Abbreviation: PRT

One of the original classes from the first game, Protector was originally capable of trivializing the game with Defender. In later games, them and their equivalents (Hoplite in 3 and Dragoon in 5) were no longer so overpowering, but they have consistently been incredibly powerful. In a few of the games, however, they've been nearly outright necessary to some fights, leaving a bad taste in some people's mouths.

Protector in Nexus is much of the same, and yet somehow completely different. They've still got their physical protection and elemental nullification, and it's still just as potent as ever (though not by any stretch required), but now they have offensive abilities through a powerful shield counter, and can do some redirection tanking, almost like Fortress in EO4. They're even capable of healing and defending at the same time! If you would like to not die, try a Protector. You won't be disappointed.


Stats

(Full)

Best in the Game: VIT
Strong Points: HP, TP, WIS
Average Points: STR, LUC
Very Weak Points: INT, AGI

Equippable Weapons: Sword, Spear
Equippable Armor: Heavy Armor, Shield

Common Passives:


Skills: Force

Boost: Shield Protect
For 3 turns, increases the effectiveness of shield skills by 1.5x.
Shield Protect was extraneous in EO2U, and it's still extraneous here. Protector skills already reduce damage enough, the amount of instances where you'd really want Shield Protect are really small. Plus, letting Shield Protect get its full 3 turns means you won't have access to...
At the start of the game, when you don't have the SP or TP to field maxed out guards yet, Shield Protect is pretty handy for making them suck less, especially in randoms. You won't really need it for the guard skills later in the game, but if you decide to invest in Line Shield, it becomes really powerful once again that lets your Protector becomes significantly better at covering hits with it, and is competitive with Painless as a pure panic situation now (mostly depending on how healthy your Protector is at the moment).
For three turns, anyone covered by your Guard skills will be utterly tickled by attacks. Seriously, Full Guard is hilarious with this Force Boost. Three turns of anemic damage from the enemy if yuo predict correctly is incredibly valuable. For the record, the way it works is it takes the post-reduction damage, and then halves it. This means it has a huge effect on low-level guards. And if you're curious, anything below 45% reduction benefits more from this method than increasing the base reduction by 1.5x, and anything above it benefits less.

Break: Painless
Nullifies all damaging attacks to the party for one turn.
Painless, on the other hand, is just as useful as it was in EO2U (where it was called Perfect Defense). Giving yourself a turn of complete immunity to all damage is so incredibly good, that I don't need to explain how good it is, it should be obvious how useful that is just on its face.

Painless's only real downside is that it does nothing to skills that do not inflict damage, meaning you aren't safe from skills that only, say, inflict a disable or debuff.
Painless's use as an anti-nuke option took a hit, since Nexus bosses hit nowhere near as hard as 2U bosses, and Line Shield (and Scapegoat) now exists that is a perfectly good option for letting your squisher characters take no damage. It is still handy as a panic button, but Shield Protect Line Shield is now very good for such situations too, so this mostly becomes something to use when your Protector is also badly hurt and can't really cover damage at the moment. However, two turns of Shield Protect plus Painless is as strong as ever at "damage containment" that allows hyper offense teams to do their thing without distraction.
Meanwhile, I'm not so big on this one. It lasts one turn, you can only do it once per battle, and it stops you from using Force skills for the rest of the battle, which is a real concern if you're not min-maxing. It's handy in a pinch, but I'd rather use Shield Protect + Full Guard/Line Shield. Not to mention, things you want to nullify are typically elemental, and you have the Walls.

Skills: Novice

Front Guard


Reduces physical damage to the front row for one turn.

