Guild Wars 2

I think a few changes would make the shield a bit more useful.

The first one, “Shield of Judgment” (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_of_Judgment) I haven’t really used much, but I don’t see the point of it doing any damage. It would be more helpful if it provided more support to allies, possibly Aegis for a couple of seconds. Since it would then need to be timed for enemy attacks.

The second one, “Shield of Absorption”, has such a long recharge and short duration that it needs to be timed to perfection, which makes the skill less fun to use. Reducing the recharge, but decreasing the size of the bubble, would still make it fun to use while not making it overpowered.

What do people think, do you like the shield skills? Do you use them?

Hi ref,

I like Shield and I use it often. I agree it could use a bit of tweaking, partly because I’m always staring at Focus and wondering why I’m not using it. In fact, Shield has some pretty solid party support and I enjoy keeping it in my repertoire for that reason. I think your suggestions seem pretty sound.

Giving allies Aegis for a couple seconds is a bit risky, though. Aegis is potentially very powerful, and can negate a lot of damage. A short-duration Aegis, though, would indeed be pretty cool. The other option is to give a short duration Stability on top of Protection, or grant the Guardian a short duration Aegis.

You’re right about Shield of Absorption’s long recharge, which makes it a bit prohibitive to use except in perfectly timed situations. I’d actually suggest a flat decrease in the recharge time, from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. However, make the “Detonation” effect add another 10 seconds to the recharge.

This means that for general use, Absorption would be available more often, but if you want to detonate early for the group-heal, it’ll function like it does now.

I just think the shield should have a block skill similar to the Focus one, or even the third skill from the mace… or even better similar to Warrior block skill… I envy them when I see they using it.

I personally still find it odd that mace has that AoE damage negation skill, yet shield has nothing like it.

I would like to see shield with a block but as I don’t think that would happen I think both your ideas are rather valid.