How to use Shield Wall efficiently?

Tazza4077

So I've had this tank alt for a while but only recently starting doing some competitive Undaunted delves to really test him out, which is going fine I've had minimal issues staying alive and keeping most things focused on me. But I've just got 1H&S to 50, and I assume Shield Wall is must-have for any half-decent tank, yet I have no idea how I would go about using it. Block all attacks for 5 seconds? Can't I just do that by blocking manually - which allows more precise timing - albeit at the expense of stamina. I don't know, I'm just not sure at what point in a battle I would activate it. So how exactly do all you experienced tanks out there use it?

Magıc

It's not needed at all. Even in trials it's not used. Try to get war horn from the alliance assault skill line, that is the go to ultimate. You could backbar magma shell/corrosive armour if you're a DK, that AOE ground thing if you're a NB, Nova if you're a templar, negate maybe if a Sorc or the FPS dropping trees if you're a warden.

But horn (aggressive horn morph) is the ulti you want. Shield wall is a PvP skill in all honesty.

Lexxypwns

I'll elaborate further on what @magic said. As a tank you have 4 jobs: stay alive, hold agro, positioning, group support.

The first two are rather obvious and simply running heavy armor and some black cost reduction is likely enough for any content you'll be tanking right now. Positioning is a bit more nuanced, pulling adds into group aoes and turning bosses is fairly self explanatory though.

Now, what sets apart the great tanks from mediocre ones is group support. War horn, wearing group support sets, and managing group buffs/debuffs are the things high end tanks are expected to bring to the table.

I think shield wall is useful when you don't really know all the tanking mechanics and are struggling to stay alive or manage resources, however, if you're not dying or running out of Stam then it's totally useless for a pve tank tbh.

paulsimonps

Draqone wrote: »

It's useful in fights like AA final boss where you need to tank axes. Having the ulti allows you to regen resources by heavy attacking meaning you don't need a healer to babysit you.

This, I agree with what magic said too to a certain extent, but in situations like vAA where you are most likely not gonna hit all that many people with your warhorn anyway an ultimate like this is perfect to use, it prevents you from getting knocked down by the heavy attacks of the Axes and lets you heavy attack yourself for extra stamina, and if you are a DK its also a quick source of resources, although of course at a lower amount but more frequently. But in most cases you want to use Aggressive warhorn or the other protective ultimate's that magic mentioned.

Its also an amazing skill in PvP as said earlier, the spell wall morph that lets you reflect projectiles is really powerful, and there is no limit to how many projectiles during the ultimate's duration you can reflect, unlike the DKs Wings that are limited to 4 and the Sword and Board skill that is limited to 1 and in that case only magical ones. It's really funny to use it at the same time someone uses a Bow ultimate and see them shoot themselves to death.

Izaki

Yeah basically what ^ he said.

Draqone

It's useful in fights like AA final boss where you need to tank axes. Having the ulti allows you to regen resources by heavy attacking meaning you don't need a healer to babysit you.

eso_nya

Its very usefull, when u e.g. solo worldbosses. The point is to block all incoming dmg while having time to heavy attack for stamina return. Specifially when a pack of trashmobs is trying to beat the crp out of u.
In grpcontent, use warhorn.

Tazza4077

Sweet alright thanks everyone for the detailed answers, it's given me a lot to consider going forward now, and how I go about optimising him.

WalksonGraves

Just don't try using it for boss instakill mechanics, doesn't count as a real block.

fred4

Kena used it in a PvP magicka-based build. It lasts for 7 seconds, fully levelled, by the way. During that time swap to your resto staff bar. There is a resto staff passive that restores magicka while blocking. I do not believe that passive has a cooldown, and it's activated by the 1H + S ult. You can recover a lot of magicka from the passive, while applying buffs or heavy attacking with the resto for even more magicka, all while having block up.

paulsimonps

WalksonGraves wrote: »

Just don't try using it for boss instakill mechanics, doesn't count as a real block.

For some attacks it does for others it does not, its very inconsistent.

fred4 wrote: »

Kena used it in a PvP magicka-based build. It lasts for 7 seconds, fully levelled, by the way. During that time swap to your resto staff bar. There is a resto staff passive that restores magicka while blocking. I do not believe that passive has a cooldown, and it's activated by the 1H + S ult. You can recover a lot of magicka from the passive, while applying buffs or heavy attacking with the resto for even more magicka, all while having block up.

That is a cool idea, but remember the resto passive is not when blocking any attack but specifically "spells", which I would assume means magicka based abilities, as stamina based ones are called "feats" in certain cases where magicka ones are "spells"

fred4

Yes, spells, you're right. Alas, nothing is simple.

AverageJo3Gam3r

Shield wall is also great during the last fight of vdsa. In the meta strat the tank will pull all four adds (bosses in their own right) away from the group and have to tank them without any heals or support. The 1HS ult really helps to recoup stamina.