[Cottonjim]

The 4 piece looks pretty good, but I don't know how comparable it is to having other gear instead. What's the general opinion on it?

[WarTotem]

I assume you're talking about T9?
If so, I can only tell you to weigh out the use of 1 block value item(head or legs) vs the 33% uptime gain on Shield Block. With the recent buff to Critical Block it might be worth it, but it also might not be, you'll have to see for yourself.

Perhaps other gear choices than the Tier set provide more mitigation or EH, but I'm not really known with the ToC tank gear atm, so I will leave that to the more experienced posters here.

[Hamburglar]

Keep in mind the big tank-killing attacks in ToC cannot be blocked. Impale from Gormok, Ferocious Butt from Icehowl and Freezing Slash from Anub'arak are not mitigated whatsoever(it bypasses them) and the later two attacks stun the tank. The 4pc is utter junk and does nothing whatsoever to stop the big spikes.

[WarTotem]

In other words, it's only good for a block set?

[fuddjupp]

Source: WarTotem In other words, it's only good for a block set?

No it's not because only 2 of 5 T9 Items have block stats. For a usefull block set you will have to pick up other items.

[Catteeka]

The big spikes don't one-shot tanks. It's the combination of melee that kills them. Avoidance doesn't help with those attacks either, so your argument is: stamina. Only a couple pieces in 245 (shoulders) and 258 (legs) breaking 4-piece accomplish that, by some 35 and 21 respectively. The bonus is worth it in my opinion.

[Hamburglar]

You need cooldowns to survive Gormok's later Impale/melee/bleed combos towards the end of the fight, not shield block RNG. Icehowl stuns you with his headbutt so the next hit(or two) totally bypasses block altogether. Same for Anub'arak, his freezing slash likely makes the next 2 hits unblockable. So again, how is 10 sec off shield block helping you live through anything? The only fight where it could be decent is Valkyrs where they don't hit very hard.

[Squirrelnut]

Personally I am of this opinion:

Get the 9.5 shoulders & hands for 2pc bonus, then get off-set head, chest, legs from drops and emblem vendor items.

Once geared with those pieces hopefully your guild begins working on Heroic 25m at which point you start getting ilvl258 pieces. Basically the ilvl 258 pieces have stat benefits which out-weigh anything you had previously (with a very few exceptions) so replace gear as upgrades drop. Since it is purely drops they don't require emblems so there is no reason not to.

I would ignore the 4pc bonus until you get Heroic 25m drops which allow it

[Catteeka]

100% chance =/= RNG. You can use cooldowns together. Blocking melee right before a spike or after one when healers are catching up might be a good thing. A well-geared tank often blocks for 8K, or 30-40% of Icehowl's melee. Anything else?

Also, if block in general was still that pointless, you would not see the better tanks taking shield specialization over focused rage, because it isn't even remotely as rage-efficient on single targets.

Honestly, when I looked at the bonus a while back, I thought it was pretty bad too. But in practice, I don't want to give it up. You shouldn't bash it until you've tried it.

[Kazeyonoma]

block in general still is pretty pointless, it helps, it's small but it helps, the simple reason why you see tanks taking it is because having more rage = more threat/dps = faster boss dead. Shield spec helps in that regard, even if small. If it helps in survivability by a small amount then it's worth it if you're in cutting edge progression. And again, don't go looking at high end tanks right now, most are gearing for heroic anub'arak add tanking, so this may not be what they normally tank with.

[Risky]

If any warrior tanks out there plan on beating H 25 Anub, you'd better start working on your 4 piece + a mean block set.

[Sotally tober]

Or get a prot. pally for adds.

[Eravian]

I would say rather than focus on the 4-piece bonus, focus on the gear itself. Although legs, head, hands, chest, and shoulders are the main components of your armor, you still have to look at what stats you have on your other pieces and build your set accordingly. While the T9 set pieces don't always have the most ideal itemization, they're not poorly itemized either. Most complaints revolve around Shield Block Value on some items (notably the headpiece and legs) and the low Hit and Expertise (which is low), which is found abundantly on other pieces (well... maybe not hit... although I've got a ton of it right now...).

I would say if you're not in a guild that gets into 25-man ToC that often, by all means pick up as many of the T9 pieces that you can... even if it's not necessarily BiS, if you have access to it and are thinking about getting a piece, it's probably better than what you have. After that, the 4-piece set bonus is just that... a nice little bonus. Just don't be surprised if you later upgrade it to something else, or find that a new piece of gear makes you swap a piece out again.

