Bulwark

[Cabalabob]

Bulwark is an additive 60% block rate increase, coupled with your natural block rate so if you had a 20% block rate and used bulwark you'd have 80%. If you have a tower shield you'll notice you block less than with a kite shield during bulwark because of its naturally lower block rate, but each block mitigates more.

Never use bulwark alone for a tank buster, couple it with a proper cd, even a minor one like foresight or Shelton.

You only block or parry when facing an enemy so anything behind or on your flank won't be blocked, locking on to an enemy helps make sure you're always facing them.

You also cannot block or parry while casting, so if you're using stoneskin or clemency during bulwark you're negating the effect.

Finally you can't block magic attacks, so if the tank buster is magical or the trash pull is magic only (like elementals) then bulwark or any cooldown to do with block/parry is redundant.

[JackFross]

First, I'd like to say that Bulwark isn't true mitigation like "Rampart" or "Shadowskin".

Bulwark only increase Block Rate by 60%. There's that other 40% where it DON'T trigger.

Couple Bulwark + Sheltron, and you're safe.

It's less than 40%. Your shield has a base block chance of >0%. :0

Never couple Bulwark with Sheltron. That's silly. Sheltron is an instant block. Assuming you have say 15% block rate with your base, using Sheltron alone is +85% block rate. If you use it with Bulwark active, you're sitting at 75% natural rate, so Sheltron is only doing the extra +25%. Unless a physical tank buster comes in the duration of Bulwark, Sheltron is strictly pointless during those 15s.

Finally you can't block magic attacks, so if the tank buster is magical or the trash pull is magic only (like elementals) then bulwark or any cooldown to do with block/parry is redundant.

It's not redundant. Redundancy implies that you're stacking something with one effect on top of something else with the same effect when the additional thing is not necessary. A good example is the above - using Sheltron during Bulwark is redundant. Stacking parry on a Paladin is redundant.

Using Bulwark or Sheltron against a horde of elementals is useless, pointless, or ineffective, not redundant.

[Cabalabob]

It's less than 40%. Your shield has a base block chance of >0%. :0

Never couple Bulwark with Sheltron. That's silly. Sheltron is an instant block. Assuming you have say 15% block rate with your base, using Sheltron alone is +85% block rate. If you use it with Bulwark active, you're sitting at 75% natural rate, so Sheltron is only doing the extra +25%. Unless a physical tank buster comes in the duration of Bulwark, Sheltron is strictly pointless during those 15s.


It's not redundant. Redundancy implies that you're stacking something with one effect on top of something else with the same effect when the additional thing is not necessary. A good example is the above - using Sheltron during Bulwark is redundant. Stacking parry on a Paladin is redundant.

Using Bulwark or Sheltron against a horde of elementals is useless, pointless, or ineffective, not redundant.

If a tank buster is coming and you're only using bulwark you're leaving yourself at the mercy of RNG, if you have Shelton up you guarantee that you will reduce the tank buster with a block and then also have an increased chance to block everything that comes after, if you have no cd's up except bulwark and Shelton when a physical tank buster comes you should most definitely use them together, you'll want to block multiple hits to make sure you don't get 1 shot after the tank buster and you want to KNOW you're going to block the tank buster itself.

Yes you could use them sequentially but then you leave yourself open to animation lag so it's simply safer to use them together.

redundant
rɪˈdʌnd(ə)nt/
adjective
not or no longer needed or useful; superfluous.
"an appropriate use for a redundant church"
synonyms: unnecessary, not required, inessential, unessential, needless, unneeded, uncalled for, dispensable, disposable, expendable, unwanted, useless

[Jim_Berry]

Never couple Bulwark with Sheltron. That's silly.

Different folks for different strokes. Solo Bulwark don't always help against physical tank busters, as I (and other have proven) that I took the less amount of damage from, say, Sephirot if I coupled Bulwark with Sheltron. Bulwark alone was like I never used the CD.

Not saying you're incorrect, but many people tell me to do this or do that, but end up finding my own way to work.

So, yeah, on Sephirot for example again, my comfortability and safeness relies greatly when I could Bulwark and Sheltron. And to be honest, in one group, I coupled Sheltron for each tank buster with each CD (Foresight + Sheltron, Rampart + Sheltron, etc...) because Sheltron was always ready. My healers never complained. In fact, some asked me to do what I did previous when I DON'T couple Sheltron.

[Jim_Berry]

Never use bulwark alone for a tank buster, couple it with a proper cd, even a minor one like foresight or Shelton.


You also cannot block or parry while casting, so if you're using stoneskin or clemency during bulwark you're negating the effect.

For the first line, thank you. Thank you so much.

For the second line, I have to question that. I recently turned "Flying Text" on after NOT using it since like 2013. I turned it on recently because I've been playing with AST, and I don't know the cards by colors, but by name. That said, I swear, before the change to Clemency, I would sometimes get "Parried" or "Blocked" on my screen during Clemency's cast time. I noticed it because back then, I would time the cast with Holy Bladedance from the Knight on Thordan, and would get the text.

[Cabalabob]

For the second line, I have to question that. I recently turned "Flying Text" on after NOT using it since like 2013. I turned it on recently because I've been playing with AST, and I don't know the cards by colors, but by name. That said, I swear, before the change to Clemency, I would sometimes get "Parried" or "Blocked" on my screen during Clemency's cast time. I noticed it because back then, I would time the cast with Holy Bladedance from the Knight on Thordan, and would get the text.

Test for yourself, it's not difficult, go to azys lla, find an owlbear around 11:10, wait for it to cast gust avoid it and pop Shelton and awareness while its casting (so it won't attack you while you're putting it on) then when it's finished casting gust start casting stoneskin and see if you block when it auto attacks you while you're casting.

[Februs]

I swear, before the change to Clemency, I would sometimes get "Parried" or "Blocked" on my screen during Clemency's cast time. I noticed it because back then, I would time the cast with Holy Bladedance from the Knight on Thordan, and would get the text.

You could also have exploited the magic pixel for Pld cast times.

It's a little weird, but near the end of a cast bar a Pld can actually move despite seemingly being locked into the casting animation (something you may have noticed from time to time while dodging AoE's). It's tricky timing, but to the outside observer it looks as though you are moving and casting at the same time. The reason is that the game registers the action as "completed" a short time before the animation is done. Whm's, for example, finish the actual cast of holy LONG before the glowy disco-ball goes off. Pld's Flash mechanic works in a similar fashion, as well. If you've ever Flashed while running, you might notice that the flash light gets left behind you, fixing the AoE in that spot rather than where you are in real time. It's something you can easily test just by casting flash while moving at a steady run in one direction.

The reason I mention this is because your character's block rate is also restored during this time. As soon as your character is capable of moving, your block rate is back in action. So it's possible that you were blocking attacks during that magical little period of time in which the game's visuals are not keeping up with the calculations being done in the background. It's easier to notice on multi-hit moves like Holy Blade Dance, because you're being hit consecutively. The initial volley of hits (during the bulk of your cast) are not blocked because you are considered to be "casting." However, the hits that land near the very end of your cast bar can, sometimes, be blocked if they happen to line up with when the game considers the cast to be done and completed. It's a strange thing to see in practice, and not something I'd recommend relying on, but it could explain why you remember blocking the occasional hit while casting.