I think I figured out what Guard does...

[Ungerpurr]

Now, we all know (or should all know) that the damage formula is:

Base Damage + Weapon Damage * Rate

Base Damage being determined by Attacker's STR - Defender's VIT, and a small formula involving Weapon Damage, and Rate being determined by Attacker's ATK / Defender's DEF, with a random factor thrown in.

I postulate that what Guard does, when it goes off, is remove the Weapon Damage * Rate portion of the formula, making the attack that is Guarded do only Base Damage. It's hard to test, but this should also mean a critical hit that is Guarded do the same damage as a regular hit that is Guarded.

Thoughts?

[Taoist]

:confused:

i just thought it was whatever the mob hits your for cut in half..
so a sand cockatrice hits me for 100
when i guard it hits me for 50~55

[Mithrael]

According to the person who published all of those formulas, Guard is like an anti-critical.

http://www.moonlight.gr.jp/~el/ffxi/ab_calc.html.en

* Your rate is some number between 0 and 2.
* A critical adds 1 to the rate, making your rate from 1 to 3.
* A guard makes your rate from 0 (it can't be negative) to 1, or 0 to 2 if you guard on a critical.

So basically it'll look a lot like what you say. Since you're striving to havbe a rate of 1 when you're getting hit (Your defense is about equal to the enemy's attack), it'll make the end rate ~0.

As far as I've seen, guarded criticals do about average damage, as opposed to the same damage as a regular guarded attack. I can't honestly say that I've recorded 100+ examples to really test it though.