Guild Wars 2

I was dueling a friend who was running DH last night, and it occurred to me that I don’t have a solid understanding of how this skill works. So I was hoping someone here could help me out.

The wiki says,

Grants aegis every few seconds.
Activate: Create a shield in front of you that blocks attacks for you and allies.

• Aegis (20s): Block the next incoming attack.
• Number of Targets: 5
• Aegis Refresh: 40s
• Duration: 4s
• Radius: 180

I’ve seen people claim that the skill only blocks attacks from the front (to match the visual and fluff text), but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Instead, it reads like a skill that grants aegis to self and allies within 180.

Seems straightforward enough, but the aegis from this skill doesn’t seem to drop after blocking an attack, and the listed aegis refresh of 40s on a 4s skill opens up more questions than answers.

Finally, at least based on this (really old) video, aegis isn’t actually applied to the bar.
https://youtu.be/Ian_dIneWyw?t=38s

So is the skill basically just a 4s block for self and everyone in range that still allows you to attack?

The shield is a separate entity from Aegis. The Aegis that you see from the tooltip is from the passive effect which has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

Yes it blocks attacks for allies. It only blocks in front of you as well.

Abelisk.4527:

The shield is a separate entity from Aegis. The Aegis that you see from the tooltip is from the passive effect which has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

Also the shield is for you only. It doesn’t block attacks for allies.

I see. But, to confirm, the shield blocks attacks in all directions rather than just attacks in front, correct? I made a point of dodging behind my friend and then attacking from behind, and I’m fairly certain all attacks were blocked.

Abelisk.4527:

The shield is a separate entity from Aegis. The Aegis that you see from the tooltip is from the passive effect which has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

Also the shield is for you only. It doesn’t block attacks for allies.

Wait what? So it only protects me?

Choppy.4183:

Abelisk.4527:

The shield is a separate entity from Aegis. The Aegis that you see from the tooltip is from the passive effect which has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

Also the shield is for you only. It doesn’t block attacks for allies.

I see. But, to confirm, the shield blocks attacks in all directions rather than just attacks in front, correct? I made a point of dodging behind my friend and then attacking from behind, and I’m fairly certain all attacks were blocked.

Yes, only blocks from the front.

ArchonWing.9480:

Abelisk.4527:

The shield is a separate entity from Aegis. The Aegis that you see from the tooltip is from the passive effect which has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

Also the shield is for you only. It doesn’t block attacks for allies.

Wait what? So it only protects me?

My mistake

Well, that’s good to know. Though I think it’ d be a matter of semantics anyways since if you negate the attack, it implicitly protects anyone that happens to be behind the shield as well.

Abelisk.4527:

Yes, only blocks from the front.

I’ll have to test it again then. I was using Whirlwind Attack from behind (dodge through to back, direct the attack back into him), which is up to four hits and I think they were all blocked.

Could be wrong, but I’ll report back here either way. In any case, thanks for the responses.

A small tip when fighting people using that shield. Dont get inside someones hitbox or let them in your hitbox because it messes with the shield and pretty much allows someone to hit you from any angle. Probably has something to do with how the server sees player positions.

Choppy.4183:

Abelisk.4527:

Yes, only blocks from the front.

I’ll have to test it again then. I was using Whirlwind Attack from behind (dodge through to back, direct the attack back into him), which is up to four hits and I think they were all blocked.

Could be wrong, but I’ll report back here either way. In any case, thanks for the responses.

Upon activating f3, you also receive aegis so it’s possible that the first strike of whirlwind was blocked by aegis and by that time, you were far enough in front of the DH that your remaining strikes were blocked by the shield.

Azure.8926:

A small tip when fighting people using that shield. Dont get inside someones hitbox or let them in your hitbox because it messes with the shield and pretty much allows someone to hit you from any angle. Probably has something to do with how the server sees player positions.

This is an important tip. When I’m playing symbolic versus another DH, if they’re standing on top of a symbol but have SoC up and are facing me, my symbol doesn’t do any damage. If they are facing away from me and on the symbol, it damages them. Tbh I think that SoC shouldn’t block AoE but that’s just me.

Arcaedus.7290:

Upon activating f3, you also receive aegis so it’s possible that the first strike of whirlwind was blocked by aegis and by that time, you were far enough in front of the DH that your remaining strikes were blocked by the shield.

I think it must be, and possibly combined with my DH friend turning around to reassert the blocks. I tested again last night and it did indeed behave as described… one block from the back, with the remaining attacks doing damage as normal.

Thanks for the help, everyone.