Guild Wars 2

Does anyone have any idea why Gear Shield is what it is?

To elaborate, Gear Shield is the following:

• A base 20 second recharge skill
• an instant activation skill
• a skill that is active for 3 seconds
• while active you are immune 99% of the games abilities, except unblockable and and some ground targeted CC (which are few and far between abilities or require setup to create such combos ie basilisk venom and shortbow 4)
• in meta builds this ability is Traited to be a 16 second cool down.

I would like to request that the community find ways to compare this skills usage in meta builds against other meta builds that perhaps can do similar things in order to identify some kind of justification for this skill being what it is.

All engi skills has shorter cooldowns. Its compensated by very bad condi removal and no stability. When engi blocking he cant do anything else so just wait 3s.If you mindlesly throw all your cooldowns into his easy recognizable block its just L2P issue.

An entire weapon devoted to warrior: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance

30 sec cd, 3 sec block. Almost twice as inefficient as the engi gear shield (since you can get almost 2 gear shields off for every one warrior block).

Not to mention, the warrior has only 17 skills while the engi has 22 in the current meta spec which makes the gear shield yet another 22% more efficient since it can be used in conjunction with other skills so that the engi never experiences low points in combat (ie never has to worry about cds and just auto because they have sooo many skills).

But lets not forget the engi even has combo fields it can play off of while the warrior ONLY has fire field.

In short: there is no justification for gear shield being SO powerful.

for its short CD it should be a 2 sec block imo.

Eurantien.4632:

An entire weapon devoted to warrior: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance

30 sec cd, 3 sec block. Almost twice as inefficient as the engi gear shield (since you can get almost 2 gear shields off for every one warrior block).

Not to mention, the warrior has only 17 skills while the engi has 22 in the current meta spec which makes the gear shield yet another 22% more efficient since it can be used in conjunction with other skills so that the engi never experiences low points in combat (ie never has to worry about cds and just auto because they have sooo many skills).

But lets not forget the engi even has combo fields it can play off of while the warrior ONLY has fire field.

In short: there is no justification for gear shield being SO powerful.

that meta engi build has a poison field and 2 waters, and thats it
sooooooo gooooooood

mesmer invuln? ranger signet? renewed focus?

as stated already, if you mindlessly use skills at an engi’s shield it’s a l2p issue.

insanemaniac.2456:

Eurantien.4632:

An entire weapon devoted to warrior: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance

30 sec cd, 3 sec block. Almost twice as inefficient as the engi gear shield (since you can get almost 2 gear shields off for every one warrior block).

Not to mention, the warrior has only 17 skills while the engi has 22 in the current meta spec which makes the gear shield yet another 22% more efficient since it can be used in conjunction with other skills so that the engi never experiences low points in combat (ie never has to worry about cds and just auto because they have sooo many skills).

But lets not forget the engi even has combo fields it can play off of while the warrior ONLY has fire field.

In short: there is no justification for gear shield being SO powerful.

that meta engi build has a poison field and 2 waters, and thats it
sooooooo gooooooood

But we should also keep in mind that the current “meta” isn’t set in stone and that it does fluctuate but that regardless of the engineer’s build it often contains 2 kits or 3 making the possible number of skills in the “meta spec” to be about 27. Giving some variability in that 3rd kit it could be a fire field, a light field, or a smoke field. Either way we look at it, we can see that the engineer has many advantages over the warrior in terms of superiority in skills (as represented by the OP with gear shield). Meanwhile, all the warrior has is superior autos (which won’t hit that often) and superior hp pool and armor. However, in the grand scheme of things we know that all a warrior is, is that bucket of hp we have to eat through which is a direct cause from their lackluster skills.

Xterra.6172:

mesmer invuln? ranger signet? renewed focus?

as stated already, if you mindlessly use skills at an engi’s shield it’s a l2p issue.

