Tanks differences

[Deleted]

Can someone please tell me the main differences between the 4 tank classes in the game? Also, how exactly do you tank effectively if you dont know the dungeon in and out?

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Paladin blocks more often than a Warrior, but a Warrior blocks for more damage reduction when he does block.

Death Knights are about dodging and parrying because of their lack of shields, and use a lot of cooldowns and self-heals to mitigate damage. If you play a DK tank and you can't learn to manage your cooldowns effectively, you're not going to be a very good tank.

Bears are mostly about dodging and stamina, I believe, but I can't comment much further than that as I haven't tanked as one.

Paladin is probably the most forgiving tank as I think it's the least complex. Their rotation is pretty simple and they have a good self-heal and absorption bubble from Word of Glory, and the fact that they block often means less spikey damage for the healer to deal with.

As for the dungeons, you just learn as you go. If you don't have a total douche group, then they'll be understanding if you tell them you're still learning the tanking role. If they offer you advice or constructive criticism, take it. If they're just QQing at you, then ignore them.


I like all three tanks I've played, but Warrior is probably my favorite of the three. I'm not sure why I just find it the most fun.

[Saethwyr]

i'll leave the differences for other people to explain as they will no better than me, but if you want to tank effectively i can help.
first up, try and research the fight mechanics, there are quite a few decent sites Tankspot.com is most notable, they have a lot of videos but i havent been there for a while so i dont now if they covered all the dungeon bosses.

also its best to be cautious, its better to be a little bit slower than a corpse (and 4 other corpses) if you are unsure its best to range pull to stop any adds coming in.

keep an eye on your surroundings too, its easy to get fixed on your actionbar and forget to look at the actual screen

[redsunrising15]

Druids have high dodge and high absorbtion. Deathknights have high parry and mediocre absorbs. Warriors have high block and no absorbs. Pallys are the same as warriors except no critical block and more absorbs.

[Forgettable]

Deathknights have high parry and mediocre absorbs..

...What? I've got 13.5% Parry, 13.5% Dodge, and I'm gemmed / enchanted for mastery and stam. When I can do 11k Heals per second (Including absorbs) on a boss like Halfus tanking two drakes, I don't think that's very mediocre absorption

@ the OP, run with someone you know who has experience. Preferably in a voice chat. Makes things go much easier for you.

[darcrular]

Indeed Deathknights have probably towards the lower avoidance of the tanks We are meant to take damage in large portions then heals and create a mitigation bubble from the DS heals.
Sadly DK tanks are in comparison currently at the bottom of the tanking list only because of their lack of mitigation, but in contrast A good DK tank can be useful in far more situations, keep themselves up longer then the other 4 due to CD's and self heals and is the only tank that can solo many many fights.

[eternalwhitemoon]

The single biggest difference between the tanks is the player behind the keyboard.

That said, Moontalon gave a good synopsis of each one.

To elaborate on bears, we rely on dodge and crit to keep us going, and unlike most tanks who like Strength, we go for Agility because it gives us more crit which makes us "block" more via Savage Defense, improves our threat, and gives us dodge and armor, which is all made of win.

Bears don't actually block and therefore don't need block on gear, but Savage Defense works similarly to block as a mitigation stat.

Bears do lots of damage and bleedy goodness.

(Can you tell I like my bear? lol)

[personn5]

I haven't played dk tank so I'm not sure, but I think Blood shield will absorb more than one hit.
Druids Savage defense absorbs damage from the next physical hit they recieve, so it can be "wasted" if an add and a boss are hitting them at the same time.

[Deleted]

I haven't played dk tank so I'm not sure, but I think Blood shield will absorb more than one hit.
Druids Savage defense absorbs damage from the next physical hit they recieve, so it can be "wasted" if an add and a boss are hitting them at the same time.

Correct.

Except its a shame the silly druid mastery (Savage Defender) tooltip is written as "absorb". It isn't one since Savage Defense is not. It is just a damage reduction on your next attack procced by crit and the amount reduced is a proportion of your attack power.

Anyway, I'd answer the OP's question as:

0. There is not much difference between the specs in either threat or survivability. The following are just playstyle differences (unless you're a world leading progression guld who obviously min-max to extremes!):

1. Warriors have a lot of aoe threat tools which makes them impressive against multiple adds. They have no reliable and strong self-healing while tanking, other than Enraged Regeneration and very occasional Victory Rush. Of the four tank specs, this is the most reactive (most button pushing and dynamic skill selection) and is also the one with the most tools to deal with almost any situation (except self-healing).

2. Paladins have powerful controllable self-heals which means that once threat is not an issue they can basically spam these heals as part of their rotation and can practically solo some bosses, or at least a lot less reliant than other specs on heals. Don't forget they can already block, though not crit block, like warriors and have a true absorb (fully talented Word of Glory). Of the four tank specs, the most passive remains Paladin. But knowing when you can afford to switch to "heal mode" instead of "threat mode" as well as speccing appropriately for the task in front of you, is a challenge in itself. Also, paladin has the most group utilities. You can make an enormous difference directly to the group (almost as much as a healer) through good use of your utilities (on top of all the other activities tanks have to worry about).

3. DKs cannot block since they don't have a shield. Instead, they have a lot of defensive cooldowns and healing is part of both their standard threat rotation and survivability tools. They also have a true absorb. However, DK tanks at high level are not only as tricky to play if not more so than warriors but have additional issues due to ramp up times for diseases and haste debuffs affecting their core resource (at least that's what put me off taking one forward into Cata). Of the four tank specs, this requires the most pre-plannning regarding the use of its threat and survival abilities (on top of everything else as a tank). You have a few utilities and one or two group ones which some healers love.

4. Druids cannot block or parry since their don't have a shield and their weapon is just for stats. Instead, they have a damage reduction based on critting and by how much attack power they have. Also, this mitigation is tuned per hit. At the moment, they have a large single target threat. All this makes them better for bosses. In addition, they used to have considerable self-healing (which is a heal over time - very useful since it should not overheal), even in Cata. However, this has been chain nerfed considerably. Because of the lack of block and reliance on a proc for defense, their survivability can feel initially weaker than other tanks, but this is probably necessary because at higher levels of gear their survivability goes through the roof due to a high uptime on the defense proc and the synergy with their other tank stats (the more you dodge, the less you need to worry about the per-hit damage reduction being dropped off etc). This tank spec is a middle ground between Paladin and Warrior in terms of reactivity. You cannot get carpal syndrome as a Bear (haha), but in certain areas, specifically aoe threat, you do have to work a lot harder than other specs.

Those are pretty much my perspective of the four tank specs. I have all four at 80+.

Your best single resource for tanking is www.tankspot.com. Also, the guides in the MMO-C forums per tank spec are pretty good. The guys over at elitistjerks.com maybe completely nerdy, but they often have very very detailed information and can answer many questions.

Finally, my advise, you learn tanking by doing. Don't get bogged down by small details. It will quickly become clear what's best for you in your situation as long as you always question why something went wrong or didn't work exactly as you expected. There is rarely any situation where any of the tank specs do not have a way to solve it for you. Choosing which tank spec, is the least of your upcoming challenges!

Have fun!

P.S. By the way, after eventually getting round to leveling a warrior, it is the tank spec I most prefer, in case you wondered.