Mechanics of shield flares

[wandererjs]

All,

Are the merchant-offered shield flares effective on offense, defense, or both?

I know that guiding light flares on a sancted shield are offensive only, yet drains charges on defense, so I'm not sure if that's a bug or lack of feature.

I'm also trying to recall if a spiked, flaring shield, will flare on the reactive spike of spikemastery. I recall testing at release, again with guiding light flares, and was disappointed that it did not, but again, not sure if this is specific to guiding light and its limitations.

Thanks,

Kadishmal

[Archigeek]

Offensive only, unless something's changed.

[wandererjs]

Which is a shame.

I'm sure the intent is keep someone from turtling and having a bandit mstrike themselves to death via flares, but it would be nice to see them flare on a reactive shield spike, which is... sort-of offensive. Hey, if the spike makes contact, why not the flare?

For guiding light, it's annoying to lose charges on a block; drains it rather quickly. I don't recall seeing charges lost on a parry (of a weapon), or a parry of a regular ebladed weapon. Not sure why shields are different, but it is annoying.