To shield or not to shield? Rage is the question.
by Dan Crislip 
May 9th 2007 at 5:07PM
The forums are abuzz with the debate on when to use the ability "Power Word: Shield" on the tank in your group. The original poster on the forum asked why pre-shielding the tank was looked down upon, and the response was abundant!
Warriors and feral Druid tanks need to generate rage to use their abilities to generate the rage required to hold a mob's agro so that it doesn't run rampant in the group, slaughtering the squishies. They generate rage by being hit by a mob and also by hitting the mob as well. In order to be a raid/heroic tank, you have to have your mitigation and avoidance up to a point that you're almost always dodging, parrying, or blocking, in order to not die from a single hit, but in turn that will decrease the amount of rage you can generate. "Power Word: Shield" only decreases the rage generated, while not protecting the tank from that much damage.
On boss mobs, it gets even more tricky. In order to successfully hold (most) bosses, you have to front-load your agro and maintain that agro lead throughout the fight. This means that they need an abundance of rage up-front in order to establish that agro, and they also need time to build up that buffer to keep them ahead. Most tanks only need a few seconds to accomplish that, but the shield just prolongs that time. This also hinders the raid on fights where time is a factor. For example, the old Kazzak enraged after 3 minutes of fighting (he probably still does), and every second of dps counted.
Now keep in mind that this only applies to Warriors and Druid tanks. Paladins, on the other hand, can (and probably should) be shielded when they pull. Since they use mana to generate their agro, they essentially already have a full rage bar to work with. The downside to a Paladin, however, is that the mana pool is limited. Even with the ability to gain 10% mana back when healed by an outside source, they are losing the ability to gain mana from over-heals in the next patch, per the PTR notes. This may hinder the sensibility of shielding the paladins when the changes go live, because if they aren't losing any health, then they are losing the potential mana-gain as well.
Many people were requesting good alternatives to the shield, and the answer there is simple. There are spells available in the end-game that give instant heals from taking damage. For example, Prayer of Mending and Earth Shield. Another good option are heals-over-time, or HOT's: Renew for Priests, Rejuvenation and Lifebloom for Druids.
Long story short, its generally not necessary to pre-shield the Warriors and Druid tanks, and it is a good idea to pre-shield a paladin (at least for now.) However, as one of the forum posters said, "there's no one rule for any situation."
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Classes, Buffs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jadeskye May 9th 2007 5:30PM
this is actually new to me, as a 70 priest on boss fights i pretty much always shield the MT. very eye opening, i'll spare my spells from now on.
Ross May 9th 2007 5:51PM
I play a 70 Dwarf Priest on his way to Serpentshrine, I never shield the tank in boss fights, but I do shield the tank for trash, especially in Khara. Some trash can hit the tank for about 1/3 of hit points, I don't know numbers because I just watch green bars, probably about 4000 - 5000 damage. I shield so that I get a little buffer for me to cast my first heal. I know it steals a little rage but the fact is if you are going up against a mob that hits for that much, a 1500 damage shield will disappear in the first 3 seconds of the fight. If DPSers don't front load their damage and threat, no one gets hurt and I get a 2.5 second heal (mana effecient) off rather than a 1.5 sec Flash Heal (mana ineffecient).
Illuminate May 9th 2007 5:55PM
as a former shaman healer, I think for some situations it is essential. Where the tank has to rush into Maulgar, or Magtheridon adds, for example, the tank just takes way too much damage at the beginning. If there is no shield, I'd have to unload a huge amount of heals at the beginning of a pull and pull aggro anyway or the tank would die. As long as the DPS is patient, I don't see why shielding at the beginning of pulls is a problem, it allows everybody to get into position and ready. PW:S is a great spell and is horribly underused these days. The greatest advantage about being a priest is the amount of situational control that PW:S brings that other healers don't have.
Nogun May 9th 2007 6:00PM
Haha what a silly debate, PW:S these days doesn't even a abosrb 1/4th of a hit from trash mobs. It's looked down upon because it's a waste of Global Cooldown and Mana, not the tanks Rage.
J-bob May 9th 2007 6:01PM
As a feral tank I hate getting shielded, especially at the start of a fight. I understand that a priest sometimes needs to throw one up to buy a little time to get off a bigger heal, but pre-shielding sucks.
