Talk:Power Word: Shield

"A caution about using this on Warrior type players. Warriors and Druids in their Bear/Werebear form comprise this group. This spell will cut their Rage generation significantly until it wears off, thus reducing their effectiveness as a tank. It will also draw aggro on you which means they will have to come save you and thus have to take a break from killing things (which reduced their utility as a tank further). This should probably not be used on 'Warrior' types unless they are going to die for sure before your heal can be cast on them (ie in less than 4 seconds) and you will have enough mana left over to pop a big heal on them as soon as the shield goes up. If they are tanking the shield will drop very quickly. Think of it as an instant cast, low HP, high mana use heal for these types."

I removed the above, because it is in fact a common myth.- CTerry


 * Agreed CTerry. I have done some initial experiments (regarding threat) and will be posting video evidence on Google in the next few days. PWS does not actually cause threat. Only if a tank has not used an AOE threat generating ability will this actually pull aggro. Also some warriors get much more rage from their own white damage dealing. That ends up being a personal preference. The real reason PWS should not be used is that it is mana inefficient.
 * KarlThePagan 10:10, 25 April 2006 (EDT)

Two sections of the page appear to contradict each other: "This spell does not cause any threat." and "IMPORTANT: You may have noticed that casting PW:S causes a lot of threat and can make things more likely to attack you." - Kalthus

My understanding is this: (1) PW:S draws aggro equivalent to an instant-cast heal. If cast before any mob is aggroed (i.e. pre-shielding), it generates no hate. If cast on the target of an aggroed mob, it increases the mob's hate of the caster. (2) PW:S interferes with rage produced by damage taken, but not with rage produced by damage dealt or by rage-generating abilities. Regardless of whether this qualifies as a 'significant cut' in rage-generation, the tactical point is that Renew is more mana-efficient than PW:S and has no impact on rage. PW:S's best uses are (1) as a precursor to an emergency heal and (2) as relief from interrupts. - Seofon

PW:S most defintately does cause threat, even if its not enough to pull aggro in many situations. It also most defintately limits rage generation (from dmg taken) for its duration. I'm not sure if all of you are disputing those points, since some of the things quoted contain multiple problems, or confusing wording. Regardless im going to put effort into cleaning up the page a bit since a lot of the ideas are a bit fragmented. -Jillli

Shielding does inhibit rage generation. I'm surprised that this point is under discussion, since it is so easy to test. I encourage anyone who doubts it to do so! -Amadh 1/4/07

Agreed with Amadh, Blizzard has posted saying this is intended because shielded damage is "damage not taken". Its also very easy to test, just shield a warrior and let a mob hit them without attacking. They will generate 0 rage until the shield goes down. -Cecelia 13 Feb 2007

Revamp
I've brought the page in line with the other spell pages. Furthermore I've removed almost all of the tips & tactics, as these were either wrong or biased (obviously, there was no consensus on how to use PW:S correctly). If someone feels that I removed valueable content, please let me know. --bfx 15:47, 13 February 2007 (EST)
 * I'm confused by the line "PW:S is actually a holy spell." Uhh, no it's not.  Counterspell and kicking a Heal will not stop you from shielding, right? --Bendyr 15:06, 14 February 2007 (EST)
 * That's wrong, it does. There is no discipline school. A common mistake is to mix up counterspell effects and Shadowform. Counterspell effects affect school (of which only 6 exist, apart from physical "school"), Shadowform affects tree. As a result, many people infer from one to the other. --bfx 01:47, 15 February 2007 (EST)

cant cast on other people?
for some ungodly reason i can only cast power word: shield on myself and not other people?? have any ideas??

Nevermind they have to be in your party..