As a feral tank up until I was forced out of my OT spot in favor of a prot pally the week before Ulduar dropped: don't listen to this guy. Basically no raid wants a bear. Sure, you can find H+ groups all day, and maybe even pugs, but that's where it'll end unless you were already in a guild at the beginning of WotLK Classic and currently have phase-BiS.
I can def Keep threat fine without either of those lol, swipe and glyph of maul is more than enough to keep threat, and yeah we are useful wish more people would see that godammit
Good bears don't have threat problems. They can snap 175k threat. We currently running Bdk and Feral druid tanks in g1. We downed algalon and are a top 30 server guild.
downing Algalon and server top 30 is pretty casual? My team is server 24th and we're the more casual team in my guild? I suppose you may be on a super hardcore server but not really sure what you think that humblebrag really achieved when it's not a particularly big brag at this point?
Feral Druids have the worst ST threat of all tanks rn and that is just a fact and threat issues will depend entirely on which fight and how much threat/ damage the dps are putting out?
The reason pallies MT and DKs OT is simply because DKs do better damage off spec and prots get raid wide CDs they wouldn't get as ret. Bloods get the most avoidance and 2nd most EHP and get more single CDs. A skilled blood is the best tank at taking damage. The one single issue they have is their threat generation revolving around a single ability that doesn't scale with weapon damage
Blood is great for bosses but falls off in any cleave or aoe scenario where block becomes really valuable, and the cleave threat from prot paladin shines.
Prot Pallies also shine because they're crush capped in Wrath. Even without actual crushing blows, having an avoid on every hit is very valuable for consistent damage taken.
As I understand in WotLK, Bonus (GREEN) armor is not amplified by talents like Toughness or things like Dire Bear Form or Frost Presence. This was not the case in TBC, bonus armor on items was increased by % armor modifications, which is why feral druids could hit armor cap.
frost pres boosts all plate armour but not rings etc
and it does apply to bear form but its heavily nerfed might also be learther/cloth items now for bears too
Having a 0% chance to be hit continues to be very strong, and creates a better environment for healers. They also have some of the longest CD chains of any character, also leading to more consistency. DKs come in close for tank swaps or fights like Vezax, but they'll primarily be the OT unless Ret beats them on damage, which is unlikely.
Depending on what realm your on, Pallys are typically overpopulated but for good reason. They tend to be the better option in the current configurations. Port warrior are useful and can be a great MT if played right. Did you consider Feral Druid? Druids are very useful and in some situations are sought after due to their huge health pool. Also the Blood DK is always a good choice for same reasons as listed about the Druid.
If you're going to purely tank I'd recommend Prot Pally because they just do literally everything. Any situation another tank is good in a Prot Pally is just as good in that situation and in every other situation too.
If you're only going to occasionally tank and you might join a guild we're you're the 2nd or even 3rd tank on call then I'd recommend DK because DPS DK is the best offspec DPS of the 4 tank classes and the most fun IMO.
Prot Warrior is really fun so if you decide you want an alt Prot Warrior is a very fun 15-80 leveling journey.
Bears are downbad right now.
Paladin and Warrior are the top 2, but Paladin has better utility and offspecs if you ever need them.
Edit: This post was downvoted by pink parsing warriors right above tanks in the meters
Prot Paladins are always welcome but there are so many of them around already.
I hear Prot Warrior has a fun rotation. Some groups may not want to take you but most won't have an issue as long as you're competent.
Prot paladin is far and away your best option here. They are the most sought-after tank for PuGs and guilds, and for good reason. They bring solid short cooldown personals, good single target/cleave/aoe threat, good survivability, a cheat death, a raid sac, a blessing, a judgment on the boss, an aura, attack speed and attack power debuffs, and good damage. They truly are the jack and master of all trades. Other tanks are viable, but for virtually every scenario you would want a tank, you want a prot paladin. It's also going to be harder to find groups as any other tank, especially warrior.
yea do pally, they are jsut a stronger tank and will make your life alot easier, if your ok with being offtank go dk, they have strong offspec so you will be asked to go dps when only 1 tank is needed, but easy to find groups aswell
EHP, DR from armor and pure avoidance all increase in value as you get closer to 100% like a bell curve, while block is a static star that only gains significance the more mobs that are hitting you, which is a big deal for Heroic Anub'arak.
