[Snake]

We tried, my friend. We tried. The prayers hit heaven but bounce right down back to earth.

If I'm to put all the forums requesting Protect to actually do something more useful, I can fill up this whole post's letter limit.

I think the general consensus of people was making Protect work like Scapegoat Shield or Sacrifice. But I think it can be better, now that it's been proven that temporary stances can exist in SL2. The skill could easily be revamped into the following:

Protect

Shield stance skill. (Cannot stack with other stance skills, like Matador, etc.)

Raise your shield and become a walking fortress for your allies to hide behind, reducing your Movement by 3 and treating you as if you're Clumsy, but increasing your Armor and Magic Armor by 15.

While active, you will be prioritized by NPC enemies before your allies, and any direct damage from attacks, skills or spells done to allies within 1 range of you is redirected to you. This can only happen X times per ally, each round. (X = 1 + 1 for 30 Scaled DEF).

Taunt

Gesture threateningly at one enemy within 5 range, attempting to provoke them into attacking you and you alone. If successful, they will be "Taunted" for 2 rounds, which increases their Power by 15, but reduces their Armor and Magic Armor by the same amount. They will also become unable to target anything but you for the duration.

Some enemy types cannot be Taunted, such as Undead.