Skill-up: Parry/Shield

[Liselle]

I like keeping my martial skills up, so the fact that Parry/Shield are lagging behind is a little bit distressing to me. I've tried a lot of things, and I can't seem to get them to move at anything except a glacial rate. Damage mitigation is pretty important for soloing, I think, and Parry/Shield are basically free, so I want to get them as high as I can.

My RDM is currently level 48, and I do a lot of fishing in SSG, so I've been toying with the Yuhtunga Mandragoras. They range from 35-37, so by my estimation I should be able to get Shield and Parry to 82 and 89, respectively, before the skillups start to peter out. They do single-digit damage through Phalanx when they can even hit me at all, so it's a question of patience rather than endurance. I'm skilling Enhancing at the same time, so it's been working out pretty well so far.

My questions:
How many other people are concerned with keeping Parry/Shield up like I am? It seems to me that many RDMs let them fall behind because the skills take so long to raise.
Does anyone have any strategies for raising them once I wring all that I can out of the Mandragoras?
Are some subs easier than others when it comes to grabbing skillups? I've also been fighting Ironshells (37-40 crabs) outside Norg with a /DRK sub, using Aspir to keep the fight going. My WAR is 25, when I get to 50 I could potentially use Defender combined with my usual +DEF food to fight tougher monsters. Would this help any?
Would it make more sense in the long run to level these skills with another job? For example, my Ninja is A-rated Parry, and I could start a PLD to take advantage of A-rated Shield. A 58 PLD could cap shield for a 75 RDM potentially, or 62 for Parry. Ninja could cap Parry theoretically by 60. Using another job also opens up other equipment options, like dual-wielding Parrying Knives for a +20 bonus.
Is fighting multiple weaker monsters at once a decent idea? For example, gathering a few Mandragora at once, and meleeing with them all in front of me. As long as Phalanx stays up, there isn't really any danger.
I don't farm for gil (I fish), and I get XP from parties. Soloing is what I do to relax a little bit, and gain some skill. So, I don't mind taking a long time to kill.

I searched for other threads on this subject, but they were a couple months old and didn't quite answer my questions, so I thought new thread was worthwhile. Thanks for your attention, and for sharing any advice you may have.

[magnius]

I am actually really interested in skilling up shield/parry but like you I haven't had much luck getting skill. Hopefully other's posts are going to be a bit more helpful then mine but I have a feeling most rdms have the same problem or just don't care.

Unfortunatly I don't think leveling another job is going to be a solution since from what I hear, other jobs have the same problem. Many Plds that I've talk to say that their skill is also really low and are excited whenever it goes up. Leveling ninja for parry might work though since I seem to get a lot of skill when leveling ninja but I don't know if it will continue at higher levels.

Also I recall reading that Agi helps some for both shield and parry but I think Apple Pie tested that and found it wasn't a big difference. Anyway good luck on this, I personally haven't been too worried about it and would rather cap sword and dagger and get sidewinder just for some fun.

[little ninja]

i dont think sub job will help you with those 2 stats. its more or less what your main jobs rating is. as it goes for parry an shield. parry is a E, an shield is an F. witch basically means you will have the slowest possible skill ups in these two areas of stats. well that is if your a rdm atleast.

im a ninja so my parry skill is an A. but it isnt close to the cap limit yet, an i dont think it will ever be til i face a ton of gods, an hnm's.

if you want to attempt it i say get neg evasion gear, some vit rings maybe. an grab a couple of low lvl weapons. the key is to get hit as much as possible, an drag out the fights as much as possible,

[kuu]

Besides skill up pt, it's pretty hard.

From what I heard the best way is to fight VT monsters. Though that's xp range monster, you're more likely not to encounter that.

Though it's not at all impossible, epecially if you're a tank.

One paladin in my LS has 210ish shield and parry, and this was when he was lvl 73, which is pretty amazing considering a normal paladins would have anywhere between 150-180.

