Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I’m just looking for some inspiration and advice on how to use the shield.

Thanks!

Shield is very situational.

As a mostly wvw player I find it handy when stacking guardians to portal bomb or block a choke point. Also good when resing a player.

In PVE I used mace + Shield when I was in a tight spot, to gain some time and allow that next heal / dodge / to refresh.

I am sure more skilled playes have found other things to do with it

Burst heal
Combo field light for your teammates.
Knockback/Interrupt
Block Projectiles

Keeping Protection up on people.

i always have shield on me, especially in DUNGEONS. for e.g. in CM, there are a lot of riflemen, turrents, archers.. so the shield helps a lot. also good for knockbacks

The shield is probably the most situational offhand though very powerful. I always keep one on me when running dungeons and pvp. The mace+Shield go hand in hand with each other as that combination gives 3 healing possibilities not including any runes you picked or weapon upgrades. Mace #3 also makes up for the lack of block that the shield is missing and #5 AoE knockback is extremely powerful in node defending and preventing allies from being stomped.

The Shield is my go-to offhand, especially in sPvP.
Shield of Judgment has a bit of a high cooldown for the effect, but Protection is one of the best boons there is, and it’s a bit of ranged damage for when you’re chasing someone.
The utility of Shield of Absorption is nearly endless. The knockback alone would be amazing, but being able to cancel it for healing or the fact that it’s a combo-field makes it all the better.

As for advice: Try to use Shield of Judgment with allies in the cone to get the most of it, but don’t focus on that too much. Don’t do weird positioning just in order to grant your allies the boon.
Shield of Absorption should probably be used for the knockback 90% of the time. Also, make sure you press the button again just before the channel-bar ends, because the healing might save your life.

When there are 40 people standing at the same spot as you and you are in the Maguuma Server.

I use shield effectively by simply not using it at all!!

Well, the best way to use it is by staying at the back of the shield… since if you stand in front of it.. well you get the point Kidding aside, I usually use it when I’m being mobbed, it’s a good crowd clearer in PVE as well as PVP and WV3

I always have a shield handy! I often use it in situations where both melee and ranged are attacking me, I try to position myself correctly as to block the ranged but round up the melee together or to simply protect my allies from the ranged and push melee away from them. It’s a little tricky to do but it works well enough. I pretty much use Shield of Judgement on cooldown, I’ve seen it do some ok crits and the AoE protection is great, especially combined with Altruistic Healing, which I can’t go without.
The emegency heal on Shield of Absorption is really great too, especially when you’re only fighting enemies that aren’t using ranged, knock ’em around then get a free heal. I also often use it to stop an ally from getting stomped in pvp as it will interrupt ANYONE attempting to stomp.