in defense of shield lob...

[SpookyGhost]

Everyone I've seen that doesn't use Shield Lob/Tomahawk just hasn't done their lvl 15 class quest. lol

[Laesha]

Sorry if I sound precocious with my post. I don't mean to come across as condescending by telling people what I think is good or bad. I just know that reading these forums has helped me learn a ton, and I wanted to contribute my thoughts on Shield Lob. Thanks for the advice though. With as fast as I'm leveling I'm sure I'll be able to slip into Amdapoor in a few more weeks. Like ZDamned said, it's only 10 levels down the road. I could even check out some Youtubers in the mean time. And thanks for weighing in.

[Darske]

When I tank, I find Shield Lob to be super useful. For example, while Provoke sets you to the top of the selected enemy's enmity, it's very easy for a careless DPS to hit it after you provoke and take hate again. So, I always follow up a Provoke with a Shield Lob. Even if the enemy has run away from me towards the DPS a bit, Shield Lob hits it from a range, generates hate, and pulls it back towards me so that I can hit it and build more enmity.

I'm sure there are other creative uses for it outside of just pulling that I haven't discovered yet, but this works well for me.

[lxSch]

[...]
I main a paladin, but because I enjoy a slower progression, crafting my own gear, etc, and tanks seem to level crazy-fast so I also have a Whm. Both are at 40 for now. When I heal, I've noticed a trend (a growing trend?) of gladiators and paladins not initiating their pull with shield lob. Instead, they saunter up to a random piece of trash, auto attack, wait for the mob to slowly convene on them and then start spamming flash. Sometimes, they even stop flashing after only one and start their RoH combo.
[...]
Now, none of this is to say that overeager DPS and healers that cast before the pull don't still cause problems. But I don't understand why a tank wouldn't at least try to find a place in his/her toolbox for all of his/her tools. Shield Lob has always served me well. It makes things smoother, imo, and unless I derp! I very rarely loose aggro. Also, I'm not saying that my way is necessarily the right way, or the only way to tank. I understand that some people may only be running a GLD or PLD for the bonuses, or to pick up cross-class skills like provoke. But even then, I just wonder. Why not?

Have others encountered this when playing other classes? Am I just having bad luck? Or am I just wrong about my assessment of Shield Lob? I'd love to hear what some of you have to say.

Using flash to pull is a common practice during high and expert roulette speed runs (which are very popular), so people may be just repeating what they usually do.
In the low level roulette having a bad/new dps/healer is more common than good ones. If you get summoners they will probably use their 600+ potency aoes anyway (and start casting before you attack), also very common for scholars. Most of healers don't watch if you established enmity on all targets (because this is something they learn in WP) and start healing as soon as they notice someone's hp has dropped.