For tanks already over 540 def what is the best shield enchant?

[swollenpickles]

For tanks who are already over 540 def what is the best shield enchant to go with?

Are the high level shield spikes any good from a threat perspective?

[Kazeyonoma]

shield spikes are okay for threat, titanium plating is meh for bleh sbv and shield slam damage, stam is still always good but low/old enchant. and defense, isn't terrible, it's a decent avoidance boost (which isn't all that important) but I need it to stay defense capped.

[Martie]

I'd go with titanium plating. It should be more threat then the spikes and prevent enough damage to outweigh the stamina. Defense isn't a bad choice either, though I'd pick stamina over it.

To be honest, they are all rather lackluster.

[swollenpickles]

At the moment my defense is at 561 so I don't really 'need' the +16 def on the shield. I'm weighing up whether to go with the titanium shield spikes or the Titanium Plating. I should also say I'm looking at this from the perspective of a prot paladin.

[Passive]

18 stamina is hands down the best for current content. Titanium Plating has some value to boost our block value, as we can use the ability Shield Block as a cooldown and sbv increases the melee damage reduction reliably when we use Shield Block. For paladin though I'd say 18 stam.

[swollenpickles]

18 stamina is hands down the best for current content.

I've read in a few places that 18 stamina is less useful than the plating. 18 stamina doesn't really seem like a lot. Here's an example:

http://www.wowhead.com/item=44936#comments:id=576596

The best stam enchant for shields I see only adds 18. After talents for a prot warrior or paladin, that's roughly 200 health.

Both of those classes have talents to boost block value by 30%, so the Plating will mitigate 52 damage every block. Seems to me that you get more value out of this than you would with 18 stam. The block value is going to add damage(and threat) to Shield Slam and Shield of the Righteous as well.

This is the only slot where you're choosing between BV and stamina, so it's easy to add stam somewhere else.

As a tanking paladin I block pretty much anything that isn't a parry/dodge/miss, so I'm taking the Plating.

[Lore]

The thing about the block->health comparison in the WotLK raiding model is you have to factor in how many hits you're going to take before you die. On most progression-focused encounters, you'll only be able to take 2, maybe 3 swings from the boss before dying, even if there isn't any other non-physical damage coming in (which block obviously would do nothing for). So even though 200 health isn't much in that regard, 52 block is even less.

[Martie]

The thing about the block->health comparison in the WotLK raiding model is you have to factor in how many hits you're going to take before you die. On most progression-focused encounters, you'll only be able to take 2, maybe 3 swings from the boss before dying, even if there isn't any other non-physical damage coming in (which block obviously would do nothing for). So even though 200 health isn't much in that regard, 52 block is even less.

And now it gets complicated.
It's not 52 block, though - it's about 120 block. In ICC, it's also not 200 health, it's closer to 250.
So if there are two blocked melee swings in the sequence that kills you, it's about equal. Or a single shield block enhanced shield block.
Note that this is ICC, and that even a paladin tank isn't guaranteed to block every blow he takes (though he comes close).
Also remember that the "sequence that kills you" is best measured starting at the last point that you were at full health, so we aren't talking about just two or three melee swings. Though this is simplifying it a bit.

Like I said, neither is going to make a huge difference, and after looking at them both for a very long time, I think that they are about equal in survival strength. So I went for the plating, since it gives me bigger numbers that flash across my screen.

[Byronius]

I would take +18 Stam only for the fact that the 18 stam is good for all incoming damage whereas SBV translates well only in physical encounters, though I might suggest the block value on fights like Saurfang, Festergut or main tank BQL, where damage mitigation though armor and block count for something. Other than that, Stam.

[Loganisis]

18 Stamina. Block values being low, 12-18%, limit plating's effect (though it does help SB as a mini-CD).

However, it's also not as valuable in some of the hardest fights in ICC. LDW, Sid, LK (even VDW adds) because there's a lot of magic damage and less phyiscal damage being thrown around.

And I think even in the fights where it's mostly physical damage, 18 sta > the block on average unless you spam SB as a threat-ability with SS, in which case plating is > 18 sta.

There was a longer thread on this about 2 months ago (?) and I think the conculsion is if you save SB and use it as a def CD then 18 sta greater for physical fights, if you use it for threat then for physical fights Plating is slightly better. IIRC.

[Dreador]

18 stam. Even keeping SB on CD leaves the rest of the 30 seconds to the RNG.

[drae]

18 stam imo. It's the only enchant that helps the worse case scenario. Blocking in general is so bleh to me since they completely shied away from SBV itemization in T8. I had a wicked block set in T8; I miss flavour.

[Aggathon]

against pure physical damage while shield block is up, the plating is amazing. However, in every other scenario it's kinda meh, imo.

[Kazeyonoma]

what about shield block and CRITICAL BLOCKING HRMmm1m1m1m1m1m1m1?!?!?!?!?!

Okay yeah stam wins out.

[MellvarTank]

I wish we had a better option for the shield.

[Bashal]

This thread is looking a little bit like the "what tank enchant for my weapon" threads. None of them are "omg you are a tard if you don't take this", with perhaps the exception of +def if you aren't 540 yet.

I take +18 stam, not because I think in and of itself it's some kind of make or break enchant, but add that to my other stam enchants and gems, and there's a bigger chunk of stam. Not enchanting the shield with +18 stam won't kill me, but neither would changing one single stam gem to something else kill me.

I guess I'm trying to say its just one more feather on the camel's back... or something...

[Loganisis]

What was that quote someone pointed out that WoW is a game of inches? 18 stam for a warrior with 70% DR is ~900 EH (roughly 270 HP after all stam and ICC buffs). Granted at this point 900 EH isn't really all that much compared to the total, but it's still a bigger buffer to allow pug healers to do their job (seriously - 25 man pug, having to pop SW and SB (several times) during Fester ON THE FREAKING PULL because the healers weren't keeping me above 35% health if I didn't.... oy vey) while I'm sitting at 42k buffed armor...

[Aggathon]

To be fair, WoW really isn't a game of inches. If you have 20 def or 18 stam it really won't make THAT big of a difference... for that individual enchant/selection. However, on the whole, those small selections add up. There have been several times people have posted on here going "why is my HP so low, why can't I get into good PuGs, I have good gear!" and while they do have good gear, they make a bunch of little concessions here and there for avoidance or threat instead of stam or armor and I've typically been able to give them advice that grants them upwards of 700 stam worth of EHP more than what they had (usually around 5k HPs at least).

Edit: and that's why no one is going ZOMG THIS ENCHANT OR ELSE!!!! Really most of our enchants are either total no brainers or kinda 6 of one half a dozen of the other (or like 7 of one 5 of the other but the other 5 smell better or are decorated eggs or something).

[Passive]

Paladins have less stamina than warriors but arguable better cooldowns in that worse case scenario. This enchant decision could be seen as swapping a tiny amount on EH for a very slightly improved cooldown. I just wish the ICC buff didn't exist, it only makes stam even better :/

Cataclysm will fix it!

[Passive]

Paladins have less stamina than warriors but arguable better cooldowns in that worse case scenario. This enchant decision could be seen as swapping a tiny amount on EH for a very slightly improved cooldown. I just wish the ICC buff didn't exist, it only makes stam even better :/

Cataclysm will fix it!