You could still use magic barrier, great magic barrier, great magic shield, or vow of silence to prevent it from getting you. Faith does not have very much going for it other than Wrath of God, now that Tranquil Walk of Peace has been completely ruined. All three of those lightning bolt miracles are slow, all of the heal miracles are slow, karmic justice has not helped me out once, and most of the other miracles are utility type things. I've probably used homeward more times than anything else.
TWoP completely ruined? Fighting in the swamp sucks, so does TWoP. It wasn't working before, so it was equally completely ruined before, in that case.
I get the argument of "it's the only offensive spell", but it's not really justifiable to have one overpowered spell because everything else is underpowered. About using things like VoS (which would require FAI) or anything else to specifically meet WoG users - the point is that I can meet any other build in the game, and have a fair, fun fight. I'm better against some than others. But everyone would need what you mentions to stand up to a WoG user. You can't have "A beats B, and B beats C, and C beats A, but X beats everything unless you use Y and can then beat X, but not A, B or C", especially since I don't care fighting anyone that spams WoG (they can use it, but I will just die and move on with my life.)
Why are we pretending that its some unavoidable, unbeatable cast? It simply isnt. And what annoys me about the complaints is the fact that the solution is to simply nerf it which would suck for faith users because there isnt much more for us offensively.
Again, you can roll away, you can block it (why are you getting hit four times by the same spell), and its not exactly a win button. People dodge my WoG constantly and Im rarely able to just run up to people and use it. Whenever I fought someone with it (with my previous build) I rarely got hit with it because I simply rolled away when I saw it winding up.
All in all, I dont like the solutions. I feel its very much avoidable and very much beatable. Nerfing it outright to me would be unfair to faith users because, as I said, we dont have dick else.
It is a big fraction more unavoidable than anything else we encounter in PvP. So, yes, people can still suck and telegraph me that they're casting it, or they can be good PvP players and flick it when I least expect it, in which case, good for them. The fact that it is one of the more damaging spells in the game AND is near instantaneous and thusly one of the harder things to avoid in PvP doesn't add up, is still not the worst thing. That you can chain it, when you've hit once, is what adds insult to injury.
We're not pretending it's unavoidable. We're saying it's hard to dodge and does crazy amount of damage for the risk it implies, and that it's overpowered also because it's chainable.
But is the damage it does even through a shield a product of it dealing excessive damage in general, or is it more a product of the Magic Resistance of shields being considered an almost completely marginal stat since Magic-source damage outside of Wrath of the Gods is almost universally dodged, not blocked?
In Demon's Souls there was a 100% mag res shield. There isn't one in Dark Souls. Damage will hurt if you block it, because it is made to be dodged. You first calculate the damage it would do if you weren't blocking, then subtract the percentage on your shield, so if it does 500 dmg and you have 50% block, it does 250. So the fact that there are few good shields for damage (that no one uses), combined with the already good damage it does, is another point to why it is unbalanced. If someone runs at me with the biggest weapon in the game, I can block it, it will take longer to hit, it will have longer recharge, it will be directional, easier to dodge and retaliate (you need to just get away with WoG, whereas with weapons you can roll behind your opponent), you have higher physical resistance than anything, it staggers for less. But still WoG isn't OP?
