I liked how it was before
you had to kill all the guards for each shield drop, which would take some time. The shields never replaced BS shields because they had a lower AR - I think the main advantage was the increased durability vs a coloured ore shield (bronze being the exception of course).For lower ore shields with an equivalent AR, these are bought by weaker players who would not generally have the skill to take on the chaos guards anyway.
In my memory (fully GMed warrior), Chaos / Order shields were the 'go-to' shield for endgame players who used them for mage PvP and general hunting due to the durability, the relative ease in replacing them, but more usually the fact they looked cool
we sill used to buy higher end crafted shields for taking on tough bosses / monsters or in PvP events vs other warriors etc.I personally loved the 'old' chaos / order guard system and the shields - and it never seemed to hamper the economy.
So, in short, my suggestion would be:
- Bring back chaos / order guards, with the drop rate being one per 'clearout' based on 3-5 top players needed to beat the spawn rate.
- Give the shield AR equivalent to a Verite heater, so that Valorite and above are still the 'elite' shields protection-wise
- Give the shield durability equivalent to Bronze (ie double the base or whatever) to give them some worth