I ve been playing this game since ever but for a long long time I have not played a tank. Since we are all waiting for the new expansion I am preparing to fill the gap in season 4 with a tank. I take my precious time to write down a few lines maybe some of you have the same though or are beginners. I would like to share my personal impression on the tanks I ve played in M+ keys especially for newer players/tanks. All progress players will tear this post apart since in high end keys like 28 to 32 everything is different but honestly the most of the million players play between 2 and 20. I also like to add some suggestions for the future which I found out during tank testing. I was using dmg meters and defense calculators just to compare my personal feeling to raw data. However this article focuses on personal impression. Compared to healing which I find extremely hard atm tanking is relatively easy I have to say. Also the dungeon setting in season 3 is no big challenge for tanks in terms of positioning or dropping cooldowns in a row or picking up adds etc.
Death Knight:
I started out with my long term favorite class I played as Frost since WotlK.
Rotation: The rotation is easy and the button bloat is low. The rotation feels very smooth with lots of AOE. The damage output is ok and relatively easy to achieve even in between dropping defenses.
Picking up mobs: Picking up adds is no problem thanks to Death and Decay and Death Grip. A bit disappointing is Gorefiends Grip since you simply rarely need it. You have two interrupts which is sufficient.
Boss or big fights: You always have an answer with a cooldown like Icebound Fortitude or Anti Magic Cell or Tombstone or Dancing Rune Weapon and rely on Death Strike.
Macros: I ve macroed Vampiric Blood and for more defense Blood Tap. Since they dont have a global cooldown I let it run aside to other abilities and it worked very well with a high uptime. I have also the target self DnD Macro which saves me one click and drops it directly on my spot (so 2 buttons for DnD, one for area and one on myself). The knockback save from
Critics: Two topics: Movement is catastrophic. Running out of something is incredibly hard. Secondly on higher keys you heavily rely on Death Strike dspite the fact that they drop the damage below 35% drastically you start to jojo around. I really dont like that play. The class needs in my opinion more armor and parry and less jojo.
Feel, power and enjoyment: 7 of 10
Druid:
Next I picked druid since I occasionally play Balance once in a while.
Rotation: The rotation feels odd. Whilst it is easy it feels like something is missing. I tried to add the Arcane tree or Pulverize but it didnt help. The AOE is solid but it feels like you have 1 or 2 buttons too less.
Picking up mobs: I didnt feel too comfortable with it. I picked Twin Moonfire and it was a bit better but I was a little bit struggling with wide spread mobs especially when dps couldnt wait to attack (as usual). If targets are close its no problem.
Boss or big fights: As it should be you have a really high health pool. The damage is a bit low but no problems here. Also the missing magic immunities are not that much of an issue. You have to press a bit more your defenses but that plays ok.
Macros: I ve macroed Ironfur on many skills for maximum uptime and it worked really well.
Critics: Druid needs a better rotation and something to occasionally better pick up mobs. It simply doenst feel very good on playing.
Feel, power and enjoyment: 4 of 10
Vengeance Demon Hunter:
Next was the uber tank DH. I havent played one since Legion.
Rotation: With adding the throw glaive topics the rotation doesnt feel as easy anymore as it has been. The tank is far more challenging than I thought just looking at the overpower it has. The damage output is huge, the life pool is huge, interruption is top and self healing is ok.
Picking up mobs: Picking up adds is no problem with such a high mobility, glaives and semi ranged spells.
Boss or big fights: I didnt have the feeling that I have to use defenses at all. I simply went for full damage and it worked well. I picked mostly a ranged setup to max out the 5% magic damage and we were tearing through dungeons.
Macros: I ve macroed Demon Spikes for maximum uptime to many spells and it worked incredibly well.
Critics: Well if there’s critics at all than that the rotation is more complicated than I thought and it keeps you a bit busier with all that jumping and moving around. Its not a tank for standing in the middle. Its definitely a progress tank which unfortunately will be nerfed soon.
Feel, power and enjoyment: 7 of 10
Protection Warrior:
I have never played Warrior except for a short duration on a fury so I was rather short on him.
