As the title asks: how important is a good shield to protection warrior tanking? I have not done any tanking this expansion and really never seriously warrior tanked in the past. I want to tank going forward this season and all I have picked up is a 213 raid finder with all be it the correct stats, it’s low ilvl.
I know as a dps even a weapon upgrade of a few ilvl shows on the meters. Is the same true for shields? I have been running mythics aiming for shields and collected several vaults as prot to no luck. Should I be concerned about moving into the new season tanking with a low ilvl shield or is it not such a big deal?
Pretty significant.
As a Protection Warrior, blocking (and critical blocking) is their specialty (being the only class that has the ability Shield Block, which allows you to block all blockable melee swings/abilities).
So your shield is something that gets used defensively a lot.
Better shield = better damage reduction off of blocking (as well as any other benefits from better stats, etc, etc.)
In short, a better shield will benefit you defensively (as well as offensively via stats).
I mean…you can buy a white lvl 40 shield from a vender and still be fine if the rest of your gear rocks and you aren’t trying to do anything cutting edge. But shields have so much armor on them, that is what sets them apart as an item. A shield might have 600-700 armor where a helm would have closer to 200. Also, the amount of armor a shield gains in Ilvl is big, so good shields have way more armor then average shields.
Collect 500 anima and buy a 226 from the zm gear vendor. Easy 13 ilvl upgrade for ya.
Don’t forget about block rating, especially as a warrior. Not an overly big deal, but useful.
Very true, especially for starting out.