Of course I had a feeling he really like skilling up since he carries like 5 different weapons at him at a single time.

[the_governor]

this might not be the answer you're looking for but on my 75rdm i have 178parrying and 183shield. I do like do solo and rdm tank things here and there but the most I've gained from that was +evasion skill. The best way I've gained level is those skills is by leveling my Paladin..;;

[Saizen]

HAHA that's exactly what i'm doin. I really love paladin but i had a lvl 60 rdm a while back and that is where my heart lies...so when i do decide to do rdm again shield and parry are gonna be there for me. This is the best way imo, in terms of least boring that is.

[Apple Pie]

How many other people are concerned with keeping Parry/Shield up like I am?
I have 144 points for Parry and 138 points for Shield right now. They've been raised while I was farming EP demons (LV64 - 66) in Castle Zvahl. I don't make much of these skills because I can't clearly see the difference.
Does anyone have any strategies for raising them once I wring all that I can out of the Mandragoras?
I can only advice you to find MNK-type mobs that are DC - EM to you.
Are some subs easier than others
It depends on mobs as you said you chose DRK sub for crabs but for the purpose of raising Parry/Shield skill with MNK-type mobs, I think subbing WAR25+ works best. Defender helps Stoneskin last longer.
Would it make more sense in the long run to level these skills with another job?
If you have enough time to do it, that's the best way, I believe.
Is fighting multiple weaker monsters at once a decent idea?
I guess not. When you fight with weaker mobs, you often evade their attacks, don't you? If you evade them a lot, you won't be able to gain Parry/Shield skills because it is said that

1) The system first checks if you evade their attacks or not.
2) If you don't, the it checks if you can Parry them or not.
3) If you don't Parry, it then checks if you can shield-block them or not.
4) Finally, you'll get hit or they're absorbed by shadows if you have Utsusemi up.

[shinjaku]

Hi liselle, apple is correct on how the game checks u when fighting mobs, I can 1st tell u that the rules for skilling up evasion n ws do not i repeat do not apply to sheild/parry n most definately guard skill up. I have done extensive research n found somethings that will help:
1. Get stumbling sandals -10 agi n dex. lv22
2. Get as much evasion down gear u can get.

The way to skill up is get hit now, by gimping ur evasion helps mob hit u; that way u help push evasion check 2nd after parry or shield.
Now if ur using 1 handed sword n have shield u will only skill up sheild, if holding only 1 sword or 2 handed sword then u will skill up parry not both. ur gonna need alot of food like boild crab meat to boost ur def n milk pamama au lait if u can afford it (or get whm sj). The point is get hit which because ur skill is so far behind wont skill up if ur in skill-up pt unless u can steal n keep hate. When u get it really up there where its suppose to be then when ever u lvl up, ws/evasion/parry-shield-guard will go up.
U will be spending alot of time doing this n will need serious motivation to keep going its not easy, but i say best time to really start concentrating on this is when u hit 68+. Get parry/shield torque at 65 if u can find it. Consider any +parry/shield gear/weapon u find as imagery attribute like when u do crafting. U must not use any blink n stuff that helps u evade or escape attacks u have to get hit.
Mysterytour under ws check ur lv, job, skill u want to know n sj n it tells u what its supposed to be at.
I am a 69mnk/37sam guard skill was 97. n it took me 3 weeks to take it up to129 base lastnite, i counter alot now n others looking on r very impressed. I will post another post right after this to tell u what to expect :cool:

[shinjaku]

