Guild Wars 2

so i personally like how one hand swords look, and i like going around with a sword and a shield. However i find it kinda unfair that the 1 hand sword skills take so much to recharge, which makes the sword kinda useless and i end up using most of the time my greatsword.
What im trying to say is that if we equip a shield, which doesnt increase your blocking chances per se, we should be able to activate the shield skills more frequently, if not having a shield just becomes a style choice and not a functional one. Even when that 20% chance reduction in the recharge time the skills take around 30 seconds each to recharge and last only a brief time.
On the other hand of the 3 offensive sword skills left one is auto attack which deals a fair ammount of damage but is kinda slow compared to the swing of the great sword. the second skill does little to no damage and blinds for a few lame seconds, and the last one which does actually deals a nice bunch of damage takes 15 seconds to recharge. This leaves the sword with only 1 important offensive skill every 15 seconds. Instead while using the greatsword the whole line of skills deals considerable AOE damage and recharge way faster and at a nicer pace which keeps the combat fluid without even needing to switch back to the sword and shield.
Sword and shield for the guardian ends up being a style choice with little functionality, when the shield skills arent effective blocking options and the sword lacks offense.
What im asking is that since the sword deals LESS damage than a great sword, it would be better if the skill recharge would be smaller in that way dealing less damage would be balanced by more damage per second. On the other hand i would like to see better blocking effects on the shield skills and/or, again, a slower recharge time.
What are your opinions? i just like sword and shield and im angry that no profession in GW2 seems to make a good decent use of them, which makes the use of this combination kinda pointless.

Flashing Blade and Zealot’s Defense have a perfectly fine cooldown. I do agree that Flashing Blade doing little to no damage is a little lame, but with its cd, I’m fine. A blind every 10s. Zealot’s Defense blocks projectiles while being a mid range attack. I don’t see myself use it often, but its cd is fine.

Now for off hands.. Shield skills’ cd are ridiculous, you’re basicly forced to take the 20% cd reduction trait to have a somewhat decent cd. I used to have a shield, but I’ve switch to a focus now. Imo, Shield of Wrath, having 45s cd, is more useful than both shield skill combined, in addition to Ray of Judgement, giving me another blind, which has 1200 range.

Sword’s skills are fine. Imo, shield need a little tweak somewhere.

1H Sword and Shield is a well balanced set combining aggressive offense and area-based defense.

With the right traits, 1H sword performs well as a damage dealing weapon, owing primarily to a very fast attack speed (thus taking advantage of passive Virtue of Justice) and Sword Wave, which will often hit the same opponent three times. With one sword chain delivering five strikes, you’re guaranteed a single proc of Virtue of Justice every single chain.

Sword also carries with it some aggressive skills. Flashing Blade’s relatively low cooldown provides a safe and effective Blind, which means closing distance with an enemy will leave you (and any other target) safe from their next attack. Zealot’s Defense is nasty, hits hard and works well for spike damage. It’s also guaranteed at least one Virtue of Justice proc—two if you go deep in the Virtues line.

Sword’s primary weakness is the absence of any kind of symbol, Combo Field or Combo Finisher. It’s an aggressive weapon and works well with an aggressive and mobile playstyle.

Shield is a little bit counterintuitive. Despite being—you know, a shield—no shield skills allow you to block. Shield of Judgement has modest range and works best if you make use of its cone. Give Protection to as many of your allies as possible.

Shield of Absorption became much stronger in the recent patch, now that you can detonate it for a moderate heal on everyone inside. Don’t discount Shield of Absorption—it’s an interrupt, knockback and ranged shield, plus a heal, plus a Combo Field. Just use it wisely.

Traits to consider with Sword/Shield:

Right Hand Strength: (Radiance XI) – Flat 15% crit bonus.

Blind Exposure: (Radiance VI) – Blind also applies Vulnerability

Empowering Might: (Honor VIII) – Crits grant all nearby allies 5s of Might.

Supreme Justice: (Virtues VIII) – Virtue of Justice activates every 4 attacks instead of 5. That’s two activations with every Zealot’s Defense.

Permeating Wrath: (Virtues XI) – Turns Justice into some kind of monstrous PBAOE burn.

For Shield, consider…

Altruistic Healing: (Valor XI) – Applying a boon to allies heals you. Turns Shield of Judgement into a potent self-heal.

Honorable Shield and Defender’s Shield are no-brainers.

I think Flashing Blade would be OP if you added more damage, you already get a teleport and a blind out of it which is pretty significant. I don’t find the cooldown to be bad personally.

Don’t underestimate the power of blind, as guardians we have the lowest base health out of ANY of the other classes. To compensate for this, we have heavy armor but also a ton of ways to mitigate or completely avoid damage. With the sword/focus we have access to 2 blinds, 3 blocks, and 1 range reflect/block. Add on top of that our aegis and dodge rolls and it gets hard to even land a hit on us.

Centurion wrote a great article on how to maximize the defensive abilities of the guardian and turn them into offensive tools as well:

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/the-vanguard-heavy-metal-block-and-roll/

Sword shield is actually a pretty sweet combo. Here is a build I’ve been running and I’m extremely happy with it:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MzcoMmz0mrnLmmn0Lo0xx0aMoqzsqo

The sword seems counterproductive, the auto attack is a cone but then the 2 damage abilities only attack 1 mob, its like whats the point of even using them, you’ll stop your auto attack if you use the other abilities and lose dps so you mine as well should just stand there and auto attack…

Mightylink.3816:

The sword seems counterproductive, the auto attack is a cone but then the 2 damage abilities only attack 1 mob, its like whats the point of even using them, you’ll stop your auto attack if you use the other abilities and lose dps so you mine as well should just stand there and auto attack…

Most of your melee is, in fact, standing there and auto-attacking. You shouldn’t be blowing cooldowns needlessly.

And the reason Sword Wave is amazing is because it’s three hits. 1 hit + 1 hit + 3 hits = 5 hits = trigger Virtue of Justice.

So every single sword chain is guaranteed to trigger 1 second of burn. If you have a lot of Condition damage (and if you’re using a sword, you’re probably going Radiance for Right-Hand Strength) this adds up to a lot of damage.

Sword and Shield is an excellent combination that can be used in pretty much any type of content.
It’s flexible and doesn’t sacrifice power for being that. It can also be feasibly used with pretty much any weapon combination that doesn’t focuses on Symbols.

I never found sword to be a defensive weapon, because of the way the #1 skill works (putting on burning more than any other weapon). Sword/Torch in a condition build seems to be the design intent.

Not saying you can’t use a shield, do whatever you want. Just that the sword is an offensive weapon, not defensive (as opposed to the mace). So your kind of build is some sort of hybrid. Nothing wrong with that, but wasn’t sure if that was your intent.