Besides, most tanks will admit that keeping your Shield Block on CD is integral to any survival fight... so 10 seconds off the CD is a nice little bonus to otherwise good gear.

[Angur]

I have peice the T9.5 set bonus. Although I use my Last Stand and Shield Wall every 2 mins aswell as my 2 trinkets having shield block can be helpful in spike damage. This obviously isnt required but it does help.

[Toblerone]

I've tried the ilvl245 4 piece last week and didn't find it that fantastic in every day use. It's a little more threat, but I'd personally prefer being hit capped and expertise hard capped with a threat set over this set bonus. I also think that 2pc T8 mixed with 2pc T9 would provide more threat in terms of set bonuses. As for it's survivability, it could have it's uses, but it hasn't been a problem so far.

As for Anub adds, right now with current itemisation I haven't been able to work the 4 piece into an unhittable set, and even if you could you would still only be able to use shield block once per add wave making it pointless for that purpose.

In the end it will come down to personal preference.

[Hamburglar]

Again, critical block is RNG. What kind of tank "often blocks" for 8k? It's been proven on EJ that Focused Rage saves you far more rage than Shield Specialization. Obviously if you are speccing for max survivability you will take 5/5 shield spec but if you're running a standard tank build, focused rage gives you more return.

As for Icehowl, the spike is Headbutt + Melee + Melee and for 3 seconds after the headbutt you are stunned and cannot block. The 4pc won't save you when you're stunned. Same reason on Anub'arak. You get stunned and die. Gormok routinely spiked for 60k damage of impale(can't be blocked) + melee + bleed tick. You need cooldowns to live through this unless you're a very well-geared druid or pally with AD. Towards the end of the Gormok encounter when he has 4 stacks of rising anger you will be timing your cooldowns for Impales to live and with them you should comfortably live through it.

For Anub'arak, the accepted block value/unhittable set doesn't involve the 4pc set bonus T9 at all. Good luck reaching unhittable with that helm/leg combo. It's just poorly itemized junk. The set provides low avoidance that you need to be an effective add tank. The T8 helm and Wyrmguard legs would be better choices. If you're passively unhittable, why do you need the T9 4pc set bonus to be unhittable?

[gabbu]

Source: Sotally tober Or get a prot. pally for adds.

Actually once un-hittable by gear or a passively un-hittable a warrior is preferred over a paladin due to critical block.

[Badga]

Source: Squirrelnut Personally I am of this opinion: Get the 9.5 shoulders & hands for 2pc bonus, then get off-set head, chest, legs from drops and emblem vendor items. Once geared with those pieces hopefully your guild begins working on Heroic 25m at which point you start getting ilvl258 pieces. Basically the ilvl 258 pieces have stat benefits which out-weigh anything you had previously (with a very few exceptions) so replace gear as upgrades drop. Since it is purely drops they don't require emblems so there is no reason not to. I would ignore the 4pc bonus until you get Heroic 25m drops which allow it

agree with squirl on this one, he is right. the trophey 4 piece itemization is not even close to outweigh the avoidance and other stats you get from the offset items for a subpar 4 piece bonus.

[Catteeka]

Critical block is now 60% chance. My log of a heroic beasts kill shows me regularly blocking for 8314. That's also exactly what I said about focused rage, that shield spec is less efficient (maybe it was confusingly worded), and you don't need EJ to tell you that. Anyway I don't know why you keep trying to lecture me about cooldowns, because I've beaten the content. One thing I will agree on is that 4-piece isn't necessary for Anub adds, or anything else, though I'm sure it would be awesome if you could fit it into an unhittable set.

[Kabonk]

This thread makes me slightly mad.

There a two things a tank wants:
Stuff that makes you stay alive longer (Mitigation/Avoidance/Survivability)
Stuff that makes you do more aggro

If you want to focus on either of them fine. Do it.

But if you specc into shield speccialisation over focused rage for "better" rage (i.e. threat), if you get 4 pice t9 for better threat then you are doing something wrong on a quite fundamental level.

Shield speccialisation does one thing that focused rage does not do:
It provides added mitigation/survivabilty, the rage is just an added bonus.

4xT9 is exactly the same, just instead of more rage you get strongershieldslams.