+5 Energy Shield

No it means shield/offhand with +30hp and -2/stance or ench or hex lol

wtf no tyla you're nub

[deadly riposte]+[gash]

Wrong.

If you aren't a moron about using it (not saying you are), a shield is more useful. If you switch to the shield set before you get hit, it should be taking 5-15 damage off per hit, depending on what's hitting you. While it might not save you, it definitely slows how fast you die and gives your healers more time to react.

not when you're talking about caster sets

Clarification: Mod it like an offhand. Switch the inherent 12 energy for 16 armor, and the rest is as an offhand. So however damage reduction/health/armor/energy/HCT, HSR etc. works. Make it work exactly the same. I know I'd have a few.

you did well on the first part of your comment but the second part...good luck with the +8 extra armor on your caster^^..now you have enough time for a screenshot

Let's hope that the healers don't have a shield too
and to be honest this approach sounds a little pessimistic...

Perhaps i should clarify i talk about pve and not pvp which is another story. A caster shield in pvp is of some use but in pve...
From my pov the only reason a caster "needs" a shield in pve is when he is doing nothing during the fight in the battlefield...but i assume this is not good right?
When you cast spells, focus gives bonuses a shield cannot give...and i don't see a reason why u should not support the team during the fight...
If let's say, you run out of nrg early then you need better nrg management not a shield...

again my 2 cents...

+18.

When you're getting beat on by 3 dervishes, you don't really want to stand there casting spells.

You have 4 weaponsets.

Energy management isn't extra energy. Not to mention shields mitigate damage, saving you energy in the long run.

Well I got myself this shield because it looked interesting, and got a friend to test it with me in a scrimm. He used Dancing daggers (they deal earth damage btw), and I did get a -2 damage reduction while wielding the +5 energy shield (I didn't have any points in tactics). Without shield, the daggers hit for 29, with it for 27.
But I don't know, I'm not pro at this stuff. If someone else would try, It'd be good.

you can add +10armor in focus too

When you're getting beat on by 3 dervishes, shield will definitely not save you but the right spell might save you...and you don't stand there this is obvious...unless you play rambo style caster...

in the long run fight will be over and your contribution to the fight will be minimum...casters are called casters for a reason and as a caster you should be able to cast the spells you are supposed to cast, effectively, in time, as fast as possible and as many times as you can and not running out of nrg in 10sec

In a shield set, you having 60 more health and more armour can save you. You can also cast in your shield sets if it's an emergency cast in which you're below 59 health and unable to switch.


You don't have to cast 100% of the time. Just because you're in a shield set, it doesn't mean you'll be out of energy in 10 seconds because if you are out of energy in 10 seconds you having additional energy won't save your energy at all.

But what's more useful if you're being beat up? Extra armor from a shield while you kite and force your enemy to either waste time chasing you around or pick a different target, or extra energy so you can keep casting through the hits and just stand there and get beaten into a complete mess?

If you have 3 Dervishes beating you up, they're trying to spike you to death and their team's mesmer is also probably watching you. If you did try to cast through that, you'd most likely get hit in the head with a Power Spike as well as a scythe. It would be preferable to stop casting and try to kite away before the spike proves fatal than to just stand there and make things worse for yourself. Using a shield might not save you, but it will give your team's healer an extra fraction of a second to react and throw a heal or prot in your direction - and that can save you.

A caster does not need to cast spells all the time in order to be effective. A caster only needs to cast the right spell at the right time (requiring you to be aware of everything that's going on around you so you know what to target and when), and casting over and over again only makes you a better target for the enemy to shut down.

Does anyone use a Chimeric Prism on their PvP monks? It provides +8 energy and +8 armor (with 8 Divine Favor)... It would seem to be a happy middle ground between the max protection and max energy weapon sets...

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Chimeric_Prism

I sure would like to have a few in PvE for my warrior heroes, since it provides +16 armor and +5 energy (with 8 Strength).

Why use that when you can have both a shield set and your focus / wand set on switch?

Also the fact that it's not possible to get unless you've got Prophecies Pre-Order as far as I know.

Bison Cup > Fytch's Runic Sheild

Btw, why did you bother to type in all those links without actually linking to that shield itself?

Assuming you will have +18 is quite a stretch. In most PvE areas you would need at least 3-4 shields, and very likely needing 6 or more. That's quite a bit of very situational equipment taking up valuable inventory space. Also consider that any given mob will be doing several damage types, sometimes with a single monster doing 2 or more types. You can guess with decent accuracy which damage type is most likely to hit you, but that is hardly enough to insure 18AL instead of just 8. And after getting hit, I wouldn't want to waste too much time opening inventory to search for the proper shield when I could be kiting.

IMO, a caster shield in PvE is just a little added bonus that you can carry along if you feel like giving up the space. If you want to use it, that's great that you are trying to get every little bonus possible, but its hardly a necessary piece of equipment.

Take a slashing one. When you're being beaten up by 3 dervishes it's unlikely they're doing fire damage. You don't take fire from the casters 'cause you aren't stupid enough to be in midline/frontline.

Doh my monk has 8 but its annoying change em from inventory

Not Universal armor.. just while health below 50%

True, as far as melee goes slashing is the most common type. I haven't really tested it, but since they can use vampiric, I assume monsters can have an elemental weapon. And dervishes get several skills that change the damage type they deal.

This is assuming that someone is playing a monk or other support role. Its not difficult for a backline caster to avoid getting hit by anything at all in most situations, especially by melee enemies. In my experience, if anything is able to get a hit in, its usually a caster/ranged attacker that has moved forward to my party's own midline.

My question is how come they never made an upgrade/mod for like +1PIP for health/energy or both combined and then give it some balanced negative for the extra energy gain?? Always wanted a +PIP mod for pve only would be just fine don't care about PVP use.