What are your thoughts on Soul Barrier?

[Jazzhands]

These are just subjective opinions.

"What are your thoughts on Soul Barrier?"

You literally asked us for our subjective opinion.

[TheIndalamar]

Honestly I prefer it greatly to Last Resort. SB keeps me alive, is very powerful and has a relatively short cd. When I pull a huge pack of trash the mitigation it provides from the static shield value is incredibly powerful.

[Valium104]

I basically explain it in my other response to you. Currently in base level mythics you don't need the mitigation from soul barrier, and can go full DPS mode with a decent healer, and use Last Resort as a second meta for more DPS. Later it might change, but the higher up the content the more useless Soul barrier becomes because it gets eaten so quickly.

Please for the love of wow stop talking like meta is dps increase. For Vengeance, it just increases hp%.

[MatadorMedia]

Soul Barrier seems like another mitigation ability you have to spend pain on, and there are better things to spend it on imo. Last Resort is the only talent I've bothered with on this row and I can't imagine picking anything else.

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Please for the love of wow stop talking like meta is dps increase. For Vengeance, it just increases hp%.

Well since the tank meta form also gives you constant pain generation, a couple more soul cleaves would be a dps increase by default. Just saying.

[Jazzhands]

Please for the love of wow stop talking like meta is dps increase. For Vengeance, it just increases hp%.

Pain generation = more Cleave less Shears = more DPS.

Also less healer focus on you, more on DPS, more DPS can ignore mechanics in favor of DPSing.

[Deleted]

Soul barrier doesn't allow you to go somewhat ham to an extent ofcourse. Last resort does.
For me, it doesn't get much simpler then that.

[Deleted]

The main dps generation from last resort does not come from the extra pain, let's not kid ourselves. It just allows you to play more aggressively, pull more, aoe more, etc. As long as it didn't proc, you can take more risks in most situations, whereas if you have no safety net you're forced to play conservatively "just in case". As long as you have that safety net, you can pull that extra patrol, forego the use of demon spikes a bit more, or use sigil of flame on cd no matter what, that's the kind of risks that usually won't kill you anyway, but that you wouldn't be able to take as easily if you didn't have it.

Soul Barrier could be good in specific situations (healing absorbs, for example), but the main drawback of it is that it deals no damage. Add some sort of damage to it and it'll be picked more.

Alternatively, chadd can get his head out of his butt and make Purgatory/Last Resort baseline for DKs and DHs, but I'm more optimistic on winning the lottery this year than that happening, so I'll settle for simpler things.

[Deleted]

That's basically saying that Soul Barrier is 10% damage reduction. You can't math it though. It's a more complex mechanic than that. You can be deliberate when you use it and get massive fucking shield up prior to a huge hitting ability. Thing of HoV shield beam or Oakheart's grip. Boiling down Soul Barrier to "just basically a flat 10% damage reduction" is totally inaccurate.

Bottom line is, these talents can't be "mathed" out. There is no right answer. I agree with the above posters who said if we get into progression mythic raids or high keystone mythics where death is much more likely... then Last Resort wins out. I have no fear of death whatsoever in any currently available content so it's just flat out useless right now.

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No offense, but I never die in any regular Mythic dungeon or any currently available content. So Last Resort is never needed. If you're getting a ton of use out of it, it sounds like that Last Resort is for more inexperienced players who are dying more often.

If you have no fear of death, then why are you using pain on Soul Barrier when you could use it on Soul Cleave for more DPS? Sounds pretty stupid to me. Last Resort is so much better than Soul Barrier.

[Lolsteak]

Base level mythic damage is laughable, Soul barrier is purely a defensive CD thats not needed with a decent healer, Last Resort gives tons of flexibility and is useable for more DPS and therefore a faster run..

Lmao, you get what maybe a couple more k tank dps out of Soul Barrier proccing and that's it

Unless your healer is having issues, Soul barrier is useless, and if your healer is having issues, you probably want Last Resort because it's a better survivability talent.

Soul Barrier is a 20 sec CD on demand shield, Over the course of a dungeon it would provide FAR more mitigation compared to Last Resort.

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If you have no fear of death, then why are you using pain on Soul Barrier when you could use it on Soul Cleave for more DPS? Sounds pretty stupid to me. Last Resort is so much better than Soul Barrier.

If you're not dying Last Resort is a wasted talent, Fact.

[Valdarix]

I use Last Resort paired with Coagulated Nightwell Residue while not identical to Soul Barrier it's close and gives me a best of both worlds feeling.

[Khiyone]

Lmao, you get what maybe a couple more k tank dps out of Soul Barrier proccing and that's it

Read Mione's post above yours, it's been repeated ad nausem.

