Sacred Shield?

[Kikaroo]

Dusted off my pally recently and got her to 80; not new to tanking but newish to Wrath tanking. Been running some heroics since hitting 80 to start gearing her up a bit and a friend mentioned Sacred Shield while were discussing Divine Sacrifice / Divine Guardian. I had apparently spaced even picking up SS (had it, not on my bars though and it didn't sound familiar at first XD).

His comment was it should be up all the time, yet none of the tanking forums I've read up to this point have really mentioned it in any sort of rotation. So I got curious about it.

Is it worth trying to weave SS into my rotation? Or is the mana cost / GCD too much to bother? I'm mostly looking at doing heroics and MAYBE a 10 man here and there down the road, so having a holy pally around to do it for me is unlikely. I've not had trouble being healed either, but since it came up I had to ask.

[vonrychte]

It's a good steady bit of damage absorption so worth keeping up. You might just try to fit in as an occasional 5th item on your 9696_ rotation. Personally I like the talent for the double up time so that I dont have to think of it so much. Or more specifically, I would forget more often it if I didnt have the buffer lol.

[Grehn|Skipjack]

I used to use SS in heroics when I was still in blues, and I'll toss it up if there's a predictable increase in incoming damage. I've also used it to reduce damage taken by my "offtanks". That is, overzealous dps.

[Spectrum]

If you're not threat capping your DPS, why not? It works in well in the third "9" slot in the 96969 rotation. There's also no good reason not to toss it up before a pull. I'm pretty sure it stacks with other paladins, so it's not like you're going to be hurting your Healadin by casting it on yourself.

[Grehn|Skipjack]

If you're not threat capping your DPS, why not? It works in well in the third "9" slot in the 96969 rotation. There's also no good reason not to toss it up before a pull. I'm pretty sure it stacks with other paladins, so it's not like you're going to be hurting your Healadin by casting it on yourself.

I believe it stopped stacking last patch.

[Candiru]

You should always have it up on *someone* really. Either yourself, or your paladin healer if they have theirs on you.

Absorbs quite a lot, and makes FoL give a HOT.

[Kalakaua]

For the record, sacred shield used to stack with other paladins, but not anymore.

First of all, there's no reason not to put up sacred shield before the pull. If dps is close to pulling aggro, I will not recast sacred shield and keep going with my normal rotation. However, I'll prioritize keeping it up in any situation where threat is not a big problem, but survivability is since it blocks a decent amount of damage. Otherwise, use it whenever you want to make the healer's job easier and impress them with how little damage you're taking.

[Snake-Aes]

Long story short: It's good, it's worth it, and we all should love it. No threat problems? do your healer a favor and use it. Already have one/not taking much damage? use it on someone that will need it.

[Kikaroo]

Alright, thanks for all the responses! I'll start working it in as I can.

[Angelus]

Sorry to bump a semi-dead thread, but this seemed somewhat relevant and better than making a whole new post.

I've took a break from the game for a few months and am now back. Last time I actively looked into the subject, the shields wouldn't stack, but they would go off one after another. Is this what you mean by they don't stack?

Or is it now no longer worth casting on ourselves if we have a holy paladin casting it on us?

[Argali]

Sorry to bump a semi-dead thread, but this seemed somewhat relevant and better than making a whole new post.

I've took a break from the game for a few months and am now back. Last time I actively looked into the subject, the shields wouldn't stack, but they would go off one after another. Is this what you mean by they don't stack?

Or is it now no longer worth casting on ourselves if we have a holy paladin casting it on us?

Each player can now only have 1 sacred shield on them. I do believe that the better SS will overwrite the crappier SS (but I'm not sure, will go check).

[Argali]

Nope, just tested it. I got naked and got a holy paladin to cast SS on me. My SS then overwrote his.

I also tested what happens if you have Divine Guardian. Nothing changed.

So, the latest SS cast will overwrite whatever previous SS was on the target.

[rathe]

That tends to be my experience while raiding as well, casting SS will replace another SS.

SO basically if you have a holy pally in your party/raid you won't want to be casting SS. And I used to use it all the time, but I'd suggest not getting used to using it...if I remember correctly in patch 3.3 it will only be appealing for a holy pally to use.

Edit: to clarify my opinion, casting it right now, sure as long as you're ahead on threat. In 3.3, probably not worth it to break the rotation.

[Snake-Aes]

That tends to be my experience while raiding as well, casting SS will replace another SS.

SO basically if you have a holy pally in your party/raid you won't want to be casting SS. And I used to use it all the time, but I'd suggest not getting used to using it...if I remember correctly in patch 3.3 it will only be appealing for a holy pally to use.

Edit: to clarify my opinion, casting it right now, sure as long as you're ahead on threat. In 3.3, probably not worth it to break the rotation.

I believe they put the proc cd back at 6 seconds and instead "Holyfied" the crit/HoT properties.

[Alixander]

I believe they put the proc cd back at 6 seconds and instead "Holyfied" the crit/HoT properties.

This is correct. They are going to have one of the Holy talents double-dip and give one of the previous core aspects of SS to just Holy Paladins (don't remember which aspect, but I think it was just half of it... probably the crit, since the primary issue was Ret Paladins and they have Sheath of Light.