Dragonflight Tank Rankings: Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope Raiding Tier List (Patch 10.2)
World of Warcraft has never been perfectly balanced, and Dragonflight is no exception. Some classes are better than others at the high end for raiding, and inevitably, a meta will exist. This ranking is based on the viability and strength of the various tank specializations for the second season of raiding in Dragonflight.
Disclaimer: This list will be updated as new tuning and class changes come out over the course of the season.
About the Tier List
Patch 10.2.5 Update: No class changes come for any tanks, rankings remain unchanged.
This tier list is entirely based on Tank viability for the new raid in Patch 10.2 of Dragonflight, Amirdrassil. 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.
A Final Warning
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.
Dragonflight Tank Tier List for Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope
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.
- Protection Paladin (A-Tier)
- Blood Death Knight (A-Tier)
- Brewmaster Monk (A-Tier)
- Protection Warrior (A-Tier)
- Vengeance Demon Hunter (B-Tier)
- Guardian Druid (B-Tier)
DPS and Healer Class Rankings
If you are interested in our other rankings for the Season 3 Raid in Dragonflight, please click the links below.
Full Tank Class Rankings
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.
A-Tier
Protection Paladin
Patch 10.2.5 Update: No class changes come for Protection Paladin with this patch, so their position remains unchanged. The off-healing they can provide has proven to be invaluable in progression raiding, especially for the final two encounters on Mythic.
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 on encounters such as Gnarlroot to gather all of the 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. |
Blood Death Knight
Patch 10.2.5 Update: No class changes come for Blood Death Knights with this patch, so their position remains unchanged. The addition of the legendary weapon whilst welcome does not do much to improve the damage you can deal versus other tanks without a legendary.
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, such as Larodar, Keeper of the Flame, they are 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 | Being able to move the adds to the raid on Larodar, Keeper of the Flame is a huge raid DPS boost. |
Debuff negation | Anti-Magic Shell | AMS can be used to prevent debuffs from being applied to you, which makes some encounters such as Nymue, Weaver of the Cycle, Igira the Cruel or Tindral Sageswift easier. |
Knockback/Pushback negation | Death's Advance | This will completely prevent you from being moved by any knockbacks or pushbacks. |
Brewmaster Monk
Patch 10.2.5 Update: No class changes come for Brewmaster Monk with this patch, so their position remains unchanged. If your guild doesnt 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 the newly added talent 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. |
Protection Warrior
Patch 10.2.5 Update: No class changes come for Protection Warriors with this patch, so their position remains unchanged. 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! However, it has a relatively long cooldown, and the only situations where it's useful this raid are Larodar, Keeper of the Flame to silence the adds and bring them to you, or on Gnarlroot to taunt all of the adds and stack them on the boss. |
B-Tier
Vengeance Demon Hunter
Patch 10.2.5 Update: No class changes come for Vengeance DH with this patch, so their position remains unchanged. 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: C-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. Examples include: Serpent's Fury on Volcoross, Raging Inferno on Larodar, Keeper of the Flame, Continuum on Nymue, Weaver of the Cycle, and Supernova on Tindral Sageswift. |
AoE Silence | Sigil of Silence | An AoE Silence that can be applied from 30 yards away! The only situation where this is useful is on Larodar, Keeper of the Flame to ensure the adds do not cast. |
Guardian Druid
Patch 10.2.5 Update: No class changes come for Guardian Druid with this patch, so their position remains unchanged. 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: B-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, and everything they do 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 Gnarlroot to keep the adds near the boss, or on Larodar, Keeper of the Flame to keep the adds in set places. |
Changelog
- 15 Jan. 2023: Updated for patch 10.2.5.
- 29 Oct. 2023: Updated for Season 3.
- 05 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for patch 10.1.7.
- 23 Aug. 2023: Updated for another round of adjustments to Guardian Druid and Protection Warrior.
- 08 Aug. 2023: Updated for recent adjustments to Guardian Druid and Protection Warrior.
- 25 Jul. 2023: Overhauled rankings and added more granularity on what each tank brings to the table. Also updated for 25 Jul tank Tuning.
- 05 Jul. 2023: Updated for patch 10.1.5.
- 07 May 2023: Updated for Season 2 of Dragonflight.
- 06 Feb. 2023: Updated for patch 10.0.5.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Season 1 of Dragonflight.
- 18 Aug. 2022: Updated for Season 4.
- 23 Jun. 2022: Check-in since last update.
- 25 Apr. 2022: Updated after first few weeks of Mythic.
- 18 Feb. 2022: Updated for patch 9.2.
- 06 Nov. 2021: Updated for patch 9.1.5.
- 04 Aug. 2021: Updated for first couple of Mythic weeks.
- 13 Jul. 2021: Updated after Heroic week.
- 24 Jun. 2021: Page added.
This guide has been written by Panthea, who raids in Catalyst and is the author of TankNotes. He plays all tanks and is a Moderator for the Hammer of Wrath Paladin Discord. You can follow him on Twitter.
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