Deciding on the Best of Today’s Shields
Well no need to dilly-dally, let’s jump right into it shall we.
Today’s Top 3
(in no particular order)
Round 1: The Hero against the Wall
| Wall of Terror | Hero’s Surrender |
| 7 Strength 168 Armor 5 Block Value 13 Defense Rating 31 Block Rating |
21 Stamina 6 Dodge Rating 30 Parry Rating |
The Wall of Terror sports a dizzying array of stats differing from Hero’s Surrender, but is it better? Hero’s Surrender certainly has an edge in the Effective Health department featuring 21 more Stamina to Wall of Terror’s 168 Armor. Hero’s Surrender also has 0.44% more Avoidance than Wall of Terror. What’s left is, of course, a health helping of Block Rating with Wall of Terror boasting ~2% more and a slight threat advantage as well with 7 additional Strength and 5 extra Block Value.
Verdict
Bosses: Hero’s Surrender
Trash/5mans/Loatheb: Wall of Terror
Round 2: The Terrifying Eternal Struggle
| Wall of Terror | Barricade of Eternity |
| 20 Strength 168 Armor 5 Block Value 1 Defense Rating 24 Dodge Rating 31 Block Rating |
21 Stamina 32 Parry Rating 28 Expertise Rating |
Well at a quick glance, Wall of Terror has the edge again, but as we know from last Round… once we break it down the results often differ. Wall of Terror loses badly again Effective Health wise by a score of 21 Stamina to 168 Armor. They have virtually identical Avoidance amounts with a slight edge going to the Barricade. Wall of Terror once again wins the Blocking game with roughly a 1.9% Block chance advantage. Finally, threat wise the Barricade steals the show with 28 Expertise besting 20 Strength and 5 Block Value.
Verdict
Bosses: Barricade of Eternity
Trash/5mans/Loatheb: Wall of Terror
Round 3: Surrendering to the Barricade
| Hero’s Surrender | Barricade of Eternity |
| 13 Strength 30 Dodge Rating |
12 Defense Rating 2 Parry Rating 28 Expertise Rating |
Our final comparison of this round robin is a lot closer than the last 2. Hero’s Surrender has a definite Avoidance advantage of 0.43%. Barricade of Eternity has a definite Threat advantage with 28 Expertise Rating being far superior to 13 Strength. If we were getting really nit-picky, we could even factor in the Barricade’s minor victories in superior chance to Block (thanks to extra Defense) and the small survival edge the Expertise offers in way of less Parries.
Verdict
Threat: Barricade of Eternity
Survival: Hero’s Surrender
Round 4: Appearances
You’re tanks. Not models. Who cares.
Final Round: Wrap Up
As you might have already guessed, all 3 Shields have a place. They all have a role. Of course, I know that’s not why you read this far, you want to know if I’m only going to spend my DKP on 1 shield this winter, what shield should it be? And, if that 1 shield just won’t dropped which one’s 2nd place? Well fine, here goes:
- Barricade of Eternity
- Hero’s Surrender
- Wall of Terror
Which perhaps isn’t any great surprise to those of you that made it to the final round, but to those who skipped to bottom and don’t agree… it’s time to scroll up and take a 2nd glance. 
February 8th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Threat - Barricade
General Boss shield - Surrender
Block / Trash - Wall of terror
Having all 3 really helps due to the diverse situations we find in boss fights.
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marklar reply on February 9, 2009 12:45 pm:
wouldn’t the skull of ruin be superior for a block set? making it harder for wall of terror to find a home at all…
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Desmurick reply on February 9, 2009 2:53 pm:
I’m inclined to agree with that. I’ve been doing 25s too much lately to see the skull of ruin but if and when i pick it up, i plan on using that for my trash set. SBV for the win on threat and damage for trash. Maybe this isn’t the best place for this question, but I need to know so i can figure out if Barricade is worth using on trash mobs..
Whats the soft and hard cap for expertise on trash? I’ve reached it with bosses in my threat set so I know I can reach it for trash without using barricade. Just need to know what the numbers are so i can plan out skull of ruin use…
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Veneretio reply on February 9, 2009 11:37 pm:
http://www.wowhead.com/?compare=40400;39276
For the sake of space, check out the comparison on Wowhead above. You’re giving up a lot of stats just to gain an additional 28 Block Value and a bit of Stamina. Not worth it for a Block set. A block set is about more than just Blocking a lot. It’s about not getting hit as well.
