What Gladiator benefits the most, the one hand or the shield?

[HotJoint]

Hey guys!

I am a Gladiator warrior and a blacksmitter. I can start crafting my weapons that, with a little hard work for about 2 months, will be nice purples. So i have to decide what to craft and take it to that level: my one hander or my shield (i can't do both since i won't be cappable to obtain that many mats).

What do you guys think?

[sjsctt]

Always weapon upgrade if it is a choice. Shields are stat sticks.

[Warriorsarri]

The shield does nothing to Glad, beside the stats that are on it.

[Trubo]

As already mentioned, the shield is to a Gladiator Warrior as melee weapons were to Hunters pre-MoP.

[HotJoint]

Many thanx! I was confused because of the "Shield Slam" ability

[Deleted]

Is wep dps equally useless for glad as it is for prot ? (Last i checked it only affects devastate and bladestorm)

[HotJoint]

Is wep dps equally useless for glad as it is for prot ? (Last i checked it only affects devastate and bladestorm)

Rlly? Well damn, what i should craft then! weapons or gear?

[Deleted]

I still haven't touched glad, between login queue, world server down, garrision bugging and all the other shit that needs to be done while broken...
I've managed to run exactly 0 dungeons and I haven't even specced glad yet.
Today i've spent 5 hours trying to logging, at this rate i'll quit before i even get a chance to try glad....

So it was a question, not a statement (however prot has never scaled with wep dps, so cant see why glad would.)

[Trubo]

Is wep dps equally useless for glad as it is for prot ? (Last i checked it only affects devastate and bladestorm)

It still contributes more to attack power than just raw strength.

[MasterDinadan]

Shield Slam and Revenge do not scale with weapon damage, but do scale with AP. Shields give armor which is AP for prot warriors, so a shield should contribute more damage to these skills than a weapon.
I'm not sure if it makes up for the fact that weapon damage helps heroic strike, devastate, and white swings.

In any case, off the cuff speculative answers aren't helpful. If you don't have math or sims to back it up, then don't just guess as it. Anyone can guess.

[sjsctt]

Shield Slam and Revenge do not scale with weapon damage, but do scale with AP. Shields give armor which is AP for prot warriors, so a shield should contribute more damage to these skills than a weapon.
I'm not sure if it makes up for the fact that weapon damage helps heroic strike, devastate, and white swings.

In any case, off the cuff speculative answers aren't helpful. If you don't have math or sims to back it up, then don't just guess as it. Anyone can guess.

Simcraft does the math for you. Sim it, look at weapon dps vs the stats and it is super clear cut. Not speculating, but the information is readily available.

[blackblade]

Shield Slam and Revenge do not scale with weapon damage, but do scale with AP. Shields give armor which is AP for prot warriors, so a shield should contribute more damage to these skills than a weapon.
I'm not sure if it makes up for the fact that weapon damage helps heroic strike, devastate, and white swings.

In any case, off the cuff speculative answers aren't helpful. If you don't have math or sims to back it up, then don't just guess as it. Anyone can guess.

I believe only bonus armor applies to AP. shields (and for that matter, weapons) in Warlords do not have bonus armor as a potential secondary stat.

[Murlocbait]

I believe only bonus armor applies to AP. shields (and for that matter, weapons) in Warlords do not have bonus armor as a potential secondary stat.

I was all fired up to argue with you, but then i saw you're right. My Shield of Mockery that i'm still using because i haven't found a better shield yet, has BA on it, but none of the WoD shields do. That's strange since it's the "tank" stat, you'd expect it on shields, but so be it.

Edit: For Glad raiding I'm actually going to make a shield rather than weapon for one simple reason: availability in Highmaul. The second boss drops a Str 1hander, while you have to down the fifth boss before you have a shot at a shield. Odds are, with my guild, I'll have 2-3 loot rolls for a weapon before even one chance at a shield, so it just makes more sense to me to craft that. Of course, actual drops could RNG all over my logic, but just something to consider. Same reason I'll also be crafting shoulders and chest plate ASAP.

[CollisionTD]

For Gladiator, the shield is literally the least important item on your character. It has the same stat budget as a ring, but cannot (in WoD) have bonus armor.

[Vultana]

Aren't the Blacksmithing pieces random secondary stat bonus? What if we don't get BA?

Sell it to a Ret I guess, lol

[Trubo]

Aren't the Blacksmithing pieces random secondary stat bonus? What if we don't get BA?

Sell it to a Ret I guess, lol

Bonus Armor can only be on Neck, Back, Finger, and Trinket slots.

Barring that, you could always use one of the crafted armor re-roll kits.