to shield or not to shield ... few pvp questions

[Naysayer]

not sure if this is a joke topic or not, but if you're serious then lol use a shield.

2hand weapon for elemental? i can only gather that you're either extremely new to WoW, or trollin it up in here.

[shaeman]

He could be using a nice staff for PVE/Instances. He's running with a prot pally so that should be taking the hits most of the time.

[Svpernova09]

weapon skill in PvP is calculated at max for YOUR level. so the misses you see, are RNG. A lot of people say use sheilds, after spending some time in AV on my 3 shaman, i'd have to agree, but remember, you can't block when when you're casting, so your just looking at armor mitigation when you have people on you.

As for getting split up, I just rez the toon I lost, or if I get overrun, I'll take out as many as I can until they've wiped me.

[zenga]

not sure if this is a joke topic or not, but if you're serious then lol use a shield.

2hand weapon for elemental? i can only gather that you're either extremely new to WoW, or trollin it up in here.

Contrary to popular belief, there are still people who are new to WoW

I tried to explain my reasoning in my previous post: due to a pve habit that used to work for me.

- blocking is useless while casting like Svpernova09 said
- most 2H weaps i've used have increase my critical strike a lot whereas the shields i've used mainly have defensive stats (that is from world pve drops)
- a shield gives me roughly 2-2.5k armor; but a stoneskin totem with the devotion aura has approx the same armor increase.
- I tend to use a 2H axe or a 2H staff when I get one, again most staves i've seen increase my spell stats more than the shield does

So actually I was not trolling but just asking how to improve my build And yeah I will use a shield in pvp/harder pve fights in combination with the stoneskin totem and devotion aura (which should give me 4-5k extra armor) from now on. But I 'll stick to my staves in pve until i find a shield that can replace the spell stats.

Thanks all for the info.

[Svpernova09]

Contrary to popular belief, there are still people who are new to WoW

I tried to explain my reasoning in my previous post: due to a pve habit that used to work for me.

- blocking is useless while casting like Svpernova09 said
- most 2H weaps i've used have increase my critical strike a lot whereas the shields i've used mainly have defensive stats (that is from world pve drops)
- a shield gives me roughly 2-2.5k armor; but a stoneskin totem with the devotion aura has approx the same armor increase.
- I tend to use a 2H axe or a 2H staff when I get one, again most staves i've seen increase my spell stats more than the shield does

So actually I was not trolling but just asking how to improve my build And yeah I will use a shield in pvp/harder pve fights in combination with the stoneskin totem and devotion aura (which should give me 4-5k extra armor) from now on. But I 'll stick to my staves in pve until i find a shield that can replace the spell stats.

Thanks all for the info.

The thing to be aware of is that most shields are going to be mp5 (resto) which is pretty reasonable in PvP. especially once you get some gear and start seeing the only time you wipe is when you go oom, or get overrun. The other thing is, there aren't any 2H axes for casters so if you are using a 2h for Crit, you're losing out on a lot of other stats. Staves are nice, but you'll usually far better with mace / dagger + oh for DPS since you'll usually see more crit / sp this way. I'm not saying shields are wrong, I think shields or MH/OH are both fine so long as you're seeing the differences each bring.

[Whowantstoknow]

While levelling just go for the highest spell power 2H or MH/OH combo you can find. As a shaman you will never use a 2H in end game in any spec. You do want to get out of the habit of Meleeing though as increasingly you will hit like a wet noodle and it is not worth it.

At 80:
Advantages of MH/OH combo is more spell power. In PvP you will almost certainly use a shield, in PvE it matters less as the only shield enchant that increases dps is a poor dps boost - if you dont raid the chances are you will end up not using a shield as there are no decent non raid PvE shields for an elemental shaman.

[Naysayer]

Contrary to popular belief, there are still people who are new to WoW

I tried to explain my reasoning in my previous post: due to a pve habit that used to work for me.

- blocking is useless while casting like Svpernova09 said
- most 2H weaps i've used have increase my critical strike a lot whereas the shields i've used mainly have defensive stats (that is from world pve drops)
- a shield gives me roughly 2-2.5k armor; but a stoneskin totem with the devotion aura has approx the same armor increase.
- I tend to use a 2H axe or a 2H staff when I get one, again most staves i've seen increase my spell stats more than the shield does

So actually I was not trolling but just asking how to improve my build And yeah I will use a shield in pvp/harder pve fights in combination with the stoneskin totem and devotion aura (which should give me 4-5k extra armor) from now on. But I 'll stick to my staves in pve until i find a shield that can replace the spell stats.

Thanks all for the info.

-you don't use a shield for the blocking on elemental shaman
-shields have better caster stats than 2hnders, try looking around at some caster shields
-shields at lvl 80 have around 7000 to 8000 armor... annnnnnd you can also use stoneskin/devotion with them too...
-staves suck for melee and are only tolerated by classes that can't use shields.

do you know how much melee damage you mitigate with 8k armor?

[zenga]

-you don't use a shield for the blocking on elemental shaman
-shields have better caster stats than 2hnders, try looking around at some caster shields
-shields at lvl 80 have around 7000 to 8000 armor... annnnnnd you can also use stoneskin/devotion with them too...
-staves suck for melee and are only tolerated by classes that can't use shields.

do you know how much melee damage you mitigate with 8k armor?

I don't argue about that, I only tried to explain *why* I asked that question (as you were thinking I was trolling). And that was mainly based on stuff I had seen on my level. There are so many armor pieces that it's overwhelming for a beginning player to draw the right conclusion. Not to mention that there are quite a bunch of opposing opinions out there from seasoned players when googling.

Anyway, so I got me a shield for each shaman and a 1H weapon. And made sure I had the AC buffs on. Did 4 more AV's with it. Died 1-2 times max per run. My total damage done increased a lot. So definitely a win.

I kept the shield on for questing as well. Feels like I killer slower, but thats just a temporary thing. While I'll stop using the melee tactic on my shamans, I decided to just use the stuff that max out my dps stats wise. Depending on what is available at my respective level.

Conclusion: I was in doubt, asked what to do, followed the advice and made my toons better. No trolling, just using the forum.

Thanks again

[Naysayer]

You're close enough to starting northrend quests that reward a lot of good spellcasting one-handers and a few shields, you'll see a jump in all item spell damage and armor on shields.

For pvp you want to follow a simple guide for choosing gear. Most level 70-79 leveling pvp elemental shaman prioritize stats like this.

spellpower>stamina>intellect>crit>everything else


Most level 70-79 leveling pve elemental shaman prioritize stats like this.

spellpower>intellect>crit>hit>everything else


Since you're new, I'll point you towards www.wowhead.com which is pretty much the library for all things wow. This way you can look for and find out how to get items you want making it a little less overwhelming.

[Iceorbz]

You're close enough to starting northrend quests that reward a lot of good spellcasting one-handers and a few shields, you'll see a jump in all item spell damage and armor on shields.

For pvp you want to follow a simple guide for choosing gear. Most level 70-79 leveling pvp elemental shaman prioritize stats like this.

spellpower>stamina>intellect>crit>everything else


Most level 70-79 leveling pve elemental shaman prioritize stats like this.

spellpower>intellect>crit>hit>everything else


Since you're new, I'll point you towards www.wowhead.com which is pretty much the library for all things wow. This way you can look for and find out how to get items you want making it a little less overwhelming.

I still go for hit leveling up, so I can hit those npc's higher then me lol. I never prioritize crit especially with 4 shaman. It dies in one hit normally anyways =p.