My Shields: A Tribute, Part One

For a tank, no item we have stands out more than our shield. It's what protects us from the enemies around us and strikes those around us immediately with its design. It's both our most important piece of armor and our strongest fashion statement. So, like most paladins, I have had a number of good friends, and it is time I gave a tribute to all of those shields that have served me so well over the two years I have been a protection paladin. I will start with level 70, since I levelled so quickly I honestly don't remember those that came before. However, one levelling shield will get a special mention.

Petrified Lichen Guard - The minute I reached level 62, I went out to Zangarmarsh and did as many Sporeggar quests as I could for this beautiful little item. I then spend about 500g (a fortune at the time) on getting a Felsteel Shield Spike made for it by the only person I knew of who could make one at the time, my guildmistress. Although I outgrew it very quickly for maintanking, the "PLG" served me well right up until the day that Wrath came out when farming. Its reactive proc made it simply the best farming shield, well, ever.


Shield of the Wayward Footman - For those who know my old guide, this shield was always a cornerstone. I picked one up as soon as I could because it helped give a paladin something that was such a challenge to us, but came with such ease to warriors: uncrushability. Back in the good old days, when the game was hard, unless a paladin was able to reach 102.4% avoidance+block, we could be crushed, even by the first boss in Karazhan. Since getting there was nearly impossible without Kara gear, we were stuck, except for one saving grace: block rating. This shield had loads of it, and served me very well for my first couple of months in Karazhan and, if it didn't exist, I'm honestly not sure that I would ever have been able to tank the place.


Crest of the Sha'tar - I spent weeks farming heroic Mechanar for this horrid but awesome little shield. Of course, the Footman shield was better for reaching uncrushable, but let's face it, its armor stank. Through my weeks of farming Mechanar, I managed finally to get myself my first ever epic shield. It was terribly ugly and honestly, I hated the grind so much that I ended up actually kind of hating the shield as well. However, it was epic, and the difference was night and day. All of a sudden, I was tough. Of course, I could have bought the Shield of Coldarra, which was largely the same, but this was before badges dropped in Karazhan, so getting a rep shield let me spend my badges on other tank gear.

Aldori Legacy Defender - The Holy Grail of T4 tanking content, I won this shield over two other tanks on a roll in Gruul's lair. To give you a sense of how stupidly awesome this shield was, it had 500 more armor than the Shield of Impenetrable Darkness that dropped in Karazhan, the Bulwark of the Amani Empire didn't exist yet, and there were no tanking shields that dropped in t5 content. It was also a 10% drop from Gruul, an annoying cave that required putting together a 25-man raid for only two bosses. This was back when the designers had decided that shields should be a prestige item and this shield was definitely prestigious. It also looked frickin' awesome. This shield will never be forgotten.

Bulwark of the Amani Empire - When Zul'Aman finally came out, lots of people wanted the bears. "Lots of people" included everyone but the tanks, who didn't want the bears, but wanted the finally created, reasonably-accessible, t5-level Bulwark of the Amani Empire. As I already had the ALD, I wasn't as excited as most people, but it didn't stop me from wanting one of these babies, especially for my increasingly well-developed block set. Our guild's main warrior tanks used this shield all the way through t6 content, largely because Kaz'rogal hated them. In most fights, it was a slight upgrade over the ALD, though I still used the ALD whenever I was tanking anything that hit really hard, since it was a better avoidance shield. So, when it finally dropped, I happily grabbed it up. Plus, of course, for us blood elfs, the green feather set was impossible to beat. What's the green feather set? Glad you asked:











Stay tuned for part two, where my next four shields receive their due praise, and I provide a disappointed editorial on the unfortunate shield situation in Ulduar.