Guild Wars 2

Sorry for the noob question, I’m leveling a warrior alt and I’m wondering how well the shield does in high level PvE and WvW?

How useful is the shield in those roles compared to the other weapons?

Reflecting projectiles with the shield is rather effective against several types of Risen. But overall the shield feels lackluster in open PvE. If facing only one enemy, the off-hand sword blocks and gives 4 stacks of bleed. If facing two or three, the warhorn gives better long-term survivability and removes any long-term conditions (ie 30s cripple/poison).

The shield is best at blocking lots of attacks and stalling for time, which happens slightly more often in Dungeons and frequently in WvW.

They can help you survive in dungeons. Open world pve, get dual axes, great sword so on so on.

Not sure for dungeons but shields aren’t too great in PvE. Warriors don’t really need them in PvE, they can get quite a bit glass cannon and still survive. Probably more effective in WvW, but the cooldowns are a little too long to rely on to save you..

For leveling they are the best option either with axe, sword or mace combination. The shield will save you many deaths if you use it properly. Use shield bash to close in and stun, especially good for casters or ranged. shield stance can be specced in traits to last longer and use it either to block several attacks at the same time and then use stomp to clear those enemies or you block the heavy attacks. I use it most of the time in PVE, dungeons and www. However sometimes a different situation requires different approach. In groups you can switch to more dps with gs, hammers, dual axe. Also when you level up and go to lower zones, you will switch more often to more dps or speed. I my self love the combo of axe/shield, because the fight looks so iconic and plain kitten.

They aren’t. Here’s why:

In PvE, mobs generally will be melee, with a couple of ranged options, so no adorable projectile reflections with traits. In addition, aggro rules spread out enemies rather than focus them on you, meaning you aren’t going to be defending anyone other than yourself. A single interrupt with a high recharge (shield bash) is not going to do a single thing against large groups of enemies, and against single enemies, they are usually invulnerable to it. Your block, with its own massive recharge, lasts only long enough to block at most two attacks from normal enemies, which again will likely not be attacking you exclusively.

In general PvE, the Shield is worthless, as it has zero offensive capabilities in a game mode that is all about rewarding offense and enabling defense as an emergency measure.

The one place the Shield does help a lot is in dungeons. The passive defense and the +70 toughness with trait can help in certain situations, and some speed runs and quest moments (Ascalonian path 2 comes to mind) make it essential.

It’s honestly more of a running skill, for getting past things you don’t want to deal with. Its intended purpose as some sort of defensive weapon to protect allies doesn’t work, whatsoever. It’s basically just a little more free toughness if you want it, at the cost of a real weapon in your off hand. It’s something you keep in your inventory as a just in case item, for the rare moments you actually need it. You should never, ever be using it as a primary weapon, as its skills are very weak in an environment dominated by DPS spanning many various kinds of enemies.

Fine in dungeons, completely useless while leveling.

The less geared you are for a dungeon, the better a shield becomes. (ie, if you do an explorable or a story mode dungeon the very level it becomes available, and the rest of your group is somewhat low leveled as well, you will probably want a shield equipped because you won’t kill fast enough to not take lethal damage, in which case you will need to focus on endurance/survival type fighting.

The only thing I found the shield useful for as a warrior,
is for show, it looks awesome. BUT do not ever use it for
anything other than that, unless you fancy dying :-D

The shield does great in dungeons, as the above posters have mentioned. I hang onto it while running around Orr, mostly because I can’t be bothered to switch out my gear all the time. Helps in sticky situations where I have to deal with 5 or 6 mobs at a time too. Sometimes that couple seconds of blocking is all I need to last while my cooldowns come up.

mace/shield combo does great when u go turtle mode. 2 interrupts, 2 blocks, it aint too shabby. nothing like WoW shieldwarrior but this aint WoW anyway.

I would prefer the offhand sword for defence, a lot more damage and a nice block (riposte) on a much shorter cooldown. For pve leveling, mace/sword is quite nice for tough fights.. you get two blocks on very short cooldowns (10 and 15), an interrupt, permanent weakness and a lot of damage.

Mace/sword >>>>>>>> shield.

Monsters hit like every three or four seconds, so the shield will only block once anyway, making mace and sword blocks far superior, as their block is on a much shorter cooldown and has a counterattack.

I prefer greatsword tho, for sheer coolness, hundred blades, and the cool starter skin of the “healing zweihander” sword. I get a “mighty greatsword” from TP, as well as a healing zweihander, and transmute the stats of the mighty to the other, now you have a very cool looking “final fantasy 7” -like blade. I just keep transmuting as I level up, including the armor, since it takes a long time before you find anything better looking than the zweihander and the ringmail.

My warrior is at level 35 and I’ve been running a mace/mace – mace/shield combination, with the utilities Endure Pain, Stomp, and Bull Rush. It is probably not a good build but I enjoy it. I have been doing mostly PvE so I have no idea what how effective it is in WvW. I am not saying this is a great build, I’m just sharing my experience so far.

The way I’ve been playing is about controlling enemy damage with interrupts, knockdowns, blocks and dodge rolling the —-- out of there. Open with the off-hand mace skills, close with Bull Rush, or walking. When the mace skills are one cooldown I switch to the shield. By the time I run through all the other blocks and interrupts I can usually switch back to mace/mace and keep going. Once I trait to lower mace and shield skill cooldown time it should work even better.

I can handle up to 3 enemies at a time without my health dipping below 75%. Any more enemies than that and I usually get rolled unless I do some fancy footwork. AOE casters are the bane of my existence and REQUIRE I change skills if there are lot of casters in the area.

Like any build in the game, you choose your weapons based what enemies are in the area and which weapons can counter them most effectively.

TL;DR: I use shield as part of my PvE build to mitigate bad guy damage output. It works but has limitations that can get ya dead.

I love my shield. I’ve yet to die solo at 53, zero down time, and I am used to the rotation.

Face pull mobs into a nice little ball w/ longbow. Drop fire. Swap to shield setup, and bash. AoE flame shield applied. Continue smacking mobs while they burn in the center as well as contact with shield. If you want, the trait to add might on block is fun when you have 7 things beating on you at once (my max was 25 stacks applied in one block session hehee). While the stacks only last 7sec untraited, with current traits they last around 12s, with the block on a 24sec CD.