Wall of Terror is the superior choice.
Ivanstone reply on February 10, 2009 7:58 am:
I thought a block set was for running around Wintergrasp and 1-shotting clothies with Tenacity fueled shield slams?
Wukki reply on February 14, 2009 8:08 pm:
Nah, Block set for loatheb is just fun. Afk, making rice while tanking a boss ftw.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Reading the thread I’m sure sparked this, it’s good that you broke it down to nuts and bolts to make things simpler for people newer to the job.
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February 9th, 2009 at 3:38 am
I don’t care what you say Vene, Wall of Terror any day for looks!
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tPaste reply on February 9, 2009 7:17 am:
My vote is Hero’s Surrender for looks by a wide margin.
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February 9th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Nice breakdown…
As with all matters it will come to a wise decision about what is available (through drops, DKP etc.) and what you wish to do with it..
As I have not yet done much LK-Raiding content I would be happy with any of the shield atm. ^_^
And about the looks and models…
I agree with you, but you have to agree that The Wall of Terror really looks awesome! ^_^
~Baruti.
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February 9th, 2009 at 6:25 am
You can have some expertise with your gemming. But there is no gem with block value.
So i think wall of terror is better than barricade of eternity (for threat) especially with metagem 5% block value / 21 defense.
If you want more avoidance, choose hero’s surrender.
There is no best shield but differents stuff orientation that you must respect
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Veneretio reply on February 9, 2009 11:53 am:
You can gem for Strength which adds Block Value.
That being said, your logic that you can gem for Expertise doesn’t work b/c the Expertise cap is so high that currently we can never have too much. The Barricade is far, far superior to Wall of Terror for threat. It’s not even close no matter what meta you use.
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Markior reply on February 10, 2009 4:06 am:
I think for the moment that expertise is good until dodge cap. When i use The Barricade, expertise i gain is “lost” because i have oriented my stuff with block value and block rating.
You can look my stuff if you want. Maybe you will better understand :
Name : Markior
Server : Hyjal - EU
However i understand that stuff with lower block value / rating and more expertise is as much effective.
This is two different style of playing but the wrong way is to mix these styles.
PS : Sorry for my english if there is mistakes, i’m French
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February 9th, 2009 at 6:26 am
I’ve got a HS and a BoE - While WoT is certainly nice looking, I doubt I’ll get one anytime soon (not to mention that we have never, ever, had a single one drop).
(And I’ll admit, I have a set of gear which itemrack knows as “Looks”, which I wear around Dalaran - T7.5 Shoulders and Hero’s Surrender just look hawt together)
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February 9th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I’ll admit I am a big fan of the Hero’s Surrender for when I need Avoidance, it’s on my “Best in Slot” list for that set.
I would love to get a Barricade of Eternity for my Threat set, but the damn thing never drops. Kinda like the damned Seal of the Pantheon.
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February 9th, 2009 at 8:03 am
A guildie and I were just talking about these 3 shields yesterday and came to the same conclusions. I have the Hero’s Surrender so I don’t think I’ll bother with the Wall of Terror if it drops. But I can’t pass up all the expertise on the Barricade of Eternity if that shield becomes available to me /drool .
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February 9th, 2009 at 11:11 am
lets be honest, with current content being childsplay any purple shield in that slot is more than sufficant. I have Heros myself at the moment and i wouldnt even think about replacing it even if one of the other 2 were better simply because its not needed. And soon as new content comes live im sure a new shiney one will drop in my lap with better stats than all 3 of the above.
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Tarsus reply on February 9, 2009 12:10 pm:
I agree to a certain extent (in that any of the above are sufficient for current content), but the RNG is no tank’s friend forever. I am sure we have all had that one piece of gear that just would not drop. All other tanks being sufficiently equipped, I know I would rather roll on the Barricade for a threat set rather than seeing it sharded.
To paraphrase and old saying, “A shield in hand is worth two in Ulduar.”
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February 9th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
One thing to take away is that while there are advantages to each shield for different kinds of content, if you’ve got one, the other two aren’t going to make a wild difference, so make sure you’re spreading the loot around if you’ve got some under geared guild mates!
