Guild Wars 2

Could someone educate me on the uses of this skill?

As an Earth-fan I’d really like to find a way to make it useful, but I have yet to find a use for it.

For one thing, the auto-attack is weaker than my Fire auto and that’s ranged, while the shield is melee. The stun is ok, as is the invulnerability shield, but nothing I couldn’t also get through other skills (like Mist Form). Also, there are no combo moves.

And worst of all, because I normally use a staff with defensive stats, my defense actually goes DOWN when I use the shield.

So therefore I’m turning to the collected wisdom of the forum and ask:

How can I make Conjure Earth Shield work? Are there any combinations I’ve overlooked that make it a viable skill to bring?

Use the pull skill to pull enemies off walls in WvW (well short walls since only range 600). Or to pull them together for your group to focus on.

That’s all I got :/ it could really use some dev love.

I’ve been pondering myself silly but I cannot come up with anything. It’s spam attack would be a decent alternative for Stoning, if only it caused weakness.

Or maybe if it had an effect on the cast, like Lava Axe has…

kschmidt.5901:

Use the pull skill to pull enemies off walls in WvW (well short walls since only range 600). Or to pull them together for your group to focus on.

That’s all I got :/ it could really use some dev love.

I tried that a few times but they have to be really careless to get caught because all the walls have lips. It is frankly more effective at keeping people from running back inside.

It may not have much of a use with your build. Not all utility skills are useful with every build. Personally, I don’t see much of a use for earth shield if you’re using a staff. If you’re using daggers, though, or maybe even scepter, it can have loads of uses…but again, depending on the rest of your build.
This game is all about builds. If you want to use that ability so bad, then design a build around it or featuring it. It might take a little bit of thought to get the build all togther, but I guarantee you that it’s possible.

Magnetic surge>Armor of earth>Magnetic shield>Churning earth.

The closer people are to the epicenter of churning earth, the more often it applies the cripple. The shield makes for a perfect, nigh inescapable setup.

guess what

all conjured weapons are useless

Well, the Greatsword is a good DPS boost if you get a chance to stand and nuke for 30 secs, without needing to swap for heals or utilities or something.

Ok, yeah, that does make it useless.

I was going to ask this question, so I will post my thoughts and hope to see more.

The earth shield is an amazing version of the “tank” weapon skills a warrior or guardian would bring to the table. Which to me seems to be the main problem. It seems like an amazing close combat / control weapon except for two problems.

1) Its a melee weapon and your playing a Ele. Which makes melee dangerous.

2) As with a lot of Ele issues the damage is really sub par.

I am on the fence about thinking badly of conjured weapons. I like them personally but I see the problems others have with them. I wish they were a “toolkit” style utility like Engis. Without charges which would allow them to work better wih the proffesion.

madatom.5218:

guess what

all conjured weapons are useless

I think you need to try lightning hammer a bit more.

Lightning hammer is fun. I feel like Thor, sort of.

Earth Shield is great for support/bunker eles, as the 3 seconds of invuln gives you similar blocking ability to having a shield off hand. Couple it with things like Mist Form and Arcane Shield and you can actually avoid taking quite bit of damage.

Its also hilarious to play S/D Burst Ele, drop a shield for a teammate and have them use the pull skill, then drop it and use an AoE Knockdown… all while you’re dropping standard fire burst combo of DT, Phoenix, RoF, and Flame Grab. That being said, its a much more defensive utility than the others; don’t expect massive damage from it.

Conjured weapons are not useless. I believe they’re currently just very undervalued. They’re pretty darn good for setting up combo fields and for performing certain combos that you otherwise couldn’t. I use lightning hammer and gasp flame axe a fair amount on a double dagger build, and occasionally the ice bow.

Fortify could use a 15 second drop in cooldown. You know, to be balanced with Shield Stance. It takes an utility slot, isn’t that balancing enough? The higher cooldown is unnecessary.

Lifelike.5862:

Conjured weapons are not useless. I believe they’re currently just very undervalued. They’re pretty darn good for setting up combo fields and for performing certain combos that you otherwise couldn’t.

I’d agree, except for the fact that that doesn’t apply to Conjure Earth Shield. It cannot combo whatsoever, and its damage and other skills are still subpar.

Earth Shield is useless, as is every other conjured weapon minus Mjolnir. And even then, you + Mjolnir = useless….but Ranger + Mjolnir….well….here’s the video.