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Off-hand frill instead of Shield, thoughts?
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Post by
445230
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
dingbot1
Not a problem now that off hands can be enchanted. You're not likely gonna need the armor of a shield anyway. Upgrade is upgrade.
Post by
Brique
It looks funny, but that's really all there is to say otherwise. If it works, then it's good.
Post by
445230
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Ehlionney
I can think of a very good reason not to: the offhand enchants can be placed on shields as well.
Post by
445230
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
pezz
You lose a LOT of armor with an off hand. How often you'll miss it depends on how often you pull healer aggro.
Post by
Ehlionney
From the point of view of someone who plays a tank and healer of every class/spec, I have to say that healadins really want the armor from the shield, unless the armor stat is taken from the item's stat budgeting (I really have no idea whether it is or not). There are many times when a tank simply will not be able to aggro everything at once; paladins and death knights only have a few taunts on decent CDs, while druids and warriors have AoE taunts that will pull everything off you at once, but only in melee range and on a large CD; when multiple adds come by (read: more than the tank is capable of aggroing at the time) they have a good chance of aggroing on the healer. At this point, a healadin has the advantage of not only base armor that is higher than other healers, but also the benefit of block chance. Shamans have a similar benefit but are more often known to go with OHF or staves, and in playing mine I have noticed I took more damage in those cases than I would have had i been wearing a shield.
Mind you, that will not always be the case, but if you do happen to get a tank that lets adds get to you (and as i pointed out, even the best tanks cannot control ALL aggro instantly when new adds spawn/enter the fray) then the shield will be more use by far, and the less damage you are taking the easier it is for you to focus on healing the party/raid instead of yourself (talented right you could even heal yourself and double dip heals to the tank by healing the other members, and not have to worry about yourself at all if the damage is low enough, but that is a different subject). In the end, damage reduction for healers/casters was a big enough issue that Blizzard even boosted the amount of stamina/armor on the other types of gear in order to make less of a huge gap from cloth to plate, and from healers to tanks.
The only case I would recommend not using one is if you could not in any way have found a shield instead, or if someone later in this thread points out that the armor value of the shield is taken from the stat budget. If nobody else at all wants it, and you are that desperate for an upgrade, I don't see why not use it till you get a shield; but by the time you get to raiding if you havent found a better shield, or bought one from JP (or the crafted epic) then I'd personally have to say something is wrong.
Post by
atomicwolf22
I say have both. Your know in the first few pulls what type of tank you have. Then use whichever has the better stats. For raids I would say to use the one with the better stats.
If i'm tanking the healer is my #1 person to save. I could care less about that dps that just pulled aggro.
Post by
Sweetscot
You always use whatever gets you the best stats, the only thing that has changed is that you don't need to include the possible enchant value to a shield over an off-hand, however one should still be mindful of other group members with more limited wardrobe options. Same imo as it used to be for non-plate spell gear and whether to take it as an upgrade (not an issue any more at max level with armor specs)
Post by
108118
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Post by
445230
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Post by
Flonnette
There are a few off hands that can be useful for healers that aren't shields but then you'd get the EVIL EYE from them when healer shields for Paladins-Shaman drop. Just make sure the loot rules are okay with it before you take it.
Post by
338789
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