The War Within Tank Rankings: Nerub-ar Palace Raiding Tier List (Patch 11.0.5 / Season 1)

The War Within Launch Update: With The War Within launch, everyone is back on a level playing field with no tier set bonuses, and everyone has a set of brand new Hero Talents. This list will be based primarily on early sim data and raid testing data.

The main things you want to look for in tank choice are damage dealt, the ability to handle or recover from incoming damage of all types, cooldowns, and utility (including Raid buffs).

It is incredibly important to emphasize that just because a tank is low in the tier list, it does not mean that you should ignore it completely. For the vast majority of cases, you should choose to bring the better player (or what the player is more comfortable playing), not blindly play the subjectively better class. Your raid composition may demand that tank choices are made regardless of their strength, such as needing Mystic Touch, Chaos Brand, or Death Grip.

Below is a quick summary of the full rankings that we have detailed on this page. While this gives a good outline of the standings of specializations in comparison to one another, we recommend reading the full rankings to understand why certain specializations are ranked as they are.

1. Blood Death Knight (Meta Pick)
2. Guardian Druid (Great Choice)
3. Brewmaster Monk (Great Choice)
4. Protection Warrior (Great Choice)
5. Vengeance Demon Hunter (Great Choice)
6. Protection Paladin (Final Boss Dependant)

If you are interested in our other rankings for Season 1 Raiding in The War Within, please click the links below.

Tanks are reasonably close together when it comes to defensive power. Defensively, every tank is 100% viable. The major differences between the tanks are damage output, utility, and unique buffs that they bring to the raid. Some tank choices will perform better on some encounters, but for the raid as a whole, you are more than fine to pick any option.

Patch 11.0.5 Update: Blood Death Knights recieve a buff for Deathbringer and a nerf to San'layn (Sanlayn wasn't used much anyway). Their grips are invaluable on Broodtwister Ovi'nax, and Anti-Magic Zone is a potent cooldown on many others.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-Tier.
• Utility: S-Tier

Blood Death Knights are the tanks with the most absolute control over their own survival due to Death Strike, but any mismanagement of your resources can lead to it not being as strong in this department as they should be. In addition to this control, they bring the ability to bring enemies to you with Death Grip and a raid cooldown with Anti-Magic Zone, but they can't have it all, and the main weakness is damage. Blood does not bring any required buffs or cooldowns, but on encounters where you need to group enemies, their utility is invaluable.

What does Blood Death Knight bring?

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Raid Cooldown	Anti-Magic Zone	Absorbs 20% of magic damage taken up to 150% of the DKs health. As Blood has a significantly larger health pool than Frost/Unholy the AMZ from Blood is much more reliable.
Debuff	Insidious Chill	Similar to Curse of Weakness, this reduces the speed of auto-attacks from bosses. With auto attacks contributing a majority of damage taken on any encounter, this is a valuable debuff to bring to the raid.
Enemy Displacement	Death Grip/ Abomination Limb / Gorefiend's Grasp	Ulgrax the Devourer, Bloodbound Horror, and Broodtwister Ovi'nax all have adds that need to be gripped and grouped for efficient DPS.
Debuff negation	Anti-Magic Shell	AMS can be used to prevent debuffs from being applied to you, which makes some encounters easier, but is also a very large magic damage absorb.
Knockback/Pushback negation	Death's Advance	This will completely prevent you from being moved by any knockbacks or pushbacks.

Patch 11.0.5 Update: Guardian druids have proven to be a strong tank to bring for their damage output. It is also a very good option for Mark of the Wild in raid compositions as Resto is not very competitive, and Feral/Balance are not widely represented. There are many moments in this raid where the raid is moving as a unit, or players need to move to a new location quickly, making Stampeding Roar very valuable.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: S-Tier.
• Utility: B-Tier

Guardian Druids are still a strong tank option in Mythic+ however, this does not translate into raid as well as it did before. They provide high amounts of Single Target damage and are a good all-round tank option. They, unfortunately, do not have any boss-breaking utility that is required for the raid, but the utility they do bring is still valueble! (But everything they bring can be bought by another Druid spec.)

What does Guardian Druid bring?

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Buff	Mark of the Wild	A mandatory raid buff which increases Versatility for every player.
AoE Movement Speed	Stampeding Roar	In many encounters, every piece of raid movement is a set piece movement requiring the raid to move from one static location to another. Speeding this process up increases raid DPS.
Healer support	Innervate	Most raid builds can include this piece of core Healer utility. This can make a healer do an entire ramp on the raid without needing to worry about their mana.
Enemy Displacement	Ursol's Vortex	This can be very impactful on encounters where adds need to remain in a static position, such as Raszageth , Sarkareth and Larodar.

Patch 11.0.5 Update: As ever Brewmaster popularity lives and dies on the viability of Mistweaver and Windwalker. Many guilds have opted for Brewmaster to be their source of Mystic Touch, but even without that consideration Brewmasters are still a great all round tank option. Ring of Peace is very valuable on Queen Ansurek and many others.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-Tier.
• Utility: B-Tier

Brewmaster Monk is a strong all-around choice for tanking but has by far the most rotational keybinds of any tank. This can be reduced by passive talent options such as Press the Advantage. However, each of these switches lower the damage but make the spec easier to manage.

