Guild Wars 2

It’s odd that shield can’t block but focus can. If no funtionality is going to changed, at least change the CD on shield. Way too long for the effect. Shield 4 should be in the 15-20s. Shield 5 should be 30.

guardian
shield 4 20
shield 5 30

yeah make it happen please.

I love all these threads advocating for guardian shield changes. +1

Keep them coming.

Honestly, at this point I’d say that no sort of cooldown reduction is worth not changing the functionality of the skills. They’re just too subpar in comparison to those of focus and even torch for any given situation.

Shield of Judgment is a horrible skill that is never worth taking a shield into battle for. It needs to be reworked to have some sort of blocking functionality, seeing as that is what a shield is meant to do. Perhaps even the defensive counterpart to the more offensive Shield of Wrath on the focus.

Shield of Absorption, on the other hand, is good on paper, but just horrendously implemented. You can choose to either completely disable yourself for half of its 4 second duration to block projectiles, or you can detonate it early for a pitifully low heal at the cost of not being able to use it to block projectiles. I think there are 2 reasonable options to take here: either grant mobility while channeling, similar to the buff engineer shield will be receiving, or just eliminate the channel entirely and have the dome pulse heal per second for everyone inside of it.

Mele weapon skills should never have long CD. That is the nature of mele, skills need to be available several times a fight. CD for the shield should be 20 and 30 seconds untraited.

Shield 4 is pretty weak. I have seen people suggest things like give Aegis and Protection. Or a knockdown. And/or greater damage. I quite like the Aegis and Protection option as it would make the Guardian shield different and give it a really strong function tying into what a sheild is for… blocking.

Shield 5. I am not sure what to make of this skill. The CC on it is rather nice, but it does not always seem to work. The heal on it is paltry. Basically, I do not think it lasts long enough and its often broken by CC if you try and actually protect people for any length of time. Basically, if they want it to remain the same it needs to last longer and protect you from the various things like fear that knock you out of it.

A good start would be be able to walk with the shield bubble without canceling it, like the incoming buff to engi shield.

I want use shield so badly on my Guard. I hope they change to be more useful soon. I’m (and whole Guardian community are) almost 2 years complaining about the shield and nothing =/

Black Box.9312:

Honestly, at this point I’d say that no sort of cooldown reduction is worth not changing the functionality of the skills. They’re just too subpar in comparison to those of focus and even torch for any given situation.

I quite agree with this. A cooldown reduction is not the fix the shield needs. Though it would be nice and it really should be lower, it would only be a band-aid. The skills themselves are not worth taking, not just the long cooldowns that they are on.

And I still think Focus #5 and Shield #5 Should be swapped.
Because a Shield is about blocking and
Focus is about magical stuff like the blue dome.

Simple as that.

Shield’s #4 looks like it should knockb… what if it knocked back multiple foes. :V

1. could use a blast finisher on it too. You know, why not? It’s not like guardians have access to a good number of finishers if they’re using a one-handed weapon. I’d suggest:

Shield of Judgement

• Slightly shorten the cooldown
• Add a short knockback
• Make it a blast finisher

Shield of Absorption

• Slightly shorten the cooldown
• Similar to the staff’s Symbol of Swiftness’ swiftness, give allies in the field a short protection or regeneration buff every second, which stacks up to a decent duration if you stay for the full duration
• If popped early, buff the heal
• It’s a shield of absorption, right? How about it absorbs the damage and turns it into either damage or a heal when it ends (not the full amount, but perhaps a percentage or over a threshold)?
• Add a blast finisher when it’s popped or it ends? As to whether it would combo with its own field, that’s definitely something to think about. A tad too far?

Basically….give the GLORIOUS Engi Shield to Guardian!?! Lol

Truly funny when you think about the purpose/role of these two professions and then compare the functionality of both of their shields.

A Cooldown reduction would be a band-aid fix, but at least would be a fix. I really want to use shield as Guardian

Other suggestions are:
On #4 (one of):

• Add 1 sec daze;
• Add 5 sec cripple;
• Reduce the CD to 20 sec (already mentioned);
• Apply a secondary buff, like regen and/or aegis.

On #5 (one of – and fix the bug):

• Remove the Channeling and put a cast time;
• Allow to channel while moving (maybe allow the bubble to follow the Guard as well);
• Increase the detonation healing and scaling;
• Reduce the CD to 30 sec (already mentioned);

Guardian is the class that have most rooting skills on weapons. On Hammer #5, Staff #4, Sword #3, Shield #5. I am still waiting for the QoL changes that Warriors recieved on their Hammer #4 and now Engineers on their Shield.

