Sunbreak | is Shield Tackle right for you? 

Best thing about shield tackle is using it into huge attacks to land extremely safe punish through them. Shield tackling into valstrax stabs and that kind of thing is amazing and I've had so many situations where I broke a valstrax wing when he stabbed it at me and it feels incredible.

YESSS. this is exactly the video I needed today, realizing I've been permanently fused to my Lance since sunbreak. Love both skills a lot, really excited to hear your view on these! Leaping thrust is easily one of my favorites moves in the entire series.

Really respect you putting so much effort into videos researching and explaining the whys and hows of speedrun-meta vs non-meta. It must be taking an awful lot of time, but it feels great to hear and see things in action rather than just being told and expected to trust what's given. Earnestly really thankful + I wish your kind of effort was the more popular type of video than bigger channels' clickbait titles and second-hand info parroting.

Guard dash fan here, tried shield tackle but didn't like the feeling and the lack of mobility. It feels so good when you learn to guard dash through monster attacks to keep harassing the same weak point, nothing can beat that ^^

I have two sets, one with Shield Tackle and Insta Guard so I can as you said reset to neutral and insta block to use the cross move while getting Spiral Thrust for dishing damage without countering; thene in the other scroll I have Guard Dash and the standard Guard to abuse combos with Leaping Trust on each opening keeping Anchor Rage there to buff the move, it is nice to see I was able to get a decent feel of the gameplay by myself, your videos help a lot

I just saw this to a japanese channel that's also a lance main. I saw your video about lance DPS discussing that guard dash has access to leaping thrust then wide sweep. Well on the jp channel I learned from her that you could technically still have access to leaping thrust then wide sweep. However the combo goes like this. After shield tackle > cancel thrust > power guard > then leaping thrust and wide sweep. The transition of this from cancel thrust is really fast, I mean it's really really fast. that's why after learning this move I never went back to guard dash anymore though if I just wanted to loop the leaping thrust I still have it on my switch skill swap. Oh btw pros of this shield tackle cancel to leaping thrust combo is that it's always guarded because technically you are cancelling from power guard. So you can reposition the leaping thrust also 360 deg. Because of this I never stop attacking anymore

I use both tbh. I'll switch to the scroll with Shield tackle if stamina use is getting to be real tight and dangerous, cause tackle doesn't use stamina. I'll also switch to it if I know I'm near stunning a monster and just want a moment to breath, so I'll prioritize stun damage. I try to be in the dash scroll when the monster is downed or if I need to be more evasive or move more, or if I'm in a good position and wanna prioritize damage. The big issues is just remembering if my facing direction will change or not, lol.

Man you are a lifesaver, so glad I subscribe to your channel, you are so helpful and informative. Can't wait for a video on status lance after the first update (too bad the new lance are kinda lackluster)

I really appreciate your in-depth, no nonsense explanations. I'm very new to Lance and I'm still trying to figure it out, and your videos are easy to understand and, most importantly, not in the least bit condescending. I enjoy guides that don't make me feel like a dumbass.

Causal here. I use shield tackle as an instant block similar to the Great Sword. I find it useful for monsters that are hyper aggressive/ leave you will little breathing room such as Lucent Narga, Golden Rath, Seregios (affected too) and powered up Zino.

awesome video! I used shield tackle for the first part of my MR playthrough and then saw your initial video on dps. now I can't stop leaving thrusting!

I started playing monster hunter in world and picked up the lance because of how funny I thought the charge was and then the more I played it realized how good it is. Only to then see how good it was in rise but eventually drop it at the beginning for the SnS. Once i decided it was time to pick up a new weapon again one of your videos came across my feed and made me think to use lance and now I love it even more than I did in world. Love your videos man.

I really like both and the different playability styles it provides.

For me guard dash is a core lance skill. I feel like it looses too much mobility without it, not to mention leaping thrust.

I love your videos! And lance feels even better now :) Btw can you share the build you used in this video?

I find that Shield Tackle is best used in scraps, slugfests and just chaotic match-ups in general. Tobi Kadachi is a perfect early game example of this. He won't stay still. His moves send him all over the place. He even has a two-hit attack that involves him hitting you from the front and then from behind. Shield Tackle is perfect for dealing with that. Sure you can Insta Block the first move, hop to cancel the recovery frames, turn your camera and character around and then Insta Block the second hit, but that just feels awkward and cumbersome. Shield Tackling is more convenient in that type of a messy situation. So as you mentioned in your video, it's really good against fanged beast type of monsters (that aren't Rajang and Furious Rajang). Otherwise, I mainly use Guard Dash.

