Guild Wars 2

New skills for shields, useful ones, especially for guardians.

What’s the point of having shields in the game if you can’t block with them?
Like c’mon.

Shield Bash is pretty good.
Shield Stance sucks.

Shield of Obsorption, I find pretty useless outside of spvp/wvw, only useful aspect about it being able to knock players off areas to their death (which you’re unable to do to mobs). Also the cooldown is like crazy long.
Shield of Judgement, yet another long C/D. Also the damage is meh and the prot buff is pretty short.

Magnetic Shield, though I have not seen/played a engineer using a shield but by the description seems similiar to Shield of Obsorption but with a shorter c/d.
Static Shield By the description the skill looks pretty good would be better if the next attack is also blocked.

Thanks for reading.

Shields on the whole suck.

They offer almost no mitigation and their skills are usually terrible.

Shields as a weapon category should have a passive base 15% chance to block incoming attacks.

I’d be up for when you got a Shield equipped, then you can use endurance to block, as opposed to dodging (blocking is activated by clicking the Right mouse button).

I’d want to stay away from the passive RNG for combat though.

Absolutely not on random blocks.
However, being able to block instead of dodge (probably by not having any movement key held while doing it, which currently would make you dodge backwards), perhaps costing less endurance to do so, would be good.

@TheDaiBish & gimmethegepgun, Then it would be pointless to have shield blocking if you have to activate it like dodge and it would consume endurance. I almost always holding down rightclick when fighting to strafe n’ such. Not a good idea.

@piitb 15% is very low and most likely will almost never block, 20-30% would be better.

Nihevil.8024:

@TheDaiBish & gimmethegepgun, Then it would be pointless to have shield blocking if you have to activate it like dodge and it would consume endurance. I almost always holding down rightclick when fighting to strafe n’ such. Not a good idea.

@piitb 15% is very low and most likely will almost never block, 20-30% would be better.

Why would it be pointless?

And it doesn’t have to be right click. Any key would do.

How would something that’s basically a dodge except doesn’t move you and costs less be pointless?
If you’re trying to prevent one big attack, not get out of a persistent AoE, then staying put isn’t really a problem compared to getting out of there, plus keeps you in melee which is probably where you want to be to kill them, AND it costs less too.
Plus, if you really need to move, you can still dodge normally.

Anyone that has ever learned how to fight with melee weapons eventually learns how to use a shield. Currently shields need a major overhaul.

The current toughness on a shield needs increased by about 4×.
20% passive chance to block incoming attacks should be added.
Remove skills designed specifically to block attacks (warrior 5 for instance should be a bullying skill that knocks the enemy over, THAT is what shields were used for on the field, pushing and knocking over enemies).

Players would spec into keeping “vigor” up often and/or being able gain endurance back on X therefore being able to block a lot more than 20-30%. On top of blocking costing less endurance than a dodge.

For example: Guardian Honor trait row, Vigorous Protection : Gain 1 second of Vigor when you critical hit.

@Runiir Definitely agree.

Nihevil.8024:

Players would spec into keeping “vigor” up often and/or being able gain endurance back on X therefore being able to block a lot more than 20-30%. On top of blocking costing less endurance than a dodge.

For example: Guardian Honor trait row, Vigorous Protection : Gain 1 second of Vigor when you critical hit.

@Runiir Definitely agree.

Well, obviously it’d have to be balanced so it isn’t constantly available i.e. while using block endurance slowly drains, while being hit takes a chunk out of your endurance.

Having a passive block chance means that someone might survive / win a fight by pure luck (i.e. block triggers on the biggest attack) rather than reacting to the skill.

Nihevil.8024:

Players would spec into keeping “vigor” up often and/or being able gain endurance back on X therefore being able to block a lot more than 20-30%. On top of blocking costing less endurance than a dodge.

For example: Guardian Honor trait row, Vigorous Protection : Gain 1 second of Vigor when you critical hit.

@Runiir Definitely agree.

And they couldn’t do that with evasion?
Plus, there’s the matter of it not being random.
They COULD block a lot more than that by spamming it, but they WOULDN’T. Because spamming it will mostly just catch a bunch of autoattacks that wouldn’t be too dangerous, while holding it, waiting for the right moment, can stop so much more. You know, just like evades now.

So why do you think that randomly avoiding things with no player input involved on either side is a good idea?

I agree with the consensus here about shields, they need to be improved so they’re balanced with other off-hand skills.

Passive RNG is bad, criticals are bad enough.