I feel the same way about rogues that try to stun lock on the pull. It keeps me from moving the DPS targets away from CC'd mobs and prevents rage generation.
In regular 5 mans, especially with geared-up DPS or running pre-70 instances for friends, I usually swap out some tank gear for DPS gear and try to keep two mobs hitting on me at the same time. This gives me more DPS (= more threat) and more damage taken (= more rage). If the healer is having trouble, or the DPS can't focus fire on one target, I'll gear back up/stop breaking CC.
Mellisande May 10th 2007 12:38PM
Honestly, I don't agree with this assesment. Like you say, against a boss (and honestly who cares about trash pulls?) the shield will absorb one or MAYBE two swings. So let's look at the two cases, first the case without a PWS, and second the case with a PWS.
Without a PWS:
Time 0--warrior swings at boss, generating rage
Time 1--boss swings at warrior, generating more rage
With a PWS:
Time 0--warrior swings at boss, generating rage
Time 1--boss swings back at warrior, generating no rage (since the damage is absorbed by PWS)
Time 2--warrior swings at boss, generating more rage
Time 3--boss swings at warrior, generating more rage
So take a look at those two sequences. What do you see? Time 2 and 3 with a PWS are the same as time 0 and 1 without but the warrior has more rage from the swing that he took at time 0. So unless you have some seriously antsy dps'ers who aren't disciplined enough to wait for the second sunder or the "dps go!" call your tank will be better off with the PWS. All it does is delay the amount of time dps can engage by about one boss swing (and, since the tank will have more rage (and hence aggro) from his "free" first swing, the dps can start ramping up their dps faster).
Am I missing something here?
John May 9th 2007 6:07PM
PW:S is best used when tanks suddenly got crit'ed, or when a boss does periodic heavy damage (like dragon breaths - can wipe the tank if quickly followed by a crit/crushing).
Karl May 9th 2007 6:22PM
I recently found that you can go without shielding the MY for better effect (Warrior, PAlly or Druid), but if you have a Pet acting as an off-tank, shield them. My Warlock's Felguard recently tanked Blood Furnace all the way through. We had two priests. They would take turns shielding when the WS cooldown finished. Felguard kept aggro very well throughout the whole place, and his ability to avoid magic damage (especially AoE) made the trip easy. Taking constant damage wasn't needed, as it uses magic instead of rage for cleaves, taunts and intercepts. Not sure if a Hunter pet could tank as well as a Felguard, but if so, the same would work for them.
Rich May 9th 2007 6:35PM
I think it all depends on the situation. I was running Old Hillsbrad with 70 lock (me), 70 SP, 70 Boomkin, a 68 Prot Warrior and a 67 Holy/Disc Priest. The 2 priests were having an argument about whether to pre-shield the warrior.
In that case, we decided it was a good idea to pre-shield the warrior. He was preloading his Rage bar (I think with Bloodrage) and didn't need to worry about the shield blocking the extra rage.
When we group with another friend who plays a warrior, we don't pre-shield her since she doesn't preload the rage bar.
When it comes down to it, it depends on the pull and the warrior in question. There won't ever be a standard right answer for this dilemma.
Stephen May 9th 2007 7:05PM
@6
Without a PWS:
Time 0--warrior swings at boss, generating rage
Time 1--boss swings at warrior, generating more rage
Time 2--healer casts heal on warrior, generating healing aggro
You have to weigh the value of rage generation to the overall threat level of the party or raid. It's especially important if your pull includes mobs that you can't keep from attacking the healer once they pull aggro from healing your damage, such as ranged mobs or mobs that spawn adds.
JoelyThePriest May 10th 2007 1:17AM
As a disc/holy priest, I always pre-shield/PoM a tank for any fight.
PWS: 1315 + 15% bonus from talents + 20% of +healing gear (about 1400) = 1800 free health.
PoM: 1200 - 1400 for a jump. Tank gets first pop of PoM as soon as shield runs out = 1200 free health.
Total = extra 3000 health at the beginning of the fight or roughly 20% greater health bar for most well-geared tanks. Keeping my tank alive is priority number one.
It has a secondary benefit: it trains the DPS to start slow. I find the best way to train DPS is to let them pull hate and die until they learn the lesson. Pretty soon, they start slower... Amazing!
