Why is Wall of the Dead > Gizmo's Hypertech Buckler?

[Kaanaa]

Hey folks,



I see a lot of Elemental Shamans, Resto Shamans and Holy Paladin builds using Wall of the Dead instead of Gizmo's Hypertech Buckler and couldn't make much sense of it. What am I missing?



From a stat standpoint, Gizmo's seems clearly superior:



Gizmo's Hypertech Buckler with +18 Stam enchant has:

+23 Stamina

+10 Intellect

+4 mp5



Wall of the Dead with +12 Int enchant has:

+15 Stamina

+12 Intellect

+10 Strength (negligible for a caster/healer)

Sometimes procs 120 armor



The proc on Wall of the Dead doesn't seem overly impressive to me, and sacrificing 2 Int for 8 Stam generally seems like a good idea.



Do people just get this because it's purple?



Thanks!



Kaanaa

Silver Hand



P.S. It's Gizlock's, not Gizmo's, but won't seem to let me change the title.

 

[Falkor]

i have gizlocks on my ele/resto shaman and holy pally.

most people with wall of the dead put 18 sta on it, not 12 int. which means that it has 33 sta compared to 23 which is only 10 more sta (a measly 100 hp). for gaining that 100 hp you lose a ton of int, and some very important mp5. one nice thing about wall of the dead is the massive armor rating though (and proc) which helps nicely as a shaman wearing mail/leather/cloth and still good for a pally who has a lot of mail (green dragonscale anyone?) but also wears some plate.



either one works, but like i said i choose gizlocks -with 18 sta- any day of the week.

 

[nosoup4crr]

I play an ele shaman and use wall of the dead with 18 stam. Intellect isn't very useful for me at all. It might be different if I were resto, having to spam heals...however, as ele...i find I can take people down very efficiently (mana-wise) if I'm not being attacked. And, if I am being attacked, I can afford to be less mana-efficient because the water shield is popping.



The statistical scale I used before I quit playing was:



1 SP = 1.25 Stam = 1.25 MP/5 = 2 Int



WotD = 26.4

Gizlock's = 26.6



Add to that WotD's increased physical mitigation of 2.4%...and it's a favorite.

 

[Falkor]

doesnt that personal scale just show gizlocks is superior?? the mitigation is nice, but id rather have the int and mp5 and call it a day..2.4% really shouldnt make or break a situation

 

[Kirise]

I play an ele shaman and use wall of the dead with 18 stam. Intellect isn't very useful for me at all. It might be different if I were resto, having to spam heals...however, as ele...i find I can take people down very efficiently (mana-wise) if I'm not being attacked. And, if I am being attacked, I can afford to be less mana-efficient because the water shield is popping.



[snipped out the scale]



Add to that WotD's increased physical mitigation of 2.4%...and it's a favorite.

These are the two main things I hear about for both ele and resto shamans. Not only does the water shield help significantly with mana, but the total stamina difference is +10 stamina and +2.4% mitigation yields the equivalent of +6 stamina against melee at 49 for a typically geared shaman. Since mana is not a concern, the +INT and +mp5 from Gizlock's doesn't carry much impact for shamans, while a 5% boost to stamina helps in a bracket with a lot of burst. If mana troubles any shaman, they can use the green dragonscale armor set, and score themselves the +23 mp5 bonus.



For holy paladins with plate armor and no mana regen, I would think Gizlock's would be the better way to go, but I have no experience with that.



Bwappo

 

[nosoup4crr]

doesnt that personal scale just show gizlocks is superior?? the mitigation is nice, but id rather have the int and mp5 and call it a day..2.4% really shouldnt make or break a situation

The 2 are basically even without regard to the damage mitigation. And, in my estimation, the damage mitigation is pretty huge. I wouldn't grumble at 2.4% when the average talent point only increases DPS by an around 1%. 2.4% mitigation is quite nice.

 

[Alkaholic]

10 Sta

10 Str

391 Armor

9 Block Value



-vs-



10 Int

4 MP5



Really, how much is 4 mp5 when u have Water shield, Green dragonscale armor w/ it's bonus, and mana totem.



U'll miss the difference in armor and str when melee pops up on u. Honestly, carry both, one for when there's multiple healers and the other when u're going against a melee heavy group. On Areola, my palli, I'd prefer Wall of the Dead w/ 18 stam cause she has like 125 mp5. On Niggligent, my shammy, I'm happy w/ the Wall of the Dead w/ 18 stam. Mana isn't an issue period!

 

[glancealot]

wall of the dead is better hands down, the amount of armor it has is far superior than any shield you can have in this bracket.



although it is expensive, a good alternative for horde would be

this quest shield

dodge is hard to come by at this level, 1.16% dodge at level 49 is quite good.



but you will have to give up the chest given by the same quest. shouldn't be a concern if you are a healer tho.

 

[Alkaholic]

Glance, did u see a Darkwater bracer of Power in ur ST runs? I can't seem to get any to drop.

 

[glancealot]

Glance, did u see a Darkwater bracer of Power in ur ST runs? I can't seem to get any to drop.

yup, i solo'd him about 120 times and saw 2 "of power" both imperfect.



a friend of mine got a perfect pair tho.

 

[Falkor]

on my shaman i run oom all the time after a long combat session. water shield sure is nice, especially with green dragonscale bonus, but its just not enough...i'd much rather lose the small amount of mitigation and 100hp for the int and mp5. i can kite melee well enough anyways especiall since 3.1.



on my pally the mitigation isnt as important, but pallys still wear a lot of mail (full green dragon scale is BiS) and even some cloth (banthok/mara belt?) but still i prefer the int and mp5. i go oom a lot less on my holy pally but i like to stack int for mana pools near 5k with some buffs. helps longevity and increases SP through talents.



i've never missed the small difference in armor or 100hp, but to each his own!

