Titanium Shield Spike any good?

[Narcissism]

Hello guys,

Been leveling my warrior recently and he will be hitting the big 80 soon and was wondering if the Titanium Shield Spike - Item - World of Warcraft (Titanium Shield Spike) is any good for 5 mans/heroics?

Or would i benefit more from just a stamina enchant? I have my gear planned out and will have 540 defense easily, so i don't need to worry on that side of things.

Just thought it would help with AOE tanking and the trigger happy DPS then come with PuGs.

Any comments are welcome

Zoo x

[Dubzil]

Yep, shield spike is as good as you can get for threat on a shield.

[kolben]

^

Shield spikes are excellent for threat.

[Narcissism]

Thanks guys, i'll grab one and slam it on my shield when i get in from work tomorrow!

[Sporr]

check your damage meter after the fact, I wasn't thrilled with the dps from the spike.

[HeymlicH]

It only does damage, when you block. I think, in normal tanking gear, I block roughly 25%, shield block skill factored in. So, you do the additional damage on every 4th hit, and it is physical, so it is mitigated by armor.

The shield spike is very situational. I suggest, you enchant defrating.

[Fayre]

It's good for threat. Just remember that your alternative enchant is defense, so given you're just dinging 80, you'll want to check you're comfortably soft capped before you think of going towards threat.

[Squeegiemama]

I'm sure the same holds true in WotLK as it did in TBC. Find a threat shield and put the spike on that. Until then if you need it, enchant your primary shield with a defense or stamina enchant.

Then you can swap out shield as required, if you think you dont need the big health pool or defense a little more threat/damage out of a shield spike isn't going to hurt.

Of course, as with most questions of this nature, you have to think of what is right for you and your current gear, as well as what is required for the specific encounter you are going to face.

[Liar]

Going with 20 Defense Rating and resocketing 20 Strength is probably going to give you more threat in normal gear than the spike.

[Brucimus]

I would say Titanium Plating - Item - World of Warcraft is the way to go

[Forklift]

I came here to post the same thine as Brucimus--spikes are only good if youre like aoe grinding. You'll want the SBV chant, which is the titanium plating.

[Mornak]

WTB new version of Petrified Lichen Guard.

[Muffin Man]

I came here to post the same thine as Brucimus--spikes are only good if youre like aoe grinding. You'll want the SBV chant, which is the titanium plating.

I'll third this sentiment. I've really tried to get away from gemming/glyphing/speccing for trash. I think it's good practice until you can get multiple shields to customize.

Here the Shield Spike is good for trash and not so good on bosses.
Titanium Plating however, is good for bosses and not so good for trash.

[Steppo]

Its also well for trash, cause of your damage shield. And damage shield not only procs from blocks so the SBV occurs more often than a shield spike.

[clavarnway]

It's good for threat. Just remember that your alternative enchant is defense, so given you're just dinging 80, you'll want to check you're comfortably soft capped before you think of going towards threat.

Actually the alternative is 40 block value, Titanium Plating...much better for threat than shield spike or defense. =)

[Aethraen]

Actually the alternative is 40 block value, Titanium Plating...much better for threat than shield spike or defense. =)

I fail to see how 40 BV is "much better" than a flat 45-67 damage. I can possibly see it for single targets, but this is completely wrong for AoE/5-mans/Heroics the OP is asking about. You can't SS multiple mobs and the 8 damage increase to Damage Shield doesn't even come close.

[Lizana]

First to correct a few incorrect things - Damage from shield spikes are not mitigated by armor, they cannot miss and cannot be dodged/parried/blocked.

A spike is the highest threat that can be added to a shield, both single target and aoe. It is not there for a huge increase of dps but for a constant tps increase. If you have a threat or a block set shield set then it is your best enchant for the shield.

Stamina is an effective health increase and is your best enchant for when your taking magical damage.

Defense is a avoidance enchant.

All three are perfectly viable enchants to do what they are intended to be used for. You do not enchant def for threat, you do not put a spike on for EH, and you do not put stam on for avoidance. Decide what you need more for your current progression and enchant for that.

