Guild Wars 2

Is it just me that find the warrior shield skills bad?

…and want the engineers shield skills,
I mean I never really seen an engineer
with a shield in WvW anyway, might
as well give them to us :-)

Engineers with shield are beast.

That being said, warrior shield skills are not bad. Just not as good.

I love my shield block. Something always feels good when I see 10+ blocks shoot up on screen. The cool downs are a bit long (even with the trait), but are reasonable for what they give us. I’d rather maybe give the trait a buff.

It’d be great if either they combined the Shield Master with Missile Deflection.

Or, if they up’ed the +90 toughness. 90 toughness doesn’t really do anything (like our defense minor adapt trait), I’d much prefer if those traits were %’s

Seriously?

Engineers have good shield skills but Shield Stance is like the best block skill in the game. 3 seconds, unlimited blocks, not limited in amount of blocks, can be traited to reflect, 30 (24 traited) second cooldown. There isn’t a lot of things I would trade my Shield Stance for in this game…

Shield Bash… meh, at 25 second cooldown for a stun, it could probably use an evade or a block during the charge animation, or have a longer charge to justify the cooldown… but Warriors are in a very very good position right now so I’m not going to complain too loud.

Also I’m really glad that Warriors get to block with their shield. I hate how Guardians cannot block with their shield. (But can with their focus!?) It doesn’t make sense.

My Engie loves her shield. A lot. Like a WHOLE lot. That being said, i like what warrior shield gives me in blocks and reflects and the additional interrupt along with mace and hammer and charge, well you know that dance.

I hate shield on my Guardian though. If they made the blocking bubble smaller and follow us instead of rooting me, then I might be happier with it, but it still only blocks projectiles. :/ It also doesn’t last for long and has a silly cool down. Wars have nothing to complain about with the shield.

War shield is a lot better than guardians but I still wish they would reduce the cool downs some

Bearhugger.4326:

Seriously?

Engineers have good shield skills but Shield Stance is like the best block skill in the game. 3 seconds, unlimited blocks, not limited in amount of blocks, can be traited to reflect, 30 (24 traited) second cooldown. There isn’t a lot of things I would trade my Shield Stance for in this game…

Shield Bash… meh, at 25 second cooldown for a stun, it could probably use an evade or a block during the charge animation, or have a longer charge to justify the cooldown… but Warriors are in a very very good position right now so I’m not going to complain too loud.

Also I’m really glad that Warriors get to block with their shield. I hate how Guardians cannot block with their shield. (But can with their focus!?) It doesn’t make sense.

Since I only can quote one person I chose you, as it seems to general cover
the comments/feedback given atm of writing this.

I am happy to read it’s only me that find warrior shield skills bad,
I never really had the use for blocking before it’s too late, and when
I finally thought I could, I was blocking no incomming attacks.

I might have forgotten to tell you what problems I have with the warriors
shield skills, to find them bad. Here is a short summary:
The only skill I ever found somewhat useful was the ‘Shield Bash’ skill,
since timing ‘Shield Block’ to be useful is as easy, as flying without wings.

Only thing I’d like on shield is to gain a strike of adrenaline per block. Seems odd to be actively defending in the heat of battle and not get some manner of adrenaline rush. I’d even be happy if they allowed adrenaline gain via Cleansing Ire, since you are getting hit when they smack your shield.

Daniel Warren.4968:

Only thing I’d like on shield is to gain a strike of adrenaline per block. Seems odd to be actively defending in the heat of battle and not get some manner of adrenaline rush. I’d even be happy if they allowed adrenaline gain via Cleansing Ire, since you are getting hit when they smack your shield.

Well you can at least gain might while blocking
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mighty_Defenses

But I agree with Cleansing Ire granting adrenaline on a block (the same way stealth should end if their attack is blocked).

Wallace MacBix.2089:

Daniel Warren.4968:

Only thing I’d like on shield is to gain a strike of adrenaline per block. Seems odd to be actively defending in the heat of battle and not get some manner of adrenaline rush. I’d even be happy if they allowed adrenaline gain via Cleansing Ire, since you are getting hit when they smack your shield.

Well you can at least gain might while blocking
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mighty_Defenses

But I agree with Cleansing Ire granting adrenaline on a block (the same way stealth should end if their attack is blocked).

Mighty Defenses is a beast trait. Might stacking pairs wonderfully with guardian rune’s burning block or a frenzied Flurry.

Back on topic, shield skills nontraited aren’t the best ever, and I think you have to devote a trait or two to make it shine. Its a pretty big part of your defensive play.

Daniel Warren.4968:

Back on topic, shield skills nontraited aren’t the best ever, and I think you have to devote a trait or two to make it shine. Its a pretty big part of your defensive play.

When I was saying the shield skills are bad, I do focus on the usability
versus the cooldown time, and not exactly the buffs from traits, which
only triggers on a block ….with the exeption being the trait that reduces
cooldown.

Warrior shield skills are fine and don’t need changing. They’re not overpowered or underpowered, but they are a strong choice (the best choice) in PvP. There’s literally nothing that deserves changing about the shield.

