1. #1

    Shield barrier, worth it?

    I may end up having to tank and I was wandering, is shield barrier worth it yet? It is our only real mitigation for magic damage, but honestly, it sucked in 6.0. Just wandering if they buffed it or fixed it like they promised to do in 6.1.
    Quote Originally Posted by scorpious1109 View Post
    Why the hell would you wait till after you did this to confirm the mortality rate of such action?

  2. #2
    Deleted
    It was buffed yes but by the jury is still out on if it was enough. A lot of people do not think so.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Dannyl View Post
    It was buffed yes but by the jury is still out on if it was enough. A lot of people do not think so.
    People keep saying it got buffed, but did it tho? According to the notes only the shield barrier of Arms and Fury was tweaked, not Prots.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Strafir View Post
    People keep saying it got buffed, but did it tho? According to the notes only the shield barrier of Arms and Fury was tweaked, not Prots.
    Definitely buffed for prot.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Strafir View Post
    People keep saying it got buffed, but did it tho? According to the notes only the shield barrier of Arms and Fury was tweaked, not Prots.
    Look into the final patchnotes. buffed for all speccs.

    OT:
    Shieldbarrier was always worth it for bleeding off excess rage. it will never surpass Shieldblock in usefulness, but since we have no other means of mitigating unblockable damage there is just no way around it.
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Valech View Post
    Look into the final patchnotes. buffed for all speccs.
    Great then!

  7. #7
    If you're capped on rage and shield wall is on cooldown, you're going to want to use shield barrier anyways.

  8. #8
    Shield Barrier is not the strongest tool for mitigation, let alone a strong tool for it in the first place. But, as your gear gets better, and you find yourself getting more Crist and Revenges, you'll find yourself with even more excess rage. Unless you were maybe able to get resolve ridiculously high, and then your damage intake reduces to nothing because of a recovery phase or something, Block will mitigate more physical damage than barrier. Barrier of course would still be better for magic damage.

    As for whether its worth it though, absolutely. You're looking at a barrier of 60-80k damage, about every 8-12 seconds. It is a great rage dump, just have to be ready to use Shield Block when you can.

  9. #9
    Pandaren Monk ghostblade's Avatar
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    shield barrier is one of those skills that you only use a specific situations. like Kromog his slam or if you are tanking a cinder wolf. Resolve around 200%+ can give you about 100-120k absorb from it.

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  10. #10
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    Is it worth it? That depends on what the situation is. Do you have ≥ 20 rage? Is Shield Block on CD with ≥ 3 seconds? Even if Shield Block is off CD, can the ability be blocked? If the answer to the first two questions is "yes," and the answer to the last question is "no," then sure, Shield Barrier is worth it. Some examples of great times to use Shield Barrier are when you're tanking Cinder Wolves, when Kromog is about to cast Slam, during Inferno Strike on Gruul (after a Shield Block!). You should also pool rage to toss up a big one before Blast on Blast Furnace. There are plenty of times when Shield Barrier is absolutely "worth it." Mitigation is mitigation.

    Now, if we are discussing whether or not Shield Barrier is "worth a damn" compared to other tanks' abilities? Well, I think the answer to that question lies here.

  11. #11
    It's situational, but it can helpful as someone stated earlier. (Kromog Slams, Cinderwolf Breaths, etc.) Any type of bursty damage that can be anticipated is when you want to be using shield barrier.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by ghostblade View Post
    shield barrier is one of those skills that you only use a specific situations. like Kromog his slam or if you are tanking a cinder wolf. Resolve around 200%+ can give you about 100-120k absorb from it.
    I'm sorry but I have to totally disagree. For the VAST majority of progression fights you want to dump any excess rage into Barrier that you can. Provided you will never cause a shield block to be delayed by using barrier, you should use it.

    High magic abilities are a good example of prioritizing barrier over block although I would warn to be mindful of using barrier this way. You need to make sure that if its just a one off cast that when the cast ends you can have a block up straight away as this will be the most bursty part of the damage and a mistake I see a lot of tanks making.


