With a decent number of classes to choose from, World of Warcraft has a diverse set of tanks available. Each is unique in its own right, excelling in one or two areas but perhaps falling short in others. However, it is important not to focus too much on raid and dungeon power, as these are ever-changing from patch to patch.
As such, this article aims to rank all the sub-classes that can tank while looking at more than just their effectiveness in raids and dungeons, namely utility, new-player friendliness, flashiness, and how it feels to play.
7 Hunter And Warlock Pets
Let’s get something straight right out the gate. Hunter tank pets (Clefthoofs, Turtles, etc.) and a Warlock’s Voidwalker are great tanks. Hunters and Warlocks can control their pets as they see fit, and said pets even have taunts, making them perfectly viable. You don’t even need a healer to heal the pets due to Mend Pet and Health Funnel.
Sure, they may not make great main tanks in a dungeon or raid (or would they?), but they make great panic-tanks in case your tank dies mid-boss fight. And let’s be honest, tanks die a lot in dungeons and raids.
6 Vengeance Demon Hunter
As cool as Demon Hunters are, they come out at the near-bottom of this list. For starters, they are leather-wearers, making them squishier than their plate counterparts, but on top of that, they lack defensive cooldowns, making them more dependent on their healers to keep them alive.
That said, Demon Hunters are still incredibly mobile, pretty simple to learn (making them new-player-friendly), and have decent utility in crowd-control. Still, they fall short during long, drawn-out fights due to their vulnerability.
5 Guardian Druid
Druids are commonly seen as jacks of all trades and masters of none, and this certainly rings true for their tanking specialization, Guardian. They have decent defensive cooldowns and a plethora of self-healing, making them sturdier than Demon Hunters. However, they are also leather wearers, making them squishier than plate wearers, even in bear form.
Make no mistake: Druids are definitely fun to play, as they have been since Classic. But typically, most of what Guardian Druids can do, Protection Warriors can do better, so you might as well reroll classes. Jokes aside (but not really), there’s one more class to cover before we get to Warrior.
4 Brewmaster Monk
Brewmaster Monks stand out from the leather-wearing tank classes as the best due to their superior damage mitigation. They have great mobility, excellent self-healing, and significant damage, but they are not the easiest class to learn and are, therefore, not very new-player-friendly.
With that in mind, this class is a blast to play, as your main mechanic is drinking and staying at certain levels of drunkenness to mitigate large chunks of damage. Thus, if you’re truly dedicated to Brewmaster Monk, these guys can come out as one of the strongest tanks in the game when played well.
3 Protection Warrior
Good old Protection Warriors are your staple tanks. They have great defensive cooldowns and are very good at negating damage, making them quite sturdy and not overly dependent on their healers. They can also put out some pretty good damage, especially through their Spell Reflect ability that can reflect boss abilities back at them.
Furthermore, they are quite easy to pick up and master; the hardest thing about them is when to use Spell Reflect, making them new-player-friendly (their easiness is the main reason they’re ranked above Brewmaster Monk). They also feel like proper tanks as they walk around in full plate armor, wield a shield, and use nothing but their strength to fight their enemies.
2 Blood Death Knight
Blood Death Knights come out to number two on this list for a variety of reasons. First off, their self-healing and magic damage mitigation is second to none. They can dish out some nice damage and don’t even need their healers half the time because of how efficiently they can keep themselves alive (Death Strike too strong).
On top of that, Death Knights look and feel absolutely incredible (as they should since they’re directly based on one of WoW’s best villains), really living up to the class fantasy that is an unstoppable warrior of death. As if that weren’t enough, they are not too difficult to play, making them new-player-friendly as well, and they have some phenomenal utility, from their Death Grip to their battle rez (Raise Ally). They’re practically the complete package, but there’s still one tank better.
1 Protection Paladin
Protection Paladins are hands down the best tank in the game. They have unbelievable healing that can be used on themselves and their allies. These abilities are so good that they practically fill the role of healer in addition to that of the tank. They have immunity spells to completely negate damage, and one of these spells can be cast on allies as well (Blessing of Protection), allowing you to ignore entire boss mechanics.
Protection Paladins have various Auras to give their group an extra buff and amazing utility between their stuns and immunities. The weakest thing about them is their lack of mobility, but they don’t need it; their healing and tankiness make it negligible. Either way, playing these guys makes you feel like a warrior of the Light, but while they’re not as hard as Brewmaster Monk, they certainly have a learning curve just because of all the tools they have access to. But don’t let that dissuade you from playing this powerhouse of a tank.