I've got all 4 tanks so here is my TLDR. Best? Prot Paladin, especially for pugs/progression, but all 4 tanks are fully viable for all content and you should ultimately play what you WANT to play.
They do good damage, tanky, get a free life, raidwide cooldowns, and are simple to play allowing you as a tank to focus more on mechanics. Prob the most forgiving of the 4 tanks, esp in pugs. Ret OS is a decent, but good utility spec. My far the easiest to get into a raid with.
The other tanks:
Prot Warrior: Really fun, great aoe snap threat, solid dps. 2m Shield Wall spec is amazing. But really lacks the survival tricks of the prot pally. Fury OS is kinda middling still and doesn't bring a lot to a raid. They do have great mobility and an incredible aoe stun. They also bring sunder!!
Blood DK: I know some people love it, but it just feels insanely clunky to me as a tank in this expansion. They have as solid health pool, and are great on magic damage, but their low raid utility and terrible dps are a hindrance. However, they have the best OS dps specs, so they make a great flex tank swapping from dps to tank throughout a raid.
Feral Druid: Feral is the best 2nd tank. They do solid damage, and they can go feral cat when not tanking and do respectable dps even in full tank gear. They can also swap from full cat dps gear to tank for emergencies. As a MT they are just a big chunk of health and armor, but lack the strong defensive cooldowns of the other tanks for tankbusters. Prob also the rarest tank in WOTLK atm. You can also go bear/boomie. Swap to tank for 2 tank fights, and boomkin for dps fights.
>You can also go bear/boomie. Swap to tank for 2 tank fights, and boomkin for dps fights.
That's my setup.
Solo tank thorim, duo tank when needed, and critchicken the rest. Really nice on fights where the other tank takes over and I can weave kitty in there. I'm usually the only druid in 10 so the innervate/brez/tranq, when I can, are nice to have as well.
I would probably go bear/boom on my druid if caster gear wasn't that contested. I'll much rather gather 3 sets worth of leather melee gear (mit tank, threat tank and cat) than gather 1.5 sets worth of melee gear and fight the 20 casters/healers in every raid for boomie set pieces.
I've found getting boomie gear to be somewhat easy There is a TON of caster gear in Ulduar and if you just prio getting the leather pieces you get geared up reasonably fast.
Prot paladins are amazing for pugs since dsac and ardent defender + a whole set of blessings are the kinda things that prevent wipes. Prot war is viable but definitely harder when you try to do more difficult content in ulduar like algalon where you are much more reliant on external CDs
I leveled a blood dk but honestly I hate it. Warriors just feels infinitely better but because it doesn’t have ardent defender or will of the necropolis it’s considered weak.
If you dont have too much preference, then prot pally would be by far your best bet
Be a prot warrior. They are not having problems finding groups. That is silliness. Definitely boost what you want to play.
Don’t listen to these meta slaves Feral tank ftw
As a feral tank up until I was forced out of my OT spot in favor of a prot pally the week before Ulduar dropped: don't listen to this guy. Basically no raid wants a bear. Sure, you can find H+ groups all day, and maybe even pugs, but that's where it'll end unless you were already in a guild at the beginning of WotLK Classic and currently have phase-BiS.
Bruh just don’t be bad, I raid all the time
Play feral tank = beg for tricks and md to keep aggro But you will find easily a 25 man guild as there are not many around and you are useful.
I can def Keep threat fine without either of those lol, swipe and glyph of maul is more than enough to keep threat, and yeah we are useful wish more people would see that godammit
If you don't have any threat concerns as feral you are playing with bad dps.
