Guild Wars 2

I’d like to see this, but I don’t know how feasible it is. Wearing a shield on your back looks hella cool even if you’re not going to use it in combat, so unlocking a back item skin with the shield whenever you unlocked a shield skin would be great, right? Because there are some really cool shields out there that look great for fashion even if you’re not gonna use em’… Although it could probably be a bit of confusion seeing an Elementalist running with a shield, or a thief or something. Could mess with people and mistake what class they are in PvP or some stuff.

I know giant angel wings is the whole rage right now though, so I’d understand if this wasn’t a priority… Or ever planned for that matter.

I’m sure I saw one run by me yesterday in Bitterfrost. I don’t use a shield, so don’t know if it can be equipped on the back or not, but I don’t think I was dreaming….

I haven’t found any ways to use shield skins on back items though. Unless there’s a super secret shield backpack skin that I don’t know about yet… Or method.

I don’t think a none shield using class with a shield back is a problem because we have Quivers after all.

A shield using class using a shield back item however would be because they just pulled the shield off their back for battle then clip out a perfect copy in their hand with the shield still on their back.

I suggested this a long time ago. I don’t really care for shields as a weapon but they’d make great back items.

I’m not sure if very many run shields but I think it would be better if they converted them to specialized back pieces and gave them some kind of animation effect when combat mode. For example the valentine shield skin could pulse a translucent hearts floating around the character or pulsing on one arm like that shield boon. It would make shields a universal back item for all professions.

There’s the issue brought up already on non-shield classes being seen with them, which I’m sure some PvPers would take issue with. For classes that DO use shields, it would look weird to hold/stow shields when another is on the back. Why have two shields? And why use a shield and shield backpiece knowing they’d clip when stowed?

One solution would be to code shield backpieces to disappear the same way other backs do when gliding, only set the trigger for entering and exiting combat or stowing weapons. That way shield users can stow their shields without clipping into the backpiece. But for non-shield classes, that would mean shields magically dis/appearing all the time… So the trigger would have to work on shield classes only.

That’s the train of thought I’ve come up with. Seems like too much work for a quality of life thing.

^
The clipping of two shields at once is bound to be complained about over the course of many, many threads. I doubt it’s worth ANets time to make a backpiece shield not clip or to read the many complaining posts.

You can disable the back piece from being visible. I wish there was an option to make stowed weapons invisible.