If, during the turn, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, Front Guard's effect will end.
Hello, Front Guard, my old friend. Ever-present, ever-useful, Front Guard is a good generic space-filler skill that massively increases your front row's physical defense for a turn. Take it, and max it out as soon as your Protecctor has the TP to support it.
This is likely Protector's bread-and-butter move for a fairly long amount of time. Enemy attacks are more often than not physical attacks, and they will more often than not target your frontline with them. At the very start of the game, Taunt + defend is better since enemies don't do row-target attacks very often yet and Front Guard won't have enough SP invested to be that effective, but once you can afford to max it out, you'll be spamming this most of the time. Once your Protector reaches level 40, they wlil be able to learn a couple more skills that are competitive with this, but Front Guard will always be handy for its decent protection at a relatively cheap cost (both TP and SP wise).
This should've been Line Guard. Whatever--the back row takes 50% less damage from melee attacks, which physical attacks often are, so they won't need as much protection. This is what you want to focus on, physically.

Rear Guard


Reduces physical damage to the back row for one turn.

If, during the turn, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, Rear Guard's effect will end.
Mm. So, Rear Guard's always been the lesser of the physical Guards, mostly because the back row already gets an inherent reduction against almost all sources of physical damage. To EON's credit, it buffs Rear Guard by making it cost only 4 SP to max out, and makes it maxed-out effect more potent than Front Guard. I'm still not convinced it's that useful, but it's far less of a hard sell than it was in the past.
You can make a lot of charge shot gunners and cover them with this skill, but that involves a pretty gimmicky party. It's occasionally useful from time to time due to a couple of early game enemies who punches your backline fairly predictably, but the advanced guards and Line Shield can largely pull off these duties while being a lot more useful in general situations. However, as a subclass skill it's a lot more useful; other classes may not have the bulk to comfortably tank, and half level Front Guard sometimes won't save a hurt character, but putting them to the backline and Rear Guarding them can.

Ally Shield


Targets one party member. All damage directed at that party member will instead be dealt to the user for one turn. Redirected damage is reduced.

If, during the turn, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, Ally Shield's effect will end.
You might look at Ally Shield and wonder why you'd want it when the Guard skills offer damage reduction for a bunch of people. In previous games, that might've been true! Except in EO3, where its equivalent was very useful for making sure Berserker Vow users didn't get pasted by enemies if the BV user happened to go before enemies.

See any parallels to EON?

Okay, it's not the same, but Ally Shield is very good for making sure anyone using the Gunner Charged skills, or Imperial Drive skills, don't get pasted by incidental damage. Its uses are somewhat limited otherwise, but given that Charged shots and Drives deal lots of damage, making sure the users don't die before they get to use them is really, really good.
It's nice for covering Imperials, Gunners, and any attackers who like Great Warrior's attack buff but doesn't like their draw rate increase. You could also combine it with a survivalist using Chain Dance or something, though using two characters to defend against single-target attacks is overkill (could be handy for random target attacks, I guess). Honestly it's pretty niche, and while you'll be glad to have to have it sometimes, just a couple of points is enough for this skill to do its job.

Fortify


Increases the user's defense for a set amount of turns.
Good for if you rely on the redirection skills or Taunt a lot, very mediocre otherwise.
Doesn't really come to its own until you get Line Shield at max. Once you do, however, it can be really important to allow your Protector to tank hits better. Finding the time to cast it is always going to be a problem, though.

Shield Smite


Deals melee STR-based bash damage to one enemy. Uses triple the user's equipped shield's DEF value as a replacement for ATK. Attempts to bind the target's arms.
Shield Smite is a much, much, MUCH better investment than in previous games, because a Protector not using their damage-reducing skills isn't a guarantee that someone is going to die this time around. Don't expect BIG DAMAGE, but it's better than your Protector using the Attack command on empty turns.
It has a pretty large multiplier now, but Protector still makes far more impact using their defensive skills than their offensive ones. If you don't want to use Line Shield, and your frontline has a slot for Protector, you can do some decent damage with it. If you do plan to use Line Shield eventually, there is a much better way to do damage on free turns down the line.
Shields generally get good DEF stats for attacking, but this should be considered to be FREE TURNS ONLY. Protector's not the right class to build a shield attacker around, unless you want to use Shield Flare.