    Even when I know a magic ability is coming what I will tend to do is pool rage until it starts casting, make sure I'm above 80 rage and cast a shield block with the remainder dumped into barrier. This prevents some of the magical damage and prevents you being gibbed by the melee swing that follows.

    Kromog is a slight exception in that you have more time to pool rage during his breath cast for shield block after its finished. However I would say that casting two barriers or more during the breath is risky as you will find that you will not be able to have enough rage for that block at the end of the breath and just get melee gibbed.

    Another good example is Gruul. Being able to cast shield block then with the remainder of pooled rage (Ideally 60) cast barrier. Not only does this set you up for getting the maximum reduction off the slash but it also means you are ready if you are performing the tank swap for any melee hits that you take after the slash.

    Since the barrier hotfix on most fights I am sitting at around 10k Effective HPS to myself and while this may not seem much it provides a significant padding on damage spikes. This comes from actively using barrier whenever possible and dumping any excess rage into it.


    TL;DR
    Totally worth it
    Last edited by mmocae83d35844; 2015-03-03 at 11:33 AM.

  13. #13
    definitely buffed for prot

  14. #14
    Throughout T17.. I have learned to really like Shield Barrier.. and believe me, I was one of the main complainers about this ability. I have a Monk main tank in guild and seeing his 500k guards really pissed me off when the best I could do was 100-120k absorbs for half my rage bar. I really didn't start to appreciate the ability until I STOPPED COMPARING MYSELF TO THE MONK. I think that's the key here. Monks may be OP.. but fact is, I'm not a monk. I'm a warrior and the class is not god awful... lets focus on what I can do well.

    All that being said, when it came to Shield barrier, I had to figure out what it was truly good for. Obviously as mentioned above, the basics are it's good as a rage dump and for magic damage. Well, duh. But when you really start to apply it to specific fights and situations in said fights and stop trying to use it as an "oh shit" button (like a monk can do with guard), it begins to take shape. I noticed that unlike shield block, shield barrier needed to be planned ahead for. While using it 60 rage with a ton of resolve is the best use of it, it's not the only use of it. For example:

    Flambender - Shield Barrier is not only fantastic to help with each breath of the cinder wolves to help offset the damage (breath 2 and 3 I couple shield barrier with Demo shout.. when learning the fight I called for an Ironbark too), but it's also insanely good to help with Firestorm. With the ticking magic damage, I pop SB at the start and then every time the barrier drops, whether I have 60 rage or not.. I noticed that more often than not, I'd only take a couple ticks of actual damage instead of eating huge chunks of it.

    Gruul - I think this one is obvious.. but I always make sure I build up max rage before an inferno slice so I can pop a Shield Block as well as a Shield barrier as the slice is casting. This helps negate the melee hit as well as 120k of the inferno slice.

    Oregorger - Again, another obvious one, but I try and have a max shield barrier built up for each acid torrent to help offset my damage. I don't believe it helps with the damage to the range, but at least I'm helping the healers not have to heal me as much.

    Kromog - As mentioned above, Shield barrier is ALWAYS useful here. Once I have Shield block on CD, I tend to dump as much rage as possible into shield barrier because of the insane amount of tank damage going out in this fight. But I especially like to use it for the unblockable stone breaths and the slams.

    Blackhand - Another fight shield barrier is a must for most of the fight. Again, shield block should always be on CD when tanking blackhand since he hits so damn hard, but aside from that, you should save up 60 rage for each shattering smash you take in phase 1. When not tanking him, I spam it during demolition to help offset any small brown circles I just can't seem to get out of. Typically I take a fraction of the damage from this ability as most others. And again in phase 1.. when the iron star smashes the floor at the transition, use Shield barrier to negate the damage. I never take any damage from this phase... it's a personal victory of mine to see my health bar full as we fall and see 90% of the raid at 60-70%. Again, in phase 2 I use shield barrier as much as possible to offset the iron barrage damage as much as I can. And in phase 3 I use it for every single smash we take as well as any bomb that gets placed on me when positioning him.

