In my opinion, Shields should receive a large boost to their Defense. Their current bonus is far too low. The trade off for using a shield should be lower attack power for higher defense, but as is stands you are trading higher attack power for hardly any better defense.
I can best make my case with an example. The level 54 rare gloves that my character is using have a defense bonus of 95, while the level 60 rare shield that I use only has a defense of 36!
I would be 100% okay with increasing it’s defense but lowering its attack power, because their attack power is almost on par with a one-handed sword. I just think it would make more sense for a giant hunk of metal strapped to my arm to provide more defense than a pair of gloves.
That being said, I love the game, and whether this is addressed or not I will probably continue to use the sword and board because i love the flavor, and rule of cool beats all, and the fact that this is the biggest beef I have with the game speaks volumes as to the games high quality!
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to the possibility that this will be addressed.
Not affiliated with ArenaNet or NCSOFT. No support is provided.
All assets, page layout, visual style belong to ArenaNet and are used solely to replicate the original design and preserve the original look and feel.
Contact /u/e-scrape-artist on reddit if you encounter a bug.