Buff Herald Shield?

I think most people would agree that herald shield is one of the worst/least used weapons of the class, and maybe even in the game. The abilities are interesting in theory, but actually using them feels clunky and they don't really fit the flow of combat. Skill 4 is not worth using in support/healing builds, and skill 5 just stops combat and makes you a target for aoe/unblockables. I feel that buffing shield could open up possibilities of bruiser/tankier builds in pvp and wvw, or maybe it could actually be useful in support/healing roles.

Currently skill 4 is a slow moving projectile heal that applies protection, and skill 5 is a pulsed heal and block that roots you. With the herald trait "hardening persistence" both skills cure 1 condition. I think one of many different possible changes could help, such as:

• Allowing movement while blocking with skill 5 (like warrior, chrono, engi)
• Skill 5 pulses condition removal with the trait
• increasing healing or protection duration with skill 4, which is currently 2s with no boon duration.
• have skill 4 give protection to allies as well

If people have other ideas/comments, or know of currently useful builds that use shield, id like to hear them.

Make shield 5 reflect projectiles

As far as I know traited Shield 5 DOES remove conditions for pulse and Shield 4 DOES grant protection to allies.

With that said, I do definitely agree that the weapon could use some love. I'd rather they either remove the root from Shield 5 or make it a supportive skill and introduce Focus offhand to the core class to provide defensive/utility options.

I found some glitches while playing sw/SHIELD.1) SHIELD 5 have precast. So first half sec cast it doesnt block. Only after whole animation. So please speed Up the cast so there Will be shorter window, but keep thé Tell So oponents can react.

2) shield4 Is mess. There Is lot of projectile issues.First. lot of times you grant protection to only one person(if you hit their hitbox maybe?)And if projectile came to you You get nothing. You give it to all if you Are lucky or you hit the ground And noone else.Second.Enemies that Are blocking or invul. Can destroy your projectile.Third.it Is goddamn Slow. In any PVP situations only viable And doable choice Is heal yourself.

Another one. If you throw shield4 before you (max range) And you make 2 Steps backwards shield4 doesnt try to catch you And often even doesnt heal allies on targeted area.And another one. If traited you Dont lose condition on shield4 on use. But you need to get "hit" by shield. Ouch.

So final verdict: shield 5 Is pretty ok with heals that gives you And even better when traited. Only that precast or how can i call it Is sometimes annoying.Shield 4 Is unreliable Spell ,that his best use Is shoot it under your feets to get condicleanse heal And prot. Because projectile Is So Slow And Buggy.

So here Is kinda solution.Keep CD, heal , aoe,everything but instead of 2-3sec of protection grant 2-3sec aegis. Condicleanse Will be ONLY for rev after use And not in aoe of thé skill. Targeted aoe Will be blast finisher. Something that work like Guard scepter 2 you targeted Area And from you flee shield4 animation reached targeted Area "boom" blast And hurry back to you give aegis to you. And "projectile" Will be ONLY "effect" So no obstructed And no block from enemies. Or make animation Something like Glint came Down And Kiss targeted Area xoxo

Make shield 4 as chronomancer shield 4 !! ehehehe then i'm fine if shield 5 just reflects

Shield 5 used to be OP, and then they nerfed the heal... But then in PoF, they also gave every class loads of unblockable attacks.

With the state of how useless a root in place block is in the meta, they could at least return it's release strength healing. It wouldn't be great, but it'd be I guess an option for people to get behind a pillar and spike their hp in a build w/o healing stats.

Or if they want to leave the root in place, they need to make it not a "block." Make it be like a non-mobile distort/endure pan/elixer s or whatever... Just straight invulnerability. The root would still make it bad for things like WvW, but it at least wouldn't be 100% useless.

Shield 5 needs to have its root taken away like they did with other shield block abilities. Shield 4 could use some rework that's less janky - not entirely sure what but it's pretty lackluster in the support department.

It should remove conditions by default, without traitline and perhaps be usable while moving (no root). But I believe I am crossing "Mesmer-like too much" line here

I'd prefer that the response to something being underpowered would not be to power-creep it in some way, but that being said shield does feel clunky and doesn't fit very well into most builds. I'd suggest:

Shield 4: first, make it ACTUALLY unblockable. Enemies should not be able to body-block, or stop this skill with projectile reflection. After all, this skill has no offensive component to it, so why should an enemy be able to block it? Second, slightly increase projectile speed and decrease cast time from 0.75s down to 0.25s. This would be a buff but would impact playability/QoL a lot more than pvp balance.

Shield 5: I think this skill is mostly balanced. It's good vs. some opponents, not vs. others, provides good condi clear when traited, and lasts a reasonable amount of time to wait out cooldowns.