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February 9th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I jumped on the Wall of Terror when it dropped on our second Kel kill, and replaced my Discarded Plate Panel. It was a bit of a loss to stamina and hit rating, with only .02 (really) extra avoidance. After reading this I’m almost ready to switch back and get the hit rating and stamina. Pretty sad shield for something off of the final boss in 25 man naxx. Patchwerk and him should totally switch shields.
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February 9th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
lol I
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tPaste reply on February 10, 2009 8:54 am:
I couldn’t agree more.
lol you, indeed.
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February 10th, 2009 at 7:55 am
One thing statwise that you have to keep in mind is the rest of your gear. Currently, I’m parry rating heavy. This isn’t by my own design but that’s the gear I ended up with. Quite a number of very good tanking pieces have parry instead of dodge, particularily those with expertise rating. The Wall of Terror is fairly well-rounded even if its itemization is a bit odd. I recently picked up the Barricade so I may change things up anyways. The parry is becoming very hard to shed.
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Tarsus reply on February 10, 2009 10:15 am:
This reminds me of something that Ghostcrawler posted a while back. The MMO Champion blue tracker on the thread is here:
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/14132373550-haste-and-me.html
I’m thinking particularly this line:
“2) We aren’t offering the best itemized gear now because we want to have something left for you to work up to. We don’t want the next tier of gear to look exactly like this one, but with +2 more of each stat.”
I interpret this to mean, the developers understand what constitutes optimal itemization and work towards that over time. It was a fascinating insight (at least to me), but on a more personal level if it feels like you have too much parry now, you can probably expect that to become less of an issue as you acquire gear from Ulduar, etc. That is, if Ghostcrawler wasn’t just talking out of his butt.
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February 10th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I’m still gonna use the wall of terror. On a normal basis, I’ve never felt the need to stack avoidance, in gems or gear. I don’t even use the defense or dodge trinkets anymore because I’d rather take the 2,500 health than 2.5% avoidance. This isn’t because I hold any misconceptions about what is going to make me take less total damage over the course of a fight, but after about 52% avoidance plus my block%, I’ve become rage starved on many fights if I stack too much avoidance.
My philosophy towards gearing up has changed since they homogenized gear ilvl. Right now I hold the belief that Gear w/ ilvl 226 should be what you gear around since you’ll get the most total stats if you use more 226 items rather than use all 213. The Wall of Terror doesn’t have the most attractive types of stats on it, but it does have more stats of, albeit, lesser use but still useful stats(block value, str, block rating).
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BluTrigger reply on February 11, 2009 12:24 pm:
That’s an interesting way to look at it.. with as much customization a tank can do with his or her gear right now this makes sense to me. Granted 213 –> 226 on 1 item doesn’t make or break a tank, but its an interesting way to look at gearing.
Take 2 items: 1 of higher ilevel with less attractive itemization (but still useful stats… i.e. Wall of Terror lol) the other a lower ilevel with better itemization (lets say the EoE10 shield). The wall of terror nets you more stats total even though its a drop in stam and exprt means that you have more flexibility to add in some expr+stam gems in your gear without worrying about losing some block and dodge (in a greater margin that you would be losing the expr and stam). Another thing to keep in mind is that there are no BR gems… =\ Granted with as much of it on the gear nowadays I don’t see myself gemming for it, but you see what I’m getting at.
I’ve kind of taken this approach with enchants as well: take the highest ilevel enchant so that I have more flexibility with gear choice and gems.
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Veneretio reply on February 11, 2009 12:51 pm:
The idea of going for best ilevel actually doesn’t make as much sense as you’d think. The reason is that all stats are not created equal for us, but they are equal (for the most part) ilvl-wise.
To give you an example:
1 block rating = 1 expertise = 1 hit
But you’d certainly say that:
1 expertise > 1 hit > 1 block rating
Also, ilvl-wise:
1.5 stamina = 1 expertise = 1 dodge = 1 parry = 1 defense
So, if you’re going by ilvl then you’re actually devaluing high Stamina pieces. Part of the reason that Wall of Terror is such a poor 226 item is that it’s wasting ilvl in low stamina and high block rating.
Furthermore, you can gem for Block Rating, you can do it by stacking Defense.
