Shield 4 Discussion: Envoy of Exuberance

Most conversation about shield needing adjustments is centered around shield 5.There is much less talk about shield 4 and its issues, but I personally think it needs attention almost as much as shield 5. I'll try my best to detail the reasons why. First, a description of the skill.

Envoy of ExuberanceSend the energy of Glint towards the target area, granting protection to allies before releasing a burst of energy that heals allies and granting protection again when it returns to you.Cast Time: 3/4sEnergy Cost: 8Cooldown: 15sHealing: 1,620 (0.5)Protection (2s): -33% Incoming DamageNumber of Targets: 5Radius: 240Range: 900Unblockable

The tooltip itself isn't too bad, but in practice it is not the best skill. Why is this the case? Primarily, the skill is incredibly unreliable:-The projectile is slow. This immediately makes it difficult to use in almost any high-mobility fight. You have to predict where your allies will be going in order for them to receive the protection.-The projectile has a very small radius. It's smaller than Black Powder, so my guess is 80-100. That is tiny, especially considering how slow the projectile travels.-The cast time is too long considering the slow projectile speed. A 3/4 second cast time isn't terrible, but with the projectile speed, it makes it that much more challenging to actually land it correctly since a player can move direction in 3/4 seconds.-The heal only happens at its "turning" point. Again, you have to predict where your allies will be. The heal has a decent radius, but with the other issues, this makes it much harder to land properly.-The projectile sometimes disappears. Aim it at a wall and there's a good chance that it won't come back. Sometimes if you are walking away from it, it doesn't follow you very far before disappearing. I'm not really sure what determines this, but again, this is another example of it being unreliable.-In order for it to grant protection on yourself, the returning projectile must hit you. With all these other factors, do you see how this could be an issue?

So in summary, not only is the skill unreliable, but it is most easily maximized when used at your feet, which is basically a way of bypassing the mechanic of the skill in order for it to function like a PBAoE. This should not be the case. If a skill has a 900 range, it should still be able to be reliably used at that range. The situations that it works well in are very minimal. In my opinion, the skill needs a change to make the weapon more competitive. Additionally, it could use a slight buff. Here are some suggestions:

Suggestion 1: Conal Blast Effect

Release the energy of Glint in a cone in front of you, blinding foes while healing and granting protection to yourself and nearby allies.Cast Time: 3/4sEnergy Cost: 8Cooldown: 15sHealing: 1,620 (0.5)Blindness (4s): Next outgoing attack missesProtection (4s): -33% Incoming DamageNumber of Allied Targets: 5Number of Enemy Targets: 5Radius: Equivalent to that of Phantasmal Mage's Backfire

The direct buffs here are an increase in protection time and the addition to blindness to allies. The main change is functional. Phantasmal Mage's Backfire has quite a large area of effect which would make it infinitely more reliable, and means you would always be granted the protection. There are two cons to this change: a shorter range and an inability to hit allies behind your character. However, the pros to such a change would easily outweigh the cons.

Suggestion 2: Teleportable Projectile

Send the energy of Glint towards the target area, granting regeneration to allies in its path. Upon reaching its destination, it releases a burst of energy, healing and granting protection to nearby allies. At any point, you can activate this skill again to shadowstep to the target area, releasing the burst of energy at that location instead.Cast Time: 3/4sEnergy Cost: 10Cooldown: 20sRegeneration (4s): HealHealing: 1,620 (0.5)Protection (4s): -33% Incoming DamageRange: 900Radius: 240Number of Targets: 5

Projectile velocity would be increased for this one. Although shield is not generally a mobility tool, this would allow for more strategic use for supporting allies, and could even be used as a simple repositioning tool. Part of the reason that shield is so outshined by offhand sword is the mobility that sword has. This would also help out support heralds quite a bit as they lack mobility while also lacking self-sustain that other supports (like Firebrand) have. This would be a straight-up buff so the energy cost and cooldown are increased.

These of course are only my suggestions, but I do think the skill desperately needs some change. I still use the shield because the heal is good when I am able to land it, but between the tablet and this skill, there is a lot of guessing of allied movement that I must do to succeed. Even changes like increasing the projectile radius and velocity would make a huge difference.

What do you all think it could use? Do you think it's fine as is? Do you think it should have a completely different effect?

Hey there,I like the ideas you've given. Rev's shield lacks something. This weapon doesn't feel like it's elite, it doesn't feel special.I think your points are great and I'd love to see them implemented.
I also have some suggestions on how the shield could feel like it really makes a difference when you wield it.

So, Glint's Elite (especially after rework) is all about boons, a bit of healing and overall being that offensive support bastion.My ideas for the shield update would look like this:

Envoy of Exuberance1.I like the concept of the "boomerang" that this skill has. What I'd like to see changed is the way it works.

• Upon use - Send the wave / orb of Glint's Energy that heals and grants protection to allies it passes through. (We might want to keep the AoE at the target point).
• Then, the wave / orb returns to you with the same effect.
• Same cast time
• Great projectile speed2.Keep the skill as it is and add the "Blast" finisher at the target location and add blindness to current effects.