• For buffs (if any are needed), I would say have an additional benefit for channeling the entire skill like additional healing, additional energy, additional condis cleansed, or maybe a flipover skill like aoe blind/weakness (to punish opponents who stay nearby or attack you while you block)
• I would say that if this skill does get buffs, it should NOT involve invuln, making the skill mobile or increasing the healing value greatly since these change could have some unintended consequences.

The shield should be useful in pve, not just pvp.

@Arcaedus.7290 said:I'd prefer that the response to something being underpowered would not be to power-creep it in some way, but that being said shield does feel clunky and doesn't fit very well into most builds. I'd suggest:

Shield 4: first, make it ACTUALLY unblockable. Enemies should not be able to body-block, or stop this skill with projectile reflection. After all, this skill has no offensive component to it, so why should an enemy be able to block it? Second, slightly increase projectile speed and decrease cast time from 0.75s down to 0.25s. This would be a buff but would impact playability/QoL a lot more than pvp balance.

Shield 5: I think this skill is mostly balanced. It's good vs. some opponents, not vs. others, provides good condi clear when traited, and lasts a reasonable amount of time to wait out cooldowns.

• For buffs (if any are needed), I would say have an additional benefit for channeling the entire skill like additional healing, additional energy, additional condis cleansed, or maybe a flipover skill like aoe blind/weakness (to punish opponents who stay nearby or attack you while you block)
• I would say that if this skill does get buffs, it should NOT involve invuln, making the skill mobile or increasing the healing value greatly since these change could have some unintended consequences.

I would rather make it mobile and reduce the healing if necessary since the root is what's keeping it from being usable given all the unblockables in the game (well, and OH sword's broken damage). Making it mobile would be a much needed buff to revenant defensive and sustain abiltites, especially since damage is likely to get nerfed for the class.

Edit: I like shield 4 suggestion though, it would really improve the fluidity of the skill and make it reliable.

@Ario.8964

or just unroot the shield, even if would reduce the player movement by X% would be just better than root :}

@LucianDK.8615 said:The shield should be useful in pve, not just pvp.

In what ways would you suggest changing it to become more viable in PvE? In my opinion, a supportive/defensive weapon should only have relevance when needing these functions. Something like reimplementing boon duration extension like the old trait did would be fair, but I am not sure how they could change it to make it more relevant in PvE without butchering its current design and intended purpose. I would rather it not get rebalanced to have any sort of damage or CC, for example.

Why would anyone want to use it in pve at all? offhand axe/sword will always be a superior choiceI keep looking at the mesmer chrono shield, now thats a much better designed shield that actually is used.

@Aeolus.3615 said:@Ario.8964

or just unroot the shield, even if would reduce the player movement by X% would be just better than root :}

My core suggestion was to unroot the shield, I put out the possibility of reducing the heals in the case that the skill becomes too strong (doubt it would be though given how ridiculous everyone else's defense and sustain are atm). Root removal should've been done way before PoF launched but Anet decided it was fine to ignore and leave an outdated design. Reducing player movement speed would be pretty bad for the skill too since it would limit kiting ability while blocking which is something that, again, no other class in the game has to deal with.

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:@Ario.8964

or just unroot the shield, even if would reduce the player movement by X% would be just better than root :}

IF Anet wants to keep the root (wich they will continue to enforce) they better buff it to make it strong to team play, even so the rooted caster could have its damage reduced arround 30%-50% wile rooted, due the ammount of unblockables and and unblockables uptime game has it is still dangerous to use it if was buffed.. cause it roots...

Atm is mostly a self kill skill...outside pve, and a damage lost in pve where damage carry.

I still doubt Anet will ever unroot the shield...

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:@Ario.8964

or just unroot the shield, even if would reduce the player movement by X% would be just better than root :}

They just have to understand it won't be viable until they remove it. Simple

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:@Ario.8964

or just unroot the shield, even if would reduce the player movement by X% would be just better than root :}

LOLD really hard @ Anet understanding things... u must be new :}

@LucianDK.8615 said:The shield should be useful in pve, not just pvp.

If shield's to be useful in real PvE, it'd have to deal a relevant level of damage or give a crucial group boon. Nothing else really matters in PvE--there's like a whopping one fight where you actually NEED a block, and thats only if you're doing a very specific role... And shield actually serves its purpose there, now, in its current state.

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:@Ario.8964

or just unroot the shield, even if would reduce the player movement by X% would be just better than root :}

I mean, they eventually removed passive procs for counter cc and for auto immunes (outside of thief for some reason) so they may someday figure this out, just gotta wait for 7 years or so.

think its ok but i never us it

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Aeolus.3615 said:@Ario.8964

or just unroot the shield, even if would reduce the player movement by X% would be just better than root :}

Let hope Anet just gives root skills to the classes that the developers play...ahaha

Next elite specs should make every other class root! can u guy imagine the tear of the players :D