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Jumbobut reply on February 11, 2009 11:24 pm:
The loss of stam and expertise on the Hero’s Surrender is irrelevent to me. First off because I’m a JC and have the monarch crab and 41 stam prismatic gems. secondly because all my red sockets are expertise/stam gems.
I could switch back and forth and still hold the same amount of stam and expertise except w/ the Wall of Terror I get that extra stuff
February 11th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
What about diminishing returns and why wasn’t that factored into the assessment? We know that parry is affected much more heavily by DR and that the marginal benefit of stacking more parry once you’ve hit 540 defense is much lower than if you went another direction.
That really hurts Hero’s Surrender and Barricade of Eternity since so much of their avoidance is going to be hit hard by DR. Until we know the T8 encounters we don’t know if the extra +stam is worth the tradeoff. It might be but we don’t know. EH is a great tool and I agree with it in principle but I think we can be more nuanced when selecting a single piece of gear for a specific encounter.
It should be possible to assume certain things about gear (540 defense, some reasonable amount of dodge/parry/block rating) and then assess if the overall package is worth it.
I mix’n'match my gear set based on the encounter but I typically don’t think of Barricade as “boss” worthy with two exceptions (3D Sarth and Malygos)
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Jumbobut reply on February 12, 2009 11:11 am:
If you use the avoidance macro that determines your avoidance after DR, then the choice of which gives YOU more avoidance becomes really clear. Assuming that you have both shields anyway. Otherwise the math is a little annoying.
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Trix reply on February 12, 2009 11:48 am:
Math is never annoying. It is always pleasurable and rewarding. I’ve just been busy with other math.
Vene’s original post is for an audience that is clearing 25man T7 content so I think he can assume certain things about gear and factor those baseline assumptions into the comparisons.
That doesn’t prevent the individual from calculating the actual value of each when combined with their particular gear sets.
Unfortunately, a lot of people just read the guides, EJ, etc. to get the “easy” answer without validating that the guide applies to them.
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February 16th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I just got hero’s surrender about 1 hour ago and it is a great survival shield but does little for shield block/slam other than a nice bit of STR over my other two shields (Royal crest and disgarded panel) but I will use it once I get an ench, more than likely looking at shield block or perhaps the extra stam. Now I need to choose what to use in PvP until I can get the skull of ruin…
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February 17th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
currently Barricade of Eternity is better than other 2
too much avoid = means you dont get hit = no rage
sure the avoid on Wall of Terror & Heroe’s Surrender are nice
but if you got these items (warrior wise)
valorous shoulders + chest + legs + gloves
and Kyzoc’s ground stompers
and Helm of vital protecton or Thane’s tained great helm
and Sand worn band
and Last laugh
and Signet of impregnable fortress
and Armor plated shotgun
and the heroic 25man necklace from Malygos quest Nexus war champion beads
and Bracers of the unholy knight
and Platinum mesh cloak
and Waistguard of living iron or Fleshless girdle
as you can see , with these items you will get a lot of avoid
but low rage from hits
you will need the extra expertise from Barricade of Eternity
sure a lot of avoid is great but if you get no rage , then you cant make much agro , so the dps wont be able to max their dps on a boss
but if you got fair amount of expertise & decent avoid , then you will have 0 problems with agro & dps will be high & the fight wont last too long
so :
Barricade of Eternity wins by far
besides
Malygos 25man is far harder than Keltuzad 25man
you need key from Saphiron 25man
item from Eye of Eternity has superior item level
P.S : dont choose on looks
choose on what is best on stats
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Markior reply on February 18, 2009 2:04 am:
that’s right for this stuff, but there is another items which are differently oriented … block / block value… don’t forget that you gain rage when you block
After 50% avoidance you have to make a choice on your stuff : making more aggro / more mitigation / more avoidance
each shield is better on one of these category but here is no one how is better on all of these
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Durabull reply on March 16, 2009 4:40 am:
While i do agree about getting rage starved etc from using all the items you listed, i would say that the best route is to drop t7.5 pants for the Legplates of Sovereignty from Maly 25 since they have only 4 less stam than t7.5 (assuming you use 24 stam gems for your t7.5 patns) more armor, a huge amount of def and parry, and that whopping +66 expertise rating.