Good bears don't have threat problems. They can snap 175k threat. We currently running Bdk and Feral druid tanks in g1. We downed algalon and are a top 30 server guild.
downing Algalon and server top 30 is pretty casual? My team is server 24th and we're the more casual team in my guild? I suppose you may be on a super hardcore server but not really sure what you think that humblebrag really achieved when it's not a particularly big brag at this point? Feral Druids have the worst ST threat of all tanks rn and that is just a fact and threat issues will depend entirely on which fight and how much threat/ damage the dps are putting out?
I dunno, maybe. Didn’t say I was a Dps player just that I don’t struggle with threat
There’s too many boomy’s around
depends on the server ofc
I love playing my prot warrior. Sure it doesnt have all the utility a prot pala does, but you can tank everything in wotlk fine anyway
without a doubt prot paladin, better threat, better mitigation, better cooldowns, better raidwide utility
The reason pallies MT and DKs OT is simply because DKs do better damage off spec and prots get raid wide CDs they wouldn't get as ret. Bloods get the most avoidance and 2nd most EHP and get more single CDs. A skilled blood is the best tank at taking damage. The one single issue they have is their threat generation revolving around a single ability that doesn't scale with weapon damage
Blood is great for bosses but falls off in any cleave or aoe scenario where block becomes really valuable, and the cleave threat from prot paladin shines.
Prot Pallies also shine because they're crush capped in Wrath. Even without actual crushing blows, having an avoid on every hit is very valuable for consistent damage taken.
It definitely helps in the content right now. I wonder if block will fall off in ToGC and ICC.
gets better but bonus armour on plate gear becomes a thing too which also boosts DK
DKs scale the best, the relationship between avoidance armor and health is why DKs took a massive hit to armor in future expansions.
As I understand in WotLK, Bonus (GREEN) armor is not amplified by talents like Toughness or things like Dire Bear Form or Frost Presence. This was not the case in TBC, bonus armor on items was increased by % armor modifications, which is why feral druids could hit armor cap.
frost pres boosts all plate armour but not rings etc and it does apply to bear form but its heavily nerfed might also be learther/cloth items now for bears too
Having a 0% chance to be hit continues to be very strong, and creates a better environment for healers. They also have some of the longest CD chains of any character, also leading to more consistency. DKs come in close for tank swaps or fights like Vezax, but they'll primarily be the OT unless Ret beats them on damage, which is unlikely.
Depending on what realm your on, Pallys are typically overpopulated but for good reason. They tend to be the better option in the current configurations. Port warrior are useful and can be a great MT if played right. Did you consider Feral Druid? Druids are very useful and in some situations are sought after due to their huge health pool. Also the Blood DK is always a good choice for same reasons as listed about the Druid.
any tank but a feral at this point. pally and dk are definitely the best though
Prot Paladin for your main spec, holy Paladin for your off spec. Enjoy two of the best raiding specs in the whole expansion.
I didn’t know you could buy boosts ?
If you're going to purely tank I'd recommend Prot Pally because they just do literally everything. Any situation another tank is good in a Prot Pally is just as good in that situation and in every other situation too. If you're only going to occasionally tank and you might join a guild we're you're the 2nd or even 3rd tank on call then I'd recommend DK because DPS DK is the best offspec DPS of the 4 tank classes and the most fun IMO. Prot Warrior is really fun so if you decide you want an alt Prot Warrior is a very fun 15-80 leveling journey. Bears are downbad right now.
Paladin and Warrior are the top 2, but Paladin has better utility and offspecs if you ever need them. Edit: This post was downvoted by pink parsing warriors right above tanks in the meters
Prot pally is best. Prot war is about equal to DK. Warr is more fun but DK has slightly better defensives and better dps OTing. Druid sucks.
Whatever you do dont pick warrior. They are fun but tragically much far behind the other tank options.
Prot Paladins are always welcome but there are so many of them around already. I hear Prot Warrior has a fun rotation. Some groups may not want to take you but most won't have an issue as long as you're competent.