Taunt


Increases the user's defense and chance of being targeted for a set amount of turns.
Generally a more TP-efficient way of tanking in random encounters, and in fights with random-target multi-hit skills. I'd say it's worth maxing out. Too bad Protector doesn't have access to Fortress's class skill.
At the very start of the game, Taunting hits and then spamming defend is a lot better than using low level guards, which don't reduce damage by that much yet, but this tactics eventually fall off. There are still some occasional use for Taunt throughout the game (such as drawing random target skills, or single-target status skills that you can immunize against with an accessory), but even a couple of points in the skill is enough to pull hits reliably as long as your Protector is in the front.

Preemptive Taunt


If the user knows Taunt, gives them a chance to use it at the start of battle.

If another party member activated Preemptive Taunt, the user will be unable to activate it.
A nice convenience, but by no means something you need to grab.
A lot of use for Taunt is in random battles, and this can let it start putting in work straight away instead of having to wait a turn. Protector surprisingly have a lot of SP to spare, and this is probably a lot better of an investment than Taunt itself is.

Healing Wall


When the user uses the Defend command, all party members in their row recover HP.
Pass.
Theoretically handy for Taunt + defend strategy, but realistically it falls off way before you have enough SP to pump this skill. Putting in one point can be occasionally handy, though.
If you're doing Scapegoat + Defend, this could be handy. You could combine this with the Gunner's Cover Support to heal both rows at once, but let me know how that turns out 'cause it doesn't sound all that great.

Skills: Veteran

Recovery Guard


Targets one row of party members. Removes binds from that row at the start of the turn, and reduces physical damage to that row for one turn.

If, during the turn, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, Recovery Guard's effect will end.
Oh, hey, Recovery Guard got buffed compared to EO5. Sure, it costs a lot of TP now, but its effect is much more comparable to Front Guard, making it actually something you'd consider using. It's worth one point, at least, for the bind removal aspect.
Mostly useful for the bind removal, while the guard is just a nice bonus. It has priority and removes all three binds starting from level 1, and so is even better at dealing with them than Medic is. It's not really worth maxing out, though, since you don't really need to remove binds that often.
Maxed out, it's only slightly less reduction than Front Guard. I'd max it as soon as your Protector has enough TP to handle it. Yes, even if you have a Medic or bind prevention. It does wonders for relieving pressure off your team.

Aegis


Gives the user a chance to survive an attack that would've killed them, leaving them at 1 HP. Can only activate once per battle.
Having only a 30% chance to endure a lethal attack once per battle is not worth 10 SP, in my opinion.
Could potentially save your Protector in the Line Shield duty, but the effect is hardly profound, so just take it later.
If you're running a shield attacker Landsknecht who's using Vanguard (they should be, it's a good idea), Aegis can save them from nasty full power hits due to the defense decrease.

Shield Bash


Deals melee STR-based bash damage to all enemies. Uses triple the user's equipped shield's DEF value as a replacement for ATK. Reduces hit targets' physical attack for a set amount of turns.
It's Shield Smite, but it trades the arm bind for an attack debuff, and it hits every enemy. Yay. For how I use EON Protectors, I consider it worth investing, but I'd understand why someone would be hesitant to invest 10 SP in it.
There is one boss where having a multi-target attack is really handy... but the game gives you a free Protector with that skill learned for that purpose. For its use as crowd control, keep in mind that, the more enemies there are, the busier your Protector will be at actually defending your party. Having one point in it can be a nice investment for negating attack buffs, at least, and being multi-target means that it can nicely counter the few mobs that like to buff up their entire party's offense.
As a subclass, this is decent for multi-target coverage for any shield attacker, since this is the only shield attack in the game that targets more than one enemy. I recommend it for shield Landsknecht.

Keep Guard


Reduces all damage to one party member until the end of the next turn. The user cannot use Guard skills on the next turn.

