Shield Block vs Shield Barrier (a beginner prot warrior)

[Alexanderjac]

I need some help with this. I've played Gladiator and gotten the hang of the rotation, but the only part that confuses me is deciding when to use Shield Barrier or Shield Block.

From what my guildies have told me, I should be using all my rage on Shield Barrier, and only using Shield Block on specific boss abilities. Is that advice any good? If so, what would the specific boss abilities I should be using Shield Block on be?

[Vathius]

I use shield block on heaps of melee adds as it blocks every attack with a % of every attack blocked which would otherwise get chewed up pretty quickly on barrier. And generally on melee mobs. Barrier for magic attacks/ranged and spamming when off tanking.

I could be wrong thats just the general consensus ive discovered.

[GodlyBob]

If you're being hit by things that can be blocked, use shield block. Use barrier to burn off excess rage, in preparation for taking ability damage, or as your primary mitigation if there is absolutely no physical damage being put out.

[Novaflare]

Barrier is bad enough that I would even argue that burning rage with heroic strike is probably better, just so you have more control over how much rage you burn off(and thus ensure you have 60 for your next block no matter what). Obviously if you need barrier to curb your damage intake, use it. But just mindlessly using it to burn off rage because of it's defensive nature? I dunno.

[Heladys]

Don't listen to your guildies.

Shield block for anything blockable, physical damage which is a lot.

Barrier for predictable magic hits and boss abilities which are not physical.

Know your fights to understand which is which.

[Deleted]

As a pve tank, shield block is your bread and butter. Most bosses do physical damage that is blockable, also it's invaluable against packs of trash. You should only use shield barrier against bosses that do magic damage and/or trash with ranged attacks, basically against stuff you can't block.

In pvp, you can remove shield block from your bars as it's too damn expensive and most of the damage you take will be dots and spells. You want to spam shield barrier as it will also work with anger management to reduce the cds of your stuff.

[Deleted]

Your guildies are wrong, you need to have sheild block up any time youre taking blockable damage. Shield barrier should be used whenever you take damage that can't be blocked. SBarr is also very, very weak, and really isnt something you should be blowing all your rage on.

[Beelzebull]

Gladiators do not have Shield Block :P

[Icebear]

Gladiators do not have Shield Block :P

Don't be silly now :b

OT:
I haven't found Shield Barrier worth using at any point unless you're at 100%+ Vengeance (or whatever it's called now) and the rest goes for Shield Block because yeah, it blocks any physical attack

[Beelzebull]

He he sorry could not resist.

[RuneeBH]

I rarely use barrier unless I really need it and am in a bad spot. Most times I'll heroic strike since Barrier is just so terrible anyway, especially if you're offtanking with no resolve, it isn't worth the rage for such a small absorb. You'll save your healers more mana by killing the boss faster with heroic strike than putting up a 20k absorb.

[Heladys]

I really have to think you misheard or jumbled what your guildies said, because that advice is so ass-backwards.

Either that or they heard it in turn from a friend and jumbled it. No actual warrior tank would tell you that.

[Deleted]

Not unless they were outright trolling you anyway.

[Deleted]

Shield Barrier is almost useless, however you can use it for certain things. But the best solution would be to call for a cooldown instead.

Shield Block has two charges so use it whenever you have 1 charge and <5 seconds left on the second, that way you will have maximum uptime. But if there's something incoming that does loads of physical damage you might want to use that block right away or use a CD.

But generally Shield Block >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Shield Barrier

[EricN]

Maximize Block uptime. Try to only use Barrier are certain things like flechettes (tectus), Breath (bracken, or if you are CAPPING rage with endless rage glyph. TBH, it's almost not worth the global unless you will die next swing. You can pretty much gib yourself, getting yourself behind and more behind having to use rage for barrier and not having an overarching block uptime to carry you through damage.

[Tehpounderer]

Maximize Block uptime. Try to only use Barrier are certain things like flechettes (tectus), Breath (bracken, or if you are CAPPING rage with endless rage glyph. TBH, it's almost not worth the global unless you will die next swing. You can pretty much gib yourself, getting yourself behind and more behind having to use rage for barrier and not having an overarching block uptime to carry you through damage.

What EricN said. Just pointing out though that Block and Barrier are off the GCD. I'm sure he knew that, but I just didn't want there to be any confusion.