Guild Wars 2

We all know that Guardian’s 4th Shield skill is not even situational, but merely downright useless in most scenarios because of the High CD, low damage and meager Protection buff. Well, I have a simple solution to that:

Replace the Protection buff with an Aegis Buff. It would give Guardian an activated Block (Like all Shields should have, because it -is- a shield after all), it would also justify the long Cooldown on the skill (Since Aegis is a powerful buff) and it would still retain the virtue of being a Supportive weapon as the buff affects nearby allies as well. Suddenly the Shield wouldn’t be so horribly underpowered in comparison to Focus.

Aegis vs Protection is really a situational boon, one perform good against hard hitting single attacks, the other against hard hitting flurry attacks.

Aegis is in most situations worse however, for protection will still reduce the high hitting skill by 33% while aegis will only reduce a flurry from one attack, taking for instance a Whirling Wrath you would only reduce the damage by 1/7 “not counting projectiles”.

So your idea to change the protection to Aegis would actually result in a worse skill in a lot of situations or at least limit the skill extremely. If Shield 4 would give both boons however, now that would be a nice bonus.

Guardian shield 5 should be an instant cast reflection bubble based around the player which moves with him, similar to shield of the avenger.

This would see it as a very powerful choice for pve.

fadeaway.2807:

Guardian shield 5 should be an instant cast reflection bubble based around the player which moves with him, similar to shield of the avenger.

This would see it as a very powerful choice for pve.

As bolded above, yes; otherwise, shield 5 is an insta-cast already.

Save your breath. They completely ignores all ideas from the prepatch preview. They are hiding in their hole right now after the backlash from the Fracture release. They wouldn’t response to any taunt, begging, imploring. Talk about thick head.

I think it’s safe to say 5-sec Protection > Aegis. Outside of sPvP, I don’t think the cooldown is too long. Shield is one of the three weapons in the game that can provide Protection. Don’t be silly.

Heres an idea:
It provides protection for 7 seconds and aegis for 20
5th skill:
Creates a dome around you which lasts for 6 seconds and reflects projectiles as well as curing a condition on allies

I dig protection on the shield, and I don’t have many complaints about shield 5, but it seems strange to me that focus 5 and mace 3 act a lot more like traditional shield skills than shield 4 and 5.

Honestly, though, I would really hate to see all that fancy knockback on shield 5 go away.

A cool compromise to me would be this:
Shield 5 acts like Focus 5, gain a barrier that blocks attacks. After x attacks, barrier bursts and knocks foes away. Move the projectile blocking to focus 3 where it’s more in line with the distance of focus 4. That way the shield maintains the majority of it’s control, gains a traditional blocking aspect, and resolves the issue.

As for Shield 4, it could easily be swapped with Mace 3. Why those two are not swapped makes little sense to me. You bash the mace into the ground and send a protective shockwave ahead of your allies, BAM applied protection. You raise your shield and block incoming attacks, reflecting damage back at attackers, if you are not directly attacked, allies around gain protection.

Why you would use your mace like a shield is beyond me, and why your shield is just firing off shockwaves? Idk.

Anet track what weapons we use. There’s no way they’re not aware of how bad torch and shield are.

I think Shield skill 4 or Shield of Judgment should apply 2sec of daze to enemies.

Shield 4 AoE instead of in front (seriously. You’re protecting people “in front of you”? Active combat skills are best as fire and forget. Dodgeroll back to get a quick heal, you’re in the backline so pop 4 and dodgeroll back into facetanking. Instead of dodgeroll back to prot the backline and heal, fiddle with your wasd and mouse for 2-5 seconds and hit 4—dangit! camera was pointed in the right direction but the character wasn’t! WTF-KITTEN!) Aegis 20 seconds + 5 seconds prot. then its a very good skill. SoA though…I actually wouldn’t touch. We’ve got WoR and Shelter to boot, messing with its cooldown or buff would make shields OP.

I’ll post my suggestions to the shield as I have before, this not only adds a 1 second block to the shield #4 ability but gives #5 a bit of a boost by providing additional team support.

Shield of Judgement:
-Cast time increased to 1 second
-Now blocks all attacks while casting
-Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds
-Standard protection uptime increased from 5 to 6 seconds

Shield of Absorption
-Cooldown reduced from 40 to 35
-Dome duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
-Allies in dome now gain 2 second regeneration every second spent inside the dome

I think the main problem with the shield skills is that they don’t offer anything which our other weapons and skill can do way better. For example:

• Shield of Judgment gives 5 seconds of protection every 30 seconds. Why would we use this when Hammer gives us permanent protection.
• Shield of Absorption is supposed to absorb projectiles for 4 whole seconds. Why not just equip the utility Wall of Reflection and get 3 times the duration and reflect the damage back to the enemy while having the skill on a lower cooldown. Or again, use that Hammer to knock your enemy back while doing damage and still have a lower cooldown.

The alternatives are just way better. I feel like there is no need for the shield and that is what needs to be changed in order for people to start using shield again.

Noah.4756:

• Shield of Judgment gives 5 seconds of protection every 30 seconds. Why would we use this when Hammer gives us permanent protection.
• Shield of Absorption is supposed to absorb projectiles for 4 whole seconds. Why not just equip the utility Wall of Reflection and get 3 times the duration and reflect the damage back to the enemy while having the skill on a lower cooldown. Or again, use that Hammer to knock your enemy back while doing damage and still have a lower cooldown.

