Guild Wars Guru

Something I never understood about shield sets...

1 pages • Page 1
G
Grammar
Wilds Pathfinder
• #1
I understand the +30 health on your shield, because your high set focus also has +30 health (giving you the same health while in both sets), but I've never understood the extra +30 health on your shield set weapon (giving you 30 more health in your shield set than your high set).

Tell me, what is the point of having that extra 30hp buffer in your shield set if your energy is at 0 and you can neither cast nor weapon swap into a set that can cast?
If you ever get down into that 30hp buffer in your shield set (in which case your energy will in all likeliness be at 0), there's nothing you can do to save yourself because you can't cast anything with 0 energy and you can't weapon swap without losing that 30hp and killing yourself. All you can do is pray to God that your other monk is super quick on his heels and/or lucky as hell and can save you before you take 1 more hit and die. If this is not that case, then all that 30hp buffer did for you is delay your inevitable death by 1 hit.

Disagree with me if you like, call me crazy if you must, but I always use a +5e/+5AL weapon in my shield set instead of the traditional +5e/+30hp weapon.
This means I'm never in a situation where I'm caught in my shield set with 0 energy to cast and the inability to weapon swap. If I get down to the brink of death, I can quickly swap to my high set and panic cast a WoH instead of just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.
Avarre
Avarre
Bubblegum Patrol
• #2
Quote: Originally Posted by Grammar
I understand the +30 health on your shield, because your high set focus also has +30 health (giving you the same health while in both sets), but I've never understood the extra +30 health on your shield set weapon (giving you 30 more health in your shield set than your high set).

Tell me, what is the point of having that extra 30hp buffer in your shield set if your energy is at 0 and you can neither cast nor weapon swap into a set that can cast?
If you ever get down into that 30hp buffer in your shield set (in which case your energy will in all likeliness be at 0), there's nothing you can do to save yourself because you can't cast anything with 0 energy and you can't weapon swap without losing that 30hp and killing yourself. All you can do is pray to God that your other monk is super quick on his heels and/or lucky as hell and can save you before you take 1 more hit and die. If this is not that case, then all that 30hp buffer did for you is delay your inevitable death by 1 hit.

Disagree with me if you like, call me crazy if you must, but I always use a +5e/+5AL weapon in my shield set instead of the traditional +5e/+30hp weapon.
This means I'm never in a situation where I'm caught in my shield set with 0 energy to cast and the inability to weapon swap. If I get down to the brink of death, I can quickly swap to my high set and panic cast a WoH instead of just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. Well, think about what IS taking you to the brink of death. The idea is you can see it coming, swap up and prot, and then swap to a shieldset and kite. The shieldset also gives you +18 armor against a specific type of damage, which should be the type of damage you're taking, reducing overall pressure.

The rest of your team should be supporting you to reduce the pressure, and in larger arenas your other monk is hopefully worth the space his character takes on the server, etc.
Div
Div
I like yumy food!
• #3
The extra 30 health is for you to kite around and hope the other monk(s) bring you above 30 health to go into high set to cast again. You may think 30 health is very little buffer, but there's many times I would've simply died if it weren't for that.
Winterclaw
Winterclaw
Wark!!!
• #4
I know what you mean. There've been times when I was under 30 ticks myself.
G
Grammar
Wilds Pathfinder
• #5
Quote: Originally Posted by holymasamune
The extra 30 health is for you to kite around and hope the other monk(s) bring you above 30 health to go into high set to cast again. Yup, that's exactly the situation that I'm talking about. Personally, I'm not a fan of that situation.
Meh, maybe I'm just less trusting than you.

This issue never bothered me too much until a few months ago, because before a few months ago there was never really much I could do to save myself in that situation anyway. But now there's WoH, and it sucks not be able to cast it when at or below 30hp.

And it's not like I'm just ditching 30hp, just replacing it with 5 more armor.
fainty
fainty
Ascalonian Squire
• #6
how many times you was at 1hp in high health set?
their are thus times that the extra 30hp and +armor is worth way and way more then any other sets you are wielding around.

