Guild Wars 2

Any guardians use Sword+Shield?

I’m asking because I’m not too sure “when” is the good time to use Shield of Absorption. I like the fact that it pushes mobs away from me, but while my guardian is locked in the skill execution, the mobs have time to come back. Also, the shield active time is not long enough to really help allies around who try to revive others, etc.

Any advices on this? cause I like the idea of this skill, but I find myself never using it because I don’t know “WHEN” I must use it to be effective.

Regards to all Guardians out there and thanks!
Downy

If I’m the first one in I’ll probably throw it up cause the mobs usually throw their hardest hitting skills initially.
If I’m familiar with an area (dungeon) I’ll be looking out for the harder hitting mobs and watching their animations with the intent to throw up SoA when I see it.

It depends on the situation really. In PvE I use almost exclusively for the knock back. In PvP/WvW I use it when siegeing walls to protect allies and as an area denial mechanic.

Having a guardian myself I know where you’re coming from… But literally the best advice I can give you is use the skill, like really use it, a lot all the time and see what works for you..

there is no really ONLY time to use it. My advice? use it when you need it.

I use it at two different time. One is annoying rangers who i cant get to or that are raining arrows down on my nearly wiped party. Normally it will save us and give them time to eather stabilize or start there heals. The other time is to interrupt mobs that are getting ready to hit me with something nasty. Ill also use it to run as you can pop it then instantly turn and run which cancels out the channeling of it giving you a little bit of a gap if you do it right.

I have a follow-up question:
Does anyone else have trouble with activating the shield?
I have been able to use it for healing in sPvP, but i have never been able to activate/detonate the shield in PvE.
Anyone else having issues with detonating it, or am i just missing something?

I’ve noticed that we can detonate it, but never got it to work(I haven’t pvped either yet). I just cancel it right after the knockback and resume what I was doing for now.

I did not even realize you could make it go boom. But i’ve spam cast it multiple times and never once got it to do it. Broken skill maybe? Also noticed resently it doesent seem to bounce arrows back at rangers for me. Maybe we could get an answer from someone at ANet?

Edit: Just read the description and appears it doesent bounce arrows. Could have swore it use to though.

SiNoS.2147:

I did not even realize you could make it go boom. But i’ve spam cast it multiple times and never once got it to do it. Broken skill maybe? Also noticed resently it doesent seem to bounce arrows back at rangers for me. Maybe we could get an answer from someone at ANet?

Edit: Just read the description and appears it doesent bounce arrows. Could have swore it use to though.

It has been absorb ever since I made my Guardian, which is about 5 days ago if I remember correctly.

Qelris.6901:

SiNoS.2147:

I did not even realize you could make it go boom. But i’ve spam cast it multiple times and never once got it to do it. Broken skill maybe? Also noticed resently it doesent seem to bounce arrows back at rangers for me. Maybe we could get an answer from someone at ANet?

Edit: Just read the description and appears it doesent bounce arrows. Could have swore it use to though.

It has been absorb ever since I made my Guardian, which is about 5 days ago if I remember correctly.

Eh i might be thinking of a beta build. Or a simular skill.

I sometimes hate this skill and guardian who spams it.

If I play warrior, I usually jump in the middle of the mob, swing my axes and all of them are getting dmg. Two or three times are usually enough combined with adrenaline burst skill to put them down. If mob is too strong, then I jump out, wait for recharge and go back again. Fast and clean.
But if there is overzelaous guardian who does not look what is going on and where am I with my health or what is mob doing to me (conditions, knock-backs and so on) and keep spamming SoP then mob is thrown all over the place and I have to chase them 1 by 1. And I hate it most if I just use adrenalin burst and mob is pushed away, so it goes out for nothing.
Don’t get me wrong, SoP is very usefull, but it has to be used right. If preasure is too big, use it. If melee’s are knocked back, use it so they can get up. If you see boss is getting ready to do wipe out, use it. But please don’t spam it and don’t use it if war is having mob under control.

The sheild can only absorb arrows and not AOE spells from eles?

Ya arrows only. If you have a caster best to focus fire it first as its going to be the biggest thorn in your side.

Thanks a lot for the answers!

For the detonate bug, yeah it has been reported (by me and many) on the forum and in-game. The detonate works in PvP (I can’t testify, I haven’t tried PvP so far), but not in PvE.

I didn’t know you could cancel the channeling of the shield. When I use it, I usually stand there and wait for its completion. To cancel it, I just move?? (I cannot try it now).

So, from what I understand, SoA is really useful in PvP. In PvE, it’s mostly used for knockback (big attack disruption) or in a party to allow friends some time for healing.

Is there a way to make SoA longer? Like with boons or something else? Cause for boss attacks, from what I’ve seen so far, their area of effect attacks are usually much longer than SoA which result in a temporary protection, but when it finishes, I’m still standing in the AoE and get destroyed.