I like the idea someone had of using adrenalin to block alongside existing skills. I don’t know how this could be run though, no other weapon has a skill that exists outside of standard 1-5 (Besides warrior burst skills).

Passive rng is not bad if it’s a low percentage. Precision to crit chance scales bad which definitely could be toned down.

Blocking attacks without input is something a shield does by virtue of being strapped to your arm and simply being in the away of an attack.

Seriously, armchair warriors, go out and fight witha shield and sword for awhile against others and see how many attacks you block without actively trying…it is the whole point of having a shield.
Want to have a cost for it? Make a passive block cost 30% of an adrenaline bar. After all, a valid strategy against someone with a shield is to bash your weapon against the shield hard over and over again to drain the strength of your opponant and make them sluggish.

Passive dodging/blocking already exists in the game (3rd attack for ranger longsword, 3rd attack for ranger greatsword both being examples) so Anet is not opposed to it. Obviously the melee rangers aren’t opposed to it.
The thieves out there are also not opposed to passive dodges (dagger/dagger being the most seen thief weapon load in spvp as they use the dual skill to evade large attacks while attacking).

So why all this crying over a passive block? Afraid your big attack will miss? Don’t throw all your faith into one hit and plan better strategies with the expectation that you will be evaded, which is what everyone fighting a thief already does.

Runiir.6425:

Blocking attacks without input is something a shield does by virtue of being strapped to your arm and simply being in the away of an attack.

Seriously, armchair warriors, go out and fight witha shield and sword for awhile against others and see how many attacks you block without actively trying…it is the whole point of having a shield.
Want to have a cost for it? Make a passive block cost 30% of an adrenaline bar. After all, a valid strategy against someone with a shield is to bash your weapon against the shield hard over and over again to drain the strength of your opponant and make them sluggish.

Passive dodging/blocking already exists in the game (3rd attack for ranger longsword, 3rd attack for ranger greatsword both being examples) so Anet is not opposed to it. Obviously the melee rangers aren’t opposed to it.
The thieves out there are also not opposed to passive dodges (dagger/dagger being the most seen thief weapon load in spvp as they use the dual skill to evade large attacks while attacking).

So why all this crying over a passive block? Afraid your big attack will miss? Don’t throw all your faith into one hit and plan better strategies with the expectation that you will be evaded, which is what everyone fighting a thief already does.

Firstly, using a realism argument to argue for game mechanics in a game that doesn’t try to be realistic is bad.
The attack in Ranger’s Greatsword isn’t random, it’s expected. Passive, yes, but not random passive.
And Death Blossom isn’t a passive defense, it’s an active ability, that isn’t an autoattack.

Your big hit shouldn’t be ruined by an RNG, it should only be ruined by something either you or your opponent is responsible for.
Like when someone dodges it, or when you carelessly land it during an expected dodge from a Ranger Greatsword.

Runiir.6425:

Blocking attacks without input is something a shield does by virtue of being strapped to your arm and simply being in the away of an attack.

Seriously, armchair warriors, go out and fight witha shield and sword for awhile against others and see how many attacks you block without actively trying…it is the whole point of having a shield.
Want to have a cost for it? Make a passive block cost 30% of an adrenaline bar. After all, a valid strategy against someone with a shield is to bash your weapon against the shield hard over and over again to drain the strength of your opponant and make them sluggish.

Passive dodging/blocking already exists in the game (3rd attack for ranger longsword, 3rd attack for ranger greatsword both being examples) so Anet is not opposed to it. Obviously the melee rangers aren’t opposed to it.
The thieves out there are also not opposed to passive dodges (dagger/dagger being the most seen thief weapon load in spvp as they use the dual skill to evade large attacks while attacking).

So why all this crying over a passive block? Afraid your big attack will miss? Don’t throw all your faith into one hit and plan better strategies with the expectation that you will be evaded, which is what everyone fighting a thief already does.

1) Actually, I’d argue that unless it’s a tower shield, the majority of a shield blocking attacks is if the person holding it lifts it into a defensive position to meet the attack. Just it there being on your arm isn’t going to block much unless someone is swinging to your shield side anyway. And if we’re going to use the ‘realism’ argument, realistically, someone wouldn’t attack the side the shield is in the way of.

2) You can do something about the passive evades by watching the attacks and then timing yours / setting up appropriately. You can’t do anything about an RNG block.

3) You talking about Adrenaline (the Warrior resource) or Endurance (the Dodge resource)?

Runiir.6425:

Blocking attacks without input is something a shield does by virtue of being strapped to your arm and simply being in the away of an attack.