Hi again, now it took me 3 weeks to get so far up. Most n if not all mnks on my server at 75 only have guard at 168 tops n their happy with that, well not me cause that means ur under trained n a very poor mnk. When u hit dynamis n those god like areas or exp pties when peeps start to die, n ur forced to fight to save pt n u start parring like crazy then u will understand what its like to be uber hero. Trust me those magic blink what not gonna run out eventually n skilling up ur 2nd defensive skill aka parry/shield/guard helps make ur chances of getting hit much less, n raise ur survivalbily that much higher.
Now reason y I say wait till lv 68+ is the mobs ur suppose to skill up on after 100 get harder n pack a can of whoopass so all the hp u can get the better. At 98 i started in crawlers nest n will be here till 203 guard skill. I do 5 hit combos now (punch counter punch counter kick) so uber cool n get tp even when i get hit 1'ce in a blue moon. I have a competitor fellow mnk good friend of mine. took him 2 mnths to get to 138, so i most definately know what am doing if i went from 98-129 in 3 weeks :) There is a site found on ifrit site under pld or war forum not sure that gives jpn site that tells u where n what to fight to raise ur skill up. n its not perfect but it works n helps me alot. Alot of peeps dont care bout it so much n they all have very low guard/parry/shield skill they will try n make u stop n tell u its a waste, ignore them they have no clue the importance of it. So goodluck to u, as i saw on my server I will be the 1 n of to train at fei yin under shin akuma so i too can n shall possess the SATSUI no HADOU :)

[Liselle]

Thanks for all of the advice, folks.

The truth is, I never thought Parry and Shield were important until I started to work on levelling sub-jobs. Because RDM is my main, Parry and Shield were capped for all of the melee-type jobs that I levelled, and I noticed a big difference. Especially on my Ninja, where I would get several parries over the course of the average fight. When I dual-wielded Parrying Knives, to put me +20 over the cap, it was like night and day.

Many people say that Parry/Shield aren't really worth it, but I suspect that's because few people have their skill high enough to notice a difference. On high-level monsters you will only rarely get them because of low skill, and on lower level monsters where you CAN get parries and blocks, you won't see many because your evasion kicks in so often.

For example, Grendal's Parry and Shield of 144 and 138 would be cap for an RDM around 54-55 (depending), and he is fighting demons that are level 64-66. The cap for Shield and Parry at 66 are 182 and 171... if his Parry and Shield were that high, would he notice a more significant difference?

I don't know how the skills work, except that that Evasion is checked before them both, and unlike Evasion, you only get skillups on a successful Parry or Block. But for instance, if it is compared against a hidden Weapon Skill from the monster, it's no wonder that people with under-levelled martial skills think the skill is not useful. Does that make sense? That's my theory.

It's hard to test because of how defenses layer, and how rare equipment is that has +parry and +shield. I am looking forward to 52, when I can equip a Master Shield for the +10 bonus, that might be significant enough to document the difference. PArry/blocks is one thing that the parser I use can keep track of, so I'll keep it going and see if I come up with anything.

[shinjaku]

Well i c ur confusion but its also plausible to say if ur parry/shield was close to cap as ur evasion is, it should kick in just as much or even more cause at higher lvls mobs crash thru ur evasion anyways ; n will be met by ur parry/shield before it hits u. Now not saying u will block it all but it will activate more often than not (would personally like to counter alittle more than not at all). The only reason i am training guard is at my lv69 mnk/sam i get too much hate n need my guard to help me out, since my job is the only tru counter machine; i consider it very important. So goodluck on ur training n i will keep u posted when i hit 200 guardskill i hope.

[Liselle]

Okay, I just got back from a fun session in Yuhtunga Jungle. My Parry and Shield were still under where they would cap at 30, and the lesser Yuhtunga Mandies range from 30-33, so I played with them a little.

I was skilling up Archery at the same time, so I would pull one with a bow, and move to another one (not from places where people XP though, that would be bad form). I eventually got a train of eight mandies on me, so I backed into a corner and got them all into a 120 degree arc in front of me. I pulled out a weak weapon, and the parries/blocks started flowing in.

The interesting thing I learned this evening was about Phalanx, believe it or not. I went out without DEF food, and with Protect III I have around 180-ish DEF. When I didn't have Phalanx up, a mandy would hit me for about 3-13 damage (without crits) per hit. When Phalanx was up, almost every hit dropped to 0, with a rare "1" and a VERY rare "2" (crits wuld put the damage in the low teens).