Great video as always. A twin vines madman here. _And_ a shield tackle user. I don't doubt any info given in this channel for solo hunting, but in multiplayer I don't believe DPS (over the entire hunt) can be sustained when the monster is jumping all around the place targeting different hunters erratically. Twin vines tether means you're always right back at poking the monster, virtually non-stop, since it's a safe aerial shield bash (pressing ZR while homing). Shield bash is for pivoting to counteract the erratic monster movement, not for the stun. Anyway I'm probably very "wrong" seeing that I've never seen _any_ lancer play the tether game in multiplayer hunts, and I'm alright with my (scrub) ways.

Being you're a Lance player as well, I want to know if you've noticed the same or similar. I heavily used guard dash in base rise, it always felt good. I still use it as well as shield tackle but I've noticed being hit or getting carted when I know for sure I guarded attacks. I've only noticed this during anomaly quests. I always run Guard 5 and I know which attacks are considered "unblockable" for guard up but it seems that the anomaly monsters have a much higher capacity for dealing chip damage even with attacks that wouldn't be considered unblockable. So I'm trying to figure out if somethings were changed with guard itself, if these are specific to anomaly quests or if for some reason there's just some jank going on due to it being a new update. There have been several occasions where I've been hit by attacks I guarded, or hit by attacks or explosions that were no where near me or I take a bunch of chip damage that doesn't feel justified. I do run bloodlust on my build and I know that ticks away with some red health but even then. When blocking in the past the attacks didn't chip away your red health that I was aware of.

I remember reading a breakdown of a guy that measured all the MVs of each attack and compared them to the execution time on reddit. Essentially it came down to, if every attack landed on the exact same zone, B&B guard dash combo had 6% higher DPS than the B&B shield tackle combo. Everything else was pretty much laid out in this vid very clearly, namely that: -Guard dash combo has better lateral mobility, easier lockdown and more concentrated on a single point that is relatively static -Shield tackle combo has better centrifugal mobility around a single point being able to change direction very easily (both defensively and offensively significant), and access to more stun damage. Ultimately if that 6% difference doesn't phase you, go with whatever's more comfortable

Also twin vine seems pretty useful in sunbreak, you get more guard, lesser stamina consumption and increased monster aggro chance. All of which are things I want as lance. Maybe the only gripe I have is the long recovery animation.

For my part, having come back to lance for the first time since Iceborne(base Iceborne to be specific), I think of shield tackle as the training wheels. I'm still using it while I get used to the inputs and timing for Lance moveset, but I plan to switch over to guard dash when I've got those down better. I honestly might not make it far enough with the weapon to switch though since it's only a secondary I use to mix things up when I get tired of my mains.

Hey what set are you using for this video? I have a Lance set that consists of Risen Teostra and Flaming Espinas armor for attack boost(along with other skills but its mainly attack boost focused) but it doesnt feel like Im doing enough damage, but just enough to comfortably live and attack the monster at the same time.

Shield tackle --> instablock also has a small pocket of window where you are vulnerable between tackle end and instablock start up it seems, that doesn't seem to be there if you are running regular guard.

Have you experiment on guard dash, lunging thrust, poke, poke combo for elemental? It’s seem to have slightly higher dps(5%) than lunging thrust, slap

Thanks so much for the video! I do enjoy the feeling of shield tackle better, so I will continue to play it, but I also try to play my own playstyles optimally. Would love to get your thoughts on my two standard combos: Poke x3 -> shield tackle (repeat) Poke x2 -> charged slash -> shield tackle (repeat) I really hate the charged slash in rise and am constantly torn between my love for poking and my love for DPS. Would love your input on this and maybe a video on optimal use of shield tackle!

You can pry my twin vine from my cold dead hands!

I like shield tackle just because it’s quick repositioning combining with guarding at the same time. Basically I can attack non-stop at monster head 😅 I saw your chart on another video it doesn’t seem to have that low of dps. Also idk if it’s true or it’s in my head. I used focus 2 since I have extra 4 slot. I felt charging a slap is really quick. I think it made the second charge became the third charge. I assume that also increases dps.