The alternatives are just way better. I feel like there is no need for the shield and that is what needs to be changed in order for people to start using shield again.

• I don’t know what kind of WvW strategy you use but I actually prefer Shield #4 than Hammer’s Symbol. Sure you can have a permanent Protection with hammer, but you can’t use it as an on-demand boon when a huge zerg coming towards you, vice versa. On top of that, it’s a Symbol. You have to stay in the radius in order to get the boon. In WvW you can’t afford doing that. I pair my shield with mace and I love Symbol of Faith, but do I stay in the radius for 4+ secs? No, I leave and enjoy the AH self-heal from allies who pass the symbols from a safe distance.

• But what if I want to keep my precious utilities? Wall of Reflection does not heal or knock back. No thanks, I’ll keep my shield.

After trying every Guardian weapon except torch, I chose mace and shield as the best sustain set for my Guardian. So what if many people can’t use it? It doesn’t mean it’s weak. Remember that Shield is an defensive/support off-hand weapon. From that definition, it’s already doing a fine job. If people want to do some DPS, they should pick a different off-hand weapon.

The guardian shield skills are fine as is. Not very useful in PVE (it does have a couple situational uses just not a common equip) but a strong pvp offhand.

What they should do imho is swap the focus and shield skills around. The focus blocking function just makes a lot more sense on a shield. And the shield highly magical property fits the focus more.

Plus, sword/shield would look 10x cooler than sword/focus.

SoJ still does more damage than Mace/Scepter/Sword auto, and the protection is not to be underestimated, especially since it grants protection to your allies as well in a wide area. With Altruistic Healing, it becomes even better.

That being said, reducing the CD to 25 seconds would certainly be a good buff IMO.

xFireize.6318:

Noah.4756:

• Shield of Judgment gives 5 seconds of protection every 30 seconds. Why would we use this when Hammer gives us permanent protection.
• Shield of Absorption is supposed to absorb projectiles for 4 whole seconds. Why not just equip the utility Wall of Reflection and get 3 times the duration and reflect the damage back to the enemy while having the skill on a lower cooldown. Or again, use that Hammer to knock your enemy back while doing damage and still have a lower cooldown.

The alternatives are just way better. I feel like there is no need for the shield and that is what needs to be changed in order for people to start using shield again.

• I don’t know what kind of WvW strategy you use but I actually prefer Shield #4 than Hammer’s Symbol. Sure you can have a permanent Protection with hammer, but you can’t use it as an on-demand boon when a huge zerg coming towards you, vice versa. On top of that, it’s a Symbol. You have to stay in the radius in order to get the boon. In WvW you can’t afford doing that. I pair my shield with mace and I love Symbol of Faith, but do I stay in the radius for 4+ secs? No, I leave and enjoy the AH self-heal from allies who pass the symbols from a safe distance.

I use Staff+Hammer in WvW zergs and Sword/Focus + Staff for roaming. I find myself up close many times when two zergs clash. In those situations I am able to use the hammer to lock enemies in and proceed to engage them. I could see the potential of the Mace + Shield in WvW when you use it as a defensive back-up weapon although it feels unsatisfied in comparison to our other weapons due to long cooldowns and short durations.

• But what if I want to keep my precious utilities? Wall of Reflection does not heal or knock back. No thanks, I’ll keep my shield.

After trying every Guardian weapon except torch, I chose mace and shield as the best sustain set for my Guardian. So what if many people can’t use it? It doesn’t mean it’s weak. Remember that Shield is an defensive/support off-hand weapon. From that definition, it’s already doing a fine job. If people want to do some DPS, they should pick a different off-hand weapon.

Wall of Reflection is a very strong utility in WvW where a lot of the players in zergs are using ranged projectile weapons.

I think it’s important if many people feel like they can’t use the shield. There might be a niche for it in WvW but I feel like the shield should be playing a more prominent role for a class that is symbolized with a permanent shield on their left arm.

Noah.4756:

I could see the potential of the Mace + Shield in WvW when you use it as a defensive back-up weapon although it feels unsatisfied in comparison to our other weapons due to long cooldowns and short durations.

Couldn’t agree more! I use it along with my GS. For a skill that gives on-demand 5s protection, I don’t think 24s CD is too bad. It would be nice if the skill had a little bit of extra so it doesn’t look so plain, like 1s daze or some torment.

Noah.4756:

Wall of Reflection is a very strong utility in WvW where a lot of the players in zergs are using ranged projectile weapons.

I didn’t say it wasn’t strong. It’s a perfect protection for party rebuffing, while Shield #5 simply ruins the buffing combo field. For me, they are different and I can’t simply replace my shield with that utility skill. I’m kinda allergic to utilities that have a cast time haha. Just a personal preference.

Run Boon Duration – Sheild 4 turns into 9s of aoe protection….

Amins.3710:

Run Boon Duration – Sheild 4 turns into 9s of aoe protection….

The AOE on Skill #4 is not exactly AOE though. It shoots a wave in front of you and only has a range of 600. It would definitely be an improvement if skill #4 was AOE.

I find shield useful the way it is, the only thing I would change is a reduction in the cooldowns.

Noah.4756:

Amins.3710:

Run Boon Duration – Sheild 4 turns into 9s of aoe protection….

The AOE on Skill #4 is not exactly AOE though. It shoots a wave in front of you and only has a range of 600. It would definitely be an improvement if skill #4 was AOE.

It’s a CONE AOE….

like a GTAoE…

or a PBAoE…

Still an AoE.