Ideal Tank Combinations?

[ewoods973]

My question is, for heroic mode raids what are the ideal tank combinations(10 mans)? What are the benefits of certain combinations? I ask this because my current guild has 4 tanks(all different classes) that are all pretty similarly geared, and I am one of them. I am wondering how we can distribute the tanks among the two groups for the ideal setup to progress as far as possible.

[Deleted]

If you are planning to stick 4 tanks into 2 different groups, I would give 1 block tank to each group ( warrior paladin ).

In that case, my personal prefference would be

Paladin DK

Warrior Druid

[Deleted]

I know we roll warrior/dk but we have pally and druid buffs from other sources within the raid also, if that has any contributing factor to it. Imo I just like pally/druid combo tanks, so I would roll with that if it was my choice.

[Purgex]

Boss: Druid
Trash: Paladin

Boss: Warrior
Trash: Paladin

Boss: Paladin
Trash: DK

From a paladin's PoV

[Vlob]

Boss: Druid
Trash: Paladin

Boss: Warrior
Trash: Paladin

Boss: Paladin
Trash: DK

From a paladin's PoV

I like this.

[Achilles21]

Well although Blizzard has tried to do away with the whole "niche tank" thing, certain tanks are better than others at certain things, and that's just because they are different. Since you have all 4 to choose from, I'd recommend splitting up the Warrior and the Paladin, as they both excel at add tanking (not to say that DKs and Druids can't tank adds, its just that Warriors and Pallies are better at it). This is due to the fact that they both have ways to stun adds (Shockwave, Holy Wrath) making times where they need to be kited much easier (Maloriak, Nef Phase 3).

Druids are kind of weak on adds due to the way Savage Defense works (it gets fully consumed no matter what, first hit) and the DK mastery really shines where you can predict incoming damage, which you can't on adds.

Just my two cents ^_^.

[Shanto94]

Boss: Druid
Trash: Paladin

Boss: Warrior
Trash: Paladin

Boss: Paladin
Trash: DK

From a paladin's PoV

Honestly, I found it better to have a DK on Boss and Pala on trash, due to the awesome block paladins can have, we will take low melee damage, so the one dealing most melee damage should be taken by your paladin, as DKs "block" (blizz call the blood shield DKs compensation for lack of block) also support against spells, but I find the ideal settup as DK MT and Pala OT trough experimenting.

So, all in all I would do like already recommended:
One group get pala and one get warr, where you place druid and where you place DK is up to your guild, I would maybe place DK with the warr and druid with the paladin.
Hope your guild can have lots off fun and good luck @Hard Modes

[ajs38x]

I DK tank when needed, found the only time I struggle is Omnitron when they put up the shields and you can't keep the Death Strikes rolling, I feel as tho the healers have their hands full keeping me up

[nnelson54]

as DKs "block" (blizz call the blood shield DKs compensation for lack of block) also support against spells

Blood Shield(and Savage Defense, for that matter) only works against melee damage.

[shokter]

Good advice here so far. I can't comment on cata hard modes...but one more thing to keep in mind (in general) is keeping at least one tank with a dps offspec in each.

[Deleted]

Warriors are supreme kiters or add handlers.

First are foremost, they are - together with DKs - the only class capable of spreading both -20% attack speed and -10% physical damage to all targets around them. Secondly, you usually want to nuke adds asap; the Warrior applies full stacks of Sunder Armor for all you physical damage dealers' joy. They're also the fastest at getting to a new mob with charges. Last but not least, they got extreme kiting capabilities with Piercing Howl, Heroic Leap, various charges and Shockwave. Not to mention, come patch 4.1, they gain a raid wide ability increasing everyone's current and maximum health by 20%. A Warrior does also bring passive dispels for various boss mechanics (Maloriak's self heal, for instant, although you're likely to want a Warrior handling the adds).

A well played Warrior does also have a very low and predictable damage intake. During large portions of an encounter (at the very least 33%, if the boss has a full uptime on the Warrior - during encounters with tank swaps or similar it's significantly higher), the Warrior is guaranteed to block, critically block, dodge or parry any attack made against him.

[Achilles21]

Blood Shield(and Savage Defense, for that matter) only works against melee damage.

Maybe they were referring to the fact that DKs can use magic damage to make bigger Blood Shields? Blood Shields don't protect against magic damage but magic damage count towards the damage taken in the last 5 seconds used to calculate how big Death Strike heals for.

[XtreO]

If you wear plate, put yourself with the druid. Any tank combination is viable (though I find DK/warr synergy especially cool, even more so if the DK is a goblin).

[Deleted]

We have DK + Warrior (me) and I got to say it's quite nice. I don't see what a druid could add, but raidwall from a paladin tank would be intriguing to have replacing either one of us. Probably the DK since my supreme add kiting abilities are so awesome (and I'm the raid leader ;P)