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A defense for main hand shields


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A very common statement I see in the community is how underwhelming shields feel for the 5 classes that have them. It's clear underwater weapons are going to be the next big weapon update for this expac but I'd love to hear what you guys would want to see in terms of power fantasy for more shields. 

Currently 5 of the classes have them, and as much as I would love to run with a shield on my elementalist I think there is space for a very underutilized real world technique: punch shields. It isn't very popular in historical combat but as someone in the buhurt/hema community I can promise you a shield will hurt just as much as a sword if delivered well. It would of course come with a very short range at the cost of the added defense but I think most players would be willing to accept that with how many other tools we can play with.

I think guardian is probably the easiest candidate to design this around but I'd love to hear thoughts from y'all. Thanks for reading if you've gotten this far 🛡️

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I'm squarely in the 'we have too many options already' camp, but since there is absolutely zero chance anet will ever roll anything back I say why not? Let's have some broken shield builds too. Welcome to the party \o/

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I'm with you that it would be nice to have more uses for shields. However, given how the game is designed around weapon skills, I'm having a hard time to imagine how this could work, especially if the shield has rather slow attacks (anything else would just look hilarious... like a D2 paladin using "Smite" with high IAS lol). You'd need a off-hand weapon to make up for it and then again, why not use that weapon as mainhand when it's just about 3-2 or 2-3 skill distribution. Also there's already skills like Shield bash in the game, doing exactly what you ask for.

So tl;dr: yes for more shields (especially in times when almost every class can use almost every weapon anyway), no to mainhand shields from me. 

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Well that's not an issue at all it could just be a more defensive set with like a charge and a bash coupled with a cover, then something like dagger/sword/pistol/w/e in some offhand choices . . .

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Posted (edited)

Dark Souls showed me it's cool to mainhand attack with shield. It usually offers block while attacking if timed right. Shield chain attacks would have a 1/4 seconds of block each one (the time your shield is raised to smack with it).

I preferred two-handed-shields for that, but one step at a time hahaha

Edited by DarkK.7368
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13 minutes ago, DarkK.7368 said:

Dark Souls showed me it's cool to mainhand attack with shield. It usually offers block while attacking if timed right. Shield chain attacks would have a 1/4 seconds of block each one (the time your shield is raised to smack with it).

I preferred two-handed-shields for that, but one step at a time hahaha

Monster hunter has a similar mechanic with their charge blade, if an attack lands while your shields up mid swing it stops your attack but auto blocks so you can recover/follow up. They also have some great shield punching with their sword and shield.

I love the feedback but I don't think anet would do that is because it'd be a pvp nightmare with folks just spamming autos for blocks 😅

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6 minutes ago, Gop.8713 said:

I'd particularly like this if it was really limited or unique. Like only warriors or thieves maybe . . .

I think it'd def be best as exclusive to warriors guardians or engis, if they do end up doing it I'd want them to release a max of two at a time but ideally just one so they each have a time in the spotlight 

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I use shield on 4 different charcters. I cannot say I have felt this disappointment. Warrior has an exceptional shield

I am however interested in alternative uses for shields. Whether main hand or (large) chakram throwing 

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20 hours ago, BeardedBacon.9328 said:

I think guardian is probably the easiest candidate to design this around but I'd love to hear thoughts from y'all.

Someone here forgot about the existence of the profession that truly is best choice for this: Warrior

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We have offensive shield skills on offhand shields.

Using two large shields, however memetastic it might be in some games, is just bad - you forfeit reach, they're going to get in each other's way, and even from a purely defensive viewpoint, they block your vision. You'd end up in a situation where your ability to do much more than cower behind your shields is severely constrained, allowing an enemy to find the angle that gets past your shields at their leisure. And GW2's shield skins are pretty much all large shields.

In games where using a shield in the mainhand is simply a matter of copying the same moves as a shield on the shield hand, then fine, do it for the memes. But in a game like GW2, I would not want them spending resources developing skills for mainhand shields that could be spent on literally any other weapon.

If you really want "punching shield" mainhands, and ArenaNet ever considers moving offhands to mainhands, focus would be much better. There are focus skins that make for fairly credible "light shield with pointy bits attached" skins, and a lot of focus skins can also work well for an unarmed or improvised weapon theme.

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On 5/31/2024 at 6:19 AM, BeardedBacon.9328 said:

A very common statement I see in the community is how underwhelming shields feel for the 5 classes that have them. It's clear underwater weapons are going to be the next big weapon update for this expac but I'd love to hear what you guys would want to see in terms of power fantasy for more shields. 

Currently 5 of the classes have them, and as much as I would love to run with a shield on my elementalist I think there is space for a very underutilized real world technique: punch shields. It isn't very popular in historical combat but as someone in the buhurt/hema community I can promise you a shield will hurt just as much as a sword if delivered well. It would of course come with a very short range at the cost of the added defense but I think most players would be willing to accept that with how many other tools we can play with.

I think guardian is probably the easiest candidate to design this around but I'd love to hear thoughts from y'all. Thanks for reading if you've gotten this far 🛡️

The best candidate for this is Warrior. Having a shield in their main hand would compliment their offhand Shield nicely. 

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Posted (edited)

I only seen this done in that DCUO super hero MMO. Was pretty fun. It was a bashing and throwing weapon inspired by Captain America I'm sure.

Well~ and Dark Souls.

Edited by Doggie.3184
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