I’m hearing reasons for people to play better (by timing their placement or watching their threat), not reasons to gimp your damage/healing output.
The hard reality is that some items for lower armor class are just ridiculously better than the correct item class for your spec. It sucks but that’s just how the itemization is in Classic.
Because you both massively over-exaggerated the amount of armor a shield provides and massively under-exaggerated the DPS increase of a better itemized offhand (or stave).
That x armor might save you a small amount of damage once in an entire fight when you screw up… or you could not screw up and have a consistent benefit to the group with higher DPS or healing efficiency.
Are u just wanna ruin ppls fun by stealing my shadow gear bro? I mean ur a pala so if u take my gear u cant use and say: i can wear all armors its like hunter wep bro, im just saying if u take my cloth lock epic for ur pala then im gonna jump in the lava on ragnaros
Bruh u cant just say that my facts arent facts just to win argument, in a raid its 40 so if u can trade 1 hit from onyxia for a non raid wipe and blame all 39 others with ur epic 5k armor skull flame shield with dps increase then 39 others gain more dps so its not under statement how much dps do dead do? 0
Personally I hate not wearing plate on a paladin, and if I ever get level 60, I’ll avoid using none-plate items. I have that luxury because I’ll be playing casually anyway.
I’m also saying I used to play hardcore and even in vanilla this is how it was.
Some of the best warrior and hunter DPS gear was always leather.
Some of the best (especially pre-raid) healing gear for druids and paladins was always cloth.
As such I understand and accept the reason people would loot under their armor tier.
Bruh ur countering urself now we arent casuals we just play to win, dont hate the players hate the internet for ruining fun with lies U remember what thread u in?
If you play to win, you take every advantage you can get to maximise your performance.
As a DPS warrior, paladin, hunter or shaman that includes using gear which gives the best stats for your role. Armor isn’t a good stat for these roles and so it’s not included in what a “good item” is.
I am a casual player, and don’t plan to min/max. This I make clear so you can’t use the excuse that I’m just a greedy paladin after everyone’s loot.
Further more, “the internet” didn’t ruin this for you.
Even in vanilla warriors were using leather items for their superior stats, especially pre-raid.
Look on skullflame it also has int and strength so u can have more mana and when oom u can deal some serious damage, just admit if u see a Shammy with this bad boy i would just drop dead it has flames and skulls combine it for SKULLFLAME SHIELD
Are you maybe looking at the wrong version? Only the Battle for Azeroth version has Strength and Intellect.
Still doesn’t have this magical 5,000 armor you keep mentioning.
flames and 
skulls combine it for SKULLFLAME SHIELD 