ask that IMC. They make content that only favors high damage via high attack values. Tanking damage does not help you in any way to complete raids. That’s why there is a need to balance the attack value so you do not take even longer by choosing a defensive class.
The defensive category has nearly no purpose, as well as the equipment called “shield”. The only classes that actually use a shield actively (the three shield swordsmen) are heavily reimbursed for it via all kinds of mechanics while leaving the shield option in the dirt for everyone else that wants to deal any sort of damage.
A shield should not punish the one investing into it. But currently it does, because support classes usually have the better protective tools for party protection, leaving the defensive classes in an odd situation where they have neither damage nor decent support, which is why the shield is dead.
If the defensive classes made it possible to have a decent amount of defense and attack, they could be a bridge between support and damage classes.
actually it would be logical to expect exactly that, that a defensive class would enable you to deal on average more damage because it would allow you more mistakes and elongated windows of attacking.
Instead what it does is that you take just a little less damage, deal a lot less damage and it makes you incompatible with a lot of equipment.
They already do not if you look at their buffs (defensive) and attack skills (few and/or low in skill factor compared to offensive classes). What is important here and what most people seem to have completely forgotten is the premise of this suggestion.
All I asked for is to convert some defense into attack so you don’t have such a large attack discrepancy.
The logarithmic damage calculation makes it so that you can deal 20-30% more damage with a measly 3000 attack more than another character, which is why classes like Wugushi and Barbarian were so broken for their attributes/arts.
If we look at endgame gear, it’s easy to see that at the current rate there is a 5000 attack gap between weapon + shield and weapon+trinket.
In contrast to the sole class choice, this will affect all classes in the build, dealing significantly less damage just because you chose a single blue class and equipped a shield.
How much? let’s take a look:
Let’s say we have a normal +16 T10 equip, setting us at ~ 39k attack with 2hand + trinket.
The same equip would translate into 34k with 1hand and shield.
The enemy is glacia (hard) with an averaged value of ~393.000 defense (averaged between 378k mdef and 408k pdef).
The damage formula is the following: damage = (% increase factor) x attack x min {1, log10 ((attack / (defense + 1))^0.8 + 1)} + (+ increase)
So in case 1 (2hand + trinket) it is: damage = (% increase factor) x 39000 x min {1, log10 ((39000 / (393001)^0.8 + 1)} + (+ increase) = (% increase factor) x 2478 + (+ increase)
In case 2 (1 hand + shield) it is:
damage = (% increase factor) x 34000 x min {1, log10 ((34000 / 393001)^0.8 + 1)} + (+ increase) = (% increase factor) x 1950 + (+ increase).
with 5000 attack difference it’s 27%, with +21 equip you come close to 6k difference, which is over 31% more damage for all three classes, compared to the build option with weapon+ shield.
This means you punish the whole build by doing collectively less damage with all skills on top of having less offensive skills and buffs available by having a single defensive class in the build, trying to get the best out of it.
Now here is the question,though: If you deal less damage, you take longer to kill, so won’t the damage you receive less be nullified by providing the enemy more time to damage you?
What is the benefit in the end? That you have to spend more time of your life whacking on a dumb mob just for it to die?
You rank lower than pure offensive builds, you might even get punished in CM if you deal not enough damage compared to your party members by receiving less silver.
The least that can be done is to compensate a little on the attack side by converting a portion of the shields defense into attack so that you do not stand back behind support/hybrid class builds that also use a shield with exactly the same downsides.
The goal for attack should be like this : Offensive class (2 hand weapon) > defensive class ( 1 hand weapon + shield) > support class (1 hand weapon + shield),
With attack classes having the most attack in their setup, followed by defensive classes featuring a sensible middle ground with a defense conversion into attack from the shield and,last but not least, followed by the support classes that have no attack compensation for carrying a shield.
The sweet spot, considering +21 weapons achievable and +16 weapons the norm for endgame, would be between 17% and 20% defense conversation rate, putting defensive classes exactly in the middle between two hand weapons and one hand weapons and shield without conversion.