Monks bring solid damage output, can smooth out their damage taken with Stagger, and have strong but infrequent defensive cooldowns. The main reason to bring a Brewmaster would be for Mystic Touch, as both other Monk specializations are quite weak comparatively.

What does Brewmaster Monk bring?

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Debuff	Mystic Touch	Increases physical damage dealt to the target by 5%.
Buff	Generous Pour	Reduces AoE damage taken by players within 10 yards by 4%.
Buff	Close to Heart	Increases healing taken by players within 10 yards by 8%. For many encounters in the raid, the group is stacked near melee range, so this benefits more than just the melee clump!
Speed Taunt	Hasty Provocation	This forces bosses to run faster when you taunt them.
Defensive Cooldown	Diffuse Magic	Not only is this a very strong magic damage reduction for the Monk, it can also dispel Magic debuffs.
AoE Taunt	Summon Black Ox Statue	If you use Provoke on this statue, you will taunt everything around the statue, making Brewmaster one of two tanks with an AoE taunt.
AoE Knockback	Ring of Peace	An AoE knockback that can be used to prevent adds from running away or bouncing them closer to the raid.

Patch 11.0.5 Update: Protection Warriors are unchanged for this patch. DPS Warrior is still in a good position, so Battle Shout is covered regardless, but you can never have too many Rallying Crys.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-Tier.
• Utility: A-Tier

Protection Warriors have not only a required buff but also the strongest non-healer raid cooldown in the game with Rallying Cry. Protection Warriors also provide a good amount of damage and have more than enough defensive tools to make them a good tank choice.

What does Protection Warrior bring?

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Buff	Battle Shout	A mandatory raid buff for any physical damage dealers.
Raid Cooldown	Rallying Cry	This is one of the strongest defensive cooldowns available. It increases the effective Health of every player in the raid at a similar level to Power Word: Barrier but has no positional requirements. You can never have too many of these.
AoE Silence/Taunt	Disrupting Shout	This is not only an AoE silence, it's an AoE taunt as well!

Patch 11.0.5 Update: No big changes come for Vengeance Demon Hunters with this patch. They remain a strong competitive choice for Mythic+ which translates into popularity in raiding. Their Sigil of Chains makes them a very good pick for Mythic Broodtwister Ovi'nax.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-Tier
• Utility: B-Tier

Vengeance Demon Hunters are a strong all-round tank. The utility bought by Vengeance is not showcased in this raid as Havoc is a strong Melee DPS option, and there are not many circumstances where Sigil of Silence is invaluable. If your raid team needs Chaos Brand, then playing Vengeance can be a solid option.

What does Vengeance Demon Hunter bring?

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Debuff	Chaos Brand	You will want this in any raid group for the 3% bonus to magic damage. Even physical damage dealers benefit from this as a good portion of their damage is buffed by this.
Raid Cooldown	Darkness	This cooldown shines when the entire raid is stacked together.
AoE Silence	Sigil of Silence	An AoE Silence that can be applied from 30 yards away!
AoE Grip	Sigil of Chains	This AoE Grip will find good use on Ulgrax the Devourer, Bloodbound Horror, and Broodtwister Ovi'nax.

Patch 11.0.5 Update: Protection Paladins see a small talent rework and some buffs with this patch. They are dealing more damage, getting a whole bunch of talents baked in by default and access to more Holy Power spenders with both Divine Toll and Divine Purpose being more accessible. Their utility has benefits on Queen Ansurek with Blessing of Freedom and Blessing of Spellwarding being very strong cooldowns to bring along.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-Tier.
• Utility: A-Tier

Protection Paladins bring lots of useful raid tools in the form of Auras and External Cooldowns, but are also a good tank choice with the flexibility to play more defensively with Sentinel or offensively without it. Historically Protection Paladins boasted the highest DPS of any tank. However, this is no longer the case. You will opt to bring a Protection Paladin for the External cooldowns it can provide with Blessing of Protection or Blessing of Spellwarding to negate mechanics where you would otherwise sacrifice a player, where this is not the case, the value of the Protection Paladin falls.

What does Protection Paladin bring?

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Auras	Devotion Aura	Every raid will want at least 1 Paladin to provide this damage reduction aura.
Immunity	Divine Shield	A complete immunity to any type of damage. This can be augmented with the talent Final Stand to make this an AoE taunt as well, which can be beneficial to gather adds and keep them on the boss.
External Cooldowns	Blessing of Spellwarding	All Paladins can bring Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Sacrifice, but Protection Paladins also brings Blessing of Spellwarding. This can be used to make players completely immune to magic damage.
AoE Interrupt	Divine Toll	Being able to interrupt multiple enemies on demand can be valuable in some scenarios as a method of grouping caster adds.