I’ve yet to see anyone tell me with a straight face that you should take Falling Sword over Blessed Shield. And most people who do take Falling Sword either use it incorrectly or use it as an escape which also doesn’t seem right.
I’m not saying it’s unusable, before all the Failing Sword defenders come out, but it really feels outclassed by the other heroic.
i don’t like any johanna that picks that ult because you can easily dodge it and most of who picks it only uses it for escaping like a chicken. i hate that ult and who picks it lol just like junkrat’s rocket ride completely useless and easy dodge that’s the copy of it for johanna
i always pick falling sword, and is great if i can get to lvl 20 for the upgrade, is a good engaging, i love FS
Its a good pick if you know how to use it otherwise its not that good af you leave the team for 2 sec and that’s 2 sec were her team have no frontline so enemy team can just go in and do what they want. Also the Jojos i see pick it had a bruiser on her team to cover for her when she use it.
You leave the battle and expose your team to all sorts of divers and combos when you use FS. You’d be surprised at how long of a time that is at decent MMR.
I can’t even remember the last time I saw it in SL. I think the only reason it exists is because Crusader has that same ability in Diablo 3 and they decided to copy it without much regard to how well it’d work in HotS.
In Brawl I pick it for fun though, with the lv20 upgrade.
If you hit 2 people with the fallen sword 20.
The cd reduction is high enough to use it again.
I personally use it for when the enemy has a wombo combo. Or when we simply dont need a instant stun
And tbh. If your team cant survive 2s without you. Its their fault. You give a nice aoe stun.
Your body isnt present for 2s. It isnt that the world will burn
falling sword is nice and has its uses, blessed shield is better overall
imo falling swords can actually compete when you know how to make it work, the 20 upgrade is insane
Falling sword is pretty good already if you like to engage hard in ennemy backline like Ana and stuff. I just prefer shield , too useful overall.
Falling sword is just bad. They went the exact wrong direction when they halved the damage and gave it slow. Now they are close to each other in damage. Blessed shield can be insta cast with good stun and autotargetting further enemies. Meanwhile Falling sword removes the peel tank from her team, only hits small area with ministun which is easy to dodge and slows which Jo could do with Q anyway. Blessed shield even has better ult upgrade as further insult to Falling Sword.
IMO Falling sword should get changed either to deal real damage so it’s meant as offensive option(she should get more offensive talents if they go down this route) or make it give allies buffs when she lands near them and ability to jump down earlier. As is it might as well not exist as Blessed shield is purely better ult in both offensive and defensive situations.
This topic has been discussed to death multiple times in the past already.
The conclusion was…
If your team has many heroes like Deathwing, Kael, Kel Thuzard, Li Ming, Diablo or any other combo heavy heroes then Blessed Shield is the best to go.
If you team has many heroes like Illidan, Qhira, Genji, Tracer, Greymane, Malthael or any other dive heavy heroes then Falling Sword is the best to go.
there are a few examples how FA can be used:
to make several jumps over the enemy team and dive their butts 
Err aint shield upgrade insane as well. It can hit a lot of ppl and stun all of em for 2 sec. To any decent team that is insanely useful and can decimate em. Even the upgrade for shield is great. Not to mention about the other 2 talents that are great and that u cant pick if you go sword.
There is no reason to pick that ulti at ALL. None. More cc and lockdown is never bad. Especially not picking it for this ulti. If you think u cant reach em or they run get move speed for w on 4. Even tho the the blind upgrade at 4 is great.
shield is far better than Failing sword yes.
first clip. they just stood right there and took it without attempting to move out of it.
second clip yes ofc 20 used to deal damage and reduce the cooldown on each enemy hit which is like you use it to deal damage most likely and as a tank it’s not your job to be dealing damage your job is to peel for your team and stop the enemy team from trying to kill your allies you’re not an assassin.
last clip just the same explanation to second clip. besides you shouldn’t pick the ult just because you think it’s “fun” and it isn’t for “real men” you choose the tank role for a purpose which is defend your team and even die trying not troll around and try to deal damage as if you’re playing an assassin hero
ahahahah ppl here is really fun!
