Guild Wars 2

A Guardian should be able to use a shield in gw2 but it sucks. Can someone fix it?

Skill 5 is good in PvP. But Skill 4 is terrible and completely outclassed by any equivalent skill, which do the same thing but more (Hold the Line, Traited Focus 4, or the Revenant’s Shield 4, all good examples).

Yes, it needs help. However, we’ve gone over this multiple times in multiple threads, sadly, it appears ANet are quite happy to continue ignoring this one.

Shield helps give more prot uptime without needing Hammer. Also has a1.0 power scaling, which isn’t terrible. Shield 4 in pvp needs to use pve numbers, and then the shield trait could give something more interesting than 180 toughness, and shield will be a nice option.

Yes, we know shield sucks. Anet has pleaded ignorance on this for 3 years now. Don’t expect it to change.

i use a shield everyday . . . perhaps it is not the shield that sucks ?

. . . food for thought anyways . . .

I wouldn’t mind if shield 4 was a ground targeted symbol, but I’m not sure how to balance that.
Or maybe it could turn into a melee range knockdown/daze.

I currently feel shield 4 is boring to use, and I don’t see myself using it over the other options.

Shield is a terrible weapon for Guardians compared with what we have.

For PvE the protection is to little and can be kept with a better weapon for full uptime. And do i even have to mention the abomination skill 5 on shield is.

For WvWvW. Skill 4 will offer on demand protection helping the front line to survive making it workable but the same can be achieved by shout with added benefits. And skill 5 in WvWvW is suicide, standing still in WvWvW is a death sentence.

In PvP The shield will fulfill a better role offering on demand protection for more survivability and a on demand knock back helping one to remove threats from objectives and buy valuable time.

So why is shield bad?
It is simple, the compared options do most jobs better
Focus offer better personal survivability with a strong blind that may offers some regeneration, It also offers a really strong block that can be used offensive. All this before adding in that a traited focus, offers more personal protection boon than the shield.

But wait, that is not even everything look at the shield trait and compare it with the focus. both offering a 20% cool down reduction but there is where the equality vanishes.
Shield in addition offers a added +180 toughness in addition to the cool down reduction, does not sound so bad does it. Well it is +180 toughness to yourself only, and it is competing with more spread Aegis to allies or giving allies and yourself +150 Toughness.
That trait, is by itself a insult and one would admit that it may well be the last nail in the coffin showing how terrible the design is.

A Group protection weapon, grants toughness to you and you lose out on party defense in exchange.

So yes, the shield is terrible, sure they have “improved” it by lowering the cool down. But that is not the core problem with the weapon.

Yeah, honestly it’d just make alot more sense to role the Strength In Numbers and Shield Master trait into one. Have the Trait grant 150 Toughness to the party and reduce Shield CD by 20%, which would be perfect for the party protector playstyle. No need for that selfish 180 Toughness nonsense that that you are never going to take over protecting your allies all with 150 Toughness, if you are attempting to guard them, which is the only time you’d use a Shield instead of a Focus anyway in PvE.

This would open up a Trait spot that could be used to fix some of our other issues instead, too.

zcearo.1897:

i use a shield everyday . . . perhaps it is not the shield that sucks ?

. . . food for thought anyways . . .

Sorry, but I use shield to, and have done so since the beta weekends and the head start of the game.

Shield is horrible.

I just like using it.

But it’s still horrible.

I find the shield rather effective in group fights in WvW, then again it’s while running an AH shout build, with Hold the Line and Shield #4 providing some interesting protection uptime for yourself and allies, then Save Yourselves! for self god mode. That’s a total of 19 seconds of protection on yourself and 9 seconds on your allies.

Shield #5 works really well against lock-down groups, got an ally being heavily targeted by melee? Shield #5! Provided they don’t have group stability. This enemy is inconspicuously standing near a cliff which would mean his death if he happened to trip on his shoelace and fall? Shield #5! The enemy Thief pops Shadow Refuge while giggling that he has 2 hours of sweet stealth awaiting him? Ruin his day!

I almost made it sound too good.

Unfortunately shield trait is lackluster and doesn’t compete with either Strength in Numbers or Communal Defenses in group fights, the shield re-pop for healing and projectile nope is buggy, while the best application of this skill is to use knock-back whilst moving to cancel the end skill animation which makes the skill half effective.

Lahm.7056:

The enemy Thief pops Shadow Refuge while giggling that he has 2 hours of sweet stealth awaiting him? Ruin his day!

Yeah, off-topic but I love doing this. You can almost see the horror on the Thieves face when you walk into the middle of his Shadow Refuge and pop Shield 5. Normally they panic :p.

KotCR.6024:

Lahm.7056:

The enemy Thief pops Shadow Refuge while giggling that he has 2 hours of sweet stealth awaiting him? Ruin his day!

