The problem is that not only 2h weapons had better raw attack, but the classes using them also had their SFR inflated beforehand during the years. Having higher stats was the only advantage 1h+offhand/1h+shield users had, basically.
Then weapon accessories came and 2h classes ended up with same stats, but far higher attack and the higher SFRs that they had beforehand and that were never rebalanced in accord to the new, higher attack. Add to that a series of inane bonuses and well, here we are.
Sure, subweapon masteries - where applicable - do bridge the gap between raw attack stats. But the other advantages are still there.
Let me add that the attack bonus from provoke is plain idiocy. It’s like the matador one, and it didn’t work there as well.
Firstly, because only one people can ever have aggro. So everybody else from those shield classes would still be penalized (same issue matadors have right now, but worse).
Secondly…how are you getting that aggro to begin with if you lack the damage to keep enemies aggroed? You need the bonus damage to keep the enemies aggroed, but you need the aggro to get the bonus damage. It’s a plain issue of circularity. I can see that with my fencer/matador as well - i happen to lose aggro at the white witch to some hoplite/dragoon/lancer friend (with their provoke attribute disabled) and i can never get it back since, by then, i do even less damage. And that has to do with the last issue…
That is, those bonuses and related classes are balanced over the best case. That is, you do the damage you’re supposed to do when you’ve got all those bonuses.
It’s fine when you get those bonuses from skills that Just Work - you activate your buff and that’s it. When they’re conditional…not so much. Even less when they’re conditional on something that depends on those same bonuses they provide - like getting and keeping aggro.
And as said above, only one can have aggro. Even if all of this worked perfectly…shield classes other than the one tanking would still be significantly worse off. So why should one bother doing one and gear it if he still risks to be useless just due to someone else using the same archetype as well? They can just do some two-handed class that has nothing like those conditional buffs and that Just Works.
To put it shortly…these kinds of patch-up won’t provide actual solutions. In the best case, we’ll go from shield classes being useless to one shield class among all the players in a fight being useful. That’s hardly an improvement.
