This is not one of “what should I play” posts. I genuinely want to know YOUR personal perspective on tanks, so please do not suggest me “playing what I like”
It’s easy to judge tanks in M+, PVP or raid environment, but what about casual play style? What tanks are most comfortable for solo open world activities, questing, delves and such content?
I’ve played all tanks, but I personally can’t decide which is the best, because all of them have some cons:
Paladins’ aesthetic is not for me, but they are great gameplay-wise. I heard in TWW they suck? Idk
Warriors are cool but I always struggle with magic damage and long fights
Death Knights are just weird to me - everyone says they are a healing machine, but I can’t heal properly somehow
Druid tanks feel slow and boring, but have cool utility
Demon Hunters are mobile, but simple
Monks are just… monks?
That’s my take, what about you?
Which tank could you advice anyone to play? Who’s best at casual and solo content?
Bear is quite a solid pick. Tons and tons of physical mitigation when needed. Currently they have great self healing too. Movable. Cool looks.
Brewmaster is quite neat too, for me. Esp in some lower keys you can soak quite some tank busters with your stagger mechanic. Gives you a slight “react” instead of “prepare” possibilities.
Prot pally has a decent damage output in part because their damage profile is melee aoe with an element of glaive bounce in AS and a single target ranged attack in judgment
Mouseovering your ranged abilities with an if exist (= the ability will target your actual target if no mouseover target is found) macro also means you have an easier time pulling more mobs without having to switch your target out.
In general you have to try to fail as prot pala, because theres a lot of cleave and aoe on the Prot paladin, as long as you can survive more mobs, its always advantageous for your performance that you do, as its just more targets to be hit by your mostly aoe/cleave damage profile.
No real point in going for groups of 2-3 (more if better geared) mobs at a time over retri tho, you need to pull big if you want to pull ahead of ret
Theres also less worrying about how hard a group level rare elite or even a worldboss will hit, what might be a dicy risky fight as dps can become an easily won Battle of attrition as tank, for worldbosses I never even lfg up, I just pull the worldboss and wait for people to catch on which they always do quickly tho that might be a thing true for all tanks, I only tried that on prot tho
So my endorsement goes to Prot pally for best casual content tank.
IMO it kind of depends on how well you jive with the individual playstyles…
For me Guardrood is the easiest to get into and generally the most forgiving for most mistakes, but with that ease come some limitations.
Protpally and BDK are my go to tanks, but both require more active gameplay, but also have the advantage of being able to put out fires without breaking a sweat. As well as having much better self healing than a Druid, well played BDKs and Protadins are close to unkillable, but specifically on DK it takes practice and a keen understanding how the deathstrike mechanic functions (esp after the TWW rework) to make that possible.
For example a druid that gets surprised by a ninjapull of 4-5 mobs can taunt and moonfire, but then he´s kind of out of options that don´t require him to reposition himself, wheras a Protadin or BDK can (Assuming free CDs of course) just toss a captain america shield into the pack or use gorefiend’s /slappy hands to make them all realize who they should be hitting, without having to drop their defenses or move all that much.
I personally can´t really jive with warrior or BM, and despise Demon Hunter (though I also haven’t played Vengeance is about 4 years when perma-kiting was still the way to go, so that may have changed significantly)
Overall I would say Protadin is probably currently the best combination of ease of learning /survivability /utility. But if you can´t keep your SotR up properly or failing that rely on AD or bubble-taunt, then they may as well be running around naked.
Im between prot pally and warrior for comfort.
Both have good o shyt buttons.
Passive armor.
Good pick up skills when someone makes a mistake. And one can never go wrong tossing a golden shield into someone’s face.
Personal fsvorite is still warrior. Because I’ve been playing this one since tbc
Soloing in the world is topical, since Siren Isle simply belongs to tanks. I am discouraged from bringing anything else there.
Paladin is my choice. Unlike you, I love the aesthetic, and the flashing lights, and especially the outburst of Avenger’s Shield and Divine Toll. I’m still mostly playing the same Mage and Paladin I started with, which makes it a no-brainer for me. But I also love the variety of utility that Paladins have. There’s a button for everything. Another clincher is the ranged damage. Not only can I pull at range, but I can do noticeable damage. Paladin is the only tank that offers this.
There’s a lot to like about Warrior in general, but taking on the big Rare-Elites solo is its weakest area, when you lose Victory Rush/Impending Victory on a singe target.
Bear always feels slow to me, even when it objectively isn’t, and I’m not fond of the Ironfur/Rage balance thing. Moonfire is cool for unlimited ranged pulls, tho.
I really dislike the Sigil mechanic of Vengeance, I’m not fond of jumping in place, and I never feel that I’m doing damage the way I do with, say, Paladin or Warrior.
BDK feels so slow it makes Bear feel like orbital speeds. Also, like VDH, I never feel that I am actually doing any damage by any ofmy abilities. I honeslty think a change in sounds would help with that.
I have no doubt that Stagger and its branches like Shuffle and Ox Stance make for excellent gameplay with a competent healer, but all of that - the main mitigation/healing mechanic of the spec - is irrelevant when soloing.