Let’s take a loot at ranger signet. When traited it is a 6 second invuln from power damage only on a 64 second cd. Compared to gear shield. Gear shield is a 3 second “essentially inuln” on a 16 second cd. Meaning that when straight compared with the rangers signet. It is actually a 12 second invuln (from all incoming damage!) on a 64 second cd while the rangers is a 6 sec invuln on the same cd (yet ONLY immune to incoming power damage). That makes gear shield twice as good as signet of stone! Let’s not forget, that while with signet of stone we have the counterplay of seeing when it is on cool down or not via the effects bar and last but not least, signet of stone uses up a utility slot, while gear shield also gets 3 (maybe 4 considering the F skill) other utilities (wrench smack auto is never used), an aoe cripple/bleed, a prybar that can hit like a truck AND stack confusion, AND has an unblockable pull!

I don’t know about you but the facts seem to be telling me that gear shield… is a little strong.

engi is very easy to kill . . . needs more defensive skills.

Also please buff eles . . . . more heals and evades.

Instead of spamgineers having good sustain through creative use of kits and gadgets, they got Gear Shield to spam when they feel just a smidge threatened.

Gear Shield really isn’t an issue with engineers in my opinion, their lack of defensive options overall is very apparent.

I wouldn’t mind Gear Shield at all if Kits actually had a cooldown on swapping, it’s a 3 second block you can pull out of your kitten at anytime.

Eurantien.4632:

insanemaniac.2456:

Eurantien.4632:

An entire weapon devoted to warrior: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance

30 sec cd, 3 sec block. Almost twice as inefficient as the engi gear shield (since you can get almost 2 gear shields off for every one warrior block).

Not to mention, the warrior has only 17 skills while the engi has 22 in the current meta spec which makes the gear shield yet another 22% more efficient since it can be used in conjunction with other skills so that the engi never experiences low points in combat (ie never has to worry about cds and just auto because they have sooo many skills).

But lets not forget the engi even has combo fields it can play off of while the warrior ONLY has fire field.

In short: there is no justification for gear shield being SO powerful.

that meta engi build has a poison field and 2 waters, and thats it
sooooooo gooooooood

But we should also keep in mind that the current “meta” isn’t set in stone and that it does fluctuate but that regardless of the engineer’s build it often contains 2 kits or 3 making the possible number of skills in the “meta spec” to be about 27. Giving some variability in that 3rd kit it could be a fire field, a light field, or a smoke field. Either way we look at it, we can see that the engineer has many advantages over the warrior in terms of superiority in skills (as represented by the OP with gear shield). Meanwhile, all the warrior has is superior autos (which won’t hit that often) and superior hp pool and armor. However, in the grand scheme of things we know that all a warrior is, is that bucket of hp we have to eat through which is a direct cause from their lackluster skills.

no
there is no variation in the 3rd kit. if its 3 kit, that engi has eg, because otherwise they dont have a stunbreak and are bad. nades/bombs/tk is not viable. bombs/eg/tk is unplayed because nades have range and so are more versatile. and no meta spec runs flamethrower.

for eg/tk/nades, you have an extra light field and a blast. light fields are soooooooo goooooood.

Nova Stiker.8396:

I wouldn’t mind Gear Shield at all if Kits actually had a cooldown on swapping, it’s a 3 second block you can pull out of your kitten at anytime.

I do notice, you make a conscience, disingenuous effort, to attempt to falsely imply the profession gives up nothing for the lack of CD on kits. You conveniently seem to ignore the fact that they have no weapons swap.

I am a huge fan of the “spamgeneer” though. I do so enjoy when when hammer spammers and stealth spammer players use the highest of intellectual buzzwords as if it was an insult. Every profession is constantly spamming buttons to have their profession moving and attacking. I love the hypocrisy of falsely implying it as an insult when someone else does it.

Nova Stiker.8396:

it’s a 3 second block you can pull out of your kitten at anytime.

You poor thing. You actually believe the gear shield has no cool down and can be used at any time?

As a matter of fact, the skill has a cool down. To be honest, it might be beneficial if you familiarized yourself with a skill, its functionality, and cool downs, before you complained about it. It helps prevent confusion.

Loool @Eurantien. Just spam your Entangle when the engi is Blocking and see him melt.

Eurantien.4632:

An entire weapon devoted to warrior: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance

30 sec cd, 3 sec block. Almost twice as inefficient as the engi gear shield (since you can get almost 2 gear shields off for every one warrior block).

Not to mention, the warrior has only 17 skills while the engi has 22 in the current meta spec which makes the gear shield yet another 22% more efficient since it can be used in conjunction with other skills so that the engi never experiences low points in combat (ie never has to worry about cds and just auto because they have sooo many skills).