If, during the duration of Keep Guard's effect, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, Keep Guard's effect will end.
Nnnnnngh. Keep Guard makes me nervous. On the one hand, it's reasonably turn economy-efficient if you only need to reduce damage for one party member, since they get two turns of damage reduction for only one turn of your Protector's time. On the other hand, the whole "disables Guard skills for one turn" thing makes me extremely nervous, even in a game like EON where enemies don't have extremely bursty damage.

At max rank, it does basically negate the extra damage penalties of Charged shots and Drives, so that's one way of looking at it, I suppose. You could drop it on the Gunner or Imperial before the Charged/Drive turn, and then have your Protector contribute some extra damage with Shield Smite on the actual burst turn. But, again, the fact that you trade the ability to use other shield skills makes me nervous...
For covering a single vulnerable attacker, Ally Guard tends to do a much better job because it's a lot more flexible. Keep Guard's real use is to support Line Shield and Scapegoat, which means it's useful when you either have two Protectors, or a Protector and at least one Survivalist - the former like it's really bad party restriction, until you realize that it also includes having another sub Protector, or a clone out. This is really a skill that only shines based on your party layout; in random parties it sucks a lot and will never really find a good time to be useful, but in the right parties it can render your frontline immune to damage and your Protector next to immortal.
Even at its best case scenario, this skill is disappointing and other things are better.

Fire Wall / Ice Wall / Volt Wall


Reduces one instance of fire (Fire Wall), ice (Ice Wall), or volt (Volt Wall) damage to each party member for one turn. High levels restore the targeted party member's HP, for an amount based on the damage they would've received.

If, during the turn, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, the Wall's effect will end.
The infamous Walls return. On the plus side, they're no longer literal necessities for fighting certain postgame bosses, and instead are mostly just very beneficial for blocking nasty extra effects on certain elemental skills--debuffs, disables, etc. Definitely worth getting each to level 4, at the very least.
Big elemental nukes are still plenty in this game, and while most of them don't tend to be matchenders if you don't negate them, being able to turn them into free turns is still pretty strong. You'll definitely want to get these to a good level. Even though you can't get it to negation as a subclass skill, blocking 80% damage is in general as good as negating them, and these skills are much more TP economical than Zodiac's Prophecies (which take 19 SP on prerequisites to get), so it's still very useful even at half level.

Skills: Master

Heal Guard


Targets one row of party members. Restores that row's HP at the start of the turn, and reduces physical damage to that row for one turn.

If, during the turn, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, Heal Guard's effect will end.
Protector's high WIS means the heal from Heal Guard is actually pretty meaty. Also, remember: since Guard skills happen at the start of the turn, the heal happens before enemies can act, giving it utility beyond just being another Guard skill.

It's expensive, so it's not really spammable, but if you don't have any dedicated healers, it's worth investing in, I feel.
Unlike Recovery Guard, which only comes in handy very occasionally, priority heal and damage reduction is a very neat package that will become useful a lot. Despite being very expensive, it's definitely a skill you will be using fairly often (assuming you aren't using Line Shield mainly), and one you want to invest in.
I love this skill. Again: Max it out as soon as you have the TP. Your Protector can totally be the main healer of the party.

Line Shield


Targets one row of party members. All damage directed at that any party member in that row will instead be dealt to the user for one turn. Redirected damage is reduced.

