TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
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World of Warcraft is a big, dense, complicated game with a lot of little instances of utter nonsense—you get that sort of thing when you're two decades old with over a dozen expansions. But this one has to be the funniest quirk I've seen out of the MMO in a while. Turns out, if you're a Protection Warrior, you've got a shield tax.
That's per user Kersplode on the game's subreddit, who took a whopping 20,000-strong sample of damage instances to test their theory that they were paying more in repair costs.
For context: In WoW, most tanks have mitigation buttons, things you'll need to be pushing routinely while in dungeons to smooth over the experience for your healers. One of the Protection Warrior's most important ones, Shield Block, blocks all attacks against you for six seconds.
Only issue is, when you block in WoW (either with the passive percentage chance or with Shield Block) your shield has a chance to lose durability. Kersplode discovered that their shield loses a point durability at a 3.5% chance when they block: "My ilvl 237 shield costs ~42s per durability to repair, therefore: It costs me an average of 1.47 silver per block."
As in, 3.5% of 42 silver is 1.47—if you block 100 times, and lose the mathematically probable 3.5 points of durability you'd tank in that scenario, you'll be paying 147 silver. Which, over the course of 100 blocks (dividing 147 by 100) is 1.47 per block. It all checks out.
The issue with Shield Block (the ability) isn't that it increases the chance you have to lose durability, but rather your frequency of blocked attacks—Kersplode, for instance, passively blocks around 35% of attacks. Increasing that to 100% for six seconds multiple times over the course of a dungeon means more blocked attacks overall, leading to higher repair costs.
"3,600 incoming attacks … I would normally block [around] 35% of those attacks, which is going to cost me 18 gold, 90 silver. If I press Shield Block, I am going to block [around] 81% of those attacks instead, which would cost me 43 gold, 74 silver."
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Which means that, by playing Protection Warrior, Kersplode's repair costs are roughly 25 gold more expensive. When we round up (comparing 19 gold to 44 gold) we see that Protection warriors are paying 230% more in repair...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
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Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
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Once a month
SFX
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World of Warcraft is a big, dense, complicated game with a lot of little instances of utter nonsense—you get that sort of thing when you're two decades old with over a dozen expansions. But this one has to be the funniest quirk I've seen out of the MMO in a while. Turns out, if you're a Protection Warrior, you've got a shield tax.
That's per user Kersplode on the game's subreddit, who took a whopping 20,000-strong sample of damage instances to test their theory that they were paying more in repair costs.
For context: In WoW, most tanks have mitigation buttons, things you'll need to be pushing routinely while in dungeons to smooth over the experience for your healers. One of the Protection Warrior's most important ones, Shield Block, blocks all attacks against you for six seconds.
Only issue is, when you block in WoW (either with the passive percentage chance or with Shield Block) your shield has a chance to lose durability. Kersplode discovered that their shield loses a point durability at a 3.5% chance when they block: "My ilvl 237 shield costs ~42s per durability to repair, therefore: It costs me an average of 1.47 silver per block."
As in, 3.5% of 42 silver is 1.47—if you block 100 times, and lose the mathematically probable 3.5 points of durability you'd tank in that scenario, you'll be paying 147 silver. Which, over the course of 100 blocks (dividing 147 by 100) is 1.47 per block. It all checks out.
The issue with Shield Block (the ability) isn't that it increases the chance you have to lose durability, but rather your frequency of blocked attacks—Kersplode, for instance, passively blocks around 35% of attacks. Increasing that to 100% for six seconds multiple times over the course of a dungeon means more blocked attacks overall, leading to higher repair costs.
"3,600 incoming attacks … I would normally block [around] 35% of those attacks, which is going to cost me 18 gold, 90 silver. If I press Shield Block, I am going to block [around] 81% of those attacks instead, which would cost me 43 gold, 74 silver."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Which means that, by playing Protection Warrior, Kersplode's repair costs are roughly 25 gold more expensive. When we round up (comparing 19 gold to 44 gold) we see that Protection warriors are paying 230% more in repair...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?