Crystal HibernationMy concept: You basically become a real Bastion that provides some cool effects if your allies gather around you when you're shielding yourself.In addition to current effects:

• Pulse healing / regeneration / protection to nearby allies with every shield pulse.
• When you take the "Hardening Persistence" Trait you also remove condis from your allies with every shield pulse.
• Range: 600This way the Glint's Legend concept could be better executed because you'd actually do something for your team instead of bobbling in one place.

I think completely changing the effect is unnecessary, but definitely increasing the projectile speed and making it heal allies it passes through like @DonArkanio.6419 suggested would make it more desirable.

@DonArkanio.6419 said:Envoy of Exuberance1.I like the concept of the "boomerang" that this skill has. What I'd like to see changed is the way it works.

• Upon use - Send the wave / orb of Glint's Energy that heals and grants protection to allies it passes through. (We might want to keep the AoE at the target point).
• Then, the wave / orb returns to you with the same effect.
• Same cast time
• Great projectile speed2.Keep the skill as it is and add the "Blast" finisher at the target location and add blindness to current effects.

Both of these seem totally reasonable and fair without changing the skill much. I like the idea of it doing a blast finisher/blind at the target location. I think the projectile radius could be increased as well to make it a little easier to hit, although perhaps it wouldn't feel as necessary if the projectile speed was increased.

Crystal HibernationMy concept: You basically become a real Bastion that provides some cool effects if your allies gather around you when you're shielding yourself.In addition to current effects:

• Pulse healing / regeneration / protection to nearby allies with every shield pulse.
• When you take the "Hardening Persistence" Trait you also remove condis from your allies with every shield pulse.
• Range: 600This way the Glint's Legend concept could be better executed because you'd actually do something for your team instead of bobbling in one place.

So this would be sorta like a defensive empower skill that blocks too? It would be a big buff to the skill and I would absolutely love if it pulsed heals to allies, although I would personally prefer to have its root removed as to me, that's the larger issue for the skill and what would cater best towards a variety of builds.

Thanks for your feedback :).

@lombomon.7268 said:I think completely changing the effect is unnecessary, but definitely increasing the projectile speed and making it heal allies it passes through like @DonArkanio.6419 suggested would make it more desirable.

Yeah, such changes alone would definitely make the skill much better. Having the projectile heal would be awesome. I suggested the teleportation idea because when I play support herald, I feel extremely vulnerable to highly punishing melee classes like holo and reaper. Unless you take Shiro, there isn't much mobility baked into most support builds, and at that point you'd be sacrificing half of your support potential (whether that's worth it is debatable. Shiro works decently in small scale but your support is extremely limited). I don't feel the lack of mobility is necessarily an issue in larger scale fights because you have the support of other classes to help bridge this gap, but adding mobility to shield 4 would help significantly in smaller scale combat, which is where support herald struggles more noticeably. It is a pretty easy focus target. Realistically I don't ever see them changing the skill to be like this, but t'would be nice. Thanks for your feedback as well.

Well I'm really trying to utilize shield in open World (WvW,PvP was disaster with it) but my main issue with shield is that staff is much better defensively(blocks, evades) and heal is better too(after cast you heal and cleanse and there is no need to wait for slowest projectile in game) and you are not rooted which is crucial.

Projectal speed as said is biggest pain. For self sustain you need to cast it on the ground. And it only heals. Look at guard shield 4 it atleast does dmg and its quicker5skill root(pvp,wvw small scale- you use it, you die). No benefit(only if traited you get condi remove).

I'm inclined to agree with making the projectile faster, giving it a larger area of effect, and possibly having it providing its effect to allies it passes through (this would allow allies to react to it). Possibly make it heal the user when it comes back as well.

@draxynnic.3719 said:I'm inclined to agree with making the projectile faster, giving it a larger area of effect, and possibly having it providing its effect to allies it passes through (this would allow allies to react to it). Possibly make it heal the user when it comes back as well.

Given the way it works and how often it misses it would be nice to add an unblockable stun to it. So the main effect is an unblockable single target stun, and then it does a burst heal at target and grants protection. Using offensively, if you where close enough you could receive a double heal, protection and stun your foe. Now it is more usable in pvp.

shield skill 5 - remove the root and add retaliation for a 3-5 seconds after the channeling has finished. then at least you get something out of it when the foes doesn't attack you while you are channeling the skill.

I don't know who hates shields at ANet, but so many of them are/were terrible. Herald might have the worst.

Focusing on EoE is a welcome change, as it's easily over shadowed by 5, but is actually bad in its own right. You need to use Herald F2 to get good mileage out of it, and the healing component doesn't belong, imo, with the Herald espec signature weapon. The QoL stuff just makes it stink that little bit more.

I think shield needs the OH sword treatment. Both skills need to be rejigged, probably from the ground up. But if we had to keep its projectile->effect->return projectile->effect base then:

1. Remove heal component
2. Grant Vigor 4s, Protection 4s, Resistance 4s to allies
3. Add blast finisher on arrival at target location
4. Grants same boons to you
5. Activate again to shadowstep to the location of the projectile, triggering the boons for allies & you

I think the reality of shield 4 is....if it could be cast every 5 seconds, it would actually be useful. The cooldown is too long for the skill that grants little to no actual usefulness.