If, during the turn, the user is inflicted with panic, sleep, or their arms are bound, Line Shield's effect will end.
Iiiiit's Ally Shield, but it targets more party members. If you have multiple party members you need to ensure do not take any damage for one turn, this is great! I can't think of many situations where you'd want that, but the option is there!
The line target makes all the difference in the world. While Protector isn't as great as covering damage as Fortress was in EO4, they are still meaty enough to easily tank for most of your team for a turn or two, and sometimes boss attacks can be random enough that predicting the right guard is difficult. Line Shield lets you just basically go "screw it" and protect against everything, letting up to three allies to just do whatever they want with no risk of distraction. More defensive parties probably won't need this utility very often, but it's still pretty handy sometimes when your attackers are heavily injured, or if the boss involves some kind of ailment/disable that would really hinder your attacker but won't hinder your Protector that much (or has an accessory to immunize against). Also, hyper offense team that employs a Protector to let the attackers output damage undistracted is a strong tactic, and this is the skill of choice to be used on that front. Regardless of how you use your Protector, this is always going to be a useful option to some degree, and you should definitely at least get this skill, if not heavily invest in it (and its synergy passives).

En Garde


Gives the user a chance to halve any damage they receive.
Now this is much better than Aegis. 40% chance to halve any damage is a massive boost to your Protector's personal survivability, and obviously works best with Ally Shield and Line Shield. If you're making use of either of those, grab this shit yesterday.
The damage reduction it gets is really sizable, and this passive is really important for Line Shield. Even if you aren't using Line Shield often, just saying no to damage is always handy to have, and you will still want this at some point.
Handy, again, for a shield Landsknecht to be using to cover for Vanguard's downside. It takes a lot of skill points to get to it, but shield Landsknecht has a lot of skill points to throw around.

Shield Flare


Until the end of the next turn, when the user takes damage, they will counter the source of the damage with a ranged STR-based fire attack. Uses triple the user's equipped shield's DEF value as a replacement for ATK.

The user will be unable to counter if they become inflicted with sleep, or if their arms become bound. If the user is inflicted with panic, counterattacks will still happen, but will be normal attacks instead.
You know how I said not to expect BIG DAMAGE from Protectors? That does not apply to Shield Flare. This shit lasts until the end of the next turn is the main thing to keep in mind. You can combine it with Line Shield or Taunt or whatever you can think of to get an amount of activations best expressed as A Lot. A worthy investment for any Protector.
I'm sure a lot of people have seen Acea's video on a Landsknecht/Protector taking down a superboss in one turn with this skill (well, one turn plus a couple of turns of pre-buffing). However, in a general context this skill is really difficult to use. Alternating between it and Line Shield means half of the time you're not covering the party (and not really doing damage either), so you'll definitely need a Survivalist/Ninja to give your Protector Scapegoat, and then you have to be able to survive taking damage constantly (thankfully, Keep Guard only disables defensive shield skills, meaning you can just alternate between Shield Flare and Keep Guard), not getting disabled in the process (which is a literal Pain given that you'll probably want to use Pain Shield with it), and the rest of your team will have to balance between supporting this skill (either by helping your Protector do damage or survive), and having a backup a plan of some sorts because this skill does pure fire damage and is worthless against any boss or FOE immune to fire... yeah, it definitely doesn't make itself easy to build around.

Now, if you aren't trying to make some sort of Shield Flare party, it can still serve as a nice way to use free turns for Protectors using Line Shield often, but doesn't need to do so for a particular turn. It does ranged damage and so is at full power from the back, and even just three hits is 1200% damage, which even with a weaker shield is nothing to scoff at. That said, keeping the rest of your party alive is still often more important, and it competes with Fortify for free turns depending on the firepower of the enemy in question.

Full Guard


Reduces all damage to all party members for one turn. Has a cooldown.
Here's the big one. Full Guard fits all situations, it reduces damage by just a bit more than half, its cooldown is pretty short at max rank, it has everything (except for Sentinel Guard's proliferation of defensive modifiers but let's just ignore that). Every party has good reason to grab Full Guard, I feel.
Not many bosses actually use physical and elemental attacks randomly, much less threatening physical and elemental attacks randomly, but this skill is pretty handy to have for large groups of varied random encounters, which later in the game can pile on a lot of physical and elemental damage on your party if you can't disable or kill them fast, which means this skill is excellent for buying your team a turn against them.
Full Guard + Shield Protect is, again, hilarious.

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