Guild Wars 2

I don’t know if this is an issue in PvP or WvW as I rarely do that.
But for PvE:
I’ve been trying to use the shield for quite some time but I always end up using dual blades. It seems that the protection offered by offhand blade (Riposte) is simply better than a shield (Shield Stance).

My suggestion:
Reduce the Shield Stance recharge to the same time of the Riposte (when using the shield specialisation)
Add 1s of stability to the Shield Bash.

The main problem for me seems to be the long recharge time of 24s (with the shield specialisation). Riposte has a recharge of only 15s. This means that with riposte i can block more heavy attacks of a champion than with a shield. For example the stomp of the Giants in Cursed Shore or the ranged attack of the Golem east in Malchors Leap . Actually trying to fight the golem with the shield I won’t survive on the long run, while with riposte it is not a problem.
Although the riposte ends with a melee attack on you the block is usually only needed to block one attack. After that with riposte there is the counter attack. And if you’re not attacked it gives adrenaline. In ranged attacks the riposte is not ended. So in 99% of the cases the Riposte is both defensively and offensively better than the shield.

With the suggested changes the shield will be slightly better on the defensive side than Riposte. But it will be at the expense of damage.

Note:
If the 10% of dual wield agility also counts towards the recharge of riposte the recharge time is actually 13.5s but i’m not sure of this one.
And yes I think my chracter looks great with a shield :d

The difference between offhand sword and shiled block skill is that with sword you can block only one attack and with shield you can block all the enemy skills for 3 seconds.
That make the shield skill more good in defence than the sword block, because after the first skill you’re still vunlerable to enemy attacks.
But in PvE you don’t need defence, you need only huge dps and some stability and dodges. That’s why shield is used only in PvP.

Silv.9207:

The difference between offhand sword and shiled block skill is that with sword you can block only one attack and with shield you can block all the enemy skills for 3 seconds.
That make the shield skill more good in defence than the sword block, because after the first skill you’re still vunlerable to enemy attacks.
But in PvE you don’t need defence, you need only huge dps and some stability and dodges. That’s why shield is used only in PvP.

This.

Shield recharge is higher because if you need to get out of a mosh pit of direct and ranged attacks, riposte will cancel on any direct hit you take and leave you exposed, whereas shield stance will give you full duration invul until you cancel it or it expires.

used properly, you can mitigate -a lot- of damage, if you are focused.

And if you’re fighting an enemy that hit you fast or you’re against a lot of enemy or in a zerg, you can combine that skill whit the trait that give you might on block. You can obtain 10+ might stack easy.
Or you can combine it with the trait that make you reflect enemy ranged attacks. (it’s very good against rangers!)

From what I understand, Riposte can also block all melee attacks for its duration, but only if you’re out of range for the counterattack. So if you face away or run away from the opponent while using Riposte, you’ll block everything.

Risposte block only 1 attack in it’s duration, not every attacks. At the first attack that hit you you block it, then the skill end with the counter-attack.
I’ve try it sometimes, but if the enemy hit you melee you can counter attack, then you do it. If while you counterattack your enemy is away from your range you miss the hit.
I think the same is about ranged attacks: block the attack but don’t hit the enemy.

Tien.3865:

From what I understand, Riposte can also block all melee attacks for its duration, but only if you’re out of range for the counterattack. So if you face away or run away from the opponent while using Riposte, you’ll block everything.

Nope. if someone melees you while riposte is active, you will counterattack in the direction you are facing, regardless of whether or not you hit anything.

As pointed out, Riposte is meant to block single attacks whereas Shield Stance is meant to block a flurry of attacks. As it happens, single big damage hits are more common in PvE and flurries of smaller damage are more common in WvW and sPvP.

As an example, let’s imagine that you have two skills, A and B. They both deal 5,000 damage, but A deals it in a single hit, whereas B has kittens for 1,000 damage each. In this situation, you end up with the following scenarios:

1. Riposte against Skill A: Completely blocks all damage, 15s cooldown.
2. Shield Stance against Skill A: Completely blocks all damage, 30s cooldown.
3. Riposte against Skill B: Blocks only the first hit, resulting in taking 4,000 damage.
4. Shield Stance against Skill B: Blocks all damage.

So really, the way to make Shields useful in PvP does not require changing Shield Stance at all. You can just make some of the high-damage single hit skills into multihit skills. The advantage here is that your suggestion for Shield Stance would make it one of the most OP defensive skills in the game as it’d be a 3s immunity against physical attacks on a 15s cooldown, which you might recognize as being identical to Endure Pain having a 15s cooldown.

Riposte will block one melee attack only, however against ranged attacks it will block for the duration it lasts unless canceled, hit by a melee attack, or cc’d by a unblockable skill. It functions like Ranger’s GS block.

Riposte is not “discharged” with a ranged attack. It also blocks and reflects ranged attacks for it’s full duration.

As I see it the place the shields fits in is with melee flurry atacks that bind you in place with a recharge over 24s. And it goes at the expense of quite some damage potential (provided that one uses conditions).
The only fight I used the shield effectively in PvE was against the captain in the AC.

The shield is by no means equal to endure pain as one is immobilised and can’t take actions any more witout breaking the shield stance. On top of that at least the warrior has an option to make attacks unblockable. A 3s interval is long enough realise the shield and to use this ability.

I really find it a pitty the dragon shield looks great it would be great to use it as my main weapon. I partially solved this by using the shield on my second spec and swap after I used the shield stance but then I don’t have ranged which can be quite painfull at times as well.

Tien is correct. The effect of Riposte depends on distance and type of attack. If the enemy is outside your reach it will continue blocking and adding might depending on nature of the attack (if it is counted as ranged or not).

Xanthos.1574:

Riposte is not “discharged” with a ranged attack. It also blocks and reflects ranged attacks for it’s full duration.

Reflect only when traited with Missle Deflection :0

There seems to be a lot of misinformation running rampant in this post so I want to clarify some things.

Riposte blocks all incoming ranged attacks for it’s duration. Riposte can block few melee attacks if they are out of range of the riposte. Think of this functionality like the Rangers GS block.

Both Shield Stance and Riposte can be traited to reflect projectiles. Only the Shield can be traited for shorter cooldowns and extra toughness.

Shield Stance does not root the player when used. Neither does Riposte.

Hope this helps clear up any ignorance.