Well, that doesn't make sense. My Enhancing is 125 right now, and according to the Phalanx formula:

(Enhancing / 7.5) - 10 = Damage absorbed

...I should be absorbing 6.667 damage (truncated to 6). Clearly this isn't the case, my Phalanx was absorbing a great deal more, almost twice what the formula said I would. What gives? The amount absorbed appears to be closer to this:

SquareRoot(Enhancing) = Damage absorbed

which would give me 11.18 (truncated to 11). How did people come up with that formula, anyway? It may work for high-level, but it definitely doesn't work for me.

The sample size was small, but includes hundreds of hit, which should take care of randomness. I didn't try it on the eight-mandy train, I certainly would have died if Phalanx went down. Any thoughts?

[Apple Pie]

The original formula of Phalanx was found after they did some tests with Cactuars in Western Altepa Desert. As you know, one of their special attacks, "1,000 Needles" always does [1,000 / (the number of people in a PT)] damage on us ignoring our DEF.

In fact, I also did the same test with my friends when I was late LV60s and it looked O.K to me. However, I admit that it wasn't tested at earlier stages.

Lately, the new formula that is said to work both at lower LV and at higher LV was brought by someone but I cannot guarantee it is correct since I haven't done any test at all by myself. You can try this one anyway.

(Enhancing / 10) - 2

This one seems to be suitable for you case.

[Liselle]

That one looks good. At least, 10 makes more sense than 11, and definitely more sense than 6. Thanks Grendal.

[modnar]

I love how mathematical and scientific we can get on this forum. I am getting goosebumps from it all! :thumbsup:

I just wanted to say: yes TRAIN! I love shinjaku for saying that Monks need to train (I am a former Monk). I remember a year ago I posted a thread saying that Monks have not reached their true potential and that they should GO TRAIN! (the thread was "Monks Can Tank! Hear Me out" -- not completely sane, but eh, I was young and new).

Training is a big part of advancing your character. It is not all about "leveling" your character. I am saying "advancing", "enhancing". Most people do not tap into that pool of potential because exping is so much easier... but you put a well "trained" character next to one that is not, and you will see who remains standing in the end.

To quote me from 1 year ago: "Monks, GO TRAIN!"....

Now I say: Everybody... TRAIN!

[little ninja]

you can skill both parry an shield at the same time. i do it all the time lvling my pld. now if you were aiming for just parry then unequip the sheild,

[Kibagami]

I'm gonna have to agree on that thing. The last job i bothered lvling was PLD. From 1-20 ish i had parry, evasion and shield caped. The diff was huge. The moment they became uncaped i felt really gimped >_<; (If only i had played more WAR/MNK than WAR/NIN).

I've lvld every job to at least 20 now (except BST still is at 17 ; ;), and the last jobs had an edge over the first ones. Doing the solo Avatar fights with a SMN that has every stat caped is much easier than a SMN/WHM that has only played SMN,WHM and BLM. Ive tanked with MNK lots of times and the caped EVA and parrying helps a lot (which i had more guard skill :( ). I am mentioning this jobs because they where the last in my lvling up list and having everything caped may give you enough luck to survive those last hits that are critical when runing for you live.

I also believe that almost every job potentially becomes the ideal sub at a given moment. Even if your a mage having WAR, THF, NIN, DRK and PLD as subs might prove useful to some quests/soloing/farmig . Not that you really need all subs available, it just depends on each one. Atm i'm playing DRG and i think that as a miminum i should have WAR, THF, MNK, NIN, BLM and WHM ready as subs (and maybe even DRK :P ). Of which i really only have WAR,THF, BLM and WHM ready. As i said it's not important at all. But i am the kind of guy that thinks that having the ideal setup and the right moment will give you the edge you need so you can slack more and not worry about mistakes that much.