In PvE the issue is the metagame, not the weapon.

DragonMind.2983:

Is it just me that find the warrior shield skills bad?

…and want the engineers shield skills,
I mean I never really seen an engineer
with a shield in WvW anyway, might
as well give them to us :-)

with kits an engineer can get 2 shields. One from offhand and one from toolkit. Engineer is squishier than a warrior so it makes sense. Most engineers don’t run anything like this though.

A few seconds off of the warriors shield cooldown would be OP.

risenlord.2035:

DragonMind.2983:

Is it just me that find the warrior shield skills bad?

…and want the engineers shield skills,
I mean I never really seen an engineer
with a shield in WvW anyway, might
as well give them to us :-)

with kits an engineer can get 2 shields. One from offhand and one from toolkit. Engineer is squishier than a warrior so it makes sense. Most engineers don’t run anything like this though.

A few seconds off of the warriors shield cooldown would be OP.

Actually that is exactly how i run my engie in WvW. Pistol/Shield with toolkit, grenades and either bombs or Elixer B. Makes for some fun, medium, long and close up damage throughout a fight.

Larynx.2453:

Warrior shield skills are fine and don’t need changing. They’re not overpowered or underpowered, but they are a strong choice (the best choice) in PvP. There’s literally nothing that deserves changing about the shield.

In PvE the issue is the metagame, not the weapon.

Since you take up specific playstyles/areas, my usage problem is in WvW.

risenlord.2035:

A few seconds off of the warriors shield cooldown would be OP.

A block skill that works 1/10th of the time (without trait) and
with no 100% chance that it will actually block something,
is not what I would call OP, is the cooldown got reduced.

Now with that said, any changes or a remake that would make
the warrior shield skills better, but NOT OP would be fine :-)

I like the war shield skills. It has saved my butt many a times running into that tower past the zerg. Or running through the enemy zerg with zerker stance and stability to the back lines to kill glass cannons or arrow carts. However lately I keep flipping back and forth between my shield and warhorn. That convert conditions to boons is amazing.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

I like the war shield skills. It has saved my butt many a times running into that tower past the zerg. Or running through the enemy zerg with zerker stance and stability to the back lines to kill glass cannons or arrow carts. However lately I keep flipping back and forth between my shield and warhorn. That convert conditions to boons is amazing.

Now that you mention warhorn …it really needs a damage skill on it,
we are warriors.

DragonMind.2983:

Chuck Zitto.2367:

I like the war shield skills. It has saved my butt many a times running into that tower past the zerg. Or running through the enemy zerg with zerker stance and stability to the back lines to kill glass cannons or arrow carts. However lately I keep flipping back and forth between my shield and warhorn. That convert conditions to boons is amazing.

Now that you mention warhorn …it really needs a damage skill on it,
we are warriors.

And warhorns aren’t weapons.

I probably shouldn’t say this, since it’s the secret to my build, but coupling shield with the Mighty Defenses trait works really well.

Run or jump into the group and block on and see them spike your might skyhigh. Balance and 4 sec invul while you use sword F1 on them, jump out roll away and watch them bleed out their ears.

Works well for capping pve targets too of course.

Perfect rotation: pop elite. Engage with Beserker stance, use Longbow 5 to pin. Use Longbow F1 and run in and longbow 3 to give you might in the combo field. Switch to sword/shield. With the sigil giving might on swap, you can now engage with 11 might.

If there’s more than 1 enemy, or a fast attacker (mesmer with phantasms, warrior hundred blades, a thief humping you like crazy, it’s all good ),block and let the timer run. Now we are talking some serious might here. Shieldbash someone (makes fireshield in the firefield btw) and F1, or just pin them all with the sword F1.

I am condi warrior and I can spike my bleeds above 160 fighting on my own, but usually it’s just solid high 130 into the 140s. I use food and sharpener or whatever it’s called. And the sigil that give 10 condi on kill, and Guardleech, so the bleeds vary of course.

But the mightstacking is a strong part of the build.

It’s easy to practice the rotation on the veterans in the camps, the more the merrier.

I’m also condition built, but I don’t find the shield all that useful. I prefer to kite, so it is basically Bow all the way while I circle dumb NPC mobs. I can fight 5-6 mobs in this fashion. No need to put a shield on. However, I do sometimes swap to sword/horn for the sword stacks and the sword F1, in combo with the Bow, it sure adds a bunch of ticks.

However, I do not find the off hand shield to be of more use to me than a horn as moving around saves a ton of time, plus the horn give me the field blast. So, shield looks cool on a Warrior but that’s about it. IMHO.

Try doing some 5vXs where X is any number greater than or equal to 15 and see how you think shield stance is after that. 1vX where X is greater than or equal to 3 also works.

Better yet, ask your support players how much they appreciate your shield stance.

deathTouch.9706:

Try doing some 5vXs where X is any number greater than or equal to 15 and see how you think shield stance is after that. 1vX where X is greater than or equal to 3 also works.

Better yet, ask your support players how much they appreciate your shield stance.

Especially since now, blocking a field or AoE attacks counts against the max targets of 5.