I’d like to see at least one Guardian offhand weapon provide a symbol.

If Shield 5 was changed from a blue dome into a symbol that blocks/reflects projectiles at the edge of the symbol AND heals per tick I’d be happy with it.

This would allow you to move around inside the symbol (which you can’t do with the dome), do other things while the symbol persists (which you can’t do with the dome), and trait the symbol to be more effective (which you can’t do with the dome).

mtpelion.4562:

This would allow you to move around inside the symbol (which you can’t do with the dome), do other things while the symbol persists (which you can’t do with the dome), and trait the symbol to be more effective (which you can’t do with the dome).

Currently you can use the bubble, cancel the cast time, and still move around while the bubble persists. It’s bugged now though to only last 2 seconds instead of its natural 4. The only benefit from going the full channel is having the option of popping it for the heal (which is rarely used as mobility and a dome that prevents damage is far superior to a 1.2k heal).

Flitzie.6082:

And I still think Focus #5 and Shield #5 Should be swapped.
Because a Shield is about blocking and
Focus is about magical stuff like the blue dome.

Simple as that.

So we end up with a half useless focus and a half useless shield… no thanks. I made my minstrel for the focus…

as far as shield goes, I like the idea of an aegis on the 4 skill honestly alongside the protection with that reuse. Make 5 usable while moving, and then make it’s early end a blast finisher.

Do that and I will likely be using shield at times when I want a very defensive weapon, and then focus when I want what it offers and torch for the niche it fills (could use some damage buff to the 5 skill there too to make it the front runner on damage)

I am all for improving the skills functionality. I will say though, I am not in favor of lowering the shield skill cool downs on the guardian, without lowering the warriors and engineers as well. Cool down reduction is not the way to go if you ask me. The way to go is to positively adjust the skills functions.

Chicago Jack.5647:

mtpelion.4562:

This would allow you to move around inside the symbol (which you can’t do with the dome), do other things while the symbol persists (which you can’t do with the dome), and trait the symbol to be more effective (which you can’t do with the dome).

Currently you can use the bubble, cancel the cast time, and still move around while the bubble persists. It’s bugged now though to only last 2 seconds instead of its natural 4. The only benefit from going the full channel is having the option of popping it for the heal (which is rarely used as mobility and a dome that prevents damage is far superior to a 1.2k heal).

Apparently that in and of itself is a bug, and is unintentional. Because apparently we’re expected to either do the full channel or get no bubble at all.

While it might feel a bit unnatural to have the Focus as the weapon which blocks and not the shield, I’m totally fine with it. I wouldn’t like this to change since it might cause greater issuses because other things would have to change, too.

Things I’d enjoy:

Shield of Judgement

• Slightly reduce the CD
• Make it Chill up 5 enemies in front of you in addition to the Protection

The Chill provides Guardians with some soft CC which puts the shield ahead of other Off-hand weapons in certain situations without taking away from their strengths. Maybe there could even be Chill-centered build with Hammer + x/Shield

Shield of Absorbtion

• Decrease base cooldown
• Increase cooldown if using #5.2 (see Zealots Flame)

Currently there is no real reason to not use #5.2 which from my point of view is poor design. There might have to be some adjustments to #5.1 to make it less clunky but I’m more bothered by the interaction of #5.1 und #5.2.

For the 5 just heal u and ur allies per sec with the projectils block and push your opponent if u press again on the 5 would be nice (and with the lower cd).
for the 4 giving aegis is enought with the cd reduction too.

Keep up the heat!

Shield of Judgement:
Create a shielding wave in front of you that damages and dazes foes, while granting protection to yourself and allies.

Protection (3 seconds)
Daze (1 second)
Damage increase by 20%

Shield of Absorption:
Create a dome around you that pushes foes back and block projectiles.
The detonation skill now scales better with healing power.
An increase from 20% to 55%, base 1300 remains the same.
(For the lazy, this change allows the shield to heal ~2k with a basic support build)
You could add a blast-finisher to the detonation if needed.

