10-man Shields

After getting my new shield from Heroic CoS (and having a choice as to what shield to use), I got to thinking about all the epic shields available to me as a 10-man tank.

Pre-raid, you have three choices:
Titansteel Shield Wall (Blacksmithing Crafted)
Royal Crest of Lordaeron (Mal'ganis - Heroic Culling of Stratholme)
Crygil's Discarded Plate Panel (35 Emblems of Heroism)

Any of these three should be pretty easy to obtain depending on your play style (farming for mats/gold, farming for drops, farming for emblems).

In 10-man raids, you have two choices:
The Skull of Ruin (Grobbulus)
Barricade of Eternity (Malygos)

Each of the five epic shields has a slot to fill. For me, the Titansteel Shield Wall was a huge help in getting uncrittable (curse you, Loken!). While this is a very solid shield for raiding, I could really use the itemization points other places than defense. I knew I needed either the Royal Crest or Crygil's Panel. The two are virtually identical: +15def (Crest) vs. +33 dodge (Panel). I wasn't convinced that 35 Emblems was worth the price of not farming a fun and easy heroic. Whether you pick the Crest or the Panel, or let fate decide, both are a good threat upgrade over the Shield Wall. I can't see any reason to go back to the Shield Wall if you get your hands on the Crest or the Panel.

From there, The Skull of Ruin comes into play as a mitigation and Shield Slam item. Providing more block rating than any of the other four, it is good both for a consistent reduction in damage intake as well as AoE threat from a Shield Spike if you choose to use one. This shield also sports more SBV than any other shield in the game (with Titanium Plating and Meta, you're looking at 424 after modifiers). Unless you are really hurting for hit rating, use this shield for trash.

The Barricade of Eternity (for those of you downing Malygos) is the clear winner for all boss fights. This has the most Effective Health and avoidance (technically, it has .02 less than the Panel, but more block rating). It also has a good chunk of expertise for parry and dodge reduction as well as additional threat.

Below, I've compared each of the 5 against each other (blanks mean stats are equal).
Titansteel (T), Royal Crest (C), Crygil's Panel (P), Skull of Ruin (S), Barricade of Eternity (B).

	Armor	SBV	Str	Sta	Def	Ddg	Pry	Blk	Hit	Exp
TvC			+2C	+6C	+15T				+25C
TvP			+2P	+6P	+30T	+33P			+25P
TvS		+38S	+15S	+6S	+37T			+25S
TvB	+192B	+5B	+7B	+15B	+23T		+32B			+28B
CvP					+15C	+33P
CvS		+38S	+13S		+14C			+25S	+25C
CvB	+192B	+5B	+5B	+9B	+8C		+32B		+25C	+28B
PvS		+38S	+13S		+7P	+33P		+25S	+25P
PvB	+192B	+5B	+5B	+9B	+7B	+33P	+32B		+25P	+28B
SvB	+192B	+33S	+7S	+9B	+14B		+32B	+25S		+28B