Guild Wars 2

hi all,
I know armor and toughness give you less intake damage from physical hits but wondering if it does anything else like give a chance to block or anything similar?

also using a shield – does it give you a chance to block or does it only add to your armor and then the skills it has depending on profession?
Reason i ask is in the strategy guide which i know is already outdated it states it gives guardians aegis but in the skills that you get with it aegis is never mentioned. only the 33 less damage and the one that blocks projectiles.

Seems to me that a shield would offer some chance to block just by wearing it but gw2 is different than any other game i have played and doesn’t use the regular rules.
I have a level 80 guardian and war that can use a shield but haven’t since i don’t really like what they offer compared to other off-hands including Focus. I also have a low level engineer and not sure if it is a good option to use over another.

thanks for any answers you can provide

As far as I know, Shield operates like any off-hand weapon (not armor) – it gives you a different weapon skill slot 4 and 5, and gives you the stats that comes with it. It will only give you “block” if it is part of the skill (4 or 5), not because it is a shield. Note that other non-shield offhand weapon can also give skills that gives you “block”.

i hate that. sorry but the little defence or armor it gives you and the lack luster blocking abilities atleast for a guardian make it seem like a bad choice. At least the Focus does actually block for 3 seconds and not just give you a deal on damage reduction as a skill.

I guess i will look at what the warrior and engineer get from it and see if it is worth using on them.
thanks for the reply

Guardian is more than just a shield – the class has lots of skills to mitigate damages (much more than any other class) and it is actually very sturdy. Very often, my level 80 Guardian survives much better than my other party members in a dungeon run, which consist of Warriors, Elementalist and Mesmer. I hope you will give Guardian a chance and try it.

Shields always have one skill that blocks attacks, but it’s usually a situational skill that is used when the situation calls for it (e.g. a karka is using its Spit of Death attack). Shields also give a bonus to your defense, which reduces your damage taken, but it’s a modest amount that won’t see a dramatic drop.

I dunno if anyone has mentioned it or not, but you said something about Aegis in your top post. If you’re a guardian your Virtue of courage is sort of almost like that block you’re talking about, but with all weapons.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Virtue_of_Courage

If you don’t use the skill you get a block every how ever long it says, but that works with all weapon types on the guardian. Activating it will give an immediate block to you and allies.

Yramrag.3026:

Guardian is more than just a shield – the class has lots of skills to mitigate damages (much more than any other class) and it is actually very sturdy. Very often, my level 80 Guardian survives much better than my other party members in a dungeon run, which consist of Warriors, Elementalist and Mesmer. I hope you will give Guardian a chance and try it.

I’m not giving up on my Guardian – actually enjoy him alot but was wondering what a shield actually did if anything beyond the skills. as it is they just offer protection and knock back/absorbs projectile which i think is not that great for shield skills since focus actually does give a full block.

Seems like only the Warrior has a shield that actually blocks attacks. the Engineer can only daze or push back and absorb projectiles.

I honestly don’t understand the dev’s reasoning behind this. i could see the Focus skills of a Guardian better put on a shield and the shield skills switched to Focus. Never heard of a Focus before anyways.

Try not to think of shield as a “blocking” or “defense” equipment. It is one of the many offhand weapon that offers different set of attack skills. Just as shield, offhand weapons like focus (or dagger, torch, warhorn) may offer defensive skills (like block, protection, condition removal, healing, etc.) depending on what class is using it.