I'll give a little xplanaition on the subs i choose for DRG. /WAR: your normal xp sub, /THF: farming, /MNK: for when spirits withing is priority...higher hp and acc boost, /NIN: for when spirits withing is priority but you must take care of yourself, /BLM: soloing (refer to DRG forum for this), /WHM: when doing quests where you have to baby sit lower lvls and tank (or play pseudo Metal Gear), /DRK: When your polearm WS dmg is top priority (only after 60 of course)... i guess i can add /SAM for enemies you absolutly cant hit for TP and need to use spirits within...if this ever hapens then this one take priority over /MNK.

So you see even when your priority is only landing SP there are 3 subs with a diff edge. /MNK for maximun dmg out of SP, /NIN for when you got to take care of yourself, /SAM for when you CANNOT hit the enemy or miss so much you take hours to gain 300% tp.

Thruth to be told i'll be subing WAR 90% of the time. But when that other 10% of the time comes i'll be happy i got just the ideal setup (subjob and gear wise) i need.

Btw did i mention i'm a bit obssesive? :P

[CarbonFibre]

I usually get my evasion skill ups in parties where I pull fast mobs and/or there's a THF in the party. My parrying is so low for my level that I can get skill ups on too weak mobs. It's sad since I'd love to have capped parrying with the high rating SAM has in it. I guess it's just another one of those skills that's so hard to get up like shield, guard, etc.

[Rai]

If you are a RDM main and you want to lvl your Shield and Parry skills level PLD.

I know my days of PLD will help when I level NIN and RDM.

as a 67 PLD last time I checked Shield was 187 and Parry was 177 that was with no gear on. My AF has some + Shield Skill.

[Torzak]

LV63
Shield@118 and Parry@115

I've done quite a bit of testing on this myself and thus far my best experiences are as a tank. I don't agree at all with the stumbling sandles idea. that AGI stat actually boosts your chance to Guard, Parry, Shield, and Evade. It's part of the reason Mithra make decent tanks... they block with their shield far more often than Elvaan do which makes up for their lacking in VIT. I do agree, however, with wearing -evasion... except it's hard to do so if you want AGI gear. My own tank set of gear includes x2 drone earrings rather than a set of earrings that are +attack/-evasion. And if you wear -evasion on other slots... you are potentially taking away from other needed stats to tank monsters hard enough to net you the skill up.

I prefer to wear x2 VIT rings, x2 Drone earrings, Beak Mantle +1, War's Belt +1, and Full AF (nice helper on the hands and feet for tanking).

Skill ups are still rare

[the_governor]

woo, finally did it! =D

[shinjaku]

Hi every 1 glad others r serious in learning how to really be complete, incomplete player is gimped period.
Thank you Modnar, glad i'm not the only 1 that realized importance of training :spin:
Srry Torzak ur info on stumbling sandals is dead wrong. U either dont know how to use em, or been feed to much bs by others. I f ur willing to have an open mind heres the deal :)

The best way to increase ir chance is to kill ur agi n evasion as much as possible; why u say k. When u start a fight with mob, when mob strikes u game checks evasion 1st, then guard/parry 2nd, then u get hit. Now not to get to technical hope u got ps2 guide if not go to the store n read pg.27 under "Those Big Nasties column; 4th paragraph. (srry had to do that, most peeps jus refuse to think outside the box till they see it in writing). U need to skill up on the right mobs for ur skill or it wont work member u try to raise specific trait not WS.

Now stumbling sandals does not work by its self, not enough when ur at lv68. But with it n others yes it does what its supposed to do.
As MNK/SAM I use 2 coral earrings= -10eva
stumbling sandals = -10eva/agl
guard torque= +7guard skill (hey whatever helps :cool: )

[shinjaku]