Rotation: The rotation is very easy. But same as druid it has some timeouts. it feels a bit clunky but not as much as the druid. Almost all spells are AOE. You have three interrupts and one of them is even AOE with a prevention (if speced).
Picking up mobs: Its so easy to pick up adds. With no other tank I had a better feeling in controlling every mob in the dungeon. You have a tool for literally everything.
Boss or big fights: Its almost boring. Nothing can harm you in low and mid keys.
Macros: I ve macroed Ignore Pain and Shield Block for maximum uptime to many spells and it worked incredibly well.
Critics: You feel invincbile as warrior and it feels great to play if there wouldnt be the pause on rotation. Secondly the damage is sadly very low and I had a hard time to get good numbers out of the warrior.
Feel, power and enjoyment: 7 of 10
Protection Paladin:
I ve always wanted to play a Paladin but everybody is playing them and so I went for DK. It has a reason why there are so many Pallys. No matter on which expansion Pallys have always been a strong class. Of course I enjoy my Pally twink once in a while as for this tank testing.
Rotation: The rotation is very easy. The only annoying thing is standing in your consecration. What I really like on Pally is that you not only have defenses for yourself but also for others. So I used healbot for the many things (Lay on Hands, Divine Shield, Blessing of Protection, Battle Res and so on) to save others. And one thing of course makes Pally and even better tank than he generally already is and thats the mass interrupt on Avengers Shield. Thats such a huge impact and comfort on playing. Blizzard usually nerfs such things but I am glad they dont on Pally. Along with Divine Shield its their signature abilitiy and it feels great to play.
Picking up mobs: Its very easy to pick up adds despite your movement abilities are crap.
Boss or big fights: You cant kill a Pally. Thats an old saying from vanilla which is still true. You have so many strong cooldowns and an immunity with taunt as well as significant self healing abilities. On low and mid keys it really takes a lot of misplay to die. Along with DK its the only tank that can handle magic damage well.
Macros: I ve macroed Shield of the Righteous for maximum uptime to many spells and it worked incredibly well. Using healbot besides for all your heals and the group saving spells is a nice addition.
Critics: I have only one critics and thats standing in your consecration. I really enjoyed playing the pally. to be fair the 3 yards extra range is an advantage on Pally that Blizzard should rethink or better add it to all other tanks for their single target spells.
Feel, power and enjoyment: 9 of 10
Brewmaster Monk:
Messing around with the strong Mistweaver healer I was curious about Brewmaster. I tried it a few expansions ago and it felt squishy like hell and I never touched him again despite the unique concept which is a very great invention.
Rotation: The rotation is not as easy as on the others. The button bloat is definitly heavier than on other tanks but if you sort out the spells well and start out with Blackout Kick its ok to handle. The only annoying part is to play with Bonedust Brew to get damage out of the Brewmaster. I had a hard time to come to good numbers with him.
Picking up mobs: Thats the funny part on a Brewmaster. Movement and AOE abilities makes this part very easy.
Boss or big fights: Thats a bit difficult to answer. As long as you have Celestial Brew up everything is ok. The second you lose your cooldowns you start to jojo with Expel Harm. As a consequence mostly you have to move then in order not to struggle/die.
Macros: I ve used purifying brew on 3 spells to have a purify roughly all 4-7 seconds and it worked extremly well. The damage was so smoothed out.
Critics: The concept of staggering is great. Despite the Brewmaster feels like an unfinished class which needs a lot of improvment it plays much better than you might think. The movment and mob picking is great and once you have figured out the use of Celestial Brew and Expel Harm as well as the staggering its a lot of fun to play. I had a hard time on good damage numbers. Having only one interrupt and playing around Bonedust Brew is annoying. I tried not to take it but the time reduction on your brews makes it impossible not to take it. Maybe Blizzard rethinks that part. Brewmaster definitly needs fewer buttons.
Feel, power and enjoyment: 6 of 10
I hope you enjoyed reading and it helped to pick your favorite tank class!