I'm a big fan of shield tackle. Because of this move, lance is the only weapon that I always use now. I love evade extender lv3 too and it goes well with shield tackle. I try using guard dash many times but it's weird to use for me even though leaping thrust is good damaging.

I had been exclusively been using shield tackle throughout sunbreak because of how good the spam combo with it felt and just dismissed guard dash. I hadn’t realized how good the buff for leaping thrust was, so i changed some of my switch skills to have more diversity/flexibility in hunts instead of being identical aside from one attack skill.

I do have a question. We do talk about the bread and butter combos a lot. How is lance supposed to keep good dps uptime in a multiplayer hunt? I'm saying better redults in solo play than in multiplayer hunts as I'm using insta block quite a lot

your damage is so much higher than mine on lance, holy moly

I appreciate making use of Shield Tackle for turning around and not consuming stamina, and I find it funny to use for forcing stuns quickly, but I see why Guard Dash is still important for Lance. I've run both in my Lance before, and with Furious Rajang's armor skill, I can run Shield Tackle on my Red Scroll for use while I tank, stun and build Fury, and then switch to the Blue Scroll once that Fury's built up to use Guard Dash to dish out damage with infinite stamina.

I definitely find shield tackle more useful in multiplayer, specifically because the monster's erratic movement leads to needing to change what direction you're guarding way more often

Regarding the usefulness of knockdowns as a lance, gives me time to sharpen for protective polish or activate felvine when it recharges. In multiplayer, im the second out of my friends to invest into melee weapons; I usually knock down the monster then I leave my friends to do dps.

I'm a bit late to the party, but as a shield tackle user, the biggest thing to learn imo is how to use shield charge to approach the monster when it gets far away. Yes it consumes quite a bit of stamina, but it is vital for being able to keep up with a monster. It works on multiplayer too

I like to use both for each Switch Skill. Dereliction, especially on Lv3, makes elemental attacks stronger with the Red Scroll, and the Blue Scroll favours stun damage.

yo gobul, can you do a foray statustrigger build ? might be fun and actually usable

Great video.

So the blue flash is just a temporary guard raise? I read somewhere that someone timed their shield tackle perfectly and got a cross slash follow up, but they must have meant insta block, because I have been using shield tackle a long time and have never managed that. I don't think timing it well does anything unique, honestly

One idea for the next video. How about a look into different ways of playing the lance? The new Raths give us some nice status options in Foray, Chain Crit and Status Trigger, perhaps the return of evade lancing? Or maybe the skill works with instablock (I doubt it)? Either way, I always loved the poison, para lances in World, maybe they can make a comeback? With your knowledge I am sure you can figure it out, or just tell me I am way off and just keep the meta as usual

Shield tackle feels just right for me. I couldn't get the hang of the other one, but after watching this I'll give it another try.

Does status trigger/adrenaline rush help make evade lance closer to meta dps?

I never could guard dash through moves and ended up using it for movement and attacking but ooo when i got shield tackle mmmf just so responsive and you get a whole second of basically invulnerability that you can chain rapidly or go into a thrust, and i think he undervalues the fact that the entire shield tackle move except just a brief moment at end is blocking whers guard dash only the moment at the start is blocking (he clearly wrote 3/8ths of the attack is the block)

I like both alot, but use Guard Dash more cause i like the mobility. Plus I think its move fun to use. Shield Tackle is great too and I like to use it for a change of pace.

just wondering what outfit is that. I really like it

Twin Vine might unironically be worth running with that Lucent skill Sneak Attack, in order to maintain a position behind the monster. It would definitely be worth testing to say the least

btw a simple answer to the lack of mobility of shield tackle should be to use charge attack instead of shield charge as you pointed. i am a big fan of charge attack, its double finisher is also pretty strong.

What’s is the difference in sharpness consumption? I assume shield tackle is better for low sharpness lances? I like positioning of guard dash but shield tackle is also nice for hitting armour like metal rath heads. I carry each on blue and red scroll, they both feel pretty good. Thanks for the info!

I guard dash ALOT. i use it to reposition after a combo so its pretty much part of my bread and butter. With guard dash im able to stick on to the enemy due to the mobility.

Gonna need some more meta sets going into this new armor system in the update lol

I use both, Guard Dash feels more offensive. Shield Tackle feels more defensive, least to me.

