In World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight, tanking can be one hard job. It certainly isn't for the casual or faint of heart. With the job of being the Tank, a lot of responsibilities lies in your role. You will need to know mechanics, positioning, and, most importantly, how to maintain aggro.
There are six Tank classes to choose from, and you may wonder which is the best overall or even the best fit for you. Though each has its strengths and weaknesses, Tanks can be presented into a tier list showing how they stack up against one another, using the following scale: S-Tier, A-Tier, and B-Tier.
Tank Tier List Criteria
Every group for PvE content needs a Tank: it is just an essential part of any party, and there is no way around it. Making sure you can maintain the focus of enemies, manage positioning, and keep on top of your mechanics is a massive part of this role.
The Tank role doesn't have many class choices, but each has unique qualities. While there may be a significant discrepancy between the S-Tier and B-Tier classes, the B-Tier may have some advantages that the S-Tier don't. Ultimately, choose the right balance of fun and functionality.
These Tank tier lists are based on which class is easiest to maintain aggro with, deal damage, and keep up their defenses. You may find that some are better at maintaining aggro, while others bring more utility to the party.
- S-Tier: The best of the best. This tier is probably the easiest to play effectively in their ability to do what Tanks do best.
- A-Tier: The runner-up. This tier will prove to be quite effective at the Tank role and can possibly complete with the S-Tier
- B-Tier: The backup squad. In the B-Tier, you will find they do the job but may not be as great as the first two tiers.
Mythic+ Tier List
These classes shine best as the Tank role specifically in Mythic Plus dungeons. Utility is very important in this area of the game, as is being able to dish out high damage, so the best specs are ones that are both reliable defensively, but that can either kite well or excel on the offense.
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A-Tier |
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B-Tier |
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Protection Warrior
The undisputed kings of the Dragonflight talent rework, Protection Warriors have dominated the first tier of the expansion. Superb defensive capabilities are backed up with great damage and exceptional mobility. Prot Warriors are free to Heroic Leap and Charge around, all while maintaining their active mitigation and bleed uptime. Excellent defensive cooldowns prevent you from being caught out, although their old weakness to Magic damage is still apparent. Spell Reflection somewhat serves to mitigate this, and can in fact be used to reflect crucial abilities for huge damage, but their consistent magical mitigation is still low. Only Magic damage focused enemies will really pose a problem for Prot Warriors in a Mythic Plus environment.
Blood Death Knight
The masters of self-healing and control, Blood Death Knights remain an ever popular choice for Mythic Plus. Being able to easily manipulate enemy positioning while functioning as their own healer has its benefits, and you can often find them at the top of the healing meter. This power comes with a slight cost, as Blood's mobility is extremely poor, and you are very vulnerable on pull, before you can apply your Bone Shield stacks, but aside from this, Blood Death Knights excel in a number of other key areas, and are easily a top tier pick for dungeons.
Protection Paladin
Prot Paladin's have for a long time been purely an offensive choice for Mythic Plus. Able to dish out great AoE damage but at the cost of survivability, they were a glass cannon type of tank, relying on a strong offense and big cooldowns. Nowadays, this playstyle has been somewhat smoothed out, and Prot Paladin finds itself at the very top end of Mythic Plus tanks. Their high damage still remains, and the added benefit of AoE interrupting with Avenger's Shield is a great bonus. You won't find the same level of control as a Blood DK, or the resolute defense of a Prot Warrior, but Prot Paladin does bring unique Paladin utility, and is a great choice for those players who are looking to help out their groups.
Vengeance Demon Hunter
The best kiting tank in the game, Vengeance Demon Hunter retains all of its exceptional mobility. Very strong whilst in their cooldowns, the factor that really prevents them ascending to the top is their squishiness outside of them. Being forced to kite is a DPS loss, and other tanks can simply stand still and take the punishment without flinching. Luckily, Vengeance is able to Infernal Strike away, but don't expect to live long without proper cooldown management and self-healing. However, Spirit Bomb remains a great AoE damage source, and Vengeance can easily dish out some big numbers, so don't discount them, as they are really only one tuning parse away from fighting it out at the top.
Brewmaster Monk
Formerly the most reliable tank in the game, Brewmasters have struggled in the early days of Dragonflight. No longer an unkillable wall, they instead have become big DPS monsters, but liable to being chunked down. They retain excellent mobility, so kiting is always a good option, but not being able to whether the storm limits what they can really do in high Mythic Plus keys. As a class, Monk is performing well, so there are other specs that are more currently deserving of the limelight, and it is hard to recommend Brewmaster over any of the aforementioned tanks at the moment.
