Why is shield swipe so bad?

[Cherie]

Did anyone else play beta? Shield swipe's pacification used to be *way* better. I recall during, beta 2 I think, I got to the level cap(35) and was farming brayflox normal on my pld with my whm friend to see what the full gear set looked like. Shield swipe's pacification was so good, that if you used it at the right times, the last boss dragon wouldn't be able to use his fire breath...at all. They changed it for the release version though. Pacification doesn't stop his fire breath anymore... nor does it effect other things...

That brings a point, does it actually stop any enemy from using any abilities other than just mobs not in instanced places? I've used it on all kinds of bosses in even just lower level dungeons... It seems to not effect *any* boss abilities at all anymore... and also, I'd have to think really hard to even think of any trash mobs it really does much to anymore.

I kind of wish that they replaced it's pacification with something else, since they took away it's effectiveness on basically everything. Not that it really "needs" a special effect, but like many have pointed out, using it on anything is marginal at best. My suggestion would be they need to do something to make the ability "fun" to use at least if it isn't "useful".

I have no idea about how it worked in 1.0 though.

[ispano]

I have no idea about how it worked in 1.0 though.

If you mean Shield Swipe, didn't exist in 1.0. And iirc, no player skill could pacify back then.

[HeroSamson]

SE do not touch paladin.

I like the job the way it is do not listen, People want it easy to use stuff easy and I have no problem with the moves they all work perfect thank you.

[Brannigan]

The closest 1.0 equivalent would be Phalanx, which was a low-cost WS that could only be used after blocking. Phalanx caused increased enmity and comboed into Spirits Within. IMO Shield Swipe right now is boring and only marginally effective. If it started a combo, it'd be more interesting to use (do I swipe and combo or do I finish my current combo and then swipe?) and be more effective.

In a way it's a lot like Awareness: a mediocre skill that I'll use because there's nothing else there, but if it got patched out tomorrow I wouldn't miss it at all.

[Cherie]

In a way it's a lot like Awareness: a mediocre skill that I'll use because there's nothing else there, but if it got patched out tomorrow I wouldn't miss it at all.

Don't get me started on Awareness... Do you remember when that skill was, not only not very useful, but also was bugged to prevent you from receiving a critical heal?

They fixed it though... 6 months in to release? Not that it was their fault that it got patched so late.... Did people actually ever use that skill enough to notice it was bugged?

[Ultimatecalibur]

They changed it for the release version though. Pacification doesn't stop his fire breath anymore... nor does it effect other things...

It will still cancel Aiatar's breath weapon it will just not make the cast bar disappear. Reliability of Shield Swipe Procing is the main reason that interrupting the breath with it is tricky.

A fair amount of non-coil stuff can be pacified, its just that gear levels make healing trough attacks easier than tactical application of pacification.

[Cherie]

It will still cancel Aiatar's breath weapon it will just not make the cast bar disappear. Reliability of Shield Swipe Procing is the main reason that interrupting the breath with it is tricky.

A fair amount of non-coil stuff can be pacified, its just that gear levels make healing trough attacks easier than tactical application of pacification.

Are you sure? I'm tempted to try it again... I have very vivid memories of doing brayflox back then and people commenting on how I broke the boss.... Now that I think about it... maybe it was the green healing ooze that they were commenting on not occuring... since that would be more remarkable since you can easily just dodge the fire breath. I guess I'll go ask my whm friend, I bet he remembers. We did that place a whole weekend before they wiped the servers.

[Gilthas]

Did anyone else play beta? Shield swipe's pacification used to be *way* better. I recall during, beta 2 I think, I got to the level cap(35) and was farming brayflox normal on my pld with my whm friend to see what the full gear set looked like. Shield swipe's pacification was so good, that if you used it at the right times, the last boss dragon wouldn't be able to use his fire breath...at all. They changed it for the release version though. Pacification doesn't stop his fire breath anymore... nor does it effect other things...

Brayflox was never available in the beta.

When you consider the above and that, as far as I can recall, Shield Swipe's Pacification effect has never received any adjustments since release, I think you're not remembering things right.

[Cherie]

Brayflox was never available in the beta.

When you consider the above and that, as far as I can recall, Shield Swipe's Pacification effect has never received any adjustments since release, I think you're not remembering things right.

No sir, you are incorrect there, I am not referring to "early access". You are correct in that brayflox was not available in early access... but maybe I'm calling it the wrong word. There was a part of the phase that limited you to level 20 and that image of the server was carried over in to live. That was the time you could not access brayflox... Beta 2 weekend had a level 35 cap as well as the rewards from brayflox having totally different appearances.

Brayflox *was* availible earlier in the beta weekends... however, much fewer people were there. That was testing phase. You may have a point that early access felt like beta however... with all the bugs... >.>

Here, lemme add a screenshot... :


Here, you can compare the icon to live version's : http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...m/a31cf2906f2/


They are different because the appearance looked like this:


Also you can notice the stats are quite different in beta.

Never thought I'd have to dig around in my screenshots to prove I played beta... :x Not that it's important... I just don't like being told I'm making something up or remembering it wrong lol

[SarcasmMisser]

Say shield swipe is bad dps to that 350dps pld off-tank in t8.

The only issue I have with shield swipe is that it's most useful as a off-tank with a war MT keeping up storms eye, but you can't actually get procs unless you are tanking where you will likely be in shield oath anyway. It's lack of enmity generation and the fact that it is GCD also makes it hard to fit in with halone combo in snap aggro situations. It's a theoretical gain but very hard to actually use.