Dragonflight Tank Rankings

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Dragonflight Tank rankings.

 

[Guest Budheavier]

Guardian druids terrible because no magic dmg miti OMG it's almost like they had something  for this in legion and it might've been removed instead of nerfed/changed like they should've done like making it passive or giving it a CD or making it like 5/6% and letting it stack like ironfur or have the artifact ability we had as a stopgap when they removed it in legion become baseline it's sad bears being op tanks in legion castrated them for every other expansion because blizzard doesn't understand balance with a scalpel only a bat or a machete Btw if you didn't know Im talkin about ursols fur I don't want druid to be godlike again all I want is them to be not the bottom of the barrel and I say this as a bear that's been playing feral/guardian (since feral and Guardian used to be the same spec wish it was again) it since og vanilla 

[Impakt 25]

6 hours ago, Guest Budheavier said:

Guardian druids terrible because no magic dmg miti OMG it's almost like they had something  for this in legion and it might've been removed instead of nerfed/changed like they should've done like making it passive or giving it a CD or making it like 5/6% and letting it stack like ironfur or have the artifact ability we had as a stopgap when they removed it in legion become baseline it's sad bears being op tanks in legion castrated them for every other expansion because blizzard doesn't understand balance with a scalpel only a bat or a machete Btw if you didn't know Im talkin about ursols fur I don't want druid to be godlike again all I want is them to be not the bottom of the barrel and I say this as a bear that's been playing feral/guardian (since feral and Guardian used to be the same spec wish it was again) it since og vanilla 

Yeah, I feel your pain. Druids deserve more, they've just been down for too long. Hopefully they get some new way to deal with magic damage, because all the armor in the world won't make them useful in Castle.

[MechanixNA 0]

Evaluation before the full spectrum of changes shows the adolescence of this site and I know they are trying to be bias but there obvious prejudice is showing when it comes to classes. That said we still are not into Shadowlands and I hope to see a few changes before launch.

[Impakt 25]

1 hour ago, MechanixNA said:

Evaluation before the full spectrum of changes shows the adolescence of this site and I know they are trying to be bias but there obvious prejudice is showing when it comes to classes. That said we still are not into Shadowlands and I hope to see a few changes before launch.

There are multiple warnings explaining that these are not final rankings and there will change before Shadowlands. That being said, it's also just empirically false to think that you cannot determine anything useful from how tanks perform now. Monks can get nerfed, but Stagger is still going to be a mechanic. Blood DKs will still have AMZ and grips. When it comes to tank balance, we know a ton about how the tier will play out because we know the core mechanics of the tanks and we know how the fights in Castle work for the most part.

[Guest Spicytusks]

Can we get an update based on the recent changes?

[Impakt 25]

1 hour ago, Guest Spicytusks said:

Can we get an update based on the recent changes?

Definitely, I've been putting the new changes together, it just sometimes takes a bit to figure out exactly how the changes will play out.

[Guest Joe]

18 hours ago, Impakt said:

Definitely, I've been putting the new changes together, it just sometimes takes a bit to figure out exactly how the changes will play out.

!!Thanks Impakt, you're a champ!!
Can't wait to see the final list. Looking forward to playing Blood and Brew!!

[Guest Spicytusks]

Yeah for sure! thank you for this!

[Impakt 25]

56 minutes ago, Guest Spicytusks said:

Yeah for sure! thank you for this!

The new tank changes are all in, however the new Guardian changes from today are going to change Guardian to "Unranked". Their new talent is absurdly strong, but obviously broken. Until we figure out the intended mechanic for it to work, cannot really rank them accurately.

 

If it works the way people are expecting it to, Guardian could jump a few tiers since this gives them a way to deal with magic damage effectively.

[Guest N1NJACUPCAK3]

I see this hasn't been updated in a while and I was wondering how bears are doing with the most recent change that was mentioned in a comment 

[Impakt 25]

3 hours ago, Guest N1NJACUPCAK3 said:

I see this hasn't been updated in a while and I was wondering how bears are doing with the most recent change that was mentioned in a comment 

Bears are doing better, but they'll be moving to an "unranked tier" in the next update I push. Bear got two new really awesome defensive tools, but the new talent specifically is bugged or broken and can stack to ridiculous DRs right now. Until it gets tested more and the talent gets fixed, it is impossible to accurately rank them since it'll certainly be a core defensive tool and we just do not know how it works yet.

 

If I had to guess, I'd say they'll *maybe* move to B-tier, but I don't expect higher than that. It's a good tool, but other tanks will probably still be better options all else equal. This entirely depends on how the mechanic is intended to work though.

[Guest terminatorx]

Blood dk still 1st after this week death due nerf?

[Impakt 25]

7 hours ago, Guest terminatorx said:

Blood dk still 1st after this week death due nerf?

Yup. Blood DK is still in first, just a bit less ahead than before. The rankings actually have not changed for tanks - finishing them up now from this tuning pass after seeing testing yesterday.

[Guest Orpithu]

 

9 hours ago, Impakt said:

Yup. Blood DK is still in first, just a bit less ahead than before. The rankings actually have not changed for tanks - finishing them up now from this tuning pass after seeing testing yesterday.

Thanks for this.  I  heard about the nerf and was a bit nervous as I plan on maining a DK come Shadowlands.  Nice to see my warrior is no longer complete trash but still isn't enough to make up for the gap.  Then again I do love playing new things.