Yeah, off-topic but I love doing this. You can almost see the horror on the Thieves face when you walk into the middle of his Shadow Refuge and pop Shield 5. Normally they panic :p.

a smoke field will make SoA dome fail the KB

IMO, focus is closer to what the shield should be…
Why does my focus provide more protection / survivability than my shield? lol

zcearo.1897:

i use a shield everyday . . . perhaps it is not the shield that sucks ?

. . . food for thought anyways . . .

No, it’s definitely the shield that sucks. People who still use it for the look even admit that it’s terrible.

KotCR.6024:

Yeah, honestly it’d just make alot more sense to role the Strength In Numbers and Shield Master trait into one. Have the Trait grant 150 Toughness to the party and reduce Shield CD by 20%, which would be perfect for the party protector playstyle. No need for that selfish 180 Toughness nonsense that that you are never going to take over protecting your allies all with 150 Toughness, if you are attempting to guard them, which is the only time you’d use a Shield instead of a Focus anyway in PvE.

This would open up a Trait spot that could be used to fix some of our other issues instead, too.

This. This very much indeed.

JSmooth.7654:

IMO, focus is closer to what the shield should be…
Why does my focus provide more protection / survivability than my shield? lol

The blocking aspect the focus has is what shield is missing, albeit with lower impact but shared with allies.

Protection given by using Focus skills is only available through traiting which is arguably the best one out of that traitline if you (should) run Focus.

Shield #4 is bad, but can find niche utility in group scenarios and running an AH build. Right now, the whole concept of the Shield is funneled into group results, albeit semi-poorly, opposite to Focus which is way more solo and effective as such, and that is OK.

Wouldn’t make sense having two solo supporting off-hand weapons.

Lahm.7056:

JSmooth.7654:

IMO, focus is closer to what the shield should be…
Why does my focus provide more protection / survivability than my shield? lol

The blocking aspect the focus has is what shield is missing, albeit with lower impact but shared with allies.

Protection given by using Focus skills is only available through traiting which is arguably the best one out of that traitline if you (should) run Focus.

Shield #4 is bad, but can find niche utility in group scenarios and running an AH build. Right now, the whole concept of the Shield is funneled into group results, albeit semi-poorly, opposite to Focus which is way more solo and effective as such, and that is OK.

Wouldn’t make sense having two solo supporting off-hand weapons.

So what you’re saying is… One is for personal defense and one is for group defense. But, the focus is (currently) better at its job?

Edit: If so, I would propose swapping the shield and focus skins. It makes more logical sense to me.

The thing is, Focus is just as good at protecting allies as it is at protecting oneself, whereas the Shield is really only moderate for protecting allies.

Focus 4 will bounce to allies, healing them, granting protection if traited, and removing conditions. Aswell as blinding enemies, so your allies take less damage.
Granted, Shield 4 will affect yourself and upto 4 other allies instead of just you and 2 other allies, when it comes to applying the protection, the other benefits to it (condition removal for allies and blind to stop an attack too), should more than make-up for that. Of course, that’s before we get into Focus’ 4’s offensive application of being able to also apply Vulnerability with the correct traits.

Focus 5 doesn’t directly support allies the way Shield 5 might, but it is a Blast Finisher, which means it can protect allies still by blasting for heals in a water field, or blind in a dark field, or weakness in a poison field, all of which will help to keep allies alive just as good as Shield 5.

Knowing our luck though, ANet will read this and instead of buffing Shield, will nerf Focus :p.

I use shield atleast 3 times a week, thats how often I do Tri-wurm and funktion as egg blokker… rip shield :/

I think we all agree that shield needs rework of some sort. Not a cooldown reduction, but a rework! 20-35 second cooldowns worked fine for shield, and would be great if the skills were stronger and more impactful. As it stands now, shield comes across as a very niche weapon (when you need extra projectile defence for fractals, supporting a group of 5+, knocking a thief out of SR). Even in these situations, we have other options that compete with shield. For projectile defence we have a spirit weapon, and Wall, for supporting groups of 5+ in, we have staff and hammer and for knocking a thief out of SR, we have binding blades, and banish if you’re lucky. In all other cases, it behooves you to use focus, or torch as an offhand.

I love the animations and concepts behind guardian shield, but we really need some added functionality (group aegis, or a BLOCK!). Additionally the trait for shield is redundant (shields already give bonus toughness, and SiN gives almost the same amount of toughness as it stays with you after a weapon swap). A reworking of the trait which adds interesting functionality to the shield, or perhaps some sort of boon on shield skill use would be most appropriate.

Honestly, I’m okay with shield 5 as it is now. It’s not perfect, but if shield 4 was improved it would make the weapon leaps and bounds better. That being said, I’d be very happy to see them both approved!

As for shield skill 4, I think this skill is in a weird place because it fails to define itself as either offensive or defensive. It feels mediocre in both respects. If protection is to stay, than I’d hope to see a slight duration increase (maybe 5s or 6s) to make this a little more valuable.