and if you die, you res with more energy then wielding any other set around. and with thus "extra" energy you can save others easier then having died in your casting set.
Age
Age
Hall Hero
• #7
I would say when getting close to within melee range it is best have your shield to provide that extra armour bonus.This is while casting mostly 5e spells or maybe just one 10e spell.I use mine a lot as well as a +5 e sword.
HA would be good place to do this when you have to get close to get benefits of channeling and you know you won't suffer from energy loss.
Div
Div
I like yumy food!
• #8
If you're going to be pugging, then sure, go ahead and take that +5 armor if you really want. In most situations, I'd be with fellow healers that I can trust to not be retarded and actually heal me instead of someone else when I'm at less than 30 health with no energy.
Ensign
Ensign
Just Plain Fluffy
• #9
Quote: Originally Posted by Grammar Tell me, what is the point of having that extra 30hp buffer in your shield set if your energy is at 0 and you can neither cast nor weapon swap into a set that can cast? You can swap into a set that can cast as long as you aren't suffering from any health degen. The game doesn't check your health total for death when you weapon swap, you can be at 1/XXX on your shield, swap up to -29/XXX (and alive) in your high set, cast, and swap back down if you like. Of course doing so is begging to take a death in your high set and having your energy wiped out after the res.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Grammar
Disagree with me if you like, call me crazy if you must, but I always use a +5e/+5AL weapon in my shield set instead of the traditional +5e/+30hp weapon. This is awful in most situations. It is comparable if you are spending all of your time in your shield set; however in most situations under duress, you will be using your other sets to cast, and any damage you take in those sets does not benefit from that +5 armor mod. However they *do* benefit from that health mod, since getting back into your shield immediately increases the buffer. Denying yourself the ability to swap up for more health is enormous compared to the 'advantage' you're talking about here.

I would be happy to switch in a +5 or even +7 armor weapon against degenerate spike builds, against which I never intended to leave my shield. Against anything where I had any intention of switching weapons at all, I wouldn't even think about taking armor over health.
G
Grammar
Wilds Pathfinder
• #10
Quote: Originally Posted by Ensign You can swap into a set that can cast as long as you aren't suffering from any health degen. The game doesn't check your health total for death when you weapon swap, you can be at 1/XXX on your shield, swap up to -29/XXX (and alive) in your high set, cast, and swap back down if you like. Of course doing so is begging to take a death in your high set and having your energy wiped out after the res. Interesting. I had no idea that was the case.
The chance of death probably isn't any worse if you swap from under 30hp down to negative hp, seeing as how it will probably only take 1 more hit to kill you anyway. But I guess it's just one of those risk-reward situations: if you swap and get WoH off before you take that hit, hooray for you; but if you swap and don't get WoH off before you take that hit, you lose your high set energy. Hmmm, I imagine I'd probably lose that bet more often than winning it, but it's nice to know it's an option.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
It is comparable if you are spending all of your time in your shield set; however in most situations under duress, you will be using your other sets to cast, and any damage you take in those sets does not benefit from that +5 armor mod. Good point I suppose. I try to spend as much time in my shield set as possible, but when things get really crazy I'm usually too busy chain casting to switch back to my shield set very often.
I don't know, I still like the +5 armor mod for PuG/HH PvE, but maybe I'll switch back to the +30hp for PvP and guild PvE where I have a reliable second monk.

Thanks for all the input, it's much appreciated as always.
U
Ulv
Ascalonian Squire
• #11
Basicly the shield sets are usefull for the extra armor when you are running low on health to kite around, just take a shield with +30 health and +10 AL vs Fire, Air, Earth or Water and change your shield when you are taking a certain type of damage.
Shields work nice to manage your own energy abit, most monks will have about 35-40 energy when they carry a shield. So you will see your energy drop and start healing "better", what I mean is you only heal when you really need to heal. And when you really are getting problems with energy you can swap to a +12 energy focus, even a +15/-1 focus.
Just make sure to keep your energy in sight before and after battles.
Hint: channeling + shield set is nice, PvP and PvE-wise

Ulv
Yichi
Yichi
Furnace Stoker
• #12
Quote: Originally Posted by Ulv
Hint: channeling + shield set is nice, PvP and PvE-wise

Ulv Fact: Glyph lesser + shield set is better in 3/4 of any given situation.
Div
Div
I like yumy food!
• #13
Channeling+shield+PvE = You better hope that monster mobs don't shatter PS or else you're dead.
T
Trylo
Jungle Guide
• #14
im going to assume you are a healer monk when PvPing due to the fact you never mention 20% ench mods.

small miniscule point #1: +30 health gives your infuse 20 more healing! woo!

Why are you at 0 energy exactly? if youre being edenialed you should have at least 10 energy hidden, and if youve expended 72 energy on your high set there is something wrong. if you really need to switch from low energy to high energy for a cast or two then switch back to hidden energy and kiting if facing something like IWAY.

i have a +7 v physical and +7 v elemental for spikes like Rspike, IV, etc. these mods have helped me live through some very close to death spikes. however, having +5 armor is assuming you are going to get hit, and i like to assume that i will always be kiting.

GoLE in PvE

Channeling in HA

dont have an active guild so no comment on gvg.