Why use shield? And what would make it viable?

Seriously i dont get it, its basically rooting you to die while condis still tick away and offers a ridiculous attempt at sustain.If they made it give you a lesser glint heal when attacked in crystal hibernation or removed some condies/resistance it could have been way better.

Why do anet hate revs specialisation weapons?...cough shortbow cough.

Will it ever be fixed?Can it be?

Not a lot of thought went into the shield for sure. offhand sword is so much better.

Currently shield is only used with condi build only in sPvP. And this build is not viable to begin with. Is it ever going to get fixed? Considering It has been the same for around 2 years (after CD and heal nerf), it probably will never be fixed.

At the start #5 heal was strong enough that people used it above sword #4 (which at the game release had a 2 second block in a 10 cd time frame). Currently is a ballast because using it increases the chances of being killed. Is a bit like the staff in Guardians: went from powerful to useless.

But is part of a larger problem: condi builds lack any off hand weapon capable to offer blocks or evades, so they are forced to use the staff, which does 0 condition damage. So the answer is: don't use the shield.

I've recently been using sword/shield in open world on a pure tank healing/boon build.

It's really only meant for bosses and group events. So figured if I'm gonna try that direction with Herald, may as well go all the way.

It would be a lot better if you could move while blocking, and if it also had a CC skill on it.

what would make it viable? Clearing 1 condition on each pulse would be a nice start.

Shield used to be really good in sPvP when not every class had so many on demand unblockables and the most OP point pressure came from DH trap spam... It's a different meta out there now though, and shield is honestly more of a liability than anything. It's basically like calling target on yourself to get meme'd by an unblockable chain cc followed by a one shot.

But yeah, it's currently unusable for everything except kiting hands on Deimos. And I guess, like, roleplaying.

There was an old thread about ideas to improve the shield, and I forget who, but someone had the interesting idea of having it generate energy per attack blocked when you used it... I thought that was a pretty cool idea beyond just "Let us move with it and cleanse." It would still leave it niche, but I think it'd fit thematically with things like Facet of Light and attack baiting for rewards.

shield 5 pulsing heal and cleans in an AOE would be soooooo good ... but probably too strong.

Shield 4: Envoy of Exuberance (10e, 3/4c, 20r)Refresh the duration of your Crystalline Form (new skill 5) and share it to nearby allies (max: 4 allies, radius 600). Remove 1 condition for each ally affected.

Shield 5: Crystalline Skin (10e, 3/4c, 20r) -> Crystalline Hibernation (10e, 3/4c)For 3 seconds gain Crystalline Skin and Retaliation. While under this effect your retaliation damage is multiplied by 10. ->-> Change Crystalline Skin into Crystalline Hibernation for 3 seconds and gain regeneration. While under this effect your regeneration is multiplied by 5 but only heals when you are struck. Increases recharge of Crystalline Form by 50%.

When I play healer in WvW I find Shield 4 to be useful when I'm in a corridor...and, well...that's about it. It's just too clunky otherwise. If it is meant to be a support tool for allies, it needs to become a wide, large conal effect similar to Mesmer's Torch 5 Phantasm skill. It is so stupidly unreliable in any realistic high movement setting that even when I see the orb travel through an ally, the heal won't register sometimes.

As others have mentioned, Shield 5 is just not compatible with the powercreep of PoF. Some options they could do:-Allow movement-Add on condition cleansing per tick-Keep the player stationary but have the player's "soul" able to be controlled, travelling through the Mists to a new location, where your character would get teleported to upon the skill ending. Player would still be able to be hit by unblockables from the Hibernation location-Have incoming conditions heal the player-Give resistance and/or stability while channeling

Just some ideas. Any of these would probably require a small sacrifice to the block duration, which I think would be fair. A shave to the energy cost would be welcome too.