Soul Barrier is a 20 sec CD on demand shield, Over the course of a dungeon it would provide FAR more mitigation compared to Last Resort.

I mean. . . of course? Last Resort probably doesn't provide as much direct HPS as Soul Barrier does, yes. That doesn't mean it isn't infinitely better as a survival tool. Soul Barrier doesn't provide much more mitigation over just spending the pain on Demon Spikes/Soul Cleave instead, so in reality you're just gaining a small amount of overall damage reduction in exchange for healer comfort, insurance against mistakes, and DPS, both from meta and from being able to play aggressively.

If you're not dying Last Resort is a wasted talent, Fact.

No, it isn't. As has been said above, having Last Resort allows you to play far more aggressively than you normally would, and give healers comfort (they don't have to panic when your health drops) allowing everyone to play more efficiently.

I think I'm just repeating a bunch of arguments that have already been mentioned in this thread, so ugh, can't really be bothered to argue more with people that insist on taking a terrible talent. Do whatever you like.

[Lolsteak]

No, it isn't. As has been said above, having Last Resort allows you to play far more aggressively than you normally would, and give healers comfort (they don't have to panic when your health drops) allowing everyone to play more efficiently.

If you're not dying (Aka healers not garbage) then the talent is absolutely wasted, It's not getting used. Simple.

[Deleted]

soul barrier is underwelming without a doubt and could need some sort of buff, actually i would like last resort to be changed we should not have a talent like dk:s that are even better tbh, they could thought of somthing else to keep us away from purgatory.


Dk:s have some gimmicky stuff both in their legendary weapon dps and tank and talents as dps and tank.

Some of wich should be overlooked tbh.

[MatadorMedia]

Soul barrier doesn't allow you to go somewhat ham to an extent ofcourse. Last resort does.

For sure. There have been times where I'm just all out DPS raging, and will intentionally let Last Resort proc so I don't have to adjust my flow. It's a definitely comeback-with-burst mechanic, not just a save your life mechanic.

[sosleapy]

Play how you want i just like the last resort because coupled with soul rendering i dont jump just to 30% hp i jump to 50% or higher and i have some shards within that time and bam i am back at nearly 100% hp. and hitting an oh shit button besides just a proc IMO is overall better for me cuz i will admit there was times i could have killed a mythic boss alone but i forgot to hit meta...i know i was bad but i dont want to have to rely on a button push plus lag to save the party/raid when last resort does it for me...

[ro9ue]

Moral of the story, play what you want. I just think it's hilarious to see people saying there's a flat out best answer. There isn't. So when people say "noobs take soul barrier" I think that doesn't really have any logic attached to it.

If you think you have a high risk of death, or like the play style of dying every 3 min to go ham... good for you.

But to say that is "obviously" superior to a completely different style mechanic with a totally different play style is the dumbest thing I ever heard.

Played right, you can out heal your healer getting 1m+ Soul Barriers. It also scales well with large packs of mobs. More shards from more targets, the highest Soul Barrier I got was with 9 frags and made me basically take 0 damage for 8 seconds. Couple that with that tool being at your disposal every 20 seconds vs every 3min, I find Soul Barrier superior in the content we have now.

But to come into the thread asserting you have the "right" answer and anyone who chooses a different play style is a noob is pretty naive and childish.

I also want to point out I like Last Resort a lot, I just think Soul Barrier makes the gameplay more fun and gives me more control.

If the conversation continues when we're in M+ dungeons with deadly mechanics, or raiding on a high level - I'd switch to Last Resort too. Right now a well played soul barrier makes content way easier.

[aikanaro]

I like using soul barrier, last resort is meh to me because it's boring. Play the way you like.. also... you can hit soul barrier for 30 pain and still have a full 60 to Soul cleave... barriers are better against healing debuffs. Anyway, throughout the course of a mythic boss fight, soul barrier ends up above or equal to the healing provided by soul cleave.

[Munkky]

Soul barrier is more healing. That is a well known fact. The cleave vs barrier arguement is about dps.

Also having enough pain to cast Soul Cleave is not the same as spending 30 Pain on barrier. That arguement is any spending that 30 Pain on cleave dps vs barrier.

[Caeth]

they both have merits but for current content when I'm running mythics with people I don't know with the expectation of pulling packs without CC..........Last Resort def wins.

[mitre27]

Last Resort still helps even if you don't die. The buffer it provides means that healers can play more efficiently as they don't have to panic heal you when your health drops.

If you don't 'die' last resort doesn't activate and you will function like you didn't have any talent picked in that tier.

Edit: Talent seems to be useful as a dps cd in weak ass content?