills. They were for anyone who could carry a shield.

You have no right to impose your playstyle on others.
Shields and their skills are extremely valuable for soloing. This is NOT a good thing.
I fully agree that some classes need more "identity" but don't agree that our freedom to choose should be completely eliminated.

One thing you don't seem to realize is that other classes in the future may also use one-handed weapons. Why should any such class have to level up gladiator to be able to use those skills? In FFXI many jobs (including some mages) could use shields. I realize that this isn't changing who can equip shields, but in FFXI, nobody had to level up Paladin to gain benefit from a shield on another job.

This is going to severely diminish solo survivability for THM/CON. I was also hoping sometime in the future that shield would become more independent and actually become a class of its own, using a shield as the primary weapon. That idea's basically a non-possibility now.

*IF* shields are wieldable by any 1 handed class, maybe Glad will get traits that greatly increase block rate and defense.

They already had better block rates/effectiveness because they had better stats for it. It doesn't mean it wasn't useful to anyone else.

People need to get this idea that mages can't do this or can't do that out of their head. The final fantasy universe has had several magical classes throughout its history that could use weapons and armor.

[Rentahamster]

They aren't <insert class here> skills. They were for anyone who could carry a shield.

Yes, I know that's how they worked mechanically, but they were purely tanking skills. The only class that is a tank class and can use shields is gladiator. Yes, if you solo as a mage shield skills came in handy, but that's not what they're supposed to be fore.

You have no right to impose your playstyle on others.
Shields and their skills are extremely valuable for soloing.

I used them for soloing mage too, but that doesn't mean that I don't see how out of place it is for a mage to be using those skills.

One thing you don't seem to realize is that other classes in the future may also use one-handed weapons. Why should any such class have to level up gladiator to be able to use those skills?

Every class that can use a shield will get its own class-specific shield skills. You'd only level up gladiator if you wanted those specific gladiator skills, for whatever reason. And there's no reason why 2 different classes can share the same skills, either.

[Orophin]

In FFXI many jobs (including some mages) could use shields. I realize that this isn't changing who can equip shields, but in FFXI, nobody had to level up Paladin to gain benefit from a shield on another job.

Said jobs couldn't use abilities such as Shield Bash either.