Guild Wars 2

A friend of mine informed me that the shield for a guardian is next to useless. I was planning to make my guardian for WvW – aiming to become a support-oriented commander. Apparently the preferred choice for a guardian commander would be a staff and mace/focus.

I will be leveling my guardian soon, and I want to get familiar with the needed weapon set before I drop money for the tag + gear. Is the shield really disfavored, or would it still be a good choice, just outside of WvW?

It isn’t useless, however the other off-hands are better. The only place the shield really shines is in pvp.

^ And only to push people off a point :P Shield 4 is pretty meh if you ask me, and so are both cooldown lengths.

I’d like to hear more on this. I was planning on using The Flameseeker Prophecies and the Princess Wand Skin. They uh.. have good synergy.

Shield is only good in pvp/wvw. It knocks people off points, off of revives/stomps, and out of stealth houses. Its also one of our few interrupts. Plus its a heal. The shield 4 damage is very weak, but it is also good for securing stomps/revives with its 6 seconds of protection.

I don’t think shield is useless, but in my opinion there are far better offhands. Shields 4 skill really badly needs looking at, as it is incredibly underwhelming. Shield 5 is good, knock back, projectile protection and a heal.

It’s not useless. Shield 5 as everyone has already mentioned is excellent in WvW as it allows you to block stomps. However, that’s of arguable usefulness, as Focus 5 allows you to guarantee a stomp of your own. But Shield 5 can be used offensively to knock people off of cliffs and walls, which makes it quite good.

Not going to lie though, I rarely if ever use Shield 4.

Shield 5 also blocks ranged attacks, which can give your group a moment away from the heat to rally. Where it doesn’t particularly shine is solo play..

Cooldowns on Shield are extremely long for what they do, especially the 4th skill. 5th is a decent skill, but its CD is also too long for a situational supportive skill.

CD reduction on both skills and rework on 4th could make shield more useful.

Shield is great to interrupt and block projectiles, give people protection on the fly is nice.

I personally cannot stand the focus; the Ray of Judgement can fizzle so easily, and skill 5 is just a good blast finisher if your lacking any of that in your group…….ya I’m not a fan hehe.

Guardian’s shield is a support weapon as opposed to Warrior’s shield which is a defensive weapon.

The type of support Guardian’s shield offers in a pve environment is almost non existent. But works well in pvp. The shield definitely needs to be reworked so that its appealing in all aspects of the game. Not just one.

I wouldn’t call it useless, but just very limiting.

I personally love the Shield, mainly because I decided on Flameseeker Prophecies as my off-hand legendary a long time ago, and now that I have it, I have to say I don’t regret it one bit.

However, to be honest, Focus is the overwhelming choice over shield in PvE- would most rather have a group protection+knockback/minor heal or another blind/triple block/blast finisher? I think it’d be a lot more balanced, as others have said, if the shield/focus 5 skills were swapped- both for utility and for the purpose of a shield. That said, I rarely take out my focus. I can mitigate it through well-timed dodges and my group certainly won’t mind the extra few seconds of protection (plus, so pretty).

Where I really enjoy using it especially is in WvW- to activate the 5 and then see an absolute load of projectiles pierce the outside of that shield really feels awesome when you know how much damage you’ve likely just mitigated. Also, get your allies up, etc, as others in this topic have mentioned.

So, yes, the shield could be improved, but even if they were to switch the 5 skill, an uproar would still be caused by anyone who wants to use the Focus. Personally though, I’d rather have the shield 5 stay- it’s the 4 skill that is the weak sister. Low damage and a not-fantastic protection radius always seems a bit lame.

My main idea is to have a guardian who is tanky and supportive to last the longest in a zerg fight – and not worry about killing enemies. That’s the zerg’s job – I just point them in the direction to kill. I probably won’t be stomping every invader I come across, but focus more on reviving potential members, rallying, and letting allies do the stomping.

If I was attacking a keep, would shield 5 be more helpful than the focus?

Arikyali.5804:

(…)
If I was attacking a keep, would shield 5 be more helpful than the focus?

You can KB players w/o stability avoiding them to enter the gate, also it is a good tool to interrupt finish on allies.

Shield 4 is really good if you know what your doing and who you’re fighting. Shield is also great for fighting thieves. Not that thieves are much of an issue but it’s got to be frustrating for them to see their backstab hit for a few thousand less damage than normal because of protection. Then we knock them out of their house when they’re at low health and they just stand there looking stupid.

Shield 4 is epic. It’s the only protection source a guardian gets that has no strings attached. Everything else always has something (it’s a symbol with longest windup, needs to be traited, horrible cooldown, good belch lasts longer then that or it’s an elite).

Shield 5 is the party panic button. Pushes mobs away for a sec (with interruption) and protects from incoming projectiles for a brief mooment. When big “anti arrow to knee skills” are on cd, or are casted but now nowhere near where the heat is, that’s your first most reliable bet. And it doesn’t pop after single projectile hits it, unlike focus 5.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Shield 4 is epic. It’s the only protection source a guardian gets that has no strings attached. Everything else always has something (it’s a symbol with longest windup, needs to be traited, horrible cooldown, good belch lasts longer then that or it’s an elite).

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Shield 4 no strings attached horrible cooldown

You poked a hole in your own argument.

If we can only move while casting shield 5.

It’s sad how our profession symbol is a shield and our shield skills are rather lackluster…

Long cool downs on both skills are my biggest gripe, unless its something specific I would take torch over shield, but I think focus is best.

24 secs with traiting is not horrible cooldown. Try virtue of courage’s cooldown or save yourselves (48 secs traited). That’s horrible cooldown.

Traited hammer has a 5 second duration and a 3.7 cooldown ( chain cast ). So don’t compare one aspect only, shout gives swftness aswell.