But lets not forget the engi even has combo fields it can play off of while the warrior ONLY has fire field.

In short: there is no justification for gear shield being SO powerful.

Lets look at warriors defenses in a broader sense compared to engies.

Dogged March, Cleansing Ire, possible Shield block, warhorn’s utility, the ability to break stuns up to 5 times or more a minute compared to 2 on an engie (unlike on an engie a warrior won’t nerf themselves if they run more stun breaks), armor+toughness differences are better on warrior, access to a lot of stability. Warriors have equal or better abilities to kite than engies depending on what set ups the two have.

3 sec block on 16s CD isn’t like some end all and be all defense compared to what other classes have.

What is strong about it is when combined with the extremely low cd/low cast time healing turret and the perma regen and high up-time on vigor.

The 3s block gives them time to get full endurance again and to heal for quite alot and gets them closer to their OP heal which has little counter play.

It is like a bridge between cooldowns.

I dont think lowering its duration would do much. I would prefer the cooldown be increased to around 30 seconds.

It is obviously way too strong. A 30s cd = its still really good. REALLY GOOD. Just not totally broken and unfair.

Edit: actually on consideration its still too strong at a 3s block on a 30s cd. I would say make it a 2s block on a 30s cd and its close to acceptable.

I would also increase healing turrets cast time to 1 second to give it a bit of counter play.

personally, and this is just me here, but i’d rather have ~20% block up-time instead of ways to deal with all the things I can’t block.

Justification is: they don’t have weapon swapping, must use utility slots for added weapon skills which shorts them on potential defensive skills, and as a mid-range skirmisher Engi doesn’t have the luxury of hanging back at 1200 range and “pewpewing” with full efficacy. Typically an Engi has one utility slot it can afford for a stun break, which is what makes Tool Kit (not just Gear Shield) so desirable as a kit option.

There are actually a lot of skills that bypass Block

hackks.3687:

Justification is: they don’t have weapon swapping, must use utility slots for added weapon skills which shorts them on potential defensive skills, and as a mid-range skirmisher Engi doesn’t have the luxury of hanging back at 1200 range and “pewpewing” with full efficacy. Typically an Engi has one utility slot it can afford for a stun break, which is what makes Tool Kit (not just Gear Shield) so desirable as a kit option.

There are actually a lot of skills that bypass Block

What is the justification behind random spamming nades on any corpses and making ressing impossible even when having massive healing, blocks, vigor, good health pool, kittenload of armour, massive condi damage and massive power damage?

Lordrosicky.5813:

hackks.3687:

Justification is: they don’t have weapon swapping, must use utility slots for added weapon skills which shorts them on potential defensive skills, and as a mid-range skirmisher Engi doesn’t have the luxury of hanging back at 1200 range and “pewpewing” with full efficacy. Typically an Engi has one utility slot it can afford for a stun break, which is what makes Tool Kit (not just Gear Shield) so desirable as a kit option.

There are actually a lot of skills that bypass Block

What is the justification behind random spamming nades on any corpses and making ressing impossible even when having massive healing, blocks, vigor, good health pool, kittenload of armour, massive condi damage and massive power damage?

I think you are over-estimating the profession. Specially coming from a Necro that kills Engi’s like kids kill flies…

Lordrosicky.5813:

hackks.3687:

Justification is: they don’t have weapon swapping, must use utility slots for added weapon skills which shorts them on potential defensive skills, and as a mid-range skirmisher Engi doesn’t have the luxury of hanging back at 1200 range and “pewpewing” with full efficacy. Typically an Engi has one utility slot it can afford for a stun break, which is what makes Tool Kit (not just Gear Shield) so desirable as a kit option.

There are actually a lot of skills that bypass Block

What is the justification behind random spamming nades on any corpses and making ressing impossible even when having massive healing, blocks, vigor, good health pool, kittenload of armour, massive condi damage and massive power damage?

What is the justification of any class cleaving downed bodies?

Lol

Clearly Tool Kit is way better than any other secondary kits: Flamethrower, Bomb Kit, or secondary gadgets like Throw Mine, or Rocket Boots.

It’s definitely an outlier in PvP. Prybar, Gear Shield, Magnet, such clutch abilities.

