Guild Wars 2

At about 1 hour and 26 minutes in to the discussion/AMA there was a mention in chat here that I wanna talk about and maybe spark some discussion.

I know Jon Peters saw it and mentioned it was something that he liked but I think it might be OP to be done that way.

He read from chat and his own words “Shield skills when they hit people grant Aegis to them. People in the wave or the bubble get Aegis.”

I love this idea for the #4 Shield of Judgement skill granting this because it is not easy to land on my entire group when running fractals and etc. I think it might be a little strong to also put it on the #5 Shield of Absorption as well. It seems like it is in a fine place however it could likely use an extra second of absorbing if immobile still or maybe make it mobile like the engineer’s Magnetic Shield and reduce it by 1 second?

@Jon Peters and the rest of the guardian community. What do you guys think?

Make it very short duration and I don’t see a problem really. Think about the alternatives. Focus, you have blind which helps the group as well as heals and damage. Then a 3! block shield that does damage if it explodes.

I mean, wow, that’s a weapon. Currently you got nothing for shield.

As an addendum though, I’d have it be part of the shield trait. You want that power, Spec for it.

With that though, kinda overshadows Communal defenses a bit, BUT you can always gain your damage with focus/torch, use other blocks and still provide an Aegis, I think that could be balanced by making the aegis from shield attacks a 1-2s aegis. Essentially letting you block for your team(and you with the 5 skill) IF you time it well making it actually take a high level of skill to gain from.

It’s not like shield skills currently are anything worth mentioning.

You’d also create a nice variety in that tree, More support = Communal Defenses, block trigger a longer duration aegis for your team, Passive = Retributive Armor, Active and weapon dependent team wide shield blocks.

They got feedback that the Shield traits were boring. Which they are.

Honorable Shield could very well get a Shield of Judgement now grants Aegis to allies you hit effect. People may actually want to use Shield instead of the ever so popular Torch and Focus variants.

The shield trait as it is grants 180 toughness to the guardian while shield is out. It’s also currently in direct competition with Strength in Numbers, which grants a bonus 150 toughness to the guardian as well as nearby allies for the FULL duration of combat.

They HAVE to buff the shield trait. People aren’t going to take it for the cooldown reduction alone because shield is already lackluster as it is.

It’d be nice to have a reason to want to use my Flameseeker Prophecies over my random exotic skin focus.

I have mentioned this a couple of times but I think it is definitely worth mentioning again;

The iconic weapon of a guardian should be, as the name implies, a shield. Right now it is their most underwhelming, boring and plain weapon you can get. Besides #5 with its very limited uses in PvP ress/capping points, it is not worth taking over focus or torch, by far!

I have long dreamed about playing a sword/shield | GS guardian that is fully offensive.

I would say that the aegis on #4/#5 should be already built in. As for the offensive part of the trait; make it so that the damage is increased (also add some damage to 5) and there is no casting time/self root.

I think the shield skills for Guardian should be rebuilt, not completely, but they need some more added utility to make them better. I am one of those Guardians who has a Flameseeker prophecies and I would love to be able to use it more (footsteps please?).

I think the added aegis would be great because it would allow us to actually have a block which is what a shield should be able to do. Maybe even lower the cooldown time of the skills a bit, maybe a few seconds 2-3?

I like the absorption/knock back feature of the shield 5 skill, However it still needs more to make it worth taking over the focus which gives us really good burst damage.

As for the shield 4 skill maybe give it the ability to burn or blind? as well as apply aegis? That would give it some more utility that it currently lacks.

There is so much that could be done with this weapon. I think the passive toughness buff is conceptually interesting but no one wants to equip a weapon just for it to be a buff totem. I think that’s part of the reason it’s so toned down compared to the other off hands.

A one-time AOE application of Aegis by Shield in WvW? Kinda like pee’ing in the ocean: feels good but doesn’t make much difference.

Unless Shield is going to be pulsing out repeated applications of Aegis, that would be very underwhelming. Meanwhile Focus — which is already better than Shield at Blocking — gets a trained application of AOE Protection (5 seconds) each time a Focus skill is used. I get that this stuff is in development and subject to change but what’s going on? When will Shield occupy it’s rightful place as a desireable defensive offhand?

I also agree with those who note that Strength in Numbers is far better than the Shield trait, especially if a team-support Guardian must choose one over the other.

I’ve been running my Warrior lately and it’s amazing how much better Warhorn is by comparison to Shield but you don’t need to leave the class to see that Guardian Shield is underpowered.

Warrior shield trait is really good now, I hope that we get some love as well. It can’t stay the way it is.

DroidDreamer.2861:

A one-time AOE application of Aegis by Shield in WvW? Kinda like pee’ing in the ocean: feels good but doesn’t make much difference.

Unless Shield is going to be pulsing out repeated applications of Aegis, that would be very underwhelming. Meanwhile Focus — which is already better than Shield at Blocking — gets a trained application of AOE Protection (5 seconds) each time a Focus skill is used. I get that this stuff is in development and subject to change but what’s going on? When will Shield occupy it’s rightful place as a desireable defensive offhand?

I also agree with those who note that Strength in Numbers is far better than the Shield trait, especially if a team-support Guardian must choose one over the other.

I’ve been running my Warrior lately and it’s amazing how much better Warhorn is by comparison to Shield but you don’t need to leave the class to see that Guardian Shield is underpowered.

Not to undermine your argument at all, but I think the focus trait will be protection only for the user, and not for nearby allies.

Even so, that trait still seems like it’ll do a great job of making shield feel even more terrible by comparison.