Guild Wars 2

Is a sword-shield viable with the recent changes on the patches? Sorry for asking but I was off for quite a while and don’t know what changes have been made.

Same as ever. It’s a fine pairing, but it does depend on what you’re trying to do. It’s not much use in a burst set and in a straight DPS berserker setup you need the blinds from Focus. It’s better in PvP than PvE.

Yeah sure….But would you mind giving me example of a build?

In group fights you can swap Focus for Shield in a Healway build for the utility of having a knockback and large AoE projectile absorption as well as the nice direct bonus heal off of the bubble. It’s fun to use in WvW near cliffs. Same premise with any generic RHS build.

But it’s a group weapon, not a solo one. The main reason for that is that the bubble is a way to prevent stomps, not stomp enemies. Focus 5 on the other hand is a good way to guarantee a stomp, but focus leaves you without any way to keep your buddy from getting skewered.

In PvE it’s useful in a few dungeons for the projectile absorption which is quite good in, for example, Grawl fractal or against the harpies in that Rata Sum fractal the name of which escapes me at the moment. But other than that you’re almost always better off with a focus.

So, eh. It’s easier to say what it doesn’t work with rather than what it does.

Shield works but focus is probably better in the long run. Having said that the longer you play your guardian the chances are likely that you will have, and carry, each weapon we can use. There are some on this forum, who are active, actually carry multiple of each due to the various sigil options. So….not buttons….there you have it.

I prefer shield when I go DPS which is a mix of Soldier and Berserker gear out in PvP (WvW mind you). I do not PvE much so can’t really say and foofad probably already covered it. Shield around high places can yield many hours of fun. And honestly you don’t see too many out and about.

Forgot to add my primary build is one of the two Healaway’s listed in the post here in the forums (not mine, Christo’s). I also run a very dangerous DPS build for solo / roaming.

Shield tends to shine in bigger fights. In small fights, the focus block is huge, but when you have big fights, group protection is superior in lasting longer against all that incoming damage.

Although I wonder what would happen if one takes the honorable shield + strength in numbers traits. I guess they’d be valid choices in an AH build but then you can’t fit RHS in that, and that would be extremely meh.