Tool Kit is so good that Cele Engis give up a ton of Might Stacking and AoE spam of the bomb kit. Who would normally give up AoE Spam and Might Stacking? Lol.

It’s because Engineers are dissatisfied with their ability to survive, without it. Immob stacking is too real to have no block, displacement/teleport, condi wipe, or invulns (if you run Slickie Shoes). So Engineers will always run it.

Is it objectively too strong? Definitely, but what do you do

Edit: I made some builds that use no Tool Kit, but Leg Mods & Hoelbrak runes for -53% immob duration. It’s not bad, but Bombs/FT just don’t have the same Synergy with Rifle. Tool Kit too stronk

Edit Edit: Might stacking is about to get worse so you can see Tool Kit is here to stay as well.

Chaith.8256:

Clearly Tool Kit is way better than any other secondary kits: Flamethrower, Bomb Kit, or secondary gadgets like Throw Mine, or Rocket Boots.

It’s definitely an outlier in PvP. Prybar, Gear Shield, Magnet, such clutch abilities.

Tool Kit is so good that Cele Engis give up a ton of Might Stacking and AoE spam of the bomb kit. Who would normally give up AoE Spam and Might Stacking? Lol.

It’s because Engineers are dissatisfied with their ability to survive, without it. Immob stacking is too real to have no block, displacement/teleport, condi wipe, or invulns (if you run Slickie Shoes). So Engineers will always run it.

Is it objectively too strong? Definitely, but what do you do

Edit: I made some builds that use no Tool Kit, but Leg Mods & Hoelbrak runes for -53% immob duration. It’s not bad, but Bombs/FT just don’t have the same Synergy with Rifle. Tool Kit too stronk

Edit Edit: Might stacking is about to get worse so you can see Tool Kit is here to stay as well.

There is nothing wrong with strong stuff. And cross-profession comparisons are flawed.

But at the same time engineer is too good and needs to somehow be nerfed. It isnt being nerfed at all in the patch.

In fact the might nerfs hit ele and warrior not engi. So engi will be BETTER after the next patch than now (relative to everything else)

Something needs to be done to give engis a bit of a nerf. The block seems a resonable target.

after all this years and patches you still didn’t figure out that devs got a thing for engis? (probably because it is least played profession because it is crappy in pve and absolutely boring from roleplaying perspective)

i mean do you really expect much from devs that allow brainless crap like turret engis in pvp? that pretty much says everything about them

Lordrosicky.5813:

There is nothing wrong with strong stuff. And cross-profession comparisons are flawed.

I agree, and I’m doing 0 of those, tell that to Eura’s Signet of Stone vs. Gear Shield analysis LOL.

As per the nerfs coming in, I think that Engi is going to lose about 130 ish stat points on the meta build when stacked, and Ele/War are going to lose arond 190 ish stat points.

Backpack is actually convinced that Engi is being hit harder than Ele/War though. Because Engineers are losing 42% of their might bonus compared to like, 17% of other profession’s might bonus.

(I don’t agree with Backpack’s analysis)

So yes, it looks like Engineers will indeed have a 60 stat leg up against Cele Ele/War and a 130 stat nerf against everything else, it wasn’t a big move really.

Shockwave.1230:

Does anyone have any idea why Gear Shield is what it is?

To elaborate, Gear Shield is the following:

• A base 20 second recharge skill
• an instant activation skill
• a skill that is active for 3 seconds
• while active you are immune 99% of the games abilities, except unblockable and and some ground targeted CC (which are few and far between abilities or require setup to create such combos ie basilisk venom and shortbow 4)
• in meta builds this ability is Traited to be a 16 second cool down.

I would like to request that the community find ways to compare this skills usage in meta builds against other meta builds that perhaps can do similar things in order to identify some kind of justification for this skill being what it is.

I think the block has a too short cooldown. It could be 25s base and 20s traited. The autoatck and the toolbelt skill could get some buff though.

Chaith.8256:

Lordrosicky.5813:

There is nothing wrong with strong stuff. And cross-profession comparisons are flawed.

I agree, and I’m doing 0 of those, tell that to Eura’s Signet of Stone vs. Gear Shield analysis LOL.