Seriously, armchair warriors, go out and fight witha shield and sword for awhile against others and see how many attacks you block without actively trying…it is the whole point of having a shield.
Want to have a cost for it? Make a passive block cost 30% of an adrenaline bar. After all, a valid strategy against someone with a shield is to bash your weapon against the shield hard over and over again to drain the strength of your opponant and make them sluggish.

Passive dodging/blocking already exists in the game (3rd attack for ranger longsword, 3rd attack for ranger greatsword both being examples) so Anet is not opposed to it. Obviously the melee rangers aren’t opposed to it.
The thieves out there are also not opposed to passive dodges (dagger/dagger being the most seen thief weapon load in spvp as they use the dual skill to evade large attacks while attacking).

So why all this crying over a passive block? Afraid your big attack will miss? Don’t throw all your faith into one hit and plan better strategies with the expectation that you will be evaded, which is what everyone fighting a thief already does.

Are you honestly using a realism argument in this game? I’d like you to step back for a moment and think about how ridiculous that is, and then think about how a passive block adds nothing to increasing the skill ceiling on a class and only adds silly RNG to combat.

Shield makes you passively fatter and draws mobs aggro to you.
Saying that warrior shield stance sucks… ahem really? It only has 1 cons, that is that you can still be pulled by some abilities(not sure but i know that mesmer interrupted my shield stance and that’s very obviously a bug)
If anything shield bash should get stun duration increase. like from 1s to 1.5s.
1s is pretty pointless for anything but interrupting.
Guardian shield of absorption is awesome. I mean, knockback all enemies and shield your allies from projectiles? Then detonate for heal? Very good in wvw(Except i don’t think it lasts for 4 seconds it says!).. Oh and AOE protection on another spell. Not bad either imo.
Can’t block with shield? What about 3 second block shield stance, guardian dome(not rly block tho :P), engi magnetic?
Shield does very well to protect you, not always with blocks but still.
The fact that you said spell on 25 secs CD that is an incredibly small dash and 1s stun is good makes me cry -.-

>(not sure but i know that mesmer interrupted my shield stance and that’s very obviously a bug)

It’s not a bug, some abilities can go through blocks.

NEVER. NEVER NEVER kittenin passive block!

Runiir.6425:

warrior 5 for instance should be a bullying skill that knocks the enemy over, THAT is what shields were used for on the field, pushing and knocking over enemies.

The primary use of shields was/is preventing damage to one’s person. Good shield technique actually requires very little movement from the shield arm and in fact, using the shield as a weapon (like bashing etc) or even extending it out to block an attack actually leaves you really wide open for attack. If you’re going for realism that is.

Edit: That said, I’d say all the shield skills in the game are quite good at preventing damage. Although, as primarily a Guardian player, I would kill for a skill like Shield Stance that wasn’t a heal.

The one thing that breaks Shield Stance for me is how infrequently I can use it. It’s not pointless; It’s just put on a massive pedestal that makes its combat application a bit null. As a Warrior, Mace/Sword for two independent-CD counterattack-blocks.

It’s also frustrating that Engineer’s Gear Shield from Tool Kit has the same block duration as Shield Stance, but has a lower CD. Warriors are a bit more iconic shield-wielders, no? Shouldn’t -they- be the proficient ones that know how to block more than twice a minute?

Passive block chance is a no. I don’t want RNG like that when the exact reason I love GW2’s combat system is how hands-on it is. What I think would be nice is a sort of glancing-block feature. Every X attack that lands on you deals N% of its standard damage because the shield on your arm isn’t just decorative. Not chance-based, and not a full block, but instead a predictable and reliable mitigation.

Overall, it’s not OP, it doesn’t require lowering the Shield Stance CD to the point of annoying exploitability, and it makes up for the defense deficit a bit, in a unique and applicable fashion. (Though the actual armor/defense boost could still use a bit of an increase)

I would go further and say something like having a shield modifies your auto-attack to have one of your swings change to a brief sword-and-board kind of deal, but that would require too much modification, so my first idea stands.

ANet, hear my plea! You know my idea isn’t bad! At very worst, integrate it with the shield-spec trait!

a lot of intresting idea in here tbh, and imo i think most of them EXCEPT the passive RNG block could work

Would love to see shield to be more useful then it already is.
Maybe a new trait skill?

I’m using the missile deflection trait, and it’s really good. A young karka almost kills itself from it’s own ranged attack just by 3 seconds of blocking.

Maybe give shield stance the same CD as the engineer’s one?

shield stance is amazing… i love shield stance =[

but anything to improve shields (so i see less gs warr/guards everywhere) would be appreciated +1