Greater Shield Mastery

[Stravix]

Should this exist, and if so, what should it grant?

At the moment S&B is the only combat feat line w/o a "greater" fighting style feat. If you could design a GSM, would you? If so, what would you give, and would you adjust SM and ISM to give 2/4 MP instead of the current 3/6?

My thoughts:

Greater Shield Mastery

Usage: Passive
Prerequisite: Improved Shield Mastery, Base Attack Bonus +14

You are exceptionally skilled with the use of a shield, and your physical resistance is increased by 7 when using a buckler or small shield, 15 when using a large shield, or 25 when using a tower shield. Your doublestrike chance while using a shield is increased by 5% to 13%. Your Combat Style bonus to Melee Power is increased by +2 (changed the previous feats to +2/+4 MP) to +6.

Thoughts?

[Aelonwy]

Even if its the highest shield feat, it would be nice for Vanguards to get a shield feat that also greatly improves your offenses while using a shield. So maybe GSM could also give shields improved threat range/mult?

[droid327]

There's Legendary SM as a Destiny enhancement, which is arguably less opportunity cost than a feat

Also SM is not a complete standalone fighting style like the others, because its compatible with THF- so it doesnt necessarily need to adhere to the 3-feat pattern

Lastly, S&B needs help as a style, but I think that should come via making shields more useful to actually equip, not just by making them arbitrarily required for offensive bonuses. Outside of Guardbreaking, shields dont really add much to your playstyle...their defensive benefit is not in line with the tradeoffs required to use them.

If you took away the 1 sec ICD on shield bashes too, that'd go a long way to putting them at the right balance of DPS

[Stravix]

There's Legendary SM as a Destiny enhancement, which is arguably less opportunity cost than a feat

Also SM is not a complete standalone fighting style like the others, because its compatible with THF- so it doesnt necessarily need to adhere to the 3-feat pattern

Lastly, S&B needs help as a style, but I think that should come via making shields more useful to actually equip, not just by making them arbitrarily required for offensive bonuses. Outside of Guardbreaking, shields dont really add much to your playstyle...their defensive benefit is not in line with the tradeoffs required to use them.

If you took away the 1 sec ICD on shield bashes too, that'd go a long way to putting them at the right balance of DPS

True, that 1 sec ICD is one of the most annoying things as a S&B, but the fact that HaH can go both THF and shield kinda locks the entire archetype of S&B to THF, as there is no payoff to not. Maybe for a GSM, add the following?

"If you are not wielding a HaH weapon, your secondary shield bash cooldown is reduced by %50."

This would allow HaH S&B to still exist as a strikethrough version, but lets there be a reason to not.