Slam 5 sec for light tanks

ExcretusMaximus wrote: Let's stop pretending you're giving up anything for that shield spec.

52 composite weapon is achievable at RR3 with 42 in shield, and you're rarely using baseline styles over DW/CD.

True on the 52 composite weapon thing, but I got to disagree with the latter statement. I'll point out a few things that - at least in theory - are not possible because of high shield spec:
1. You are giving up on split specs which provide you with more options regarding weapon choice and adjusting dmg type to different targets.
2. You give up on higher parry, which can be neglected for most group encounters, but is useful in smallman/solo scenarios, mainly because there is no defense penalty to parry vs. other dual wielders.
3. Going into a few details of weapon lines, you are indeed giving up some good styles by only shooting for 52 composite weapon instead of specing high into it, thus boosting the style dmg modifier. A good example is the slash anytime-combo, which offers similar growth rates and a better to-hit bonus than the dw counterparts. Same goes for the dw back style. Actually, the same goes for blunt/blades back styles, which are superior to the cd back style, at least for dmg. Admittedly, most of the time you use snare styles, but you could use these higher growth rate styles if PF goes off.
4. As it was pointed out earlier, we are not only talking about light tanks when it comes to a slam nerf, but about hybrids too. For those there are drawbacks if you go 42 shield. Lets take the champ, you can only have 2 of those: slam, annihilation, highest buffs/debuffs.

I have to admit though that due to the meta - slam>everything - you don't see many mercs/bms using split speccs, although especially split spec bms were common in the past.