Why leave your shield at home!?

[Velhart]

I can think of a good reason for a dd gla not to use a shield. If you are not the main tank, you are likely not going to be using guard or phalanx, as it requires you to take and block damage. In essence, you would be wasting two slots on your action bar on skills that you are not likely to use.

I have been experimenting with a gla dd setup for awhile now, and I found that playing gla as a damage dealer isn't impossible, it just takes some creative use of the armoury system and some pragmatic thinking. as some have pointed out, gla doesn't have as high damage on it's ws, and they use alot of stamina and tp. I've found that a dd gla should focus on skills that let it attack constantly over time, the less you have to rest and recharge stamina, the better.

Therefore, you should focus on gla skills that use minimal stamina (light stab, howling vortex) and also use skills from other jobs that have low stamina/tp cost, like Feint. (can use without first getting monster's attn., minimal stamina usage, low tp use, can be used repeatedly if nessecary.)

Using this formula, I have built a dd gla that can do pretty consistant damage over time. my base damge per hit is about what a gla usually does (85~115 hp/hit w base attacks) but because my stamina/tp use is kept minimal, I can attack more often, without resting quite as much as say an arc or mrd. Once I found an optimal setup, I think I'll be able to maintain a relativly high enough dot to stay competetive with the other dds.

This actually sounds like an interesting concept. I may have to try this out myself. I am not a fan of how enmity control is done right now and would like it if SE took GLA in a direction that helps utilize their DPS side and make it more valuable to the team.

Unfortunately, I can't get far with that, when people see GLA, they expect you to tank. So I have actually been holding back on it and trying other DPS classes out till they give us full detail on the new battle system. Which I hope will come into detail by the end of the month.