lest see…
it’s called aiming, and i have to use it when i use fa 
as a healer its not your job to be dealing damage, so lest tell blizz get rid those dmg talents from all healers and tanks that have no sense
you got hurt and only wants to validate even more ur opinions but no, wrong!!! ahahahhaha FA is the real best ulti 
sure aiming. “standing still in middle of your failing sword” that means you frozen them and they can’t move at all or they can’t see the circle around them of failing sword. true it’s a skill shot i forgot
and now you’re making 0 sense right there but sure go on
and you continue to act like a troll thinking i’m hurt or something well i see no point in talking to you any farther.
ahahahahahaha okay mate!!! a troll!! 
as you wish
She just got nerffed she won’t ever be getting buffed unless she falls out of the upper MMR meta.
I personally think the opposite is the case. One is pretty much forced to upgrade Blessed Shield if one takes it as the upgrade is just too good to forgo as it greatly improves its base functionality, stunning enemeis. With Falling Sword one can forgo the upgrade since all it does is some extra damage and lower cooldown, with the base functionality remaining unimproved.
Exactly the point of Falling Sword. They either stay in formation and take a direct hit, or break formation and only 1-2 get hit. Both leaves them in a bad place as either Johanna is right in the middle of them and they took more damage or they have just broke formation and left 1 or more of their heroes exposed to her allies.
Blessed Shield does not offer this zoning. It is all about enabling allies to combo off the stun or extending other CC chains furthers for more allied combos.
This only applies to some comps. If your comp is melee heavy, especially with dive, then your best placed right in the middle of an enemy team along side them. Blessed Shield does not allow for this since by the time you walk to the enemies they will already be awake. With Falling Sword there is nothing they can do to stop you being up close and personal when you land.
Again, this really depends on hero comps. If your comp relies on ranged damage, formations and poke then Falling Swords is a horrible ultimate to pick. On the other hand if your comp relies on dive and being up close and personal with the enemies then Falling Sword is very strong and by far the best choice.
It can be re-aimed at close to 100% movement speed. Unless the heroes have improved mobility or escape abilities Falling Sword is almost always going to land on 1-2 of them even if they try to avoid it. For the others to avoid it, they have to run in different directions which causes the enemy formation to scatter leaving individual heroes vulnerable. If they do not scatter then they all will be impacted by it and have to deal with a Johanna in the middle of their formation.
If you are a Nova main then I can see why you think Blessed Shield is better. Nova can combo off Blessed Shield with Ion Strike for a ton of damage on multiple heroes on top of her normal burst chain against a single one which is made easier due to the stun. On the other hand Falling Sword is likely to leave Nova with or a tank or bruiser in her face without a tank of her own to protect her.
the point of blessed shield is to serve the purpose of your role. to protect your allies not leave them behind and go into the enemy back-line as if it’s your job to dive into the enemy team while leaving your back-line open for attacks. specially if you’re the only tank in the team that means you’re leaving your teammates behind just to “deal damage” to the enemy team since you’re playing like an “assassin” this way oh my 20 = reset for failing sword? yolooo! i can get top damage! but what’s the point of it if you’re leaving your team for death?
he’s saying he picks it “for fun” and “trolling” means he isn’t doing his job while playing a tank role without understanding what’s a tank supposed to do and that ult removes you from the battle for 2 seconds you might think 2 seconds is not enough time for them to kill anyone of your team but that’s really not it because they can do a lot with you not being in there for your team for that “2 seconds” they can at least dive any squishy in your team and kill them if they focus on it instead of being busy and screaming cause of failing sword or perhaps “standing still and waiting for them self’s to get stunned by it” lol and that’s called “aiming”? if they spread up you must choose which one you want to land on etc.
but playing vs bad player’s and seeing how “good” it can be against them since they don’t even know what to do etc… ofc you’ll be like “omg it’s such a useful ult i’ll pick it every time” that’s just like those who think deathwing in your team is a 100% win. which is also false~ blessed shield can help your team in engage and disengage and you don’t know when it’s coming to you unlike failing sword you can see it clearly and will try to avoid it if you have half a brain to use. but as i said if you’re playing vs bad player’s it’ll really look very good and even better than blessed shield in that case.