[stradomis]

i have a question im an off-tank in my guild and i've been tweaking my gear and learning to play better using the recommended cycles i found here. i did notice that they recommend shield spikes to boost TPS. Does this really work and more importantly is the increase significant?

[hbombs]

It will be a nice increase to your threat. However its situational and really mostly useful for when you are tanking a few mobs. Your main shield should imo always have 18 stam on it. I have my gruuls shield now with a spike on it and I use it on AOE pulls or farm content.

A thing to remember is the spike gives you no benefit when a mob isn't attacking you.. 18 stam is nice when you are splitting a cleave etc..

[stradomis]

That makes good sense, i wish i was that lucky to get the gruuls shield right now im using the Aldor shield since i get more stam out of it and the SSO shield for heroics, kara, etc. ill try and throw the spike on that and see what happens. thanks for your help

[blaxshep]

If you want to see your shield spike in action go to TM or somewhere relatively low in level and let an attacker assult you while you sit back and laugh. I watched a farmer sommit suicide on my shield spike. (I was sorta AFK) It took a while but I can emaigne that trash mobs can be held and significantly damaged in the same mannor raising a fair amount of threat while you are doing nothing. If you are consentrating your attacks on one perticular mob you can still hold trash from spilling back on your clothies after your inital TC without any extra effort.