So...Why was Shield Oath level 40?

[Lynarii]

Honestly, the only time I ever felt the pinch of having only sword oath and no shield is if I was trying to tank 4+ targets against an AOE BLM and a 'pop everything on pull' BRD at the same time. And frankly, that sucks to deal with as a warrior too. Otherwise, even in sword, 2-3 flashes followed by cycling halone combos is generally enough to handle threat. Tank survival really doesn't start getting questionable until 40+ anyhow, with the sole exception of your first time stepping into Halatali at 20.

[Menae]

a 'pop everything on pull' BRD

This is me. I do this on my lowbie BRD. I don't do it because I want you to suffer. I do it to end encounters quickly and teach you to be on your toes as a tank, as well as test my limits.

That said, I do enjoy the suffering...

[spelley]

This is me. I do this on my lowbie BRD. I don't do it because I want you to suffer. I do it to end encounters quickly and teach you to be on your toes as a tank, as well as test my limits.

That said, I do enjoy the suffering...

DPS do this because at these levels you start getting more and more pieces of your final combos/rotations. In an AoE situation, Flash/Riot Blade is probably superior to rotating combos. Could also do Flash x2, regular combo on main target, Flash once every ~1-2 combos to keep it up. I know on WAR I can hold aggro with Overpower x2 and rotating the Skull Sunder and Butcher's Block to "non-main" targets sans Defiance... (accidentally) done in Brayflox for a few pulls :P

[Seku]

This is me. I do this on my lowbie BRD. I don't do it because I want you to suffer. I do it to end encounters quickly and teach you to be on your toes as a tank, as well as test my limits.

That said, I do enjoy the suffering...

Doesn't really keep them on their toes. Their either flashing a few times to get stable hate at the start before starting their combo or their not or you're a bard and their still on Gladiator. If you want to really keep them on their toes, throw DoT's on every mob when there are 3 or more. That actually forces them to use flash or target switch and keep hate on each target with their enmity generating combos.

[elemental10]

This is me. I do this on my lowbie BRD. I don't do it because I want you to suffer. I do it to end encounters quickly and teach you to be on your toes as a tank, as well as test my limits.

That said, I do enjoy the suffering...

Doesn't really make them to be on their toes. For BRDs like you, all I have to do is focus attack on your target and problem solved. You want to make a Tank to be on their toes? Pop everything as a BLM and start AOEing everything. For every Fire 2 and Flare, there's 2 or more mobs than the tank is hitting and that'll definitely a way to get yourself killed.