Guild Wars 2

What if they change from current “Gain 180 additional toughness while wielding a shield. Shield ability recharge is reduced by 20%.” to “Shield skills apply 5 seconds of Aegis on allies. Shield ability recharge is reduced by 20%.”, would this make shield finally viable?

Aside from this proposal, do you guys think they will change the shield skills to make it finally viable? Or will be gathering dust forever? This is the most iconic weapon, but ironically, is our weakest weapon, maybe in the whole game.

TD;DR: Make the shield viable already!

It will probably help Shield and have some very nice synergies. However, I don’t really like it. Solely due to the reason that this would mean baseline Shield remaining underwhelming and literally forcing you to get the weapon trait to make it work. It shouldn’t be that way.

Would also make the shield go from pure garbage to too strong.

Shield just flat out needs a change, the only good skill on it is #5 in PvP and WvW to an extent if you’re camping on a ledge, but that’s it.. even taking that into consideration, there are far better alternatives.

It’s quite silly that the shield, a defensive weapon, is out classed defensively by a focus.

Xaylin.1860:

It will probably help Shield and have some very nice synergies. However, I don’t really like it. Solely due to the reason that this would mean baseline Shield remaining underwhelming and literally forcing you to get the weapon trait to make it work. It shouldn’t be that way.

Pretty much this. A more interesting shield trait would be cool, but shield needs to be worth taking WITHOUT having to trait for it. Once we have good base shield skills, then having the trait reworked could be a worthwhile endeavor.

How about giving shields in addition with stalwart defender the ability to give you 6 sec protection (internal CD of 8 sec) for a 33% chance everytime you get hit.
So the shield could actually feel like a “shield”.
You could get a >theoretically< downtime of 0 sec by increasing your boon duration and it would still be just a chance on damage received.

In the german section i also mentioned ( in addition with stalwart defender of course)

giving the shild 4, a circle area of effect instead of a cone and granting protection to 10 instead of 5 targets ( + maybe 1 extra second of the boon).
Giving the shield 5, the ability to generate a 5 second symbol which grants random boons ( 1/second/tick)

But maybe with those addition to 4 and 5, some may argue that it would be over the top.

Well, with the addition of a certain new condition, I’d rather see this:

• Gain additional Toughness while wielding a shield. (+180)
• Shield ability recharge is reduced. (-20%)
• Shield abilities Taunt enemies on hit.

This way, enemies hit by Shield of Judgment are forced to attack you (while giving yourself Protection in preparation for the attack). Shield of Absorption’s knockback effect not only pushes away nearby opponents, but inflicts Taunt as well forcing the opponent back into range. Paired with a Mace, this could be a very tanky combination.