I have always been of the mindset that there should be as few skills split between modes as possible. I advocated this in Guild Wars 1 as well. Splitting skills creates unnecessary workloads on the balance team, and I have no doubt that good compromises can be made that remove the necessity of split skills if enough time and effort is dedicated to balancing them. For this reason I cannot agree with any changes that would split (or further split) skills between game modes. Aside from this, I like the idea of giving guardian's shield more push back. Anything that allows them to better play their role as protectors, and honestly as someone who is wholly uninterested in ever playing Staff Mesmer I can't say these changes really affect that disinterest at all...