[Forklift]

Sorry Lizana, that is incorrect, re: single target threat.

45-67 damage = average of 56 damage per block. If you have a tricked out block chance, which should not be the case unless you're fighting Loatheb or Noth, that'd be 25% of your hits. Assuming boss hits every 2s, that's 56 damage every 8s, or 7dps.

With zero S&B procs, no talent/glyph multipliers to SBV, 0% crit chance, 40 SBV = 40 damage every 6s ~ 6.6 dps. With S&B procs, multipliers, Glyph of Blocking, critting, etc., etc., it's way, way more. Boss armor only reduces damage, after full sunder, by like 15% or so I believe. In addition, I'm not convinced shield spikes are unmitigated by damage. I know they cannot crit or miss or etc., but I think they might be affected by armor.

Spike is good for aoe threat. SBV is better for single target threat. Not really debatable.

[Lizana]

Fork, way to disagree with out ever testing things for yourself.

Spikes are not mitigated by armor, but your Shield slam is. Its not 40 damage every 6 seconds, that damage is mitigated by armor. The only time the spike would be less threat with an average geared warrior would be against a caster that isnt hitting the person.

Also note your not figuring in usage of shield block with the spike,

Lets run some numbers, and to even to try to skew the numbers we will use unmitigated increase from the SBV.

40 sbv every 6 seconds over a 3 min single target boss fight = 1200 extra unmitigated damage.

3 min fight, boss attacking every 2 seconds with a 15% base block your blocking 13.5 attacks. Add in Shield block usage every 45 seconds and that adds in an extra 20 blocks, so not your looking at an added damage to the boss from the spike of 1960 damage that is not and will not be mitigated by armor.

Now before you make the argument that your not going to block 35 times in 3 min, lets just look at the blocks you can promise yourself you will have over that 3 min fight. 10 seconds every 45 seconds from shield block. That works out to the 20 blocked attacks from earlier, So even if you block nothing except from the attacks when Shield block is up your looking at 1120 increase in damage over that 3 min fight compared to 1200 from SBV, and note that SBV is mitigation. 2 extra blocks from your regular gearing should be expected in a 3 min fight, therefore even single target spike is better for threat.

[Ofarian]

Lizana, the difference is not quite as pronounced as you suggest.

If you consider that the "average" tank has around 50% avoidance, then 50% of the time he or she will block attacks or be hit. This is where damage shield comes into play.

On a boss that hits 90 times in a 3 minute fight, the SBV enchant will add 45 * 8 = 360 extra unmitigated damage. So shield slam + damage shield = 1560 unmitigated damage. And yes, while SS/damage shield damage is mitigated by armor, unlike shield spikes they can both crit.

Now, if you assume a rotation of SS -> Revenge -> Dev -> Dev, you'll have 120 possible moves in a 3 minute fight given global cooldowns. Thirty of those will be SS without S&B procs. Another 30 will be Revenge, and 60 will be Devastates, all of which can proc S&B. At a 30% proc rate, you're looking at the possibility of another *27* Shield Slams during a 3 minute fight, though obviously it'll be less than that since you'll be replacing the next S&B-proccing move with a SS instead. So let's say 15 additional SS during a 3 minute fight = 600 unmitigated damage.

With damage shield, you're now looking at 2160 additional damage due to the the 40 SBV enchant on a 3 minute fight -- not accounting for armor or for crit. Couple that with the extra mitigation that 40 SBV can provide (1400 untalented damage reduction over 3 minutes) versus the shield spike, and you've got a very worthy enchant.

Edit: Perhaps a better way to think about it would be to say that S&B changes the average cooldown of SS by 30% -- so you could say that the average SS occurs every 4.2 seconds instead of every 6.0. In that case, you're looking at ~43 Shield Slams per 3 minute fight, or 1720 unmitigated damage via SS over the course of the fight. With damage shield, that totals to 2080 additional unmitigated damage.