Midnight Tank Rankings: Season 1 Tier List (Patch 11.2 / Season 3)

Midnight Season 1 Week 2 Update: Guardian Druids have now had their fur removed and have moved down into C tier, the main draw of the Guardian Druid was damage output which has now been removed the only remaining utility for them is a Stampeding Roar. All other tanks are unchanged.

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.

A	Brewmaster Monk Brewmaster Monks are looking once again to be a strong contender for a raid tank in Season 1 of Midnight. They are relatively unchanged in terms of how they handle things in Midnight with Stagger remaining as a mechanic. The playstyle is arguably more streamlined and their damage output is on the upper end of the tanks. With Mistweaver looking relatively weak going into Season 1 and Windwalker looking somewhat okay, Brewmaster looks to be a lock in for many raid teams. Brewmaster Monk Guide Protection Warrior Protection Warriors look to potentially be a staple tank in Season 1 of Midnight with Fury being a middle of the pack DPS choice and Arms not having any Arms left in a manner of speaking, your main choice to bring Battle Shout in a raid will realistically be a Protection Warrior. In addition to their buff utility they also bring decent DPS and have more than enough defensive capabilities to handle every fight on Mythic difficulty in Season 1. Protection Warrior Guide
B	Blood Death Knight Blood Death Knights return as the grip bot for Season 1. Their damage output is pretty low but they are irreplaceable on the encounters in this tier that require grips consistently. It would not be surprising to see this as the main alt for Tanks on progress which they only bring to a couple of very specific bosses. Death Knight Guide Protection Paladin Protection Paladins have a very strong 1 minute cooldown burst DPS window with Templar and are able to reliably keep Shield of the Righteous up thanks to some changes to both Templar and the Holy Power economy changes with their Apex Talents. They look to be a strong choice for Mythic+ too, which helps players who only want to keep one character up to date for both PvE content types. Protection Paladin Guide
C	Guardian Druid Guardian Druids have recieved another nerf to their damage output which will put them at or below other tanks, this will make them fall out of the meta pick for tanks but still be more than suitable for killing bosses on Mythic if you are already locked in to one. Mark of the Wild can reliably be covered by other Druid specialisations so it will not be a locked in pick for many teams for that reason, and Stampeding Roar usage will be quite infrequent as raid teams will look to use gateways for most of the large movement in Season 1 of Midnight. Guardian Druid Guide Vengeance Demon Hunter Vengeance Demon Hunters remain in their constant balance between being good for Mythic+, and not very desirable as a raid tank. Their utility is not required for raid teams due to Havoc and Devourer both performing well and scenarios where you may want a Mass Grip a Blood Death Knight or multiple DPS Death Knights could handle better. Vengeance Demon Hunter Guide

If you are interested in our other rankings for Raiding in Midnight, 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.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: A-Tier
• Utility: B-Tier

Brewmaster Monk bring very competitive damage output, can smooth out their damage taken with Stagger, and have strong but infrequent defensive cooldowns. A big reason to bring a Brewmaster would be for Mystic Touch, as Mistweaver is not looking very strong for Season 1 and melee raid spots may not be able to accomidate a Windwalker.

What does Brewmaster Monk bring?

Functionality	Spells	Notes
Debuff	Mystic Touch	Increases physical damage dealt to the target by 5%.
Speed Taunt	Hasty Provocation	This forces bosses to run faster when you taunt them.
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.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: B-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. With the DPS Warrior specialisations not looking too strong at the moment they may be a strong option to pick purely for Battle Shout, 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!

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: C-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	Reduces magic damage taken by 15% for all players inside.
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/ Gorefiend's Grasp	Very valuable for a few bosses in Season 1, and is a necessity for the Mythic strategy.
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.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: B-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.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: C-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 the new Devourer spec. 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	AoE Grip.

Segmented Ranking:

• Damage: C-Tier
• Utility: B-Tier

Guardian Druids are currently the top contenders for DPS on a Tank and are currently the highest DPS tank (even after changes to lower their power). They are a strong tank option in Mythic+ however, their utility does not play a huge role in the Raid and 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.