[EstorilPaladinETC]

Does anyone know how to get these skills capped? Its driving me nuts that everytime I level, My Sword and Evade get capped right away, but Shield and Parry stay low, and don't rise much. Right now at level 42, my Shield and Parry skills are about 30 points below my Sword and Evade skill. Why is it that they don't cap like evade? I tried different stats to get them to go up faster. Adding AGI seems to help Parry out a little, not Shield.

Does anyone know a way to get these skills capped? I have a feeling once they do get capped, they will stay capped like Sword and Evade.

[Rensei Ryo]

Ive actually never heard of a Paladin that didnt have a capped shield and parry skill. Just be patient and keep all the hate on you, your skills will get there.

[Lerican]

er...i don't have capped shield and parry and the only time they cap is when I switch to a lower level melee subjob =/.

I don't think most people cap shield/parry normally unless they're leveling very slow or die a lot (thus increasing the amount of time spent in a given cap range). Parry goes up faster with great weapons (no shield so more chances to parry). If you really 'must' cap them, and there's no guarantee you can keep them capped, you'll most likely have to look for a suitable mob to fight, usually with double attack and low melee damage, and let it beat on you while someone heals you =/.

-Lerican

[TweeK]

mm i wouldn't worry too much about it. having the two maxed is helpful but i highly doubt that's going to happen anytime soon maybe when we get to 50+ and it takes a ton of exp to level up, neh est? and even then i wouldn't think too much if they're not maxed. i'm not sure what mine are but i know for a fact they're not maxed and they're a decent amount below sword/evade, but i still block/parry quite a bit.

[EstorilPaladinETC]

Well, I've talked to a handful of higher level Paladins, and none of them had their Shield/Parry capped. One Paladin who was almost level 60 had Sword and Evade around level 200, and Shield and Parry around level 150.

Another things is that before level 30, I would get skill points almost every time I blocked and parried. Then all of the sudden after level 30, I rarely get skill points for blocking and parrying... except for recently when i got some +AGI gear and noticed Parry seems to be picking up a bit, but not block. What happens at level 30 for this to happen? Is it that since Paladins don't get much AGI as they level, suddenly at level 30 the AGI is significantly lower than needed?

I'd like to use this thread to figure all this out. There has to be a way to cap it. And I think once its capped, it will stay capped like Evade, since I'm assuming the high your Shield and Parry level is, the more you will parry and block.

Hey RenseiRyo, can you get some info for us from some of those capped Paladins you spoke of?

[Kletian999]

Combat skills like shield and parry skills only rise when you succeed or almost suceed against something of reasonable difficulty. As a paladin, your on the receiving end of attacks all the time, so either you are fighting enemies too strong to raise your levels (I tried raising a hand axe from 0 to 30 on Valkurm lizards and it took forever until about 25, when the level range matched) or to weak to reach your high cap (paladins do have very high aptitude).

You might want to try a Dueling sword or a Parry Dagger (Pals don't cause damage anyway) to increae your parry chances, and thus make it more likely to raise your skills.

[Discordian]

What you could do is get a couple friends to help you cap shield and weapon parry by letting you solo a mob thats 5-8 levels below you. Its not the best way to cap your skill but if you can sit there long enough it will at least go up a little. Then again it goes up while you are xping against things at you level. I know of no other way that this could be pumped up. If you do try and level it against a mob have a whitemage with cure2/cure3 and a rdm with refresh so that they can alternate on healing. You can just provoke/flash and swing at it with an onion sword, that way it doesn't die and you still get your parry and shield ups.

[TweeK]

the reason your skill popped up at around Lv. 30 is because you were fighting onions in kazham they're weak, hit twice, and hit a lot, so you're parry/block get a good workout. my skills went from like 20 or 30 to i think around 60 or 80 in yhoator/yuhtun alone [can't remember exactly..a considerable amount either way]

i doubt if the skill will stay capped if you manage to cap it once because simply put it's not a skill that goes up very fast. you need to fight guys your level that have a fast hit rate with good accuracy [like the onions]. that's how your going to pump your skills.

in crawler's nest where you are now, you'll fight beetles and crawlers. rather than hitting many times for low damage they just pump out massive damage in less hits... so you're not going to get nearly as many chances to block/parry as you did before.

[paladiny]

leveling, skill up parties, keys, coffers, NM fights

[Zaris]

lol I have yet to see my skills cap. I'm lv41 and my sword and evasion cap easily. Shield and Parry is still around the 90s. But I gotta say, 2 Drone Earrings and +6 AGI really makes you perform those actions better. I'm told some items help raise parry effect+5 or something and heard some players with those weapons capping parry from that. Search around weapons in AH and see if you can afford those things.

But yeah, AGI really plays a huge role.

[EstorilPaladinETC]

Yo Tweek, didn't know you read these forums..

Wazzaaaaaap!

[TweeK]

EstorilPaladinETC:
Yo Tweek, didn't know you read these forums..

Wazzaaaaaap!

lol ^^;

normally just read but don't post..but i'm in FL and can't go anywhere [bored as hell] so in the meantime i'm left with harassing people on the forum

[Krystar]

I've been using a sword and shield since I was a level 8 Warrior on like my 2nd or 3rd day playing the game. Im level 63 now and my parry is around 160 and my shield just hit 191, and has NEVER hit the cap.

It just goes up very slowly, but is a great skill, whenever I'm leveling other jobs I block and parry alot of attacks.

[EstorilPaladinETC]

Kletian999 :
Combat skills like shield and parry skills only rise when you succeed or almost suceed against something of reasonable difficulty. As a paladin, your on the receiving end of attacks all the time, so either you are fighting enemies too strong to raise your levels (I tried raising a hand axe from 0 to 30 on Valkurm lizards and it took forever until about 25, when the level range matched) or to weak to reach your high cap (paladins do have very high aptitude).

You might want to try a Dueling sword or a Parry Dagger (Pals don't cause damage anyway) to increae your parry chances, and thus make it more likely to raise your skills.

I think thats right... I'm starting to think that its a habit on my server for groups to push to the limit and fight mobs that are too difficult, but still win most of the time (and then complain about downtime LOL) But I do see where your comming from. The other day while leveling in quicksand caves, we started off while all the mobs were IT and +++ who knows. My shield and parry skills weren't rising at all (even though I would block and parry often). Then as we started to level up, and the mobs we were fighting became a mixture of VT and IT, my shield and parry would rise occasionally. Then as we fought more just before leaving to get some "buffer XP" the mobs were a mixture of T, VT and IT, and my shield and parry were rising noticeably more than before. Right now at level 48 my shield is 107. I think what I need to do is find out what level paladin is when 107 is the skill cap for shield, and go fight those mobs.

Also, I think i'm being stubborn because of dark age of camelot, where I played a Paladin with high shield and parry. In that game you had a set number of skill points, and you could chose where to put them. I maxed myself out in shield, nearly maxed out in parry, and a moderate or medium amount in sword skill. So in that game, I would block and parry constantly, several times in a row. In fact it was rare for me to get hit with a weapon. I guess when I moved to FFXI, I expected the same thing. But I could be right, capping shield and parry in FFXI could have the same effect, thats why I have to find out how to get it done.

[Gilthanos]

My evasion and parryingtweaksare almost always capped before I lvl. Shield is still working out some