Guild Wars 2

This bug can affect any profession that can block while also under the effects of Aegis, but it has the most relevance for Guardians because blocking is so built into our profession and balance.

Aegis is consumed when another block is available, like a weapon block
(Shield of Wrath or Protector’s Strike). Or a skill like Shield of Courage.

The main negative implications are:

Two blocks are consumed when only one attack was negated. This has a large impact when our profession is balanced around having these weapon, skill and profession mechanic blocks.

Although two blocks are consumed we only gain the beneficial trait effects of one block being removed because of the 1s internal cooldown that was added to these traits back when the trait system was overhauled before HoT.

With Aegis removed but the Guardian still blocking we lose beneficial effects like Unscathed Contender, even though we may be using weapon or skill blocks to negate attacks and should still have Aegis and the 20% damage bonus active.

Shattered Aegis activates early, even though the Guardian may be blocking with another skill.

https://youtu.be/wstnq_V5MSE

Aegis needs to be changed so that it is the LAST block to be consumed.

Blocking needs to be changed so that different blocks are not consumed together.
(Shield of Wrath loses one block even if Shield of Courage is up.)

In fact, if you had Aegis, Shield of Wrath, Shield of Courage and Protector’s Strike all activated… ONE incoming attack would take away the Aegis, one charge of SoW even though SoC is up and actively blocking and Protector’s Strike would activate…

One attack consuming 4 active blocks

I wish aegis stacked like stability and was notched off per block as attacks hit.

Edit: I see what you mean in the video

Ehh, this system requires you to use your CDs effectively and not spam all defensive skills at the same time. I don’t see the problem.

Can’t keep Unscathed Contender up even if we tried with other forms of blocks i’m seeing

it’s like once your engaged, its down and no use. I see his point, I like the idea.

Would it be too much of a damage boost if uscathed protector were up that long though? I could see how that might be overpowered in a way, 20% boost of damage until they take off aegis…so before engaging dodge first attack, then 2nd attack pop shield of courage…20% for the duration it’s up could add up a lot of damage if every other skill that blocks were to keep it active.

edit: words

Nethod.7068:

Can’t keep Unscathed Contender up even if we tried with other forms of blocks i’m seeing

it’s like once your engaged, its down and no use. I see his point, I like the idea.

Would it be too much of a damage boost if uscathed protector were up that long though? I could see how that might be overpowered in a way, 20% boost of damage until they take off aegis…then dodge first, 2nd attack…shield of courage…20% for the duration its up could add up a lot of damage

edit: words

Well I won’t deny it’d be a buff. If they change it tbh it should only act on the aegis boon tho, and not other types of blocking skills. Using SoW and SoC at the same time as a defensive measure is just bad play.

Nethod.7068:

I wish aegis stacked like stability and was notched off per block as attacks hit.

That could make it far to powerful if you had multiple people able to apply it.

Simply making it not be removed when you have another source of block would be a nice little improvement.

As for ways they could actually change AEGIS to be more useful

I would love if they made AEGIS block based on the damage number stopped (say 2k with considerable boosts from traits that make it get extra scaling off of vitality, healing power, toughness etc..) instead of the number of attacks, then lowered the CD’s on things that applied AEGIS.

This ^ would make it work much better in new content, WvW and PVP where attacks are generally lighter and more rapid.
It would also differentiate the guardian from other healers. As is the guardian already has a lower healing output then ele, engi, druid and rev. This would allow them to be the healer that prevents a good deal of damage in the first place instead of healing it all afterwords.

Aegis should not be used when using another skill to block… There should be a block priority list