Guild Wars 2

That Blue Shield Lady… I want her implemented in the game. Don’t let her remain as the concept art only.

Gimme my sword shield guard back!

the only “Blue Shield Lady” I recall is the “Blue Mace Lady” and well…
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Guardian_02_concept_art.jpg
This is her.
a Mace and a Shield.
Mace + Shield is a great weapon-set working well in GW2 and even being used in the meta.

I’m not saying you should follow the meta but this is to illustrate that in the very least mace/shield isn’t weak.

Also sword/shield is very possible. the blind + teleport on skill 2 works wonders and the shield is some great support. You just might want to use your off-hand weapon set a lot, especially IF you’ve played a lot of meta-builds before.
This is because Meta-builds are generally focussed on:
“As much offense as is possible, as much defense as is required.”

Guild Wars 2 is however still the game where you can play as you like without being useless. (although Raids are a bit more demanding of the “meta”) if you want to play a sword/shield guardian, please do so!

I, for one, wouldn’t kick you out of my party for doing so.

I’ve been using sword/shield in sPvP for yonks, although I occasionally swap it out for something else. I certainly see why people prefer other choices, and there are times when I’m running sword/shield that I find myself wishing I was running something else… but the reverse is also the case. Aegis and protection for the group on a short cooldown is useful. An area knockback is useful (particularly when coupled with Flashing Blade so you can resume melee pressure quickly), as is a projectile defense shield.

I’ve been mocked a time or two by the opposition for using it, but the time I particularly remember that happening my team won. You do need to be more tactical about how you use it as opposed to focus and torch which are usually more clear-cut.

In PvE… it’s rarer that you really need the defense, although good timing could mitigate a lot of damage. I have seen Shield of Absorption used for seeker control against the Vale Guardian, though.

I use gs, sword/shield in a celestial permeating wrath build in pve. Sometimes I take it into wvw lols. Sword aa piercing can really rack up the attack hits. I was trying shatter aegis to see if shield will get me some crazy burn procs in 5+ encounters but I don’t know yet.

Interesting… I’d have expected sword/torch from such a build. Or are you using torch on your other weaponset?

draxynnic.3719:

Interesting… I’d have expected sword/torch from such a build. Or are you using torch on your other weaponset?

nah I just use the torch trait.
I picked shield cause:
projectile blocker/ aoe heal
aoe aegis/protection/cone attack
been playing around with shattered aegis
oh and I have flameseeker prophecies ;-)

Justine.6351:

draxynnic.3719:

Interesting… I’d have expected sword/torch from such a build. Or are you using torch on your other weaponset?

nah I just use the torch trait.
I picked shield cause:
projectile blocker/ aoe heal
aoe aegis/protection/cone attack
been playing around with shattered aegis
oh and I have flameseeker prophecies ;-)

I wish shattered AEGIS did physical damage and an AOE 3 second burn or just did 3 stacks of AOE burning for 3 seconds.

Can you imagine that with the shield

i run sword shield and hammer

my guard is set up to be a heavy CC/tanky build and i would use the mace, but i like having that 2nd teleport that sword gives

now i always keep a scepter in my bags… after i fought lupi with dual melee and dodged more times than Neo did in the matrix i decided, never again. so i keep it just in case i need range

I’m curious now about the possibility of staff in a permeating wrath build for clearing trash in PvE. If you have enough targets, it should trigger Permeating Wrath once on every wave.

draxynnic.3719:

I’m curious now about the possibility of staff in a permeating wrath build for clearing trash in PvE. If you have enough targets, it should trigger Permeating Wrath once on every wave.

it triggers more often. you will run supreme justice as well and slap a sigil of fire on that. for potential 3 activation on one strike. add in rune of the mad king (3 birds, 16 hits each), Dragons Maw, smite conditions, JI and test of faith and you have all the tools needed to cause a load of hits. I managed to rack up 20+ burn stacks on 5 targets doing that. Its glorious but also very much easymode.

Heh. I was just thinking of the wave itself – the rest you can do with other attacks.

I also didn’t specify how many was ‘enough’. With Supreme Justice, ‘enough’ is obviously 4. :P

(Is Dragon’s Maw actually the best option, though? Feel My Wrath has a shorter cooldown and grants quickness – getting 50% more waves might get a similar effect to teh hits you’d get off Dragon’s Maw. On the other hand, the maw keeps them confined into a nice compact area… hrrrmn.)