Quote Originally Posted by Novani View Post
It's actually a little more scuffed than even that, a shield seems to negate SAM LB by a significant, but not consistent factor. Have seen on multiple occasions a BLM pop their shield while at under 70% HP but higher than 50% and under the debuff effect basically get reduced to 1% as opposed to execute. It could be jank with server tick affecting the order of things but given how much a SAM needs to risk to even use the move it's just incredibly unreliable a mechanic whenever a shield, any shield as even the Monk's thunderclap has done the same, gets involved.

Pretty much the one thing that doesn't help, of all things, is Guard. Whatever help it used to provide is outright non-existent now compared to all the options listed for shields. It might be possible to still do damage conventionally, but the execution aspect is completely useless whenever it comes into play, this is aggravated by the lack of visual feedback outside of the CC list and maybe a status bar which barely stands out either, and especially bad since shields are commonplace and frequently ready.

Personal recommendation would actually be the complete retirement of execution LBs for something more consistent and less at the mercy to server tick, shields and arbitrary Line of Sight decision making (boy it's fun missing the debuffed person right in front of you). SAM's is the easiest to work around, and the most irritating to try and use. FF14 PvP servers can't really seem to keep up with the flow that these LBs demand, they might be making some classes unique, and Samurai can be fun to play... but not for the sake of executions, it's no more fun to the targets than it is to the user, the recent addition of an extra second for Chiten really is just a band-aid to a fundamental flaw.
man... i remember absorbing a zanzu 100% with the dragoon LB shield once, dude got really confused (the shield also scales off of how much battle high you have which i had max )