As per the nerfs coming in, I think that Engi is going to lose about 130 ish stat points on the meta build when stacked, and Ele/War are going to lose arond 190 ish stat points.

Backpack is actually convinced that Engi is being hit harder than Ele/War though. Because Engineers are losing 42% of their might bonus compared to like, 17% of other profession’s might bonus.

(I don’t agree with Backpack’s analysis)

So yes, it looks like Engineers will indeed have a 60 stat leg up against Cele Ele/War and a 130 stat nerf against everything else, it wasn’t a big move really.

Well if its a big deal then people will run run equally OP sigils like geomancy/doom/energy.

The point isnt might and might stacking. It is getting damage whilst be tanky as kitten. That can be done via might but also via other sigils and runes. And celestial amulet as a whole causes this.

The might nerf hits warr/ele a tiny amount BECAUSE they actually stack might. Engis dont outside of the sigil. So they just wont run the sigil and will run some other sigil combo which is ALMOST exactly as strong as the current battle sigil. So the “130 pt” nerf is a total joke because it presumes engis wont switch up sigils.

Engi got buffed in this patch= what this means.

That is why in this video (by an NA dude): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjfOvMwt5vg

he says to nerf celestial AND a ton of sigils. You cant nerf just battle sigil and might and expect any effect AT ALL unless you dont realise how strong other sigils like geomancy/doom/energy/air/fire are. An engi can just transition over to these sigils with minimal effect and actually be stronger seen as the natural might ele/warrior gets is being nerfed.

How come the NA dude in the video gets it but the rest of you are totally clueless and parrot the same “might is the ONLY problem” line. Celestial must be toned down and so must other sigils alongside battle.

INC = even more OP cele engi.

Lordrosicky.5813:

How come the NA dude in the video gets it but the rest of you are totally clueless and parrot the same “might is the ONLY problem” line. Celestial must be toned down and so must other sigils alongside battle.

INC = even more OP cele engi.

:S Nobody expected Celestial to not get shaved by around 38 × 7 = 266 stats.

That was something lots of people expected. Not everybody but you is ‘clueless’ who parrot the thing they heard the guy say who made a video, thats not really fair.

Chaith.8256:

Lordrosicky.5813:

How come the NA dude in the video gets it but the rest of you are totally clueless and parrot the same “might is the ONLY problem” line. Celestial must be toned down and so must other sigils alongside battle.

INC = even more OP cele engi.

:S Nobody expected Celestial to not get shaved by around 38 × 7 = 266 stats.

That was something lots of people expected. Not everybody but you is ‘clueless’ who parrot the thing they heard the guy say who made a video, thats not really fair.

I know but lets end the myth that this patch hits engis at all. It doesnt. It does a underwhelming job of hitting ele/warrior. Slight nerf to them.

if IP took a big nerf and gear shield went down to 2 sec I think engineers would be very close to balanced.

Lordrosicky.5813:

I know but lets end the myth that this patch hits engis at all. It doesnt. It does a underwhelming job of hitting ele/warrior. Slight nerf to them.

This patch is bringing very small adjustments. I mean, I could argue since battle sigil is being nerfed, everyone using battle sigil gets hit, but we’re talking <3% of difference in performance between Engi and Ele/War, but what’s the point. Might stackers will be a little weaker, non-might stackers a little comparatively stronger, we’ll probably not see a big meta shift.

I posted about this recently in the “things that should be in the balance patch” thread.

Same with the duration of gear shield. Blocks given to other professions also block for 3 seconds, or block a set number of attacks (often 3). Shield stance, Illusionary Riposte (2.5 seconds but also creates an illusion), Illusionary Counter (2 seconds, but also creates an illusion), Shelter (2 seconds plus heal). There are many skills that block 1-3 attacks and then cause damage at the end as well. Gear shield is very similar in utility to other blocks in the game because of the lower cooldown. The untraited cooldown is 20 seconds, and given that it does nothing but block, I think this is fair. The cooldown can be reduced to 16 seconds through traits. Other professions can trait to extend their blocks or lessen the cooldown of their blocks through traits as well.

Chaith.8256:

Lordrosicky.5813:

I know but lets end the myth that this patch hits engis at all. It doesnt. It does a underwhelming job of hitting ele/warrior. Slight nerf to them.