Only thing about these changes to take note of, is that Focus might become much weaker. Not because shield would become overpowered, but because focus is already pretty bad for an offhand weapon. People only use it because the other alternatives are even worse. Should this be the case, I would take away the damage increase from Shield Of Judgement and increase it slightly for Ray of Judgement and decrease the cooldown on Shield of Wrath by 5 seconds from 45 to 40.
I would also increase the projectile speed of Ray of Judgement, since we all know it’s a kittening joke to use. Never lands unless you are basically holding hands with your opponent.
This way, the focus would hopefully still be the offhand of choice for offensive guardians.

While we’re at it!
Flashing Blade:
The skill now has a base damage equally to an autoattack. Which is around 300.
Furthermore, the ability can now be used without a target. If so, the player blinks forward 600 range. (Can still be used with a target)
This change would still allow guardians to blink through the environment, but this could also be seen as a glitch (blinking into the clocktower on kyhlo), hence why there is another suggestion.
Alternative solution:
The skill now functions similarly to Warrior’s Whirldwind Attack. It is now a vector that can be placed in a specific direction. The guardian damages, blinds and interrupts foes that he passes with a slight knockback.
This change would be the better if the other solution would cause too many bugs due to the untargeted blink, also since it’s more difficult to land, a small interrupt would make up for it in teamfights where you can potentially hit a lot of enemies.
This would also grant the Guardian some soft CC which is really needed for more “epic plays”. At the moment nobody really wants to play guardian since you can’t really do anything but spam incredibly boring shouts.

Zealot’s Defense:
You can now move while using this ability, although with a decrease in movement speed similar to Whirling Wrath.

Edit:
I just read a post saying lowering cooldowns is not the way to go. And I have to agree, that’s why I changed my suggestion. Lowering the cooldowns simply creates more spam, and lessens wise usage of the skills. The cooldown could be reduced by 5 seconds to each skill though, since these are definitely in the higher end of the off-hand cooldowns. Then it would be 25 and 35, which is still a fairly high cooldown.

Scrap both skill 4 and 5 for now. Put a pin to Shield of Absorption for later.

Shield 4
Shield Intervention

Shadow step to your target doing a shield spin and chilling your enemies. You gain quickness.
skill cool down 25s
AoE 240
Chill duration 5s
Quickness duration 3s, -Your healing is 50% less effective for 3s
(This provides a form of soft cc that guardians are in desperate need)

Shield 5
Vanguard

You gain stability, absorbing incoming damage and life stealing a percentage of the attackers incoming damage and sharing it with nearby allies. You gain retaliation.
skill cool down 30s
skill duration 3s
stability 3s
damage absorbed: 66%
life steal: 50% of absorbed damage
shared life steal: 20% of absorbed damage
retaliation 3s
life steal scales with healing power or power??
(While not a real block because it will render focus useless, it becomes a group tool and personal for soaking up some damage, stealing some life and sharing it with party. Numbers need tweaking for both pve and wvw, pvp)

Now for that pin, Shield of Absorption to me is a very niche skill, a very rarely used, but still useful in those situation.
My thoughts on it are to make it an optional Master tier skill in Honor that replaces Vanguard.

Sorry for my English.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

guardian
shield 4 20
shield 5 30

yeah make it happen please.

If it does then there will be nerf de-cap guardian thread to follow.

So I was browsing some other mmo’s wiki’s to see what skills the “guardian” archetype classes offer and I was surprised how lackluster our guardian is compared to the competition, especially when it comes to the shield skills.
Our class sigil is the shield, we should be masters at the tool itself also, not only the idea behind the class mechanic, (which i find it very uninspired, virtues passives come to mind). Like a lot of people said, i’m ok with not disengaging but give us the tools to keep our opponent’s and ourselves in melee.
Crush legs, steal life, cripple, torment, we need some of these anet.
Back to the shield.
Give 4 cripple and torment, “limb crush” or something with the same dmg that we have now.
Give 5 a 2s block with a secondary active. Block will synergize with valor block traits and the active could be traited in zeal, radiance valor, honor and virtues for different effects and specialization.
For ex: In radiance, something like shield glare, upon realease AoE blind 3s
In Zeal: Steal % life of damage blocked
and etc…

Now please anet, let me justify myself spending 2,6k gold on a shield skin
Thank You!

Shield of Judgement
1/2 sec cast time
20 sec cd
apply aegis 5sec (or 5sec weakness on enemy), strip enemies protection, unblockable (still applies protection)

Shield of Absorption
instant
30 sec cd
shield surrounds and follows you, is no longer a light field (we really dont need another one), still lasts 5 sec and heals when it ends (bonus from healing power increased)