Shield tackle all the time. It allows super aggressive lance play with better control of direction and counter block timing, also keeps offensive guard up much more reliably. I love it. I am not nearly so find of guard dash. To me it feels very clunky.

Another thing to consider is that you can go right from a shield tackle -> counter guard-> power guard, which is a really safe option if you don’t feel like you can land an insta-block. It effectively makes shield tackle as safe as guard dash once you get used to it.

I'm not saying I think this is likely to happen, but if Capcom sees fit to give leaping thrust to shield tackle, do you think that would alter things significantly? Unrelated, but I'm also curious what the benefit of running the vanilla lance charge is. Most lance users I see solely use the guard charge.

Spamming leaping thrust is so freaking fun.

I would like to see a further discussion about elemental builds now with the new skill from silver rathalos, is it worth it?

I prefer shield tackle a lot of the time (at least right now) for 2 reasons: 1. I find it way more fun than guard dash because I've played a lot of lance and I get bored of the guard dash being so easy. Although backing up while blocking is super nice. 2. You get to instant guard/cross slash more because you can do it at the end of the shield tackle or at the end of the wide sweep instead of just at the end of wide sweep. I have no idea if that translates to more damage though. I havent done any analysis about getting more instant guards or dps calculations or anything.

What mixed set is that?

Shield tackle is agyle and allows to walk though almost everything while moving arround a monster that wont stop attacking

I love them both so dog bless switch skill sets. While guard dash is pretty much objectively the better dps option I really like shield tackle because of its quickness and snappiness, to me it feels like there's a lot more control over what I'm doing since I can change out of it very quickly, even if guard dash actually has more maneuverability. I'm not speedrunning, I'm playing for comfy, typically I start off the fight on shield tackle and go unga bunga on the head until I get a KO and a break or three then I switch over to my guard dash set and turn on the jets for the rest of the fight with the benefit of fat heals from Blood rite and the better dps options of guard dash. Almost counterintuitively I also really like shield tackle because it preserves a bit more of the classic lance style, making the good old 3 poke combo a little bit better in 2022 to keep up with all the flashy new moves. If leaping thrust and the wide sweep weren't there then the lance would be pretty terrible compared to other weapons but shield tackle helps to bridge the gap by giving more dps to the 3 poke combo and the KO potential. For us who want to poke 3 times then reset it's a great way to make that play style just a bit better. I think both moves are fantastic and I use them both almost equally during every hunt.

I just tried lance on the other day and its one of the best weapon in game. I haven't able to clear primordial Malzeno with other weapon but with lance its just too easy

I personally just have them on swap scrolls and play differently depending on my mood

Once I figured out to do a leaping guard when the monster’s about to attack, Lance ended up being my most consistently damaging weapon in the whole game. I’m getting knockdowns just by attacking when I never did my entire time playing the game (in both base Rise and Sunbreak), and it’s taking me *much* less time to complete a quest. All because I learned the biggest advantage of Leaping Guard. I don’t see nearly as much success with Shield Tackle

damn didn't know there is a cohoot nest in elgado lmao

shield tackle works best against smaller monsters that flail a lot and have less telegraph on their attacks, also typicall easier to hit them in the face, guard dash is more consistent against larger monsters, and typically the better option for downed monsters.

A good breakdown of the two skills. There was definitely a lot of confusion at the beginning of Sunbreak about whether shield tackle or guard dash was better. The meta guide you have mentioned in a past video should be updated soon (just getting it proof read) to remove any misinformation mentioned there as well.

Thank you so much for the video and your insight. Since I am a madman I do use Twin Vine but mostly due to mp, in mp hunts the combo of twin vines and shield tackle is extremely valuable for repositioning but I would say only in that situation since sadly Diversion is useless and even the combo of Diversion and Twin Vines is useless to have the monster on you at all times like the tank I wish I could be

So you're saying sheathing retreat is just straight up better than twin vine?

I really want Capcom to buff counter thrust next. Counter should be big damage number.

I prefer shield tackle. Doing triple poke and reseting with shield tackle does soooo much damage. I have guard dash on one scroll and shield tackle on another so im technically never locked out of either.

I use shield tackle to cancel the O parry into thrust animation

I've found I use Shield Tackle against monsters I'm not confident against or the Furious Rajang. Guard Rush just feels much better in my opinion.