This patch is bringing very small adjustments. I mean, I could argue since battle sigil is being nerfed, everyone using battle sigil gets hit, but we’re talking <3% of difference in performance between Engi and Ele/War, but what’s the point. Might stackers will be a little weaker, non-might stackers a little comparatively stronger, we’ll probably not see a big meta shift.

OK I agree then.

Also I am not talking from a self interest perspective. In a celestial/bunker comp world a well played necro can be the strongest thing possible. So this patch might be really good for necro as it will mean slightly less OP celestial comps which a necro can potentially abuse.

A full nerf to celestial = mesmer/thief comps. Mesmer/thief comps are a nightmare for a necro as the mobility (nullifys ports) and interrupts (nullify heal) are really difficult. 1 mesmer = fine. 1 thief = fine. But mesmer/thief with synced burst = hard for a necro.

As I am saying, this patch looks AMAZING for necromancer. But I think more should be done to nerf celestial and also fire/air sigils.

Also I am not talking from self-interest as removing solo queue = removed all the personal serious competition for me as this is what I tried in when I was try harding the game (solo queue got very tiresome before the end = I never did it/ran proper builds in it). So imo celestial needs nerfing but fire/air does too. Necro could be very strong after this patch…and yet I still dont like it.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Necro could be very strong after this patch…and yet I still dont like it.

Np, nobody is going there. I generally don’t care to accuse people of having self-serving suggestions, it’s a pretty lame smoke-screen in place of real reasons for, or against.

Well mr Eurantien. I would gladly give up gear shield if grenades wouldn’t require ground targeting and also shrapnel grenade would be 10 rapidly launched nades with 1800 range.
Also if a 3s block on a 16s cd(traited) is that op how about the mesmer outright invuln on sword? On a much lower cooldown too!
Oh and lol at the “shield a clearly warrior weapon” or whatever the other dude said. Where exactly does it say that? What about greatsword a clearly warrior weapon? When mesmer and even ranger use it better?

Chaith.8256:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Necro could be very strong after this patch…and yet I still dont like it.

Np, nobody is going there. I generally don’t care to accuse people of having self-serving suggestions, it’s a pretty lame smoke-screen in place of real reasons for, or against.

Fair enough. You have a good point.

But spend a few seconds on the forums and you realise people generally do support their self interests.

In fact it isnt always that. It is hard to be objective about stuff which you fight against. Hence why the devs should represent a pool of all the classes if they can.

Gear Shield very strong, but balanced. Engi have very small pool of deffensive cooldowns, very weak vs condi and play with max 1 stunbreaker. Stunned engi can’t spam skills and heal like ele or blink out with 8 sec cd like mesmer. And engineer have weak ranged options, he is node fighter and farther 600 engi have only rifle AA. Yep, nades, but in ranged nades – assault weapon, usable only for bombing point.

Looking at other classes blocks, a 20 second CD block isnt that special. Warrior offhand sword, ranger greatsword, mesmer offhand sword, they all have a a 15 second CD block, untraited. Traits will improve them to 12 seconds CD.
Ok, all of them block just 1 time in case of melee attacks, but therefore they offer strong counterattacks plus a second offensive mechanic, engies toolkit block doesnt. Engis also have to sacrifice an utility slot for it, while the other classes get those blocks on weapon skill.

Im fine with it.

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

Looking at other classes blocks, a 20 second CD block isnt that special. Warrior offhand sword, ranger greatsword, mesmer offhand sword, they all have a a 15 second CD block, untraited. Traits will improve them to 12 seconds CD.
Ok, all of them block just 1 time in case of melee attacks, but therefore they offer strong counterattacks plus a second offensive mechanic, engies toolkit block doesnt. Engis also have to sacrifice an utility slot for it, while the other classes get those blocks on weapon skill.

Im fine with it.

This is a disingenuous comparison, assuming you have some actually experience playing these four classes (Engi, War, Mes, Ranger). I play them all regularly, and Engi is * by far* the most powerful of those skills; it’s not remotely close. Anyone who main’ed one of those other classes would easily trade skills.

Engi is probably one of my most played classes, and I would have no issue with our block being increased to a 25s CD, or reduced to 2s block.

