Phat Loot Phriday: Wisdom's Hold
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 31st 2009 at 5:00PM
Not all shields are for blocking. If you're a Shaman or a Pally, this caster shield is probably droolworthy.Name: Wisdom's Hold (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDB)
Type: Epic Shield
Armor: 8130, 227 Block
Attributes:
- +70 Stamina, +48 Intellect, which means lots of HP and Mana for you.
- Improves crit strike by 40, haste by 47, and spell power by 75. Nice set of bonuses there, too.
- And a blue socket, with a socket bonus of +5 spell power. It's a slight upgrade over Voice of Reason, the other big caster shield near endgame, but enough of an upgrade that you want this one if you can get it.
- Plus, like most of the Ulduar stuff we've been looking at lately (feel free to recommend a "husky" item for next week in the comments below), it looks pretty awesome. Those sparks fly out of the gem in the center, so be careful not to burn yourself on the incredible power contained there.
Getting Rid of It: And likely will be yours for a while -- if you noticed, the previous shield actually comes from Naxx. So who knows whether the Coliseum will offer up a respectable caster shield. If it doesn't, you might be waiting until Icecrown to replace this one. At any rate, when you do replace it, you can disenchant it into an Abyss Crystal or sell it back for 15g 4s 14c.
Filed under: Paladin, Shaman, Items, Analysis / Opinion, How-tos, Raiding, Phat Loot Phriday
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zancorr Jul 31st 2009 5:08PM
Pretty sure it only comes from HM Thorim. I have killed Thorim every week since release in normal and it hasn't dropped. Should be getting Thorim HM this week tho, so maybe I will get lucky!
Braundo Jul 31st 2009 5:14PM
Yep, the 1.9% droprate on Wowhead indicates that it certainly is a hard mode drop.
Still, though, very nice shield.
Braundo Jul 31st 2009 5:14PM
...Well, and the item level. That too.
Barclissas Jul 31st 2009 5:15PM
This comes from Hard Mode. As an interesting bit of trivia it also has the highest armor of any shield in the game. Still not for tanking though :)
Evaline Jul 31st 2009 6:12PM
Not entirely true. Armor is determined by the item level, so this will have the same amount of armor as other 239 shields. And there's currently only one other, the Bulwark of(f) Algalon.
And yes, this is hardmode. Wowhead doesn't differentiate between hardmode and non-hardmode in their loot tables, it just dumps it all into one. To get an idea of the drop rate (don't look at the 1,9%): Hardmode gives you 1 239 item every time. There are 6 of them, so that's roughly a 1/6 chance of getting this, assuming they all have the same drop chance.
epsilon343 Jul 31st 2009 6:12PM
Yeah, one of those stats that, as a Shaman, I look at and I kinda laugh because I'm loaded with all this armor but it really does nothing to help my heals or spells. Hooked onto my arm is this hunk of metal that gives like 8k armor and it's useless, lol.
Sick of PLF Jul 31st 2009 6:14PM
And PLF fails again, didn't even bother to check the source it was linking to. Awesome
Elry Jul 31st 2009 6:44PM
Nice looking shield.
I like that it has a blue gem slot, and a sparking blue gem on the shield. I'd love it if Blizzard made gems visible somehow on items with gemslots. It would add that finishing touch to a lot of items IMO, and add a much needed element of personalisation to gear whilst being a more interesting way of doing so than just "repainting" or dyeing items. Besides, different colored gems or their effects appearing on gear woudn't interfere with the faction colorschemes, like dyeing as a means of personalisation would, that Blizzard is putting onto T9 pieces in 3.2.
I was hoping to push myself through Ulduar with more force in the coming weeks, but if 3.2 comes "too soon" I'm scared I'll be tempted to fall into the heroic/emblem trap and just collect and buy emblem gear to skip Ulduar entirely :( Say it won't be so! :P
usagizero Jul 31st 2009 6:54PM
That's something that for all it's failings, Hellgate did that impressed me. Items could be enhanced with things, and they appeared on the item model when you did. I wish WoW had more interesting things with look like that. It does get boring seeing everyone in the basically the same (best they can get) gear with the same type enchant glows.
pietrex Jul 31st 2009 7:19PM
How can you say it doesn't require hard mode when the very first comment on wowhead says it does? Is it truly that hard to check if what you are writing is correct? No offence, Mike - I like you, really - but this is very unprofessional.
Squeek Jul 31st 2009 7:41PM
The words "I don't think" should not be appearing in a purely fact-based article. In an opinionated articles, sure, but here all you're doing is referencing facts.
I'm starting to see that this site isn't the go-to news site anymore. Either you're all rushed for time or you just don't care about it anymore. Either way, the quality of the articles has dropped dramatically across the board.
PS - "Who knows if there will be something better"? How about someone who spent ten seconds looking at the loot from the new raid?! Yes, there will be something better. Faction Champions 25 and 25 Heroic will drop the Bastion of Purity, which has increased stats and a socket in Heroic mode.
Tickle Aug 1st 2009 6:34AM
Schramm regularly gives out misinformation, don't think there has been a week where he'd get every fact about an item straight.
Bond Aug 1st 2009 6:58PM
I recall that this column used to be about overlooked and under appreciated gear that anyone could get hold of - stuff that might deserve a second look, or something from one of the obscure corners of the game that most people miss. I just don't think an end-game drop from the hard mode of the current raid really warrants a column. As above comments suggest, most people who read this site know about the basics, and have no problem looking up an interesting new shiny from the web databases. What your readers need to know is where do they find the best caster shield THAT IS NOT in the end-game raid instance, and exactly what do they do to get it. Obviously, that is hard to do week after week, but that is why you get paid the big bucks, right?