Shields, by accident or design, are absolutely vital while using a sword: Shield charging to spam DA attacks, Shield bashing your way out of a swarm of jellies, shield cancelling to repeat the first hit of a weapon combo: these skills differentiate the beginner from the pro. You're essentially screwed without a shield. Anyone who's ever gone into the clockworks without a shield due to the Lockdown bug knows what I'm talking about.

However, the mechanics of all shields are the same, and I think that the ability to replace a shield with an ability (Like the Striker dash or Recon cloak, ect) would let each individual player customize their playstyle greatly.

Also, I think the idea of a passive shielding system would supplement these "Class mod" shields nicely. Similar to the famous regenerating shield in Halo games, the shield would be always active and allow you to function as normal. It would take damage and break before your character takes damage.

Obviously, the shield would be as strong as a proto shield or swiftstrike or whathaveyou. The obvious lack of survivability is balanced out by having a class mod type item, and some way to protect against strikes that are too fast to block, or unexpected. Perhaps it would allow dual-wielding with guns? Gunners don't get enough love.

This passive shielding system could be built into an armor instead of a shield. Just my two cents on a feature that would be nice.

Though of course, guild options and snipe plushies come first.