So, as no one actually objectioned against my conclusion, I’m going to edit this post with it, for a fast answer to new readers. If there are any objections, just post your answer and we discuss a new conclusion. (Also, this talk is kinda PVE limited and focused on casual gaming, so keep that in mind.)
If you’re a DPS and already have nice CC and aggro controllers on your daily friend list, you’re free to focus on the DPS.
If you’re a forever alone or just want some bread and butter, not only take Peltasta, but prefer classes that are independent or the meta, like the spear users and some Murmillo builds (as of march/2017).
So, returning Fencer player here.
After some reading and thought, I pondered the actual status of Peltasta class, not concerning its utility, but in fact, if it is still needed to make swordsman an acceptable member in any party, as it was when I was playing.
(btw I made a 2 or 3 month pause, started playing again last week, have been reading updates though.)
So, to be succint, let’s focus on 2 questions:
1- Is taunt still a pre-requisite to swordsman classes in order to be usefull?
2- Considering that the answer of the first question is [no], for DPS DEX builds like a Fencer, guardian really make one rank worth?
Of course, peltasta has other advantages as a lv1 rank which are its passive attributes, though they most focus on the use of a shield.
If you pretend on answering something like “But you will need swapping to shield in some important events like dungeons and missions”, consider then answering this other doubt of mine “Is there really nothing on these recent patches since rank 8 that could be better than block attributes or at least equally efficient?”
For reference, the build I used is the Sw3Pel1SairFen3.

