Guild Wars 2

I have this issue with armor having only one reinforced shoulder like female human heavy vigil armor, the new pheonix light armor…

Why is it always the left shoulder that is reinforced when you can have a shield there? Since you can only equip shield on left arm, reinforced shoulder should be on the right one. This brings a lot of clipping issue with shields and even faces for greatsword bearers. Are they worse clipping issues on the right shoulder? Like with stowed 2 handed weapons?

I believe historical armor used to have reinforced shoulder on the side not wearing the shield when they only had one, right?

Fixy.6193:

I believe historical armor used to have reinforced shoulder on the side not wearing the shield when they only had one, right?

But the arm holding the weapon needs more mobility, so having less reinforcement on the right, with the goal of allowing that arm to move more freely, wasn’t that uncommon.

It’s simply a byproduct of movement ability for using a sword, a reinforced shoulder on the ‘sword-hand’ right side would limit the movement ability of that arm. I has very little to do with the shield. Dual wielders shouldn’t have any reinforced shoulders as the swords would compensate for the protection by blocking with the swords.

The reinforcement is on the shoulder opposite of the sword hand as that sword would be protection for that side whereas the other shoulder would be a direct attack point for an adversary (who was same-handed as you) and more difficult to protect with your sword. Shields are only necessary if your armor hinders your movement abilities or projectiles are part of your local battlefield or if your army is made up of amateurs.

It’s also the reason why not using your offhand to attack in your auto attack chain is very common. An offhand weapon isn’t very easy to utilize, being on your non-dominant hand AND possibly getting in the way of your dominant weapon.

Pretend you’re wielding two swords. Now, imagine those swords were full-length swords, meaning they should be a little longer than your hip to the ground, if they were point first at the ground (that’s where the middle of the hilt would be). So you have two pretty large swords which you’re now swinging.

To be able to hit an enemy while protecting yourself WITHOUT hurting yourself or hitting your swords together is an achievement in and of itself.

Ignoring the fact that this is anime, notice how he wields his offhand sword in this video.

If you pay close attention, it’s actually clumsy usage and he tends to hold both swords next to each other and swing with both arms. Even when he starts striking, most of the strikes are done with the dominant arm and ignoring the off-hand.

If you start going into muscle structure and balance, you’d notice that using two swords is very, very ineffective.

Even Miyamoto Musakittenhe legendary samurai who wielded 2 swords, only did that to train for single-sword combat, because it would make your arms stronger for when you held a sword with one hand so you did not need to strike with 2 arms together.

Lil Puppy.5216:

The reinforcement is on the shoulder opposite of the sword hand as that sword would be protection for that side whereas the other shoulder would be a direct attack point for an adversary (who was same-handed as you) and more difficult to protect with your sword. Shields are only necessary if your armor hinders your movement abilities or projectiles are part of your local battlefield or if your army is made up of amateurs.

Hmm reinforced shoulder don’t hinder that much movement and were designed to protect the head because if your attack fail this side is wide open with no protection at all beside this shoulder and anyway it’s harder to defend yourself with a sword than with a shield. While on the shield side well you have a shield which makes it hard for your opponent to land any dangerous blow…

Anyway beside the historical/practical debate I wondered if from a design point of view it wouldn’t makes thing easier. For example Gladiator armor from gw1 see attachement.

@Esplen: Sorry but I fail to see what does this have to do with shoulder armor and clipping

It’s describing why having your dominant arm free is actually something that has less to do with visuals and more to do with technicalities.

Esplen.3940:

It’s describing why having your dominant arm free is actually something that has less to do with visuals and more to do with technicalities.

Oh right I see your point now. And in game any dual wielder can use the option to hide them if they like.

It’s more of a design thing that bothers me. I wondered if clipping would be as bad if they had gone the other way around. Also I like how it feels more balanced from an aesthetic point of view.