Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Shield Slam

Shield Slam
Melee Range

Instant	6 sec cooldown

Requires Warrior (Protection)
Requires level 10

Requires Shields
Slam the target with your shield, causing [(Attack power * 0.36)] damage and generating 20 Rage. Critical strikes with Shield Slam cause your next Heroic Strike to cost no Rage and be a critical strike.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

None

Range

5 yards (Combat)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

6 seconds

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect #1

School Damage (Physical)
Value: 1

Effect #2

Dispel (Magic)

Effect #3

Give Power (Rage)
Value: 20

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted

Guides

Overview of
Tanking and
All Tank Specs

Protection Warrior Guide [6.0.2]

Warlords of Draenor
Warrior Changes

Comments

Comment by babemomlover

Start with one of these, and queue up a Heroic Strike and lay down a sunder-armor or Revenge if it's up, and you'll be good to go until your rage gets back up.

Comment by CZero

If you're a protection warrior, I sure hope you bought this. A fair amount of rage to use, but when you're tanking several mobs (or one big one) you're generating a lot of rage anyway. Once you've slapped on a <rend>, spammed 5 <sunder armor>s and are waiting for <revenge> to cool down, <shield slam> will give you the chance to significantly increase your damage output and might enough debuff that baddy to boot. Will even pop a priest bubble, so if you can get it off in PvP, you can laugh as your foe wonders where their shield just went.

Comment by nanometer

Fun fact: This is considered a main hand instant attack. It uses the weapon skill of your main hand weapon. If you throw in a weapon that you have very low skill with (a dagger for instance) and attack a high level mob your shield slams will fail to land most of the time. Also, I bet this makes things that increase weapon skill such as Mallet of the Tides help your shield bashes!

Additional note: I have had "chance on hit" on my main-hand proc off of this.

Comment by Bojo

Damage is modified by block value. But how much block value equals for example 10 extra damage with shield slam? Also, does the talent "shield mastery" add extra damage as well? And are there any other attributes that adds damage? Please let me know by listing the damage-adding sources below.

Comment by Garby

Patch 2.3 sets this ability to a 100% chance to dispel magic effects.

Comment by hsit

does it dispels all kind of buffs and effects?

Comment by JyL1

Just a fun fact: The current highest possible shield block value a character can have is 1184 (and that's boostable by 435 additional BV using trinkets).
That includes the trinket from Naxx, gear from Sunwell, and everything in between. Also includes the new meta gem.

Obviously that's just a gimmick number, a tank would have to sacrifice an unacceptable amount of other tanking stats to achieve that number. I would place a BT/Sunwell progressed tank at maybe 750-900 BV as an acceptable number.

Comment by AoBman05

This ability is going to become a baseline skill in WotLK to help non-prot warriors out when tanking. This along with defiance being baseline would make tanking less tedious in general for all warriors.

Too bad neither this or the Death Knights will be solving any tank 'shortages'; that's a problem with the game community itself, not the tanking classes.

Comment by natedawgmonty

I used this on Curator during an evocation phase, critted for 2.2k. Not yet geared at all, and i was OT. For the next 3 minutes the pally MT kept yelling at me to stop taunting, etc. I took my hands off the keyboard and the pally couldn't pull off me. talk about huge threat.

Itsnotmyfult, Eonar

Comment by berserkerlxl

In wotlk, this is no longer a talent and all warriors can train it.
PvP warriors could dispel magic effects with it such as blessing of freedom or innervate.

Comment by snags

Also, Bostung raised an interesting point in the comments section of Shield Block:

If it functions like other block value modifying talents and abilities, (and comparing spell effects, I suspect it does) the doubling of block value will increase Shield Slam's damage as long as you Shield Slam before the charge is lost. Since Shield Block is not on the GCD, you should be able to create a macro to activate Shield Block and use Shield Slam at the same time.

I'm not in the beta, though, so I can't test this out.
I thought I'd repost this here, in case any of you non-prot types are having fun in Beta playing around with this new skill. =)

Anyone know if the Shield Block buff increases Shield Slam damage (if done before the charge is removed)? And if so, does it increase it enough to justify the additional 10 rage spent?

EDIT: Someone on this site seems to think it does:
http://wotlkwiki.info/forum/showthread.php?t=2519

Comment by makron

If it is does not require talent anymore, does it share cooldown with Mortal Strike?