The thing with Shield Tackle, is that you can joust with a Barroth.

I actually thought the initial consensus was Shield Tackle being the savior of Lance, so the intro surprised me. I personally don't like Shield Tackle in multiplayer. I really feel the shorter distance covered when the monster turns to someone else.

I dont understand why so many people said the same thing that shield in MHR:S is now useless. Shield in MHR:S are no longer able to block everything?

5:51 PARKOUR!

Casually, I 've been trying to keep in mind that skill swaps exist being new to lance this go round. Anecdotal on my end but I use shield tackle to power through and keep attacking. In single I feel like the distance is kind of null due to you being the main target (pals can get aggro but I run diversion thanks to the new augmentations). But when the monster trips up, falls, or i get time to drop down a trap, I skill swap to guard dash and begin the poke barrage. I honestly couldnt tell you if this is madlad damage or just bare bones but I can happily take down most anomalies down within 10ish mins. This does change with 1 monster and thats Lunagaron lol I feel like twinvine is needed on that fool in unarmored phase because he gets the zoomies. But appreciate the vid and information!

Is evade lancing viable after lucent narga made a return?

I'm seeing some pretty crazy bias towards guard dash despite the fact that it was so hated in base rise I like KO Lance I understand that's very niche but shield bash is also very nice to have for that

What do you think about the Nargacuga lance? I've been using it as my go-to against dragon resistant enemies in place of Valstrax lance, I am using Mastery 3 & Handicraft 2 through augments/decos.

So in a way is this good line of skills Insta guard Shield charge Guard dash Sky/spiral Twin vine

As a hammer main I'm very familiar with scripting stuns and the way you do it with lance seems very interesting. I would assume that going out of your way to KO with lance would be bad because it locks you out of Offensive Guard and Cross Slash so knowing how to avoid it sounds quite handy. Looks fun!

Lance in this game feels much worse for me than in World and I really missed that feeling of unrelenting assault until I tried Shield Tackle. Sadly it really drops off in the endgame, especially in MP 😢

I think a breakdown of KO potential would be Interesting. Speaking from my experience, in Rise averaged 2 KOs per hunt, sometimes 3 when I ran Slugger 2 in addition to my blunt weapon dogs and dango slugger. In Sunbreak, I have been getting a consistent 3 KOs, sometimes 4 with just dango level 3/4 with blunt dogs

8:15 a leaping what???

9:20. "Unfortunately it's not quite as powerful in Sunbreak as it used to be because we have access to Sheathing Retreat." Well, that, and the fact that default hop distances for Lance (and any weapon with hopping in general) has been gutted compared to World and Iceborne.

I see some guard dash fans here which I get. However, if you are on PC and use M + KB shield tackle is so smooth. You can reposition your direction of attack really easily and is satisfying. With Twin Vine and Shield Bash you become ultra aggressive and assaulting the monster relentlessly. Additionally - if you run Protective Polish you are not punished for using leaping thrust. I have done my own DPS testing - not using a spreadsheet or a stationary dummy and average about 4-5 dps higher.

Twin Vine is quite useful, especially if you don't have Evade Extender fit into your build. Just the mobility alone allows you to stick to the monster, along with the surprisingly strong guard during the leap that can sometimes be a life saver at times. Note I said "useful", not "powerful as (x)"

I swapped from a very defensive (def 7, guard 5 guard up 3) gameplay with shield tackle/skyward thrust to a comfy but more aggressive set with guard dash/anchor rage. My hunts were taking 20mn+ in MR4-5. It's a lot more fun but man is the switch difficult. I cart A LOT.

At this point, so much of my lance play is based around using guard dash to strafe backwards that it just feels wrong to not have access to that. Plus nothing will beat guard dashing forwards through a attack and just barely clipping the monster at max range with leaping thrust.

I never get to heal when i used shield charge n shield tackle more combo instead of keep healy u can also cancel anomaly blast knocked back

After using both a fair amount, i still favor guard dash over shield tackle for two reasons: 1. the obvious mobility and damage of leaping thrust, but also 2. shield tackle feels incredibly unsafe in comparison. The fact that it's such a quick move that immediately drops all guard frames and resets to neutral got me hit an insane amount in comparison to the coziness of guard dash's excessive block frames, however shield tackle also felt like an endless onslaught with its ability to turn any direction instantly and continue your normal combos with no break in-between. I've since gone back to guard dash and am enjoying the charged wide sweep -> leaping thrust combo and my near-constant block frames way more

More important question, is there a good ice lance?

