For the love of tanking...

[Dollabill 0]

Hello Tanking Community,

I have an issue that I hope you all can give me some help/feedback on. I have been healing pretty much all of MoP and wanted to give tanking a go.

Now I have tanked many times before but never really in a raid setting (except a little in wrath) otherwise it has been all healing for me. Now in my opinion I truly believe all tanks are fun (except paladin), however, that is the issue for me. 

I DON"T KNOW WHICH TANK CLASS TO PICK 0347r5whfjh&%(*%#7!!!!

It has literally been bugging me for two weeks on what class I can possible have more fun in AND is viable in raiding for now but mainly the upcoming expansion WoD.

Now can someone help a brotha out and tell me which class I should pick and why. Keeping in mind I have ALL of them at level 90 (Bear, BDK, PWarr, or BMaster) 

Thanks in advance!!

[Estarriol 167]

Really, you should choose whichever one you think is the most fun. I know that's not the answer you want, but currently the different tank classes are pretty well balanced. As for effectiveness in WoD, we currently have no idea. Everything is still in development and subject to change. Furthermore, which class or classes are particularly strong changes from tier to tier.

[Storm 426]

Don't listen to our diplomatic warrior tank . . . DK master class! 

[Geoda 253]

Don't listen to our diplomatic warrior tank . . . DK master class! 

Haha, I was waiting for this! I was going to say Paladins are #1, but he doesn't think they're fun 

 

I've heard great things about DK's solo'ing everything, I'd assume being successful is fun right?

[Ceraius 34]

DKs are easily the most self sustaining tank spec. Thats where the sense of power comes from on them, imo.

 

Warriors can currently dish out stunning damage numbers in addition to reliable smoothing and good mobility (which im so jelous of.)

 

Monks are maybe the most "active" tank. The basic survival toolkit having the most buttons to it, but it is great fun. Very different from all the rest.

 

I don't have any experience with Pally or Druid so can't say much about those.

 

Go spam a few LFRs with each and evaluate for yourself. LFR won't give a very exact image nor accurate numbers, but it'll give a general idea of how each one behaves. To my experience all classes are good at the moment, with some excelling in other areas than the rest.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Ceraius

[Storm 426]

Speaking of DK's being self sustaining. check out this log from last night. I took my DK to a 25m normal alt run because I didn't raid last week. on Sha of pride I was 24th out of 25 for damage taken while tanking.

 

Warcraft logs shows it a little bit different than skada. It shows that I was 2nd in damage taken, but 83% was absorbed.

 

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/t8r2a6nPM91BXR4z#fight=11&type=damage-taken

[LobbyBoy 37]

I love playing my alt dudu tank.

You can achieve fair damage and selfheal numbers while stil looking cute 

[Estarriol 167]

 

 

Monks are maybe the most "active" tank. The basic survival toolkit having the most buttons to it, but it is great fun. Very different from all the rest.

 

 

 

I'd disagree with this. They're really the only tank with mitigation as a part of their normal rotation with the exception of DK, but DKs must time their usage whereas monks can have it up indefinitely. They also have fewer and more situational CDs than other tanks. They feel very non-interactive and slow to me, but that's purely my own opinion. Many people like them particularly because they have the "feel" of a DPS spec as a tank.

[Tuffeyy 1]

DKs are easily the most self sustaining tank spec. Thats where the sense of power comes from on them, imo.

 

Warriors can currently dish out stunning damage numbers in addition to reliable smoothing and good mobility (which im so jelous of.)

 

Monks are maybe the most "active" tank. The basic survival toolkit having the most buttons to it, but it is great fun. Very different from all the rest.

 

I don't have any experience with Pally or Druid so can't say much about those.

 

Go spam a few LFRs with each and evaluate for yourself. LFR won't give a very exact image nor accurate numbers, but it'll give a general idea of how each one behaves. To my experience all classes are good at the moment, with some excelling in other areas than the rest.

 

Iunno I find paladins really high in self-sustain.

 

They have more healing throughput then any other tank. With high vengeance you have have an eternal flame healing you for up to 600k every 1.5 seconds, with your seals of insight healing you for 250k every melee swing which is generally fast because you have ~50% haste. What I love about DK's is the absorbs... so many nommy absorbs... the lack of absorbs on paladin makes me a sad panda :(

 

Paladins lack in other areas though. Their initial snap aggro and overall damage is nothing to brag about this patch, perhaps this is because of low base damage or that we don't have access to Riposte and we don't build crit as a standard. In raid our crit is like 12%, if that. Factor in the 3% boss crit suppression and some of your abilities wont even have a 10% crit rate. :(

 

However this is kinda all void coming 6.0 as vengeance changes and damage pass overs will change it all again :D

[Mythx 1]

Having done tanking with all 5 tanks I would say that if you have very limited experience I would stick with one of 2

 

Paladin, or Druid.  Druid flat out has the best built in passive mitigation. They also have the least amount of cool downs you need to manage. Paladins are close behind but have a bit more flexability.

 

Brewmaster to me is probably the middle ground in terms of complexity. But I am not a huge fan of the playstyle involved.

 

Warriors are fantastic overall and have a vast array of mitigation. But they can be a bit tougher as they have almost no self healing.

 

DK's to me are the hardest to master. They are probably the most self suffcient of the group but they can take huge amount of damage. And if you do not time your cool downs right if can be tough for a healer to keep up.  But played well they can do quite a bit of damage and are almost as hard to kill as a Pally.