shields need an overhaul.

[Roegadyn_Bear]

Not only do I agree with you, but they should bring back WHM/BLM shields as well.

[Reaperking386]

Shields blocking magic? That's ridiculous, just ask Haurchefant how that works out.

Right into the feels. lol

[Duelle]

For starters the selection of shield types is just horrible: either tower or kite that's it.

This is because of how blocking works. Blocking is in part determined by the shield's size rather than being determined entirely by stats (STR). Shields are also built on a trade-off system (more block value = less block rate and vice versa) instead of set to always grow with ilevel/stats. My guess is that they either wanted to keep the legacy system from 1.0 (itself rooted in the terrible shield design of FFXI) or wanted to ensure PLD didn't have a defensive advantage due to having access to shields.

As for shield variation, that's more on the design team to create shields that look different. Of course, since shield size is tied to block rating and block value, they're sort of cornered into making kite and tower shields. At this point something's gotta give; to get more aesthetic variety in shields you want, it'll have to be the whole "size = block value/rate" bit.

The 2nd issue is function, every shield should have 4 stats: block strength/block rate, magic deflection/deflection rate. I'm no saying shields should block magic at same %, just that it should be a function of shields.

This is connected to my above point. A PLD would have much higher mitigation compared to the other two tanks if they did this without changing something else.

Assuming they went by your suggestion and change all shields to linearly scale by ilevel with the stats you suggest, a PLD now has a much higher mitigation threshold than a WAR or DRK. Remember that tanks should be equal to each other in damage, mitigation and utility, otherwise you have raids favoring one and tossing the others aside. It might work if they further developed mitigation mechanics for WAR and DRK and tuned the numbers so that a PLD with your suggested shield would be equal to DRK and WAR. I mean, WoW did it by giving bear druids a ton of armor and HP (to make up for a druid's lack of parry and block while in bear form), and gave death knights defensive cooldowns they could chain on top of self heals (Death Strike and Death Pact) and additional parry scaling from STR to make up for their lack of the mitigation warriors and paladins had via shields. The latter was then changed to have active mitigation to make up for the lack of shield blocks with Cataclysm.

Not saying what you want is impossible (because it's certainly possible here), but it would require changes to WAR and DRK. And I agree that shields should at the least help mitigate some part of magic damage.

Seconded. You guys have very short memories if you don't remember the people complaining about how they were gimped because their highest ilevel weapon was a wand/cudgel but didn't have a shield of equal level. That's part of why the devs said "fuck it" and decided to just give BLM and WHM staves.

The best compromise here would be to entirely remove THM/CNJ from shields and itemize wands/cudgels to have the same stats as two-handed staves. Then it'd be a matter of changing the glamour system to allow a staff to be glamoured to a wand/cudgel and everyone would be happy.

[RocheKat]

I think the bigger issue is the lack of shield attacks. FFXIV like most games treat shields like a piece of armor instead of a defensive weapon.

[Cheraa]

You have two Shield Attacks. Thats fine, as Shields have always been a defensive tool and only used offensive if possible. The same way we are using them in FF XIV with stunning the enemy (even if knockdown would fit better) and a direct shield bash.

What I would like to see:

- Shield Bash off GCD. We should be able to use our Stun anytime AND it shouldn't break our combo.
- Shield Swipe buff potency or make it a frontal AOE.

[Archaell]

You have two Shield Attacks. Thats fine, as Shields have always been a defensive tool and only used offensive if possible. The same way we are using them in FF XIV with stunning the enemy (even if knockdown would fit better) and a direct shield bash.

What I would like to see:

- Shield Bash off GCD. We should be able to use our Stun anytime AND it shouldn't break our combo.
- Shield Swipe buff potency or make it a frontal AOE.

Shield Bash is what makes the paladin unique in comparison to War/Drk. They have it off GCD, Pld has no CD.

Imo Shield Swipe should be the one off GCD. And pacification a lil bit improved. If I understand it correctly, we are supposed to use Swipe to save combos while waiting for Bash.