 

[glancealot]

on my shaman i run oom all the time after a long combat session. water shield sure is nice, especially with green dragonscale bonus, but its just not enough...i'd much rather lose the small amount of mitigation and 100hp for the int and mp5.

...

i've never missed the small difference in armor or 100hp, but to each his own!

i have a question for you



how do you manage to win wsg 28/58=48% on your twinked out druid, 83/163=51% on your twinked out warrior



do you click?(show an in game SS would clear this matter), do you keyboard turn?



not trying to be rude or anything, maybe it's just that in your battle group horde is always pwning alliance or something.



have a nice day.

 

[Alkaholic]

Oh no, here we go again w/ the stats page. Why do you compare solo achievements in a team game? Last time I checked 1 player, no matter how great, can not win a WSG solo. What does it matter if he clicks, I know clickers like [char=Skullcrusher]Gnomebeater[/char] who have 81% win in WSG and 89% win in AB.



If someone actually cared enough to impress anyone about their stats page, couldn't they just /afk losses?



There was nothing about that post that was constructive, it all came off as a thinly veiled insult.

 

[glancealot]

Oh no, here we go again w/ the stats page. Why do you compare solo achievements in a team game? Last time I checked 1 player, no matter how great, can not win a WSG solo. What does it matter if he clicks, I know clickers like [char=Skullcrusher]Gnomebeater[/char] who have 81% win in WSG and 89% win in AB.



If someone actually cared enough to impress anyone about their stats page, couldn't they just /afk losses?



There was nothing about that post that was constructive, it all came off as a thinly veiled insult.

but the thing is, horde and alliance both win about 50% of the time, being a twink, you should help your team's percentage because there ARE non-twinks, on both sides.



so i would expect a winning ratio higher than 50% to say the least.



i solo queue too, and i win 75% of my wsg's, so please don't use the "team game" card.

 

[glancealot]

What does it matter if he clicks, I know clickers like [char=Skullcrusher]Gnomebeater[/char] who have 81% win in WSG and 89% win in AB.

that guy is indeed skilled, he returned 302 flags in 263 wsg games, thats more than 1 return per game.



i am currently at about 2.3 return/game. but i am a rogue so that's normal.



yes you are correct, stats page doesn't tell everything, but you can tell a lot about how good a player is by reading his stats.

 

[Taitaih]

Imo stats are not where it is. 1v1 is not where it is. There is no statistic that shows how good a player is playing as a team.



Even when there's non-twinks, when it's 5 twinks v 2 twinks, generally the 5 twinks will win out unless they're terrible.



I solo queued mostly on Shadowburn against usually all odds, and my win percentage isn't the best. Playing with DwRA, my win ratio has gone up obviously, but I'd like to think that I make a difference as a teammate when I play with them. If I played with DwRA from the start I'd probably have a high win-loss ratio (like in the upper 90%), but I didn't.

 

[glancealot]

Imo stats are not where it is. 1v1 is not where it is. There is no statistic that shows how good a player is playing as a team.



Even when there's non-twinks, when it's 5 twinks v 2 twinks, generally the 5 twinks will win out unless they're terrible.



I solo queued mostly on Shadowburn against usually all odds, and my win percentage isn't the best. Playing with DwRA, my win ratio has gone up obviously, but I'd like to think that I make a difference as a teammate when I play with them. If I played with DwRA from the start I'd probably have a high win-loss ratio (like in the upper 90%), but I didn't.

but as a twink, your winning ratio should be greater than 50%.



its like flipping a coin, as twinks, we have a better chance of landing a head(win), so in the long run, the amount of heads we get should be more than that of tails.



also, flag return/flag cap shows a lot too, for example i'v seen mages that cap 2 flags per wsg on average, that shows this mage is extremely good.

 

[Alkaholic]

Again, if someone /afks out of their losses, that won't show up on the stats page. Also, the BG dictates the winning percentage. If my only time to log on is after midnight due to my job, my percentages would look HORRID cause that's when <DwRA> runs. How does that in any way show my skill?



Does it show how many FC the person has healed?

Does it show how many opponents that the healer kept the healer against?

Does it show how many enemy healers the DPS dropped to help a team return?



There are so many facets of this game that can't be measured in stats it just seems pointless that u constantly critique it.

 

[Taitaih]

Mages can cap flags like crazy against pugs, get a good rogue syncing with the mage's blink and that mage is dead. I only know a handful of rogues that think about jumping the mage post-blink. I know many FC style mages. They are great against pugs, but when it comes to a premade, they aren't the best option.

 

[Falkor]

i have a question for you



how do you manage to win wsg 28/58=48% on your twinked out druid, 83/163=51% on your twinked out warrior



do you click?(show an in game SS would clear this matter), do you keyboard turn?



not trying to be rude or anything, maybe it's just that in your battle group horde is always pwning alliance or something.



have a nice day.

lol no i dont click or keyboard turn, that doesnt matter when it comes to W/L %. horde actually does really well in vindication especially during off peak hours when i usually play, oh and solo btw.

not to mention that W/L % doesnt show any measure of skill, i could have a 100% win rating and just be awful and carried by my team. on the same token i could be the best pvper in all of WoW but be held back by 9-14 other players, one person cant win a game altho one good person depending on class can tip the scales.



if you dont want my advice on gizlocks vs wall of the dead than thats fine, but trying to start crap over win/loss percentages just makes you look bad. these forums arent for flaming, leave that on your BG forums sir/maam.