Hi ran out of space me thought lol.
I'm hoping to get pallas bracelets= agl-5
Tiger mask= -5eva at 70 lol no rush.
Now getting as much +guardskill i can helped (treat it as imagery like in crafting) not sure bout its importance but it helped me alot. Now before u saying anything bout me being wrong hear this: I have a fellow mnk/war whose been training guard for 2n 1/2 mnths to get to 143, took me 3weeks to get same (from98-143). As of now i am 145 :cool:
Mysterytour has checker that tells u what lvl its supposed to be at u check urs out. I need to be 244 at 68; long way to go>< but atleast i'm on track.
p.s. forgot to mention i use cavaliers mantle too= -10eva.
Now Torzak ur rdm so u wont understand unless u play mnk to 67+.
My guard in nest against exos activates alot more than war sj double attack, gotta luv counter (almost 4 per match).
Too many peeps jus lvl n thats it, me jus tired of meeting EP n getting me butt whooped >< not fun, as mnk in af n stuff runs lv75 pld losing hate to me not cool. Is it jus me or the quality of players now are degrading, i die n whm act silly (i get R1 while every 1 else gets R3).
I can only speak bout guarding n parry since they trained the same, the point is to extend the fight as long as possible n force guard to activate.
Mnks at 69 should be able to solo ancient quadav 1 on 1.
That means guard at 203 grrr still so far but i will get there; saw lv75 mnk/war in full rasetsu gear lol sandy-dynamis (he was the 1st to die n he did so multi times too). It was so sad whole alliance got wasted; they either got charmed by orc or killed by teammates.
What am trying to say is no matter what enhancement u got on (god gear or not) if ur inate skill traits aint lvled up right uber gear wont help u activate it.
Thanks for listening, i await ur comments :spin:

[Prefect]

I think you mostly want to concentrate on -evasion and +parry/shield (or +guard for the MNKs out there). I don't think -AGI would be very helpful since while it does weaken evasion, it also weakens parry/shield.

[shinjaku]

Hmm may be but u dont rally have a choice in that mnk wise:sweat: n if i read correctly i remember that i dont want to evade attack no so ur wrong on that note srry.
u want proof ok whats agl hmm lets see:
agl=determines ur effectiveness with ranged attacks (ok wow uber pebble shooter, um no thanks lol srry), it also has substantial impact on ur chance to dodge attacks (did i say i want to get hit to raise guard hmm k) so its an ok sacrifice i dont need it anyways. Dex too aint important, i want to hit mob n drag attack as much as possible not crit mob for quick kill.
So less chance to dodge n evade the better to force guard/parry check 1st, remember maat fight eh did u go all out to fight him or jus do whats required to beat him? hmm since ur lv75 :handsdown go get another testimony n fight him how u would if it was solo match, lets see how long ur magic spells (aka shock, ice, phalanx n stoneskin) save u from maat then. Pls try it 1st before replying, u can melee so lets see how much parry n block u get thats if u beat him :angel:
Thats jus to give u a taste what we mnks can do, hopefully then u will understand what i mean by train.
Now when we try n raise it hi enough we should get skillups from even exp pties too cause mobs at those lvls crash thru our evasion alot more. Pls more feed back :thumbsup:

[Torzak]

I still don't agree with wearing -AGI gear. AGI does indeed play a fairly huge role in your chance to parry and shield block. And wearing less AGI means less chance to shield and parry. The only thing I recommend is -evasion.

And for rdms I suggest you go to davoi and fight mnk type orcs for skill up with war sub job. It's the best way I've found so far.

Defense Gear, Defense Food, Defender, Protect, Phalanx and allow two or three easy prey mnk types to beat on you. They will do nearly zero dmg to you even without Stone Skin and with three monsters attacking you with a mnk like swing you'll be hit numerous times per minute all the while taking zero dmg. Just make sure to align all monsters swinging at you to be in front of you and not surrounding you. They need to be in front for shield and parry to work... and contrary to what I've seen before... you "don't" have to be engaged to get parry and shield skill up.

Since I don't know for sure that guard skill is based on AGI then I can see why a mnk would come to rdm boards and say wear -AGI. But I'm sorry... wearing -AGI is taking away from your chance to shield/parry in the first place.

