Shield changes

[Alhanelem]

I can make the exact same argument about having to level cnj or thm for spells on my gladiator. Or having to level marauder for defender, or pugilist for second wind. Personally I like the change and am looking forward to seeing it in action.

I should probably clarify: I do not like this change not directly because of having to level up another class to gain skills, but more directly because shield was essentially its own sub-class, and now they're basically just getting rid of it. I was hoping for the day when we'd be able to set it as a main class, but instead it's being removed and its skills being offloaded to another class. It seems like an awfully quick fix to a perceived problem (not actual problem) to the developers.

Uhm, what shield skills are so damned critical that you can't survive without them?

They aren't "So damned critical." They're very nice to have. Shield bash gives me an extra tool to deal with some special attacks, on top of being a way to spend the TP I recieve (mostly from getting hit). Aegis boon is an amazing survival skill when combined with Punishing Barbs (admittedly, this combo used to be ridiculously powerful- it's been drastically nerved but it's still useful) and shield bash II just takes that a step further.

No, you don't set all of the shieldskills, usually just one or both of those two.

Mages shouldn't be in melee range anyway.

You have no choice in the matter when you're soloing. The enemy will be in your face most of the time. Bind doesn't help because basically every enemy has a ranged attack so they can kick your butt from a distance. Gravity doesn't help for the same reason.

Even if we did have a choice, this is once again the closed-minded, think-inside-the-box perspective that users of magic MUST be frail old men with canes that can never take a hit. There are many "mage" jobs in Final Fantasy that blur this line. Up until now, these classes could blur this line if they chose to. You do not make the rules as to what mages can and cannot be.

The fact of the matter is, this is only a skills change and not an equipment change. DoMs can still equip shields and those shields can still have stats. If they never wanted us to be able to use a shield, they would have made all shields DoW only. All this means is the destruction of what could possibly have been a real class in the future, and an inconvinence to any DoMs who currently have these skills set but will find them gone when they log in after the update.