My other main is a Protection Spec'd warrior. I've never minded a bit of pre-shielding prior to a fight. Between Bloodrage, Imp Sunder and Focused Rage, it's rarely an issue.
Method May 9th 2007 7:58PM
I was told just a little while ago that there was a patch that fixed this ages ago. Basically rage continues to be generated from hits when shielded, all that happens is his hp does not go down, however rage gets given. Last night I was running durnhold and the tank flipped out at me for shielding, I tested shortly after without him knowing, and shielded him a few times and noticed rage to go up when he was hit, however with lagg I could hardly call watching a party members bar a controlled test ;p
Shield is uber inefficient for hp/mana, however using a shield before the fight starts is actually efficient due to regen continuing at full before the fight
in the amount of time it takes for the tank to get shielded, wait a few seconds, then charge the boss, I can regain the mana used by the shield since I am out of combat.
Throughout the fight shield is a waste unless you need the quick instant cast.
I'll do a controlled test with a warrior later....
Robert May 9th 2007 8:02PM
As a tank, I can tell how good a priest is by her use of PW:S. The better the priest, the less it's used.
Derelict May 9th 2007 8:20PM
I always use Prayer of Mending over shielding on the pull. The healing done by PoM is attributed to the tank's aggro, and not to mine. This helps him or her hold aggro, as long as it doesn't jump to a cloth-wearer next and get triggered immediately :)
I shield when I absolutely need 2-3 seconds to "catch up" to the healing load, or when a mage/warlock requests it just prior to an AE-fest. Otherwise, as a priest I have better options.
D
Tony May 9th 2007 10:16PM
I was running Mana Tombs for the first time the other day. It was me, 64 Ret/holy Pally, 70 Frost Mage, 70 Rogue, 70 Warrior, and 70 Holy Priest. Those trash mobs were hitting me hard and I noticed after the 2nd pull our Priest was hitting me with PW:S every other pull since I was the off tank. I wont complain since it kept me alive. Another key here, our MT is an Arms warrior and he MT the whole way without a problem, even getting PW:S half the time.
Ezmodya May 9th 2007 10:48PM
PW:S is proof that Pallies are the best tanks! We can front-load the aggro while shielded! PERFECT!
LFG ANYTHING PROT PALLY PST PLEASE!!!!!
Do I sound too desperate? :(
Nyx May 10th 2007 12:44AM
Does... anyone wait for sunders? Ever? I've probably run hundreds of PuGs in two years of playing, and I've never once seen a PuG group that held back on aggro. I'm looking at YOU, hunters, mages, and rogues. I actually laughed out loud at the thought of people waiting for sunders. I don't even always wait for sunders, and my long-time WoW partner is a warrior! [Sorry, warriors and druids.]
If you're playing with a guild group, obviously this is different, but if you're PuGGing it or the group is impatient... leave the tank alone, please. I think one of the more valuable uses of PW:S, one which few priests seem to use, is during a fear fight if the fear does not break aggro - while you're feared and unable to heal, the shield will keep the tank up a few seconds longer. In any case, that's for the middle of a fight - not the opening sally.
@11: You were misinformed. Trust me. A warrior with PW:S will get rage from his SWINGS, and possibly from being in combat if he has the right talents which many warriors have, which is why you're seeing the rage build while he's shielded. He's not getting the rage from being damaged, which is probably at least a sunder, invaluable with an impatient group.
Monbee May 10th 2007 2:29AM
@12: As a priest, the more I use PW:S the worse I think you are at tanking :P
Although people sneer at PW:S for mana inefficiency, as well as its other strengths it's also half the threat of a heal for the same value. If I can't trust the mobs not to come running for me early in a fight I chuck shields around because I know my regen can handle it. Judge if a healer is good or not on how many people are dead, not on what spells they use.
Torpine May 10th 2007 4:17AM
As another poster stated. The absorbed dammage still generates aggro. This has been confirmed a long time ago.
bonse May 10th 2007 4:43AM
could we get some confirmation on the rage generated whilst shielding thing? My rage breakdown never attributes getting hit while shielded, which is why I dumped precious talent points into unbridled to make up for it. If it's just the addon not registering it I'll respend those points