Theologus.7085:

Gear Shield very strong, but balanced. Engi have very small pool of deffensive cooldowns, very weak vs condi and play with max 1 stunbreaker. Stunned engi can’t spam skills and heal like ele or blink out with 8 sec cd like mesmer. And engineer have weak ranged options, he is node fighter and farther 600 engi have only rifle AA. Yep, nades, but in ranged nades – assault weapon, usable only for bombing point.

I see a belief that defensive cooldowns aren’t readily available.

Are engineer CCs not actually simultaneously defensive and offensive? More simply, in 99% of situations when you CC someone aren’t you dealing damage while not receiving new incoming effects? Is CCs defensive aspect not stronger the smaller a fight is? (3v3 < 2v2 < 1v1)

Is 3 condition removals every 15 seconds at optimal use actually weak? (Transmute + Pickup Healing Turret)

Is having 1 stunbreak to use every 24 seconds early and mid fight and 1 guarenteed stunbreak to use when low on health really the same as only having 1 stunbreak? (Inertial Converter + Super Speed)

Is engineer really not a ranged damage dealer and close combat burster?

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

Looking at other classes blocks, a 20 second CD block isnt that special. Warrior offhand sword, ranger greatsword, mesmer offhand sword, they all have a a 15 second CD block, untraited. Traits will improve them to 12 seconds CD.
Ok, all of them block just 1 time in case of melee attacks, but therefore they offer strong counterattacks plus a second offensive mechanic, engies toolkit block doesnt. Engis also have to sacrifice an utility slot for it, while the other classes get those blocks on weapon skill.

Im fine with it.

Is a utility skill that gives you 5 other tools to use really a sacrifice?

Are skills that block 1 attack for 2 seconds close in strength compared to skills that block infinity attacks for 3 seconds?

Are there meta builds where it’s worth traiting to lower these 1 block skills’ recharge durations?

robertul.3679:

Well mr Eurantien. I would gladly give up gear shield if grenades wouldn’t require ground targeting and also shrapnel grenade would be 10 rapidly launched nades with 1800 range.
Also if a 3s block on a 16s cd(traited) is that op how about the mesmer outright invuln on sword? On a much lower cooldown too!
Oh and lol at the “shield a clearly warrior weapon” or whatever the other dude said. Where exactly does it say that? What about greatsword a clearly warrior weapon? When mesmer and even ranger use it better?

Invuln on sword? Get your facts straight homie before acting like you know.

SOoooooo, are we comparing apples with donkeys again?

Seriously though, we CAN NOT and SHOULD NOT compare individual skills as the classes are fundamental different.

The Shield and Gear Block is the Engi’s equivalent of Endure pain, Berserker Stance, ANY form of Stability, Shared Anguish, Blur, and a hundred other forms of damage negation.

Even considering the above statement calling OP!!!!!! on a skill is not possible by just going, oh look, a skill with same function thats weaker.

Gesuz people stop complaining about so much kitten.

Novuake.2691:

SOoooooo, are we comparing apples with donkeys again?

Seriously though, we CAN NOT and SHOULD NOT compare individual skills as the classes are fundamental different.

The Shield and Gear Block is the Engi’s equivalent of Endure pain, Berserker Stance, ANY form of Stability, Shared Anguish, Blur, and a hundred other forms of damage negation.

Even considering the above statement calling OP!!!!!! on a skill is not possible by just going, oh look, a skill with same function thats weaker.

Gesuz people stop complaining about so much kitten.

What a response. It says right there on your sig.

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

Looking at other classes blocks, a 20 second CD block isnt that special. Warrior offhand sword, ranger greatsword, mesmer offhand sword, they all have a a 15 second CD block, untraited. Traits will improve them to 12 seconds CD.
Ok, all of them block just 1 time in case of melee attacks, but therefore they offer strong counterattacks plus a second offensive mechanic, engies toolkit block doesnt. Engis also have to sacrifice an utility slot for it, while the other classes get those blocks on weapon skill.

Im fine with it.

For Mesmers, the counterattack can be dodged, can miss. and has a RANGE requirement

FYI the block takes only 1 hit for ALL attacks not only melee ones. So anyone with halg a decent brain can either:

1.) Bait the block
2.) Trigger the block and be in that block’s outside range
3.) Hit the block with a multi hit attack

and..the block is.. poof! its gone!.. it became coco crunch!