Instead of going for a “max avoidance” for boss set, i try to find a good balance of threat + hp + avoidance. More than ~55% avoidance becomes counter productive because you won’t get hit enough to guild sufficient rage for threat. I DO have a “max avoidance” “max hp” “max BV/unhittable” “max threat” set all set up, but for my standard “boss” tank set, its a mix of avoidance/threat/hp that makes sure that my dps is never threat capped (and when you have mages pushing 6k threat, that can be rough, wtb vigilance on more than one target) and that i am easy to heal.
One misconception about tanking that i think alot of tanks think is that you should go for being invincible. Instead, try to focus on taking small, consistent amounts of damage that you can easily be healed through. Remember, your threat DEPENDS on you taking damage.
Now once we see fights where tanks can get 2 shot again, then you can start worrying more about going for insane stam and avoidance. (Remember that Azgalor guy in Hyjal that hit a t6 geared tank for 9-10k per hit, when the best geared tanks only had 20-22k hp raid buffed? Yeah.)
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February 18th, 2009 at 6:50 am
I think that the Wall of Terror is fairly poor in terms of stat distribution, and makes it the ugly puppy of the litter.
Now, I’ve gone and suggested on the official forums that the stamina on this shield be raised to 94: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=8053487735
I think if this was done, the Wall of Terror would find it’s niche for effective health. As it is, it loses out on threat to the Barricade, on avoidance to the Surrender, and it loses to both in the effective health stakes. I would even say that the Skull Of Ruin would be the better option for trash/5-mans over the Wall of Terror.
With 94 stamina, at least then the Wall would have a niche to fill.
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February 19th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I just obtained my Wall of Terror this week and I simply can not say enough about the beauty of stacking Block Rating in trash/5man and certain other situations. Effective Health is a great stat to have, however what alot of people do not factor in when determining effective health is Block. Yes, it is part of a decent effective health calculation. Is it a primary concern over Armor/Health? No. Yet, it is a huge deal during an encounter. Going from an Avoidance EH setup with a 20-23% Block to a SB setup with a 30%+ Block has a huge impact on the incoming damage you have to deal with.
I’d also like to point out that this comparison is being done in a vacuum. It all depends on your other gear choices and enchants. With the added defense on the Wall of Terror, I do not need the Defense to Shield enchant to stay defense capped and can drop a Stam to shield chant on making the effective health difference between Hero and Wall negligible. If you are already defense capped from othe gear and can afford stam to shield on both, then you are seeing a large difference. The vacuum of the comparison is going to be lost on a lot of people though.
For me personally, I am planning on using my new wall for Trash/5mans/etc and my Hero’s for most other things. I will point out though, that threat is a minor issue still, save for tanking drakes in 3d. So for me, the advantages that Barricade bring over either shield or so minor (having already pushed off dodge and only dealing with parry) that I would not use this shield over either of the other two if I had it.
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Veneretio reply on February 20, 2009 12:13 am:
Block Rating has nothing to do with Effective Health. Effective Health is about being able to survive the worst case scenario. So, until you’re guaranteed to Block every attack… the worst case scenario is taking a standard hit. And even after you’re geared enough to always block, it’s Block Value not Block Rating that’ll be factored into Effective Health.
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Karl Hungus reply on February 20, 2009 7:51 am:
I’d probably say that the Skull of Ruin would be better for heroics/trash: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39276
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April 2nd, 2009 at 6:54 am
Well, looks like Wall of Terror (among with Flessless Girdle and Inexorable Sabbatons) are getting sta-buffed. WoT will sport 93 sta coming 3.1 so yeah, I think this settles the whole which shield is better debate.
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Veneretio reply on April 2, 2009 7:17 am:
I think you can say it’s better than Hero’s Surrender, but it still loses out to Barricade of Eternity in the threat department. Certainly, you’ll be using Wall of Terror a whole lot more frequently than before.
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June 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I finally got one of these shields - The Wall of Terror. 4 months of Naxx runs and we’ve never seen Hero’s Surrender. Malygos isn’t being kind either. So naturally, the Wall of Terror is a big upgrade over the Titansteel Shield Wall and will be worn pretty much all the time. The loss of 18 defense rating made me put the defense enchantment on WoT, but I’m wondering if perhaps there is a better way to enchant/gem for the 18 points so I can put the titanium plating on it.
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Hydrix reply on June 11, 2009 3:08 pm:
Block rating and block value are both terrible. There’s no point to this enchant.
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