The Best Tanks in World of Warcraft, Ranked

Standing between your party and the big, gribbly monster trying to kill them is the Tank, the player whose role it is to take the hits so everyone else can dish out their damage safely. There’s a lot less specializations intended for tanking than damage-dealing in WoW, but each one has a bunch of specific strengths and utlities they can use to help your team. So whether you’re raiding Heroic or pushing for higher keys in Mythic+, here are our picks for the Best Tank classes and specializations in World of Warcraft: The War Within.

World of Warcraft Tank Tier List

When deciding how ‘good’ a class is, we’ll be looking at the most important qualities for a Tank and how much the class provides. In order of importance, these are: Mitigation/Survivability, Raid Utility, Mobility, and Damage. Mitigation is how much they are able to absorb and lessen the damage received, which is the primary job of a tank after all. Raid Utility includes things like raid-wide stat buffs like Battle Shout or Paladin Blessings, spells like Anti-Magic Zone or Stampeding Roar that can help other raid members in certain mechanics, as well as things like slows, stuns, and enemy repositioning tools. Mobility is simply how many movement tools a class has, as a tank will often still need to dodge mechanics and attacks just like other members. And finally Damage is simply how much DPS the class is able to pump out while also staying alive, since even the smallest bit of damage can be the difference between a boss clear and a wipe.

1. Warrior (Protection)

The classic and still the best for our money, a Protection Warrior can withstand enormous damage thanks to their vast array of defensive cooldowns and mitigation abilities. While best against physical damage due to their focus on blocking with a shield, they’re still no slouch in magic damage-heavy fights thanks to abilities like Spell Block and Spell Reflection. Throw in multiple stuns, raid buffs like Rallying Cry and Battle Shout, or the mobility provided by Heroic Leap and Charge and you’ve got a powerful, flexible class ready to protect your raid.

2. Paladin (Protection)

Healing, Shielding, Buffs, Damage, the Paladin does it all. With abilities like Divine Shield that lets them protect themselves and even ignore some mechanics entirely, or Lay on Hands which is a spectacularly powerful heal able to be used on themselves or others, there’s simply so much the Paladin brings to the table while also doing good damage all the while. Divine Steed even provides some much needed mobility, which was the class’s biggest weakness previously. They can still be fairly slow outside that cooldown however, and they lack some of the other classes’ ranged tools, but the Paladin is still an extremely strong choice for a tank and welcome in any group.

3. Death Knight (Blood)

Why bother avoiding hits, says the Death Knight, when you can simply hit them back *harder* and steal some of their lifeforce while you’re at it? Forgoing a shield for self-healing that gets stronger the more damage you take and the ability to survive lethal blows, a well-played Blood Death Knight is durable and dangerous. They also have some pretty unique utility, such as multiple taunts and the ability to reposition some enemies with Death Grip and Gorefiend’s Grasp, on top of a combat resurrection spell. Some abilities like Death’s Advance and Anti-Magic Shell even allow them to ignore or bypass certain mechanics if timed right.

The downside is that their self healing can mean their health regularly switches between very low and very high, which may be a stress on any healers who aren’t used to working with the class. The Death Knight is also very slow, preferring to pull enemies to them than move themselves, which can be fatal in certain fights that demand lots of movement.

4. Druid (Guardian)

There is no trade the Druid is not able to jack, and that includes Tanking. Like the Warrior, Guardian Druids use Rage as a resource and have a plethora of cooldowns to mitigate incoming damage, as well as all the usual mobility and splashes of self healing Druids get. However, though their damage is pretty impressive it takes a while to ramp up due to a lot of it being tied to damage-over-time spells, which can be an issue if your party members start to out-aggro you. To get the most out of Druid utility you’ll also have to get used to switching between shapeshift forms, which can be dicey if you get caught out without Bear Form’s defensive buffs. Still, the Druid is a popular choice for veteran tanks who want something a little different without sacrificing general effectiveness.

5. Demon Hunter (Vengeance)

As one might expect from a big, fire-emitting half-demon, the Demon Hunter excels when there are lots of enemies to burn at once. They have a variety of area-of-effect abilities including damage, a snare, a silence, and a stun all backed up by some really great mobility. That said, a big portion of the Demon Hunter’s survivability comes from building up Soul Shards and other resources, which means they need a period of ramp-up time before they’re fully effective and without a lot of targets their AoE potential is largely wasted. But in the right situation, the Demon Hunter can use their mobility to round up lots of smaller adds and burn them down like no other.

6. Monk (Brewmaster)

On paper, the Brewmaster Monk is one of the most interesting and unconventional Tank classes around. Using their unique mechanic to receive a portion of damage slowly over time, rather than all at once, means healing them feels like the opposite of healing a Death Knight: very smooth, predictable damage rather than big spikes. They also bring that vaunted Monk mobility with abilities like Roll and can even help out healers by cleansing their own poison and disease debuffs, all while having a chance to dodge some attacks outright. Their weakness comes in the complexity of the class, as without fully utilizing all of their tricks the Brewmaster can be rather squishy.

If you enjoyed this article, feel free to check out Siliconera’s other guides such as How to Obtain the Core Hound mount from the Anniversary Event, or How to Get the Trader’s Gilded Brutosaur mount.

World of Warcraft and The War Within expansion are immediately available on PC and Mac.