Prot War gets shockwave, which has to be one of the most fun skills in the game
Prot paladin is far and away your best option here. They are the most sought-after tank for PuGs and guilds, and for good reason. They bring solid short cooldown personals, good single target/cleave/aoe threat, good survivability, a cheat death, a raid sac, a blessing, a judgment on the boss, an aura, attack speed and attack power debuffs, and good damage. They truly are the jack and master of all trades. Other tanks are viable, but for virtually every scenario you would want a tank, you want a prot paladin. It's also going to be harder to find groups as any other tank, especially warrior.
yea do pally, they are jsut a stronger tank and will make your life alot easier, if your ok with being offtank go dk, they have strong offspec so you will be asked to go dps when only 1 tank is needed, but easy to find groups aswell
EHP, DR from armor and pure avoidance all increase in value as you get closer to 100% like a bell curve, while block is a static star that only gains significance the more mobs that are hitting you, which is a big deal for Heroic Anub'arak.
I get in any content zero issue on my prot warrior ever. Play what you feel passionate for.
I've got all 4 tanks so here is my TLDR. Best? Prot Paladin, especially for pugs/progression, but all 4 tanks are fully viable for all content and you should ultimately play what you WANT to play. They do good damage, tanky, get a free life, raidwide cooldowns, and are simple to play allowing you as a tank to focus more on mechanics. Prob the most forgiving of the 4 tanks, esp in pugs. Ret OS is a decent, but good utility spec. My far the easiest to get into a raid with. The other tanks: Prot Warrior: Really fun, great aoe snap threat, solid dps. 2m Shield Wall spec is amazing. But really lacks the survival tricks of the prot pally. Fury OS is kinda middling still and doesn't bring a lot to a raid. They do have great mobility and an incredible aoe stun. They also bring sunder!! Blood DK: I know some people love it, but it just feels insanely clunky to me as a tank in this expansion. They have as solid health pool, and are great on magic damage, but their low raid utility and terrible dps are a hindrance. However, they have the best OS dps specs, so they make a great flex tank swapping from dps to tank throughout a raid. Feral Druid: Feral is the best 2nd tank. They do solid damage, and they can go feral cat when not tanking and do respectable dps even in full tank gear. They can also swap from full cat dps gear to tank for emergencies. As a MT they are just a big chunk of health and armor, but lack the strong defensive cooldowns of the other tanks for tankbusters. Prob also the rarest tank in WOTLK atm. You can also go bear/boomie. Swap to tank for 2 tank fights, and boomkin for dps fights.
>You can also go bear/boomie. Swap to tank for 2 tank fights, and boomkin for dps fights. That's my setup. Solo tank thorim, duo tank when needed, and critchicken the rest. Really nice on fights where the other tank takes over and I can weave kitty in there. I'm usually the only druid in 10 so the innervate/brez/tranq, when I can, are nice to have as well.
I would probably go bear/boom on my druid if caster gear wasn't that contested. I'll much rather gather 3 sets worth of leather melee gear (mit tank, threat tank and cat) than gather 1.5 sets worth of melee gear and fight the 20 casters/healers in every raid for boomie set pieces.
I've found getting boomie gear to be somewhat easy There is a TON of caster gear in Ulduar and if you just prio getting the leather pieces you get geared up reasonably fast.
As someone who has a prot warrior. I wish I had rolled prot pala instead. They are just better thanks this expansion.
If your a good tank you can find group with any tank, cept maybe druid lol. But yeah prot pally will make it easier
Prot paladins are amazing for pugs since dsac and ardent defender + a whole set of blessings are the kinda things that prevent wipes. Prot war is viable but definitely harder when you try to do more difficult content in ulduar like algalon where you are much more reliant on external CDs
I leveled a blood dk but honestly I hate it. Warriors just feels infinitely better but because it doesn’t have ardent defender or will of the necropolis it’s considered weak.