Comment by kaistlin

1) There are no more crushing blows. This means that warriors without 490 defense won't get their asses completely handed to them by boss mobs.
Those are two completely separate tanking issues. Please know your facts before you confuse the already easily confused public.
490 Defense means you are uncrittable to a level 73 mob. You can still get crushed. Being crushed means you have enough avoidance and block to push crushing blows off the table(something around 105% or so).
The defense number will also change at level 80 obviously, since our base defense will be 400 at that point.

But yes, the str to block ratio change will help a lot. It will also mean tanking in DPS gear or DPSing in tank gear won't be as horribly bad as it is right now.

Comment by Hellnaw

All we need now are 2h shields. Wearing one counts as having a 1h wep equipped. Small dinky sword? Who needs it. I'll just carry this wall around.

Comment by aksfjh

Anybody know how much the damage is "modified" by block value?

Comment by Jimmthx

Can warriors' shield slam remove Blessings of Protection off their targets when they are immune to physical dmg?

Comment by lilflip00

No, Shield Slam cannot dispell Blessing of Protection, Divine Shield, or any other physical damage immunities.

Comment by RazerMuffin

For all the guys thinking of being a PvP Prot here is the damage that Shield Slam will deal for Warriors who have the following talents.

Shield Mastery, Gag Order, One-Handed Weapon Spec, and Imp Defensive Stance.

And one factor that is not a talent that will come in is Defensive Stance. While the current damage reduction is 10% in the upcoming 3.1 patch it will be reduced to 5% only.

Shield Block Is something that can boost the damage of this ability greatly. You can look at this ability as "Make my next 2-3 ( Depending if Sword and Board procs) Shield Slams deal massive damage"
Another thing to note is that Critical Block will not help this ability. This talent does not give a buff of any type, it simply gives your blocks a chance to "Crit" and block double the amount for that single attack only.
Another thing that will help greatly is Glyph of Blocking.

NOTE: I will not link these again and will do the rest of the comment using the abbrevations

SS= Shield Slam, IDS = Improved Defence Stance, SM = Shield Mastery, GO = Gag Order, O-H WS = One-handed Weapon Spec (O instead of 1 to avoid too much numbers) GOB = Glyph of Blocking, DS = Defensive Stance, and SB = Shield Block
and etc. I will also be using a SBV of 1000. About average for a person with some tanking gear. If that isn't normal, too bad, I like the nice, round number.

Normal Damage. (No chance for first SS to proc the Glyph or Imp Def Stance to be active.)
(1000 + ) x 0.9 DS x 1.1 GO x 1.1 O-H WS = roughly 2500 Damage

Damage with Improved Defensive Stance procced
(1000 SS + ) x 0.9 DS x 1.1 GO x 1.1 O-H WS x 1.1 IDS = roughly 2750 Damage

Damage with GOB active
(1000 SS + ) x 0.9 DS x 1.1 GO x 1.1 O-H WS = roughly 2650

Damage with SB active
(1000 SS + ) x 0.9 DS x 1.1 GO x 1.1 O-H WS = roughly 3900 Damage

You can roll all these factors together to get this Grand Daddy formula

Damage with SB, GOB, and IDS procced
(1000 SS + ) x 0.9 DS x 1.1 GO x 1.1 O-H WS x 1.1 IDS = roughly 4600 Damage

But this base damage is all on normal hits, what matters is the Shield Slam Crits that will come hard and often thanks to things like Critical Block's SS Modifier

The Grand-Daddy Crit Formula with the Impale talent
4600 x 2.2 = 10120 damage

And this is a basic number, there is many who have a Block Values of 1400+ and achieve crits of 13000 and higher.

From these reports, I have crunched the numbers and found that either WoW SS calculates the additives to SBV twice
(Once for base SBV and again for SS damage) or WoW stats do not count additives to SBV on the character window. But my guess is the first one. And according to how SS is phrased, seems the best choice and makes some sense.

But if this is true, then the formulas above must be redone with all additives done to the base SBV once then the higher number is to be put back in to be affected by the same modifiers again.
This theory must be tested by someone with a bit more time on their hands than me to be confirmed, but given this following formula, it seems to add up.

SBV Base = 1400 x 1.1 GOB x 1.3 SM = 2002
(1000 SS + ) x 0.9 DS x 1.1 GO x 1.1 O-H WS x 1.1 IDS x 2.2 Crit = 17710 roughly

The only issue I got with this formula is that SB isn't calculated twice, two explanations to this thing.
1: I am missing something in the original formula that adds to the damage.
2: Blizz knows this and the Devs only made it to be added in once.

If the latter is true, then we can be looking at a nice boost coming the next patch.