Guardian Druid
Guardian Druids have not had a good Dragonflight so far. A dodgy talent tree has been coupled with being exceptionally squishy, something will always hold a class back in Mythic Plus. Their great damage is nice, but they lack in a number of key areas when compared to the top performers. As it stands, Guardian needs a serious buff, and lies firmly at the bottom of the Mythic Plus tier list. That being said, no tank is unviable, and just because they aren't quite as good at the best, they retain all the great Druid utility, including AoE movement with Stampeding Roar, and the Mark of the Wild buff, so don't be put off.
Raid Tier List
The pros and cons of the classes for Raids vary a bit from the Mythic Plus tier list, as it becomes more about what raid buff you can bring, and less about the solo strength of the spec. Tanks that both bring a buff and can be defensively sound will always be the go-to choices in a raid.
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Tier |
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Pros and Cons |
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S-Tier |
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A-Tier |
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B-Tier |
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Protection Warrior
Prot Warrior performs similarly in raids as they do in Mythic Plus. Defensively reliable, they can shrug off big hits while being able to easily dodge mechanics. Battle Shout is a strong raid buff, and they can help out their co-tank with Intervene. Even their self-healing has been improved, with passive Leech serving to keep themselves topped, when the healers are preoccupied. Their Magic weakness is not as prevalent in raid, and while Prot still lacks high crowd control, this is easily rectifiable in a raid environment, where there are more allies present.
Blood Death Knight
Enemy manipulation with abilities such as Death Grip is vital for certain raid encounters, and Blood Knights are a fantastic choice for handling these add focused fights. Healers can spend less time on tank healing when a Blood DK is in the group, and while they may not have the greatest damage, their unparalleled utility and self survivability more than makes up for it. Anti-Magic Zone provides an effective raid utility spell, and although they don't bring a raid buff, you'll always be happy to have a Blood DK as one of your raid tanks.
Protection Paladin
Not quite as effective in raids as in Mythic Plus, Prot Paladins are still more than adequate. An issue is that in a raid with only two tank spots, you are aiming to cover as many raid buffs as possible. It is often more efficient to take a Holy Paladin for the Devotion Aura, and a Retribution Paladin for the Ret Aura. Prot falls in an awkward middle ground where the only real niche it has is with Blessing of Spellwarding. Strong off-healing is nice, but not exactly mandatory, and Prot could do with receiving something more interesting to differentiate it from its fellow Paladin specs.
Vengeance Demon Hunter
Demon Hunters bring a strong raid buff with Chaos Brand, but with Havoc performing well it is difficult to argue for Vengeance's inclusion. They are best described as OK, with middling raid damage and survivability. The need to kite is not really prevalent in raids, and Vengeance lacks a certain aspect of its gameplay that would help to set it above other tanks. Both Warriors and Death Knights outpace it in the defensive department, and the squishier, lower ranked specs are ahead on damage. This results in Vengeance languishing in a middle of the pack role, where they are by no means a bad choice, but other options may seem more attractive for various reasons.
Brewmaster Monk
Being a squishy spec in raids is not a good thing, and Brewmasters may find themselves dying in situations other tanks may be able to shrug off. Great damage does not really make up for this weakness, and it may only be due to the Mystic Touch debuff that you would want to field one in your raids. Brew needs some tuning to reclaim its former glory, and with Warriors and DKs still looking to dominate, it may be a while before the Kings of the Keg are back on top.
Guardian Druid
Guardian Druids may be topping the tank DPS meters in raid, but that is really the only benefit to running one. All the great Druid utility is not as impactful in a raid, where there are more players to cover for any crowd control deficit. Stampeding Roar is always an excellent spell to have multiple of, but with Restoration Druid being so powerful, it is again difficult to argue for the inclusion of a Guardian, outside of personal preferences.
While some classes excel as Tanks in Mythic+ and Raids, that doesn't mean you can't be an efficient Tank as one of the lower-tier classes. It may require some more work on your end to compete with the higher tier Tank classes, but you should always try and play the spec you enjoy the most, as you will tend to perform better. While picking an S-tier Tank class is undoubtedly the best when queuing for Mythic Plus and Raids, B-Tier classes are great if you love a challenge, giving you the opportunity to show the world what you're made of.