Guardian's shield needs Blast finisher!
I’ve played with shield a LOT. I’ve tried many different builds (from med zerks, to healing builds, to bunkers) just to try and get shield work. Although I’m one of those people that likes to find niche uses for underused or underrated weapons/builds, I’m going to have to agree with what has been said on this forum: Shield, even with reduced cds and traited, still seems only situational. I would really enjoy if they did one or more of the following for shield:
For shield #4: Increase damage, add a daze, short knockdown/interrupt, increase the duration of protection given, or keep shield #4’s protection buff at 5 seconds in pvp (no need for this nerf).
For shield #5: Actually increase the time of the bubble to 4 seconds… it’s still at 2 seconds, keep bubble time at 2 seconds but allow projectile reflection, keep bubble time at 2 seconds but allow us to block as long as we’re keeping the bubble up (this wouldn’t be op, we’d still be susceptible to conditions, + not be able to move), increase the scaling of healing power on the bubble detonation, gain a boon or even more healing if the bubble is not detonated (you wait out the whole time of the skill), or allow guardians to move after initially using this skill.
I feel that ANET has done certain things right: The protection buff on shield #4 is nice, and fits well with the theme of the shield on a guardian. It’s very nice that it’s team oriented, however 5 seconds isn’t very long if you consider the fact that we have a minimum 20 seconds cd, and a better trade off for protection would be hammer’s perma-protection. Shield #4 is also fairly weak, its damage component is nearly useless. I think that shield should do something other than just give protection to self and allies…. That’s essentially all it does right now…. 5 seconds of protection on 20 seconds cool down, and you have to carefully aim it too.
I really like shield #5. The knockback is really useful when trying to hold points, and revive allies, and the healing on detonation is very nice, but it unfortunately does not scale very well with healing, and the bubble doesn’t last 4 seconds as it promises. Also, the fact that the guardian must stand still to keep this skill active (while having no defence of his/her own) heavily cuts back on survivability, and damage out put. As is, shield #5 is only useful for that knockback + instantly detonate bubble for healing. There is hardly any point (in most situations) to use the skill, and keep the bubble up for more than an instant.
I’ve played with shield a LOT. I’ve tried many different builds (from med zerks, to healing builds, to bunkers) just to try and get shield work. Although I’m one of those people that likes to find niche uses for underused or underrated weapons/builds, I’m going to have to agree with what has been said on this forum: Shield, even with reduced cds and traited, still seems only situational. I would really enjoy if they did one or more of the following for shield:
For shield #4: Increase damage, add a daze, short knockdown/interrupt, increase the duration of protection given, or keep shield #4’s protection buff at 5 seconds in pvp (no need for this nerf).
For shield #5: Actually increase the time of the bubble to 4 seconds… it’s still at 2 seconds, keep bubble time at 2 seconds but allow projectile reflection, keep bubble time at 2 seconds but allow us to block as long as we’re keeping the bubble up (this wouldn’t be op, we’d still be susceptible to conditions, + not be able to move), increase the scaling of healing power on the bubble detonation, gain a boon or even more healing if the bubble is not detonated (you wait out the whole time of the skill), or allow guardians to move after initially using this skill.
I feel that ANET has done certain things right: The protection buff on shield #4 is nice, and fits well with the theme of the shield on a guardian. It’s very nice that it’s team oriented, however 5 seconds isn’t very long if you consider the fact that we have a minimum 20 seconds cd, and a better trade off for protection would be hammer’s perma-protection. Shield #4 is also fairly weak, its damage component is nearly useless. I think that shield should do something other than just give protection to self and allies…. That’s essentially all it does right now…. 5 seconds of protection on 20 seconds cool down, and you have to carefully aim it too.
I really like shield #5. The knockback is really useful when trying to hold points, and revive allies, and the healing on detonation is very nice, but it unfortunately does not scale very well with healing, and the bubble doesn’t last 4 seconds as it promises. Also, the fact that the guardian must stand still to keep this skill active (while having no defence of his/her own) heavily cuts back on survivability, and damage out put. As is, shield #5 is only useful for that knockback + instantly detonate bubble for healing. There is hardly any point (in most situations) to use the skill, and keep the bubble up for more than an instant.
Ty for ur feedback…but your opinion is really…OP? yeah. It will crash GW2’s balance..I think.
Sorry for the long post: What I meant is that any one of those things could be changed/implemented for guardian shield, and I think it would bring shield up to date with the other guardian offhand weapons.
A blast finisher alone will not help shield. The skills need a total rework, which simply isn’t going to happen. But lets say it gets a blast finisher, its still not enough to take it over focus (which already has a blast finisher, regan, blind, block, and attack). The shield should provide a real means of defense and not pathetically short cone protection or 2 sec projectile defense. The abilities are far to weak. Its been beat to death on the forums on the many ways to improve shield and the only answer from anet has been a lower cooldown, which has done nothing to make the shield more viable over our other offhands.
^ Pretty much this. Guardian shield is the single worst weapon in the game right now, and after 2 and a half years it doesn’t look like Anet wants to change that.
@Arcaedus.7290
+1 to area Daze in #4 of shield. (like necro war horn)
skill #5 for me is okay.
SA Guardian