Guild Wars 2

Seems like shields are no good for warriors for pve or pvp. I don’t know about guardians or whatever other class that can use shields. Are shields just in the game for the sake of being in the game? Or does any class excel at using the shield as part of their primary weapon set? Feels like you’d just have one to swap in for very niche situations and most of the time you’re better off using any other off hand weapon over the shield for all classes.

If I recall, pistol shield engineers are pretty good to use if you are a beginner.

So since you specifically mentioned beginner, seems like anything beyond just starting out, shields are no good.

Pistol/shield engineers are pretty good. Greatsword-axe/shield warriors are up there also last time I checked. It’s complete garbage for guardian however.

Wait, are we referring to pvp or pve? I should’ve mentioned I was leaning more to the pve side.

I run pistol/shield on my Engi, although really I mostly use kits instead, so the shield is more situational. It would be more useful if the cooldowns weren’t so crazy long. Shield Guard can be useful too, but only very situationally, like when fighting very projectile-heavy bosses or where you need to hold terrain, usually in concert with other players.

Shield is practically useless in pve. It has a blast finisher for Engies, but since Engie can only use it with a pistol and pistol engie is condi… Well that’s pretty useless in pve. Warrior and Guard have far superior options for dps, and dps is king in pve.

The blast and block on Engi shield certainly has it’s uses. You’re losing damage potential but as much as DPS is king in PVE sometimes utility is far more practical.

I use Axe/Shield and Hammer in PvP ( and PvE because it’s zergy or completely faceroll ). For PvP, I don’t trait for it, but I find it extremely useful. Having an extra 3 seconds to find that Mesmer, not worry about being hard CC’d while running an orb, or negating the damage of Ranger’s 2 skill is a Godsend.

Of course, you can get more out of it if you choose to trait for it, like reflecting back projectiles, getting some Might stacks ( or both! ), or just cutting down the CD of those two skills.

I don’t know, I enjoy having a shield even if I don’t trait for it in PvE or PvP. That, and I’ve been a Tormented Shield/Chaos Axe user for going on 8 years…so I’m probably biased.

I like using shield on guardian when I’m troll zerging.

Shield is the worst offhand you can use in guardian. I has its use in warrior but not anymore.
And it was good in engi untill they add the double sigil on two handed weapons, now rifle has superior DPS.
You can forget the shield in PvE. But you can use it in PvP, it’s a good weapon there.

In pve it is marginally useful in guardian mace/shield builds. Those are heavily defensive though, and even then guardian has usually better defensive options available. Besides, in PvE you’d mostly want to concentrate on offense, not defense. For warrior… meh, here the offense over defense PvE rule applies even more.
It might have been useful for the last class (engi), but you’re going to run kits 90% of the time anyway.

No shield is the worse in guardian, and how defensive it is ? A kittenty protection duration and a push back. Focus is way ahead.
Mace can be used on mossman for high level fractal to be able to melee him, but the shield, never.

People once used to run mace/shield on guardian.. mostly for cleric guards. They used to be common at the start of the game, bur now it tends to be rare. Yopu sometimes see them running in WvW, but for PvE shield on guard is mostly dead..

I could suggest a zealot mace/shield, but the dps is not comparable to GS / S+F neither will the defence bonus do any good. You’ll likely be attacked by mobs due to a higher armor in zerk groups.

I myself still run a bunker heal build. mostly because I made a second full zerk |(or full zealot guardian) for all dps things. It benefits from the 64 added armor points, on its nomads/çlerics build. With 1280 power its is not build for dps….the 3928 armor in combat, 1881 vitality and 1400 healing somewhat offset this… leaving me with a nice character for faceroll content ( I use it to do the Living Story, just to see if it works. It works, you need to have patience though :-) ) It has a clerics set as well for acrtual fighting, I salvaged the zerk set. I do not need it anymore on the bunker. I’ll just take the other one.
(Bunker runs M+S /Staff healing build 0/0/6(IV,VII,XI)/6(II,X,XII)/2(IV) (nomads t/a)(clerics t/w)
; Dps runs GS / S+F dps/support build 2(II)/5(II(/V/VI),X)/0/6(I,VIII,IX/1) (zerk all/ or zealot w/a zerk trinkets => honor would be more healing related.)

Shields are like pretty much any other weapon, SITUATIONAL.
But because its an offhand weapon, its not as much used.

I have used a shield on a Guard, Warrior and Engineer(still use it on my engineer) in PvP.
It has a use once you start realizing that PvP is not just about spamming all your DPS as soon as it is up.

