Relic weapon black mage why no 1 hand

[reillyblair]

i have built my character to utilize the 1 hand method and always had an option to use it with my shield so why is there no option to do so when it comes to relic surely it wouldnt be hard to have an extra quest to morph it or something

[Titor]

"1 hand method?"

????

[Zumi]

It's a 2 handed weapon, stats basically combined a 1 hand + shield into the 1 weapon slot so you are not losing any stats.

[Fynlar]

i have built my character to utilize the 1 hand method

I bet you have

[Alistaire]

I really hope in the future they do away with whm/blm shields for endgame. Becomes such a pain to get one of the rare decent shields if you happen upon a 1-handed weapon.

[lyndwyrm]

On the one hand (no pun intended, seriously, but I had to leave it there), I'd say its for balance reasons because when referring to stats
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It's a 2 handed weapon, stats basically combined a 1 hand + shield into the 1 weapon slot so you are not losing any stats.

But now you have a shield, which is an improvement, even if as a BLM or WHM you shouldn't be getting hit by stuff, occasionally S*** happens, and in that case it is superior to have a shield vs. to not have a shield. So shields are a no-loss improvement, except when referring to getting RNG loot drops.

But then..... T5 for BLM has this and the leviathan weapon for WHM is this...

I could say a lot more on this, but in the end I think it is because as a ranged DPS class, in and ideal world for multi-player content you will never have to use a shield, therefore the relic reflects that fact.

[ariaandkia]

Unfortunately, the same issue occurs with WHM.

It is sad because I'm stuck with low level weapons now because honestly? The mirror is a low drop rate and even with the mirror, you can't get anywhere near 115.

[Brine_Gildchaff]

While I personally would -love- to see more wand+shield or scepter+shield options available, I think what it really boils down to is this: Unlike paladins, the use of a shield is in no way integral to what a white mage or a black mage -is-. Paladins are proud armored warriors for whom the shield is as much a part of their image as a sword is. Whereas for mages, while some may use a light buckler for extra protection, it's not really part and parcel of their identity.

[saeedaisspecial]

1h + Shield is bad.
It generally results in lesser stats during progression when gearing up (because going from ilevel X weapon to ilevel X+10 weapon while your shield stays ilevel X results in less stat gain.)
It also generally results in mixed/non optimized stats, such as the Leviathan Shield/Wand (and PLD's HA Sword/Shield combo, too) which basically had little bits of everything instead of two full stat allotments, which is almost always better.