General

Taunt is a completely worthless skill

I know in a month or two this will all be moot (for shads anyways) as taunt will be removed from our skill book... But this has been bugging me for quite a while. I keep hearing people say that Taunt is better than Ninja Ambush. And one of the stickied shadower guides even states that Taunt should be maxed and Ninja Ambush shouldn't. For whatever the reason, some shadowers today seem to think that Taunt serves some purpose, and no.. it really doesn't.

Here are some facts about Taunt
-It does not work on bosses-AT ALL (including boss tagged monsters/party play areas/i.e. anywhere you'd train over 120, the earliest you can get the skill, and that isn't even considering that you probably wouldn't be maxing it until 190ish at the earliest) Making the +40% exp completely pointless.
-If you were to use it on a lower level monster, you would get *at most* a +40% drop rate (the exp boost on pretty much any monster taunt would affect is inconsequential compared to how much exp you'd get training at a place you're "supposed to be" training. (Especially after reading the following point)
-Speaking of which, if you think taunt will help you get ABR recipes/any rare drop faster- it won't. Due to the exp/drop system recently introduced, when you fight a monster more than 15 levels below you, (that isn't over 150) you suffer a -50% drop rate (and exp rate, FYI). Again, as taunt will only give you at most a +40% drop rate, and you wouldn't realistically even *start* maxing it until 180 (much higher than 15 levels over MDT's 116 >.> ), you'd be far better off just hunting ABR recipes on a mule closer to 116.
-It is incredibly cumbersome to use, needing to be recast every time you attack a new monster... and only affecting 6... in a straight line... in front of you... and it's slow as -insert slow thing here- making it highly impractical for any real training.
-If for some reason none of those previous points dissuaded you from maxing Taunt, there's always the obvious: It friggin raises a monsters Defense 40%

If there's anything I'm leaving out, feel free to post it. But I think I've made my point. (pointless as it may be). I know the skill is staying in NL books, but I haven't really done enough research to say taunt is more worthless than anything else they could put points into (like it is for shads). I'm gonna assume that it is though, just because I hate it so much.
F.A.Q.

Q: But -insert random person here-'s guide told me to max Taunt.
A: Err... That isn't a question. And if -insert random person here-'s guide told you to jump off a bridge, would you?

Q: But I think Taunt is a fun skill...
A: (Still not a question) Well by all means put a point or two into it "for lulz," you'll have some extra points for it.(after maxing better skills like shield mastery, chakra.. and for me, steal lmao) But it's still worthless.

Q: But Ninja Ambush is worthless too...
A: I'm not here to defend Ninja Ambush... but since you brought it up, Ninja Ambush is one of the few attacks we have that affects a monster in "cancel weapon attack," which a lot of popular bosses do. It is also free DoT that is at least moderately helpful in some situations.. Great move? No. But worthless? Also no.

Q: Was there any need to take the time out to write this?
A: Finally a question! And no, no there wasn't. >.>