(1000 SS + ) x 0.95 DS x 1.1 GO x 1.1 O-H WS x 1.1 IDS x 2.2 Crit = 18705 roughly

Comment by Timtebow

Shield slam is an amazing pvp ability. On my level 69 ret paladin with 40% damage reduction from armor, I fought a twinked level 69 prot warrior. He shield slammed me for 3.5k damage.

Now I play a prot warrior.

Comment by snags

Recent 3.2 PTR patch notes:

Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.

At 80, until you get 2400 BV this has no effect, hard cap at 2760. I think this is mainly to smooth out the burst from Shield Block+Shield Slam with BV changes in 3.2, a recently reverted change had Shield Block not giving a bonus to Shield Slam anymore.. but yeah, luckily they changed it back :)

Comment by Kabi

Im having troubles with the formula for the base damage of the Shield slam:
Lets say you get 34.5 times your level as block value

2760 + 1040 from shield slam (well it gets diminishing returns so im not sure if its 2760)

3800 Damage oK?

Now you get
-5% defense stance
+10% gag
+10% 1Hand
+10% enrage
+10% T7

So the formula should go down to:

3800 x 0.95 x 1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 = Damage
3610 without any buff
3971 with 1 buff
4368.1 with 2 buffs
4804.91 with 3 buffs
5285,401 with the 4 buffs

So the max damage you can get from a shield slam is 5285.401

Well the issue is this -> i did a 5200 slam without T7 damage bust when the maths say that 4800 is the limit
it was on a 80 mob in icecrown
No it didnt have the disarm debuff for 10% extra damage

Im doing something wrong here?

Comment by Magepro

Whether your Shield Slam lands or not depends on the skill of the weapon you're using in the other hand. So, for example, if you're skilling up a new type of 1H, you'll miss a lot of Shield Slams.

Comment by syrimatu

got a 5.5k non crit shield slam + a shield slam crit for 11286
1050 block value from gear
vh trinket
shield block

Comment by Hammerthyst

The highest rank for Shield Slam without The Burning Crusade.

Comment by brandonspikes

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.2-
Shield Slam - Damage bonus from block value decreased for players with lower end equipment. Players with high-end equipment will not notice as much of a difference. In addition, threat generated has been increased by 30%.

Comment by holto97

Shield Slam is one of the Warrior's most powerful strikes. It is very useful.

Comment by hellomynameis

I'm trying to look at this from a PvP warriors PoV. Shield Slam can dispel magic buffs, these include;
-DK(Horn of Winter)
-Paladin(BoSanct,BoW,BoM,BoK,RF,BoF,Holy Shield,Redoubt,Divine Sacrifice,Divine Illumination,Beacon of Light,Sacred Shield,Divine Plea,FoL)
-Priest(PW:Fort,PW:shield,Spirit)
-Warlocks(Soul Link,Fel Armor,Demon Armor)
-Mages(Arcane Brilliance,Arcane Intellect,Dalaran Brilliance,Dalaran Intellect,Frost Armor,Ice Armor,Mana Shield)
-Druids(Innervate,Barkskin,Gift of the Wild,Mark of the Wild,Lifebloom,Regrowth,Rejuvenation,Wild Growth,Nature's Grasp)
-Shaman(Bloodlust,Heroism,Water Shield,Earth Shield,Ghost Wolf,Elemental Focus,Elemental Mastery,Riptide)

Please correct me if I am wrong, or add stuff I forgot. Thanks in advance. :)

Comment by Hullupuuro

when attacking i.e. a priest with only PW: shield on (just being theoretically, they all have at least fortitude, but nevertheless) with this skill, does it first take off one buff and then do damage or shall I first be hitting the bubble and then dispelling it?

Comment by Muspel

Five bucks says the AP scaling on this gets nerfed HARD. 100% is way too much.

EDIT: And it did. I think it's like 60-70% now, or something around there.

Comment by Sacrosterion

Love it:D

Comment by Lightbrand

I have a "bad" example.

End of TBC in full Sunwell gear I can crit around 3-5k.
End of Wrath in not best Wrath gear I can crit 11-13k.

With Mortal strike. Although I don't remember if that 11-13k is from ICC with 30% buff, it probably is.

Comment by G00dG4m3

Cata version of this is... erm... *cough*OP*cough*, as it scales with attack power.
In wrath with Shield Block on it deals quite big damage. In Cata, I guess with Heavy Repercussions talent, we will have +20k crit easiliy.

EDIT: This post was made before the Nerf, when shield slam got 100% of your AP as bonus damage.

Comment by Badaccus

Halibut

Crank it up in quality, you'll see a mage with 77k hp, doing 20k crits in blue gear. (maybe not in that vid, but he's got more videos up, in the Blackrock-dungeon i saw him doing just that.)