But if you don't want to mess with any of the above talk of -evasion/-agi gear... i definitely suggest trying out your luck against multiple mnk types at once. If you can't make it work with gear... you can always simply increase the amount of attacks you endure for better results too.

And as 65rdm/30war I can have 68VIT and 516 Defense which when coupled with phalanx makes mnk types a complete joke to fight. And if you want to take your skill up further you can always lvl up a 1 hand weapon you are lacking in... Double Attack will help to increase that skill faster while at the same time the counters you'll see from the mnk types will increase the attacks your endure over time which I think will also help increase shield/parry.

[Navia]

I agree that getting beat up alot (playing paladin) would probably be the best way to level parry/shield.

I had an awful time keeping parry anywhere close to where it should be as a ninja. If the skill lags behind too far and you blink tank well enough to rarely get hit, parry never gets a chance to skill up because its too low relative to the monster you fight.

Nothing beats getting smacked upside the head if you want to level parry, for me at least. As I leveled into my 60s with a woefully low parry skill of 120, the lack of parrying attacks in xp parties led to shadows not lasting long enough and ended up taking some hard hits with defender on while waiting on utsusemi recast timers.
Every time I got hit, I was getting .4 or .5 parry skillups and the skill rose very quickly to the point I started parrying during fights often, and getting parry skill ups from parrying attacks.
I'm still quite a ways off from capping parry, a darksteel golem caught me with my shadows down in Ro'Maeve and gave me .5 parry skill in exchange for punching me for 250 damage :sweat:

I personally swear by +AGI stuff helping parry, nerfing my evasion too much proved to be dangerous when solo skilling, you need enough evasion to give you some breathing room to get stoneskin back up without interruption. I've heard some people say quadavs are good for skilling on, but I have yet to find any monster in particular that gives parry skillups better myself.

[shinjaku]

The topic said nothing bout raising ur parry/shield/guard as being a RDM only forum, but like i said before i can only say whats worked n is still working for me. I wont be wearing all these gears that gimp me for long either sandals n mantle i wont wear in exp but the rest r ok.
Now does not matter if u need more agl to help it activate ok, sure thats what u want but its not the same if u want to train it. Good luck to all, what ever u have found that actually works is best mentioned here. I f dont actually spend time to train this specific skill trait pls dont give here say; does not help any one here yes.
I jus told u what i am doing n it works (mnk wise); so unless u have actually done it dont speculate. If u dont know for sure thats fine (ignorance is not a crime, but being ignorant is). :thumbsup:

[the_governor]

Um... it only skills up if its activated... So, like, +agi is good :p

[Mila]

For my solo RDM, I sometimes take a little different approach and build my gear towards attack and agi; my thinking being, it will not only add evasion, but sheild parry and even archery too. I find that even fighting even match or tough mobs I do sheild or parry a lot of the attacks, probably like 10% of the attacks each, even with my underleveled parry and shield skill(106 & 111 w/o gears.) On too weaks or easy prey I sheild or parry a LOT, maybe even nearing the 50% mark. The few times I've fought VT or tougher mobs I've parried and sheilded quite more than I expected to. So it's one of my goals to eventually cap sheild and parry. With enough agi and +skill gear, I believe shield and parry make RDM an even more powerful player defensively.

[Jei]

Interesting how you suggested to lower AGI and Evade, Shin. I never thought about that before, really interesting.

I love to raise my parry/shield skill. Normally I, like Appli pie, let it goes up on it's own while farming EP-DC. This time tho I'll see what I can do if all the negative evade and AGI stuff.

Fighting high level monk enemies, their parries can get really annoying -_- I'm sure it wil be sooooo helpful for a player to cap those skill too seeing how it works so well on mobs.

[Torzak]

I'm 175 Shield now... and wearing -agi will not help you 'train' shield skill. Wearing -evasion gear will help to focus more on other lower skills, however. AGI gear helps boost your chance to shield/parry/ or evade... and lessening your total agi lowers your chance to do any of them.