Advanced AETA Tactics: Proper Shield Handling

Greetings, Engineers! We’re a full week into launch (if you count the head start) and we’re doing wonderfully in our campaign to spread joy and laughter through fire and bursts of shrapnel. Soon the southern peninsula of Tyria will be engulfed in flame and napalm while the Metrican Provinces get reduced to a very pretty crater! While we’ve proven ourselves to be capable offensive fighters with this crusade, today I want to talk about a slightly advanced topic: sacrificing some of that damage output for utility. I‘ll examine the skills and tactics behind our pistol/shield combo. Widely considered the “best” of the standard (non-Kit) weapons for Engineers, the shield brings a level of defense and utility that far outstrips the reduction in raw powers. Join me after the cut as I analyze this wooden wall o’ death! 

Imagine what I could do with a REAL shield!

The Skills to Shoot the Thrills

The shield provides two skills: Magnetic Shield and Static Shield. Each one provides great defensive utility but they can each be “detonated” early for an extra, unique effect.

• Magnetic Shield – This skill reflects projectiles (read: flying objects that are not spells) over four seconds, and if you hit it again before the duration is up, you’ll push enemies back with an ability called Magnetic Inversion. You’ll want to use this ability either defensively to reflect projectiles or as a utility in the various ways that pushing an enemy back can help you. My favorite use of this is in the Forrest of Niflhel. I lure melee players to the northwest corner of the “Mine” point and detonate the shield to blast them over the edge!
• Static Shield has a 2-second cast time, but if you activate it again before the cast finishes, you’ll throw an electrified shield at your enemy, Captain America-style! The shield applies Dazed , which interrupts your victims’ casting bars. If you don’t press the key again within the cast, but are hit by a melee attack, your attacker is stunned for two seconds. If you use the skill, don’t use Throw Shield, and don’t get hit, then you’ve wasted the cooldown. Wait 40 seconds and try again! You’ll mainly want to use this skill to interrupt enemies with the thrown shield as opposed to the stun feature.

It may not look too exciting from here, but try being on the other side!

General Use of the Pistol/Shield

When using the pistol and shield, you have access to the first three pistol skills as a source of damage.You’ll want to spam Explosive Shot (our “auto-attack”) while targeting the center enemy in a group and use Poison Dart Volley whenever it’s off of cooldown (or save it for when the enemy heals, should you choose to–the Poisoned effect reduces healing on them). Save Static Shot for when an enemy is about to hit you, or to mitigate damage with Blind for a group of enemies. Don’t just use it every time it’s off cooldown.

There–now that the kiddie stuff is outta the way, it’s time to get into the meat of this column: shield skills. After you’ve engaged the enemy and are using the first three skills (pistol skills) offensively, you’ll want to pay close attention to your enemy. Out shield skills are undoubtedly powerful, but a lengthy windup period makes it easy to miss opportunities if we slouch. Watch for enemy AoE (Area of Effect) red rings on the ground and the start of special animations –these visually warn you that the enemy is starting a special attack. For example, Thieves have an ability called Unload. The animation for Unload starts with them raising both pistols in front of them gangsta-style instead of their normal position (one pistol pointed up, the other towards the ground). As soon as you see this animation (or other visual cues you’ll learn along the way) mash that number four key like you think there’s a cockroach hiding underneath it!

In that example, you wouldn’t want to detonate the shield because then you’d lose the projectile reflection protection (oooh, yeah!) and would get pelted by a volley of tacky hipster pins. (That’s what Thieves use for ammunition, by the way. Tacky hipster pins.) The whole point of the shield is that you have two skills with four basic uses. You’ve gotta pay attention to use them properly. 

Magnets! How do they work!?!

Tidbits, Tips, and Tricks

It takes a sharp eye to properly use the pistol and shield on an Engineer. If you’re a beginner,learning the visual and audio cues of each enemy is paramount to success, so I’d recommend choosing an easier weapon such as the rifle or dual-pistols. Once you’re ready to make the switch to pistol-shield, here are a few tips to help you get started.

Magnetic Shield

• If you’re up against a ranged enemy (such as a dual-pistol Thief), listen for audio cues. You’ll start to learn that each profession’s abilities have unique sounds (well… relatively unique) if they’re not visually obvious. Activate your shield when you hear the cue.
• If you do get hit by an ability, remember that it’s not too late to use Magnetic Shield! Because a great deal of weapon skills are reactionary and utility-based, people will save their main damaging skills to use all at once. They rely on this burst of damage to bring you down, and we can use this to our advantage. If you bring up the shield when you get hit by the first attack, chances are you’ll reflect the bulk of the barrage! Keep in mind that this only works on projectiles – not spells or melee attacks.
• Magnetic Shield is great for knocking people off of buildings and ledges. I wrote a very detailed Elementalist column on the finer points of knocking players off of structures with the Tornado skill. Most of those same principles can be applied here. Use the burst to knock players off the side of ledges for falling damage, or use it to knock away players who are about to finish off an ally who has been downed.
• You don’t have to only use this skill for reflecting bullets and sending enemies flying; remember that the burst is a Blast finisher. If you know you won’t need the blast for a while (such as while you’re in a group fight with a bunch of ranged enemies) you can use the finisher to give a pulse of healing or cleansing to allies by using it on top of a healing field. 
• Remember that bursting on a wall of fire or field of electricity will detonate the effect. You’ll knock enemies away and set them on fire or daze them! There are other places to detonate offensively, but fire and electricity are the two most common ones.

Static Shield

• If you see a group of enemies lined up like a row of sitting ducks, waiting for you to smack ‘em with your flying shield: resist! No matter how many targets you think you’ll hit, it’s not worth putting Static Shield on cooldown just for a bit of extra damage. If you happen to see them all winding up an attack, on the other hand…
• Interrupt them! This is the number one use for Static Shield–as an interruption in the form of Daze. Any spell or ability the enemy was trying to use gets canceled and they can’t cast anything for a full second. Maybe two seconds, if it manages to hit them on its way back!
• This is a great utility to use when you’re being chased by a melee class who favors crippling you and whittling you down with auto-attacks. As you retreat, wait for them to hit you. Once they get the first hit in, use the shield (without throwing it) and it will detonate, stunning them for 2 seconds. More than enough time to use your other abilities to secure your escape.
• Remember: the shield is a boomerang, and hits enemies on the way back as well as going out. While it really depends on the situation, oftentimes Dazing two enemies once is better than Dazing one enemy twice.
• Throw Shield also acts as a Projectile finisher, so throwing it through fire will cause enemies to Burn in addition to being damaged and Dazed. Never overlook the strategic importance of combo finishers!

Conclusion

While it can’t compare to theburst damage of the rifle or dual-pistols, the pistol/shield combo brings a lot of utility to the table. People who mostly quest and do dynamic events may want to stick with the rifle, but for PvP, WvW, and even PvE dungeons, the shield is well worth its weight. Which weapon set do you all prefer? If it’s the pistol and shield, which skills and traits do you pair with it for maximum effectiveness? Thank you, my fellow Engineers, and I’ll see you at next week’s meeting of Alchemists, Tinkerers, and Explosives Anonymous!