Channel attacks are very unpopular in this game. Anything that forces GCD clipping feels awful to use, and, for the most part, you can trick the server tick into keeping the defensive part of the channel for the only part of the attack that you need. Just look at how people use Collective Unconscious. If they want to make shields more effective, then the half-and-half heal + shield needs to be converted to just raw shields, probably also being HP% based. Also, there needs to be more oGCD shield skills and more ways to weave it. And, if we want shields to be really effective, then we need less dark attacks that ignore them.