Dragonflight Tank Rankings: Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope Raiding Tier List (Patch 10.2.6 / Season 4)

Season 4 Update: All raids return for this season which brings a wide variety of utility that each tank can provide. When all of this is aggregated together there are no tanks which are strictly better than the others (assuming that all of your required strategic utility is covered already).

This tier list is entirely based on Tank viability for all raids in Season 4 of Dragonflight. The main things you want to look for in tank choice are damage dealt, ability to handle or recover from incoming damage of all types, cooldowns, and utility.

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. Protection Paladin (A-Tier)
2. Blood Death Knight (A-Tier)
3. Brewmaster Monk (A-Tier)
4. Protection Warrior (A-Tier)
5. Vengeance Demon Hunter (A-Tier)
6. Guardian Druid (A-Tier)

If you are interested in our other rankings for Season 4 Raiding in Dragonflight, 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.

Season 4 Update: Protection Paladins have their set bonus from Season 1 returning, and a wider pool of trinkets which increase their damage output even more. The off-healing they can provide has proven to be invaluable in progression raiding, especially for the final two encounters on Mythic in every raid. Healers are also big fans of having a Protection Paladin in the raid as they can get Blessing of Spellwarding to focus on the raid instead of dodging mechanics.

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. You also ideally want to have two Paladins in a competitive Mythic raiding roster to have both Devotion Aura for passive damage reduction and Retribution Aura for additional raid DPS.

What does Protection Paladin bring?

                                                                   

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Auras	Devotion Aura/ Retribution Aura	Having both of these auras is a must for any competitive Mythic  raid group.
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 is very valuable on quite a few bosses in every raid this  Season. Notable examples include Dathea, Scalecommander Sarkareth and Larodar.

 

Season 4 update: Season 4 brings back the tier set bonus from Aberrus increasing your uptime on Vampiric Blood and baseline damage of core rotational abilities. This, in addition to the continuation of the legendary weapon, makes Blood Death Knight a tank that is a great choice for raiding in Season 4.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: B-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 together 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	In each raid, there are encounters that have adds that need to be grouped up. Notable examples include  Dathea, Raszageth, Zskarn, Scalecommander Sarkareth and Fyrakk, the Blazing
Debuff negation	Anti-Magic Shell	AMS can be used to prevent debuffs from being applied to you, which makes some encounters  such as Nymue, Igira the Cruel or Tindral Sageswift easier, but is also  a very large magic damage absorb which is useful for Scalecommander Sarkareth, Raszageth and Fyrakk, the Blazing.
Knockback/Pushback negation	Death's Advance	This will completely prevent you from being moved by any knockbacks or pushbacks.

Season 4 Update: Season 4 brings back the tier set bonus from Aberrus as well as item options from every tier in Dragonflight. If your guild doesn't have a Mistweaver or Windwalker Monk it is still a must-have tank. Otherwise, they are a very flexible tank with great damage output and utility ( Mystic Touch, Leg Sweep, Generous Pour to name a few).

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. This has value on Mythic Scalecommander Sarkareth  to group up the adds in Phase 2 + 3.
AoE Knockback	Ring of Peace	This targeted AoE knockback has some value for this season in raids. Dathea for the platforms,  Raszageth for the adds in Intermission 2, Scalecommander Sarkareth for the adds in Phase 2 + 3, Fyrakk, the Blazing as  an emergency knockback in Phase 2 as some examples.

   

Season 4 Update: Protection Warriors keep their set bonus from Season 3 but have access to a wider variety of trinkets. It's still a great all-around tank option for raiding! (If all of your other raid composition requirements are met with buffs/debuffs/grips).

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! With 3 raids to work with this has uses on  certain encounters in each one. Notable examples include Broodkeeper Diurna, Raszageth,  Scalecommander Sarkareth, Larodar and Fyrakk, the Blazing.

Season 4 Update: Vengeance Demon Hunters keep their set bonus from Season 3 but their utility is now more accessible from the last time some of these raids were last available. This increased raid utility pushes them up to A-Tier. Their popularity in Mythic+ has increased participation in raiding and if all of your other raid requirements have been met in terms of buffs/debuffs/grips they are a strong tank option to bring.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-Tier
• Utility: B-Tier

Vengeance Demon Hunters are a strong all-round tank. The tier set greatly improves the defensive capabilities of the tank and has great damage output. 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 5% 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	The last time we set foot in Vault of the Incarnates and Aberrus this talent was not easy to obtain, but this has changed! You will find good uses for it on Dathea, Raszageth, Scalecommander Sarkareth and Fyrakk, the Blazing.

Season 4 Update: Guardian Druids have their set bonus from Season 2 returning and get pushed up to A-Tier with every other tank as their damage is good but their utility isn't as impactful as some other tank choices. They're still a great all-around tank option for raiding! (If all of your other raid composition requirements are met with buffs/debuffs/grips).

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-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	Aberrus is largely a raid with minimal raid movement; 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  , Scalecommander Sarkareth and Larodar.