Novuake.2691:

SOoooooo, are we comparing apples with donkeys again?

Seriously though, we CAN NOT and SHOULD NOT compare individual skills as the classes are fundamental different.

The Shield and Gear Block is the Engi’s equivalent of Endure pain, Berserker Stance, ANY form of Stability, Shared Anguish, Blur, and a hundred other forms of damage negation.

Even considering the above statement calling OP!!!!!! on a skill is not possible by just going, oh look, a skill with same function thats weaker.

Gesuz people stop complaining about so much kitten.

We’re comparing the impact of gear shield on it’s meta builds to the impacts of other effects on other meta builds and asking the question “is gear shield being what it currently is justified?”

StickerHappy.8052:

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

Looking at other classes blocks, a 20 second CD block isnt that special. Warrior offhand sword, ranger greatsword, mesmer offhand sword, they all have a a 15 second CD block, untraited. Traits will improve them to 12 seconds CD.
Ok, all of them block just 1 time in case of melee attacks, but therefore they offer strong counterattacks plus a second offensive mechanic, engies toolkit block doesnt. Engis also have to sacrifice an utility slot for it, while the other classes get those blocks on weapon skill.

Im fine with it.

For Mesmers, the counterattack can be dodged, can miss. and has a RANGE requirement

FYI the block takes only 1 hit for ALL attacks not only melee ones. So anyone with halg a decent brain can either:

1.) Bait the block
2.) Trigger the block and be in that block’s outside range
3.) Hit the block with a multi hit attack

and..the block is.. poof! its gone!.. it became coco crunch!

Some of these skills block all attaks only once, but only if there is an enemy within melee range. Otherwaise they can block numerous ranged attacks.

Hey Mia, I dont get why people still defend the gear shield, its an absurdly powerful block, I would trade other mesmer utilities for a full 3 sec block.

Imagine running Blink or Decoy + Port + Block on a full zerk mes.

StickerHappy.8052:

Hey Mia, I dont get why people still defend the gear shield, its an absurdly powerful block, I would trade other mesmer utilities for a full 3 sec block.

Imagine running Blink or Decoy + Port + Block on a full zerk mes.

There was Mimmic, but no one apparently used that so they changed it. Mesmers had other priorities and with a decent evade uptime already + invulns and stealth it wasn’t a gamechanger. Do note that it did block melee attacks and reflected projectiles despite not reflecting (huh!) this in the tooltip.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Mimic&oldid=719236

Anyways on topic maybe they could nerf gear shield if they buffed static shield?

miriforst.1290:

StickerHappy.8052:

Hey Mia, I dont get why people still defend the gear shield, its an absurdly powerful block, I would trade other mesmer utilities for a full 3 sec block.

Imagine running Blink or Decoy + Port + Block on a full zerk mes.

There was Mimmic, but no one apparently used that so they changed it. Mesmers had other priorities and with a decent evade uptime already + invulns and stealth it wasn’t a gamechanger. Do note that it did block melee attacks and reflected projectiles despite not reflecting (huh!) this in the tooltip.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Mimic&oldid=719236

Anyways on topic maybe they could nerf gear shield if they buffed static shield?

But you gotta remember mimic required absorbing a projectile first before the block/reflect triggered. So that’s the deal breaker right there. So knowing that, i ask you would you choose mimic over gear shield?

And you gotta love the devs logic, hence the word “apparently”.

I just used it a while for giggles, can’t remember how the block absorb interacted, but mostly i felt the mesmer had more important utilities providing team support/enemy debuffing. Gear shield changes the survivability of the engineer drastically while on the mesmer i don’t think it would be as much of a must have. Its like adding incendiary powder to elementalists, “cool bro but i got quite a lot of burning already.”

That being said i sorta miss the old mimic, a rework where it blocked before the absorb as well as after (if it didn’t) would have been enough in my book to make it an interesting option.

Shockwave.1230:

We’re comparing the impact of gear shield on it’s meta builds to the impacts of other effects on other meta builds and asking the question “is gear shield being what it currently is justified?”

Even worse comparison.

The meta is a constantly changing environment of changes, counter changes, and counters to counter changes.

If you are struggling to cope with your meta build vs another meta build, then CHANGE away from the meta.