Now a mage has 20-25k hp, and some classes can burn half of that in 1-2 GCD's, thats dealing 50% hp, and a 20k crit would take about 30% in cataclysm, so i'd say 20k isnt too bad, but it probably will get nerfed anyway, because we cant have tanks dealing massive damage now can we? =P

Comment by sloniah

Has anyone done any number crunching on how well this scales with attack power since patch 4.0.1? I have seen 3 12k+ crit poping Shield Block and Recklessnes

Comment by Genoso

strangely enough leveling my warrior as protection i've noticed that shield slam shares a cool down with the plain regular "strike" ability all warriors start with i have yet to see if it shares a cool down with heroic strike cause i'm not high enough on my warrior yet but just to inform you guys, you can't shield slam and then insta strike because of this

Comment by Jandon

Comment by Phlayre

Please, for the love of God, stop using this without knowing the effects of doing such. Warriors are constantly spamming this during the Ozruk event and dispelling the reflect that is needed, thus wiping groups. (Then usually %^&*!ing about dieing).I agree, but this fight is very difficult for first-time tanks - there's a lot to take care of and very small margin for error. Whilst it gets easy with practise, asking them to fundamentally change their rotation (and ignore S&B procs) is a tall order :) - therefore, give them a little slack as they get used to the fight.

ofc, if they've done it loads, then they should really know better...

Comment by pidro

The current description on WoW is "Hits the target with your shield for high damage". That's it. It does not even specify that it dispels 1 magic effect.

Comment by Nimai85

In 4.2 they will remove "Also causes a high amount of threat." O_O Why?

Comment by jobhaha

No additional treath in 4.2

seriously blizzard....

Comment by Wani

Before anyone else comments on 4.2, the bonus threat on Shield Slam was removed in 4.0.6, and the change in 4.2 is simply a tooltip update. You can test it in game, hitting a mob with Shield Slam will deal no bonus threat. If you hit for 1000 damage with no Defensive Stance, you gain 1000 threat, if you hit for 1000 with Defensive Stance, you'll gain 3000 threat (1000 + 200%).

Comment by Ssateneth

Whats the AP coefficient on shield slam?

Comment by Valer

Anyone know what the AP coeffient of this is?

Comment by kgurnhill

This dispels magic effects before the damage is calculated.

Proof of this?
In Utgarde Keep, there are Dragonflayer Runecasters who cast Njord's Rune of Protection on their allies, now if you use Shield Slam on a shielded target, they still take full damage while dispelling the Rune of Protection!

This also works in other situations aswell, me and my brother tested this before posting.
My brother logged into his Priest and we started a duel (He has no resilience, at all) and he used Power Word: Shield (The only buff he had) and i used Shield Slam, he took the full damage and his PW:S was also dispelled!

Really, an awesome ability!

Comment by Barringa

The damage output on this is amazing at lower levels. I solo mobs in Prot by 2 shotting them with one of these followed by an Execute.

Comment by kwizzlix

The most overpowered attack in lower levels. Playing as a non prot warrior in low level battlegrounds will cause frustration, as you will get practically one shotted by this attack. Hopefully Blizzard tweaks the damage soon.

Comment by Res21

Do not fear, this ability's ability to one-shot at lower levels is being nerfed. They are reducing the AP scaling down to 50%, from 120% for characters below level 85.

This should make the ability no longer OP, as the reason why it was OP was because it scaled with AP which was amazing at low levels before you got a decent weapon somewhere around 85.

Here's the new formula, for those who want a headache:

AP * (gte(Level, 85) * (0.75) + 0.75) + 13,670 ] to [ AP * (gte(Level, 85) * (0.75) + 0.75) + 14,371

This is the old formula:

11,216 + 120% of AP

Comment by xXzCodProxXz

Just one question why is shield slam even allowed for low level warriors

You wont get a fear off let alone get to cast anything you can die for all of your health+overkill I don't think blizzard even plays their game anymore
Who says you need Shield slam to tank? They can do fine with T-Clap and Taunt tanking they really don't need this until maybe mid 70

Comment by Keghrath

Working I.W.I.N. button in low levels.

Comment by Natalak

With the stat changes and the removal of base damage, this ability deals next to no damage in lowlvl, as it only inherits 36% of your AP, which you wont have much of while leveling.

Comment by wisedada

PvP hotifx for december 11th, 2014

Warriors
Glyph of Shield Slam now requires defensive stance.

Shield Slam

Buff

Spell Details

Guides

Related

Contribute