They really should buff the shield. I mainly play guardian and the shield is horrible. It’s strange they haven’t touched it. The cooldowns are extremely long for the ridiculous effects those things have. We’ll see if they buff it anytime soon.

I don’t think shield is actually NEEDED for any class,all other off hand weapons are better than the shield IMO,damage wise or utility wise…but you know…shield looks so cool and I use it on my Guardian and on my Warrior in open world PvE (not dungeons of course or fractals,I don’t want to slow down people doing speed runs) and I have so much fun with it.

I think you should use what you think it is fun in PvE,this is what the game is all about…fun.

Is the shield viable? Maybe…
Is it optimal in PvE? Nope.
Is it fun/cool? Yes!

I would totally use shield on my Engineer too if weapons weren’t his main thing :P

Sorean.5379:

I don’t think shield is actually NEEDED for any class,all other off hand weapons are better than the shield IMO,damage wise or utility wise…but you know…shield looks so cool and I use it on my Guardian and on my Warrior in open world PvE (not dungeons of course or fractals,I don’t want to slow down people doing speed runs) and I have so much fun with it.

I think you should use what you think it is fun in PvE,this is what the game is all about…fun.

Is the shield viable? Maybe…
Is it optimal in PvE? Nope.
Is it fun/cool? Yes!

I would totally use shield on my Engineer too if weapons weren’t his main thing :P

“I would totally use shield on my Engineer too if weapons weren’t his main thing "

SWAPSWAPSWAP AND MORE SWAPPING!!!

If you get good at kitting (not kiting, kitting, as in the art of swapping 3 kits) then timing on that shield can be AMAZING.

they are good for warriors and engineers so far in pvp

pve is full dps specs so it’s not for that case

I love my mace shield warrior spec in pve., especially when traited to reflect projectiles. Is it optimum? Prob not, but ive played it enough to get the best out if it and a huge amount of fun to boot.

I also have a guardian with a shield and now an engie with one. Guess i just like shields!

Uses for shield on Guard:

1) Potentially knock thieves out of SR

… and that’s it. Not worth it, and that can be potentially done with other skills too anyway.

Not only shield skins are fugly, they also are quite useless.

Shield should be removed :v

Tao.5096:

Not only shield skins are fugly, they also are quite useless.

Shield should be removed :v

I disagree. There are a lot of great shield skins in the game, and I wish I could use them more in PvE.

And they’re quite usable on all 3 classes in PvP.

I like using a shield on my engi. I’d use a shield on my paragon, if I had one. That would be cool.

I use Sword and Shield on my human warrior because he is a protector. Prefer it over other builds.

I use a sword and shield on my guardian, because it’s fun, and I like running around with a sword and shield.

Thieves(well, any berserkers) rely on first strike.
To them, PVP is something like FPS.
Berserker’s strategy: I hit you first, you die.
When a thief shadowsteps onto you, he activates their advantages such as venoms, quickness and signet.
After you break your stun, it is recommended to be defensive at that moment.
If you try hit each other, result is not good usually.
They prepared their setup to kill you in that case.
However, block in 1 skill slot can spoil their setup.

I use them as the OP said, in niche situations. They are great when you need them, but not as a full time equipped weapon. Well, not for me anyway.

Shields are useful for certain class/build combinations in certain environments. WvW/PvP primarily. Engineer and Warrior are at the top of my list where the shield has usefulness in those environments.

The only time I don’t use pistol/shield is when I can’t rely on grenades for long range damage. (Which is surprisingly a fair amount of the time, given that grenades perform best at short/medium range).

I’ve long since considered engineer shield skills to be the most useful.

But yeah, even warrior/guardian shield skills have situational uses.

Like others said, the shield is very useful for Enginner and Warrior, however, is useless for Guardian. I realy hope they change/remake the shield for Guardians.

Guardianshield is never the best choice in pve. Never. (cleric/zealot´s should play hammer+mace/focus)
In PvP only for 1 build/role, and even there, most people prefer the focus.
People just hope for a rework. Well….since release. I think it will never happen.

Warriorshield is pretty useless in pve. It can help little times while u learn soloing difficult thinks but i won´t call it viable.
Some rare builds use it in pvp, but i think most of them are not the best choices.

Engi shield ist not an option in pve. Because u can only use it with pistol. 1 Blast is never enough to make pistol more viable then the rifle.
In PvP it can be used. If u want to play condibuilds. I think it´s the only “real” metaviable shield in pvp.

On my warrior I swap out my warhorn for shield in WvW when I need to get into a tower that is being attacked by a large zerg, for extra defense.