    These are just a few examples of some BRF fights. While the rage investment in the ability seems high compared to what you actually get out of it, it still ends up being worth it in several situations. Don't use it in a group of trash and expect to get anything out of it.. cuz it'll drop before your global CD is back up. But instead, learn the situations it actually ends up being useful. There are a ton of them if you're creative.
    Last edited by Theprophecy2186; 2015-03-04 at 01:57 PM.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Theprophecy2186 View Post
    Throughout T17.. I have learned to really like Shield Barrier.. and believe me, I was one of the main complainers about this ability. I have a Monk main tank in guild and seeing his 500k guards really pissed me off when the best I could do was 100-120k absorbs for half my rage bar. I really didn't start to appreciate the ability until I STOPPED COMPARING MYSELF TO THE MONK. I think that's the key here. Monks may be OP..
    This is essentially saying lets just all ignore the elephant in the room, and while I'm sure we are all doing just that, and making the best use of the tools that we have, the fact still remains that our tool kit is inferior. Not by much, but still significantly to have a big impact.
    Last edited by mmoc6e18b67333; 2015-03-04 at 03:16 PM.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Dannyl View Post
    This is essentially saying lets just all ignore the elephant in the room, and while I'm sure we are all doing just that, and making the best use of the tools that we have, the fact still remains that our tool kit is inferior. Not by much, but still significantly to have a big impact.
    I don't disagree that we need something to buff us up a bit, but maybe it's not so much we need to be buffed a ton to be in line with monks, but monks need to be brought down a bit to be closer to our level. Tanking shouldn't just be stand there.. spam a couple abilities.. hit my oh shit button when a ton of damage is coming. It should be a challenge on every level to perform well, just like dps.. just like healing. Knowing what to hit and when and making best use of all given abilities.

    Again, not saying ignore the fact that we seem to be the hardest tank to heal and just deal with it.. but I see too much complaining and not enough help on these forums. I think the only thing we really need to bring us in line more with other tanks, is a little more self healing. Make enrage add a passive heal or better yet passive leech ability.

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Oregorger ranged damage is mitigated by tank absorbs but it hits for a minimum value of around 170k to each ranged and cannot be reduced beyond that.

    I would also like to reiterate that casting shield barrier and sacrificing any shield block time when the boss is going to be actively melee swinging on you will in most cases be counter productive and eventually make you more bursty.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by eddytheone View Post
    I would also like to reiterate that casting shield barrier and sacrificing any shield block time when the boss is going to be actively melee swinging on you will in most cases be counter productive and eventually make you more bursty.
    You're absolutely right about this. 90% of the time Block takes priority over barrier. Barrier should only be used when Block is on CD. And this in itself adds another dynamic to tanking well with a warrior. You have to be able to balance barrier use and save it for the correct times, all while still managing and maximizing your block usage.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Theprophecy2186 View Post
    You're absolutely right about this. 90% of the time Block takes priority over barrier. Barrier should only be used when Block is on CD. And this in itself adds another dynamic to tanking well with a warrior. You have to be able to balance barrier use and save it for the correct times, all while still managing and maximizing your block usage.
    I would personally make one small caveat to that. Leaving Block charging a second charge for a few seconds to use barrier can be good in the event of:

    A.) No\minimal physical damage coming for the next few seconds (long cast time, brief recovery period, tank swap, etc)
    B.) Unblockable damage is incoming

    A good example could be something akin to Flamebender's big aoe thing that I can't remember the name of at the moment. The cast time is pretty long, during which she's not meleeing you,so I would absolutely delay shield block. That said, especially because of the debuff stack that follows, I still make certain to have Block up for when she finishes,and goes back to beating my face in.
    Last edited by Shieldarm; 2015-03-04 at 05:53 PM.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Shieldarm View Post
    A good example could be something akin to Flamebender's big aoe thing that I can't remember the name of at the moment.
    Firestorm. And I agree with the other statements you made. Barrier is perfect to keep up during this ability and then, towards the end of the cast, spend the rage on Block if you're planning on picking her up as she comes out of the channel.

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