Ultimately I’d rather see the protection of shield skill 4 replaced entirely with Aegis. If the CD needs to be slightly increased to balance, I’d be fine with that (assuming the increase is not huge).

Just having the ability to provide another source of Aegis on command would make this skill significantly more usable and we’d see some really wonderful synergy with Dragonhunter as well as all of the traits we already have regarding aegis. This could potentially be another source of burning, damage, healing or condi removal. This would feel so much more in line with what the Guardian should be.

I agree with Arcaedus that the trait is weak right now. My suggestion is one that takes my suggested changes to the skills into account. I’d like to see this trait function more like Focus Mastery, perhaps, by applying a boon on activation of shield skills.

As to which boon it should apply and whether or not it should apply it to allies as well, is something I think deserves discussion (I support the idea of applying the boon to allies). Without altering any other traits I would say regen would be the natural pick. I don’t feel like retaliation fits the nature of the shield and stability and resistance are probably unlikely. Swiftness and Vigor also don’t feel appropriate and given the role the shield is meant to fill I don’t think offensive boons would fit.

Ultimately the shield feels like it’s meant to be a less offensive/less selfish counterpart to the Focus. Maybe changing Stalwart Defender to grant protection and Focus Mastery to grant retaliation would be more appropriate. Regardless, I think a change of this sort (in combination with Aegis instead of Protection on skill 4) would be fantastic and make this a far more useful weapon!

As I was saying before:

Why not giving:
Shield 4# same stuff.
Shield 5# do same stuff. (plus give it 1 sec of slow to enemies who you do not kockback)
Trait – Stalwart Defender
Gain additional toughness while wielding a shield. Shield ability recharge is reduced.
Toughness: +180
Recharged Reduced: 20%
Gives each of your shield skills 1 aegis (but only for yourself not allies)
There…problem solved. And I would get that shield instant. (we get 2 situational blocks – focus have 3 ).

JSmooth.7654:

IMO, focus is closer to what the shield should be…
Why does my focus provide more protection / survivability than my shield? lol

Magic > Metal ;P

Wtb dual shields and roll around with them like armored armadillo from megaman x kappa.

I wish they would explain to us why they are not re-doing shield.. the vast majority of players don’t seem to like it. They think that’s cool..really?

They clearly want people to forget it exists.

If only so.

As is, it can be used to support from somewhere in the back. Unfortunately guardians don’t really have another weapon to go along with this idea.

Can’t they give guardians…. guardian stuff for shield ?
For example a shield skill that transfers 20% of the damage your party members received to yourself.
Or give them a trait that have a chance to blocks attack while wielding a shield.

Well, boiling down my hopes for the absolute minimum adjustment that would let me use the shield to good effect, I cam up with…

Increase the range of #4 to 900. THis will let you support from the real more effectively.

Increase the radius of #5 to 400 and make the dome impenetrable to dodge rolls. Now its easier to use, better at chokepoint control, and has a stronger knockback.

I’d also like the shield trait to grant you aegis for 8 second when you use a shield skill.

These are very modest changes, but they’d go a long way.

Huh. I use shield all the time in group situations. Not my favorite off-hand, but I never thought it was useless or terrible. It’s especially nice with Mace, I think, especially when you can pop skill 5 and then swap to a ranged weapon for kiting or use the distance to let you do something sneaky.

I especially think it will work well with DH, where you can buy a couple of seconds to lay down a trap.

I just don’t see it as a raw DPS weapon. It’s a support weapon.

Maybe you’re wanting it to be something it isn’t meant to be?

It is a group support weapon, whereas the focus is a self support weapon. But yeah the shield could use a little love.

Shield of Judgment: Adds aegis to allies hit, 1 second daze on enemies hit.

Shield of Absorption: Put the duration at 4 seconds in WvW, make the second part of this skill a blast finisher and have it scale a lot better with healing power.

As others have said, AOE aegis on SHield 4.

Boom, shield is now awesome.

its funny that the only good shield skills are on the engi which is the least “shield” like class….

but yeah, shield needs some love – that i never ever see anyone outside of engis use a shield should be some indication that nearly no one likes them

Shield could be fixed in several ways. Currently, both traits synergy and abilities are subpar. The traits suppose that the CD reduction on the shield is worth having (otherwise you lose 150 toughness to allies for 180 self toughness). Currently, that isn’t the case.

Now, some options to increase shield viability:
1) Enhance the trait power, make Shield Skills give boons or remove conditions from affected allies, or restore endurance. Since shield 5 is a channel, stability to the guardian.
2) Rework shield skills and refine its identity, funnel its power into a specific purpose.
My idea is to rework shield 5 into a similar skill with a more defined defensive purpose:
When using the shield, you activate a dome that heals allies inside for a large amount over the duration of the 4 second stationary channel while destroying projectiles that hit the dome.
At any time, you can detonate the dome for an AoE Knockback and a blast finisher.