[Impakt 25]

3 hours ago, Guest Orpithu said:

 

Thanks for this.  I  heard about the nerf and was a bit nervous as I plan on maining a DK come Shadowlands.  Nice to see my warrior is no longer complete trash but still isn't enough to make up for the gap.  Then again I do love playing new things.

Realistically you would be totally fine playing anything. The only tank that noticeably feels worse to play is Guardian Druid. Blood DK still feels great to play, but Warrior is fine as well.

[Guest Ju8ce]

9 hours ago, Impakt said:

Realistically you would be totally fine playing anything. The only tank that noticeably feels worse to play is Guardian Druid. Blood DK still feels great to play, but Warrior is fine as well.

What about dh?are they better now with the covenant changes from last build ?

[Impakt 25]

24 minutes ago, Guest Ju8ce said:

What about dh?are they better now with the covenant changes from last build ?

Not really. They do a bit more damage, but ever since their self healing and meta uptime got nerfed, they've just been numerically weak. It's unfortunate because they haven't ever really been in the raiding meta and almost were looking really good. They're in a better spot than guardian and are more fun to play imo, but still a bit weaker than other tanks.

[Maisie 0]

Poor Bear why?

I wanted to play guardian, i played guardian the last addons but with this ranking i dont know what to play now.

I know i should play the class i have the most fun with but i dont want to play a tank that isnt worth playing and other tank classes outrange him easy.

 

So i hope the guardian will get a buff and go from unranked to Tier-A. I think about reroll to Blood DK but what if Blizzard will nerf him to death and Blood DK go from Top Tier to Tier-A or lower.

 

I really dont know what to play in shadowlands.... guardian or blood? :(

[Impakt 25]

1 hour ago, Maisie said:

Poor Bear why?

I wanted to play guardian, i played guardian the last addons but with this ranking i dont know what to play now.

I know i should play the class i have the most fun with but i dont want to play a tank that isnt worth playing and other tank classes outrange him easy.

 

So i hope the guardian will get a buff and go from unranked to Tier-A. I think about reroll to Blood DK but what if Blizzard will nerf him to death and Blood DK go from Top Tier to Tier-A or lower.

 

I really dont know what to play in shadowlands.... guardian or blood? ?

I really cannot emphasize this enough, and you will get the same answer from anyone you ask - play what you think is the most fun. None of the tank specs are unviable, and there is going to be tuning, even if it isn't for a patch or two after shadowlands launches. Unless you are competing at the highest possible ends of raiding and M+, you will be fine with any tank that you choose. Guardian performs a bit worse and struggles a bit more than other tanks, but that absolutely does not make it nonviable.

 

Some of the best guilds have used "nonmeta" tanks to get high ranked kills early on in previous tiers because in 99% of cases, player skill makes the biggest difference, not class choice. If you want to go blood DK, that's a great choice and I would definitely not worry about it being weak anytime soon, but do not pass up on Guardian just because you're worried it's not A-tier.

[Maisie 0]

23 hours ago, Impakt said:

I really cannot emphasize this enough, and you will get the same answer from anyone you ask - play what you think is the most fun. None of the tank specs are unviable, and there is going to be tuning, even if it isn't for a patch or two after shadowlands launches. Unless you are competing at the highest possible ends of raiding and M+, you will be fine with any tank that you choose. Guardian performs a bit worse and struggles a bit more than other tanks, but that absolutely does not make it nonviable.

 

Some of the best guilds have used "nonmeta" tanks to get high ranked kills early on in previous tiers because in 99% of cases, player skill makes the biggest difference, not class choice. If you want to go blood DK, that's a great choice and I would definitely not worry about it being weak anytime soon, but do not pass up on Guardian just because you're worried it's not A-tier.

What you say make sense but not only progress high level guilds and players watching this tier list. Also normal players uising RaiderIO and other Addons watching you and with this tier list in mind they tend to not choose you as a bear because the tier list and other stuff say "bear is crap".

People want the best even if they dont compete with the best. But they want it and this tier list leed them to think about bears are not worth running m+ so they only want the "good" tanks. 

My opinion is "bring the player not the class" but many wow players with RIO Addon dont think this way and only watch your class and stats...

[Guest Armitage]

My biggest fear has to be the fact that they nerf high tanks stead of makin weaker ones better. Seems every patch now i see a new small nerf to brewmaster monks

[Impakt 25]

2 hours ago, Guest Armitage said:

My biggest fear has to be the fact that they nerf high tanks stead of makin weaker ones better. Seems every patch now i see a new small nerf to brewmaster monks

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Brewmasters still just have stagger as a mechanic, that's not going away. Hard to beat.

[Guest imhere]

I dont understand why Dh are so low in this list, but i see so many vengeance demon hunter running mythic+  and raid testing by streamers

[Impakt 25]

21 minutes ago, Guest imhere said:

I dont understand why Dh are so low in this list, but i see so many vengeance demon hunter running mythic+  and raid testing by streamers

That's an excellent and important question. The biggest and most important reason by far is that just because something might be comparatively a bit worse overall or a little less "meta" does not mean it is either unfun or not worth playing.

1. Demon Hunter is still one of the most played classes, and Vengeance is a very popular tank spec that is pretty fun to play, even if the numbers are maybe a bit worse.

2. Vengeance will perform better in M+ than in raids. The weaknesses in its kit, specifically when it comes to having enough tools to deal with high damage periods in long, difficult mythic encounters, will not be as big of an issue in M+ where you have more downtime between shorter pulls.

3. Demon Hunter and Protection Paladin deal the most damage out of any tank specs right now, which makes them very desirable for lots of players.