Decrying Shield Swipe

[Lyniaer]

I'm no fan of searching forums, so if this has cropped up somewhere already, then so be it.

I'm here to understand and hopefully improve the ability called Shield Swipe in my own opinions and experiences as a long time Paladin.
While this ability has it's uses in very specific circumstances, it's easily and unforgivingly overshadowed by Shield Bash and other types of Stun. Stun has the same principles as Pacification where it only lasts 6 - 3 - 1 seconds within a 60 second window and is consistently resisted by anything and everything after Ifrit.

It comes with a nasty prerequisite of having to block something first and has the audacity to go "lose proc" after about 8-10 seconds and only prevents the enemy from using "weapon skills" sort of like the old Amnesia from 11 and v1.

[Lyniaer]

However, beyond Ifrit it has absolutely 0 use what so ever. Even in Ifrit if you have a capable off-tank stunning Eruption you don't even need it. Sure, you can blot out Plumes as well if you block and execute the ability with perfect timing in sync with Ifrit readying Plumes, but outside of that - useless. Against a random mob it's not necessary because they die quickly and it's really more of a gimmick that gives you a minor reprieve but is far less important than all of the other skills you can/should be using.

I'd like to put forward a suggestion. Get rid of Pacification entirely and provide Shield Swipe an ability similar to Rain of Death. I don't feel I have to explain why that would be so apropos for a Paladin.

[Lyniaer]

Granted, that might give them an even bigger leg up over Warriors, but with the coming boost they're receiving (and what that is, I'm not even sure yet, nor am I going to stick my pin in one of the many rumors) it would keep both classes as even as possible without tipping the balance.

Please note I use the word "similar" to Rain of Death because if a Paladin has incredible luck they could keep that damage dealing debuff up nearly constantly. It can be resisted over time like everything else (because Bard's pay a heavy price in TP for RoD) but at least it's one skill that isn't going to fall by the way-side. There are very few abilities other classes have that End Game bosses resist fully and this is one skill that Paladin's just have to chuck in the garbage can and leave off their hot bar; and this leads to a problem I've had with ARR since day one and the severe lack of skills each class has at their disposal (when comparing to 11 and v1, anyway).

[Lyniaer]

To take one away and make it as useless as Shield Swipe is has a tendency to cripple a class as content comes out that can easily do away with more skills just to make the content "harder" AKA Artificial Difficulty. Making the majority of content we encounter fully resistant to stun is one thing; but this makes two skills Paladins have no use for in End Game content; and what does that mean for later content when the cap goes up?

Damn you 1k character limit. -_-

[Viridiana]

Damn you 1k character limit. -_-

You can edit your post to get around the limit. >_>

[MBTL90]

On bosses, once you have a sizeable threat lead, you should mix in a shield swipe once every 6 or so halone rotations. You do this because shield swipe is actually tp-positive, so on long fights you won't run out of tp.

[Garnatian]

Worthless ability. If you're running out of TP, so are the DPS, meaning a BRD will probably be using Paeon.

[PessimiStick]

Worthless ability. If you're running out of TP, so are the DPS, meaning a BRD will probably be using Paeon.

Except not, because DPS have Invigorate and you don't. DPS have ~17% higher TP regen than tanks.

[Garnatian]

Except not, because DPS have Invigorate and you don't. DPS have ~17% higher TP regen than tanks.

And you have Flash which doesn't cost TP and generates perfectly reasonable threat. You should never be capped on MP and the GCDs used will easily make up for over 400 TP.

[Sapphidia]

A lot of paladins will say throw in a Shield Swipe here and there to save TP on long fights. That's true to an extent - you can do similar though with slipping Flash into your single target rotations more. Paladins have very low TP costs compared to pretty much every other class, so as said, you really should be running out of TP -last-, but it's still a minor reason for Shield Swipe. If the fight is long and you have a threat lead, try and use it here and there.

It does have other uses though. It's slightly more damage-per-GCD than the Halone Combo too (Halone combo averages 203 potency per GCD, Shield Swipe is 210) so if you have a decent threat lead and want to contribute to DPS more, you'll do a little more damage by using Shield Swipe as often as possible over just spamming Halone.

Also, it -can- be a good thing to use on trash mobs for damage reduction. Yes, a 6 second stun is better but both stuns and pacifications have diminishing returns. If you're pulling a big pack of mobs and you know most have nasty melee abilities, tabbing to off-targets to throw alternately stuns-then-swipes can certainly help... though in today's day of mass pulling speed runs chances are that you can't really afford to do that without threat issues. It's still a viable skill to weave.

But in general... you could likely remove shield swipe from your bars and only see a tiny loss in effectiveness. It has its uses, but they're situational.