if you spec for damage and RHS, the mace can hit EXTREMELY hard. with the added healing, regen, extra block, as well as protection, knockback and yet, another heal with the shield, you’ll have more than enough staying power as well, especially for PvE. and this is just one of your weapon sets.
for ref, in lvl 80 areas, mob depending, or in WvW, enemy player depending (on 80’s, not upscaled), it’s possible to crit up to 2k, 3k, close to 4k attacks on mace auto chain, sure it hits slower than other weapons, but that’s already 8k damage just from your auto attack chain. while your symbol of faith can tick up to 1k+ on crits. of course, these are close to the max numbers i’ve seen. pair it up with other weapons and you can easily keep enemies in place, or stack a ton of vuln on them for extra damage. while you can stack might yourself.
1) it’s definitely viable. most effective? others may argue. i enjoy mace in PvE, because of the AoE it does pack. the third hit on auto doesn’t have cleave, but the symbol you can trait it as well and also mace 3, pop it right before a mob is about to hit, and watch massive AoE damamge. shield is more situational but definitely helpful. shield 4 is very nice and self-explanatory. shield 5, if you’re ever in a tight spot, pop shield to get some breathing room. someone unfortunately downed at an event? pop it and res them. i mainly use the shield bubble for the knockback, so what i tend to do is double tap it (takes some tmiing practice) to get the knock + heal, and then i hit Esc, so that cancels your root and you can move freely quicker. but if you need projectile blocking, by all means, keep it up. the shield knockback also seems counterintuitive at times in PvE cause the idea is to group mobs to mow them down faster. you can use shield 5 to an extent to do this, train mobs into a line and then pop the shield, watch them all fall in place. or against a wall is always fun. if in dungeon and on voice chat, let people know before you pop it so they don’t drop AoE’s in the spot where the mobs MAY have been.
2) not giving build advice here, but jsut highlighting some of the obvious traits. mace, if you’re going for damage, get Radiance XI – Right Hand Strength which gives 15% extra crit chance. this is what i took to be able to hit so hard with mace. it’s really an in your face kind of weapon.
however, mace has a symbol as well so going at least 20 down Honor i like doing for Larger (III – Writ of Exaltation) and Healing symbols (X – Writ of the Merciful). If healing not needed, go Longer Lasting symbols (VII – W of Persistence) for one more regen and moer DPS on mobs. since most of them don’t move TOO much, symbols is very nice in PvE and it’s on a short CD.
20 into Valor for either Mace of Justice (VII) or Honorable Shield (IX). if you’re not planning to go deep with healing power, i’d suggest taking Honorable Shield if you go this route for extra toughness and CD reduction since they do take long to recharge.
the two boons you’ll be getting from mace/shield are mainly regen and protection, both of which are very nice in keeping you in the fight. also, since you’re getting so many boons ALtruistic Healing (Valor XI) if you feel you need it of course benefits from this set as you’ll have lots of boons going all over the place, which can give you some more added sustain if you go full offense on your gear.
3) in terms of gear, really depends on what you want to do with this set, and how you want to do it. if you want to go berserkers go for it, and you can trait a bit more defensively. argubly though if you want to go full offense, i’d take torch or focus before shield, but i know where you’re coming from. : ))
i like to min/max to a certain extent and i belieev that mixing your gear will always give you better results, but to each their own. if you have full ascended trinkets already, if you’re doing “easier” content or with an organized group, i’d go full berserkers (of coruse, test this and practice yourself first) but also keep on hand a mixed set of maybe knight’s, soldiers, valkyrie, etc and with berserker trinkets or weapons, you’ll still be doing damage, but being able to retain slightly higher sustainability. and again, you’ll alwys have traits and food / consumales or runes to tinker up or down depending on what you’re trying to do.
and you didn’t ask, but i enjoyed having hammer as a secondary weapon for mace/shield. definitely not mobile as mobile as can be, but very strong and tanky. lot of defensive boons, so you can afford to play a little more aggressively.
hope this helps a bit.
