How about we avoid splitting hairs over likely a tenth of a percent of anyone who would play shield dedication (likely less than this, unless they practice nearly nothing just specifically to get more chance at skillgains on block), and instead look at the issue at hand.

without intimate pre-existing knowledge of the deeper levels of gameplay, there is no way for a player to know about the pre-req.

More importantly, even assuming that knowledge was availible (IE: in the help file), it would take unrealistic amounts of effort to get the skill when it is presented. More likely it would actually take rerolling a character several times while practicing nearly nothing in order to do it.

Lastly, and I believe most importantly, this fix would be easy as ####. Swap two skills in the level order. Wow.

Was that accurate enough for you, or would you like to argue some more asinine points that have little to do with the purpose of the thread: making the game make SENSE.