The only better things in shield tackle is the higher stun rate and the redirectional ability. You lose everything else... in a vacuum. With enough creativity and experience, you can use it for extra fast microadjustments and extra pokes in the middle of awkward positions while exploiting monster moveset recovery/positioning. I have seen this with "jyo" a japanese lance runner in his latest Malzeno Heroics run. For most runs, I would still recommend Guard dash though... Unless someone as bold as Razard tried practicing unpopular skills to a point that they discovered unique mechanical usages for it.

"the madman who wants to use twinvine" 🙋‍♀️

TO BE HONEST. I run shield tackle for Raw and I run Guard Dash for Evade (Evade skills this patch are AMAZING) / Elemental / Chain Crit Shenanigan's.

u sacrifice a lot of potential dps and mobility for shield tackle

if you use shield tackle you lose a lot of damage. i like it for repositioning and aggressivness but that's it. guard dash + lunging thrust is just better.

I think the pivot (and "low" mobility, as in it has a negligible effect on your absolute position but a completely-controllable effect on your heading, which combined with the RARE backhop or long backhop is enough to effectively always be in position to land attacks against almost every monster) is the single most important thing about shield tackle. Way too many monsters spend the entire hunt jumping behind you unless you have perfect RNG or lockdown, and woe unto him him who uses dogs or cats (or, god forbid, plays online, lol). Any other "advantage" is just icing, though the sharpness shred from leaping thrust (leaping thrust being, of course, the main reason to use guard dash in the first place) is a big negative particularly against any monster with a significant non-dragon elemental weakness (which is over half of the roster), despite reaping higher net gains from element. Also just by switching to CWS-tackle, you double the amount of stun over the course of a hunt. In my experience doing this results in about 2-3 KOs per hunt without ever specifically aiming for KOs. I use that as my bread-and-butter, and then during KOs I use CWS-T2-CWS-tackle (which according to a previous video of yours is the best shield tackle combo and only marginally better than CWS-tackle, albeit for the Champion Lance at green sharpness, an unusual use-case; nevertheless, outside of _factoring in element_ when dragon has a negligible effect on most monsters, I don't see how the relative value changes for a R10 raw Lance, or any lance ignoring elemental value, while considering elemental value you must consider non-Valstrax lances that do not have the luxury of sharpening only in between areas if they use leaping thrust). Basically as an aside, I also do not use silkbind moves whatsoever (I VERY STRONGLY feel they should not be in the game to begin with, and probably shouldn't have been permitted in TA similar to the treatment of mantles in World or traps and bombs across the entire series; the nature of styles and arts in Generations made their use in TA practically non-negotiable, but silkbind is easier to ignore as they are not actually woven into the core mechanics of the game whatsoever and just sort of sit on top again much like the mantles in World; unfortunately the same cannot be said for the use of wirebugs in general, as most monsters's movesets are specifically designed around wirefall and maps and movement mechancis are designed with the assumption that you will use wirebugs for mobility), so I do almost unequivocally benefit from all manners of lockdown (though I can potentially lose OG's bonus during this time, it's uncommon unless multiple methods of lockdown are chained, as shield tackle (like leaping thrust spam) pretty much constantly refreshes OG on autopilot and most KOs occur _while_ proccing OG, which notably does not typically happen with shield charge, which is the primary reason I do not use shield charge despite shield tackle itself making the advantages of dash attack (with regards to positioning) practically irrelevant); Nor do I use -adept style- instant block, which I feel is not at all in the spirit of either classic Lance's design nor the "shield and club" weapon it has become in Rise, and bringing it back felt like an awkward and clumsy decision because they couldn't think of anything else to give the weapon for a switch skill in base Rise. Naturally since I play in a highly-unusual way what applies to me does not apply to the majority of players, but I know I'm not the only person in existence who feels intense antipathy toward the silkbind mechanic, and I'm sure at least one other uses the Lance, and for someone who plays this way missing out on counter-based effects during monster knockdowns or paralysis is much less of a concern without having Anchor Rage or Instant Block in the first place.

Nah, Shield Tackle is very limiting. Guard Dash creates a lot of DPS and repositioning leading to DPS.