Whatever happened to WHM & BLM shield use?

[Kosmos992k]

Why are there no1H weapons and shields for WHM and BLM above lvl 50? I know that there will always be an argument about the stats, but I just like the look. It's a shame this aspect of these two jobs has been ignored in HW.

Any reason why it's being neglected so?

[Enkidoh]

Because the use of shields on CNJ/WHM and THM/BLM was a holdover from version 1.0 (originally in 1.0, shield use was actually a seperate sub-class called 'Sentinel' (or 'SEN' for short), hence a player could equip a shield and gain skill points in the SEN class, although CNJ and THM could not actually cross class SEN abilities (only GLA could use them). This changed around the 1.20 patch if I remember rightly when SEN was scrapped and it's abilities were added to GLA by default. Hence CNJ and THM could continue to use certain types of shields (wooden shields and targes mostly).

Going into ARR the development team seems eager to move away from 1.0's legacy and thus the preference for two-handed weapons on Disciples of Magic, accordingly modern CNJ/WHM and THM/BLM weapons are almost exclusively two-handed, thus making shields redundant.

[Nepenthe]

I do wish they had more options still, even if it is purely stylistic. I remember the whole sentinel thing actually! 1.20.. Was that the patch that did away with character level? It's all so foggy

[Evangela]

I hope 1-handed staff will stay extinct. who's gonna sacrifice their healing/attacking potency for a little bit more defense? It was bad enough when they gave us a 1-handed staff for Leviathan weapon.

[SarcasmMisser]

I hope they never come back.

[Kahnom]

Because both Casters try to do Shield Boomerang but the shields won't return .. Only Paladin that master the art of shield boomerang.

[Calypsx]

I adore the look, shields look amazing and original on casters. Staffs can be cool but they are kind of generic, I would like a choice between the two for glamour purposes.

[Limecat]

It's probably something of a holdover from XI methods(though staves ruled the day there as well) that they've never quite gotten rid of. Or, considering how low-level most shields for mages are, they may have only been intended for use by new squishies to help them survive.

[odie]

What they need to do is allow one handed weapons and shields be used as glamour. The 1H and 2H have the EXACT SAME animation...yet we can't glamour between the two.

[Crimsonforce]

They just need to come up with a way to use a 2h staff and glamor it to a wand and shield.