Midnight Tank Rankings: Season 2 Tier List (Patch 12.1 / Season 2)

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Season 2 Update: Season 2 is here, which shakes up preconceptions around Protection Paladins and Blood Death Knights in particular. Protection Paladins have had a talent reshuffle, which now allows you to pick all of the core defensive talents (including Sentinel) without losing damage, and Blood Death Knights received some damage buffs. All other tanks also received some level of buffs too, but not as notable as the two mentioned.

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.

S	Blood Death Knight Blood Death Knight returns as the grip-bot for Season 2, as quite a few encounters in the raid are looking to require Death Grip to solve core mechanics of the fights. Their damage output has been improved substantially, but even if that weren't the case they are irreplaceable on the encounters that require constant grips. It would not be surprising to see this become the main alt for Tanks during higher end progression, and you may even see two of them being played for some encounters. Death Knight Guide
A	Guardian Druid Guardian Druids have received a rework to their Apex talent coming into Season 2 making their damage a bit more consistent and are still a very powerful DPS tank. In Season 1 they were used primarily as a DPS tank option and to bring Mark of the Wild for your raid, as other Druid specs were not desirable. In Season 2, Balance Druids look to be quite good for the fight profiles of the raid, so Guardian may need to be able to offer more than the Versatility buff to be worth bringing to raid. Guardian Druid Guide Brewmaster Monk Brewmaster Monks are, once again, looking to be a strong contender for one of the best raid tanks in Season 2 of Midnight. With Mistweaver looking relatively weak going into Season 2, and Windwalker being pushed towards purely AoE damage, Brewmaster looks to be a lock in for many raid teams to provide the potent Mystic Touch debuff. Brewmaster Monk Guide Protection Warrior Protection Warriors are largely unchanged in terms of relative power to other tanks in Season 2. For teams that do not require their tanks to cover unique buffs or debuffs, they are a very competitive choice. If Arms and Fury end up being undesirable in Raid, then Protection Warrior may become one of the two staple tanks for many guilds. However, as there has been substantial changes to both of the DPS Warrior specs, it is quite unlikely that neither of them will be viable this tier. Protection Warrior Guide Protection Paladin Protection Paladins have just had a talent reshuffle, making them stronger defensively and with increased single-target DPS. They look to be quite a strong choice for raid teams that do not need their tanks to cover unique buffs/debuffs. They are also a strong choice for Mythic+, which helps players who only want to keep one character up to date for both PvE content types. Protection Paladin Guide
B	Vengeance Demon Hunter Vengeance Demon Hunter's value proposition is unchanged from Season 1 to Season 2. They are a very competitive option for Mythic+ tanking, but not very desirable as a raid tank. Friction exists in the talent trees where you either build very defensively with a DPS loss, or gain damage at the expense of utility or defensive talents. The main reason for bringing a Vengeance Demon Hunter is for Chaos Brand, but both Havoc and Devourer are performing well, and scenarios where you may want a Mass Grip are covered better by a Blood Death Knight or multiple DPS Death Knights. 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: 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 2, 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: 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 2 and Windwalker shifting towards an AoE focused DPS spec.

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: S-Tier
• Utility: B-Tier

Guardian Druids are currently one of the top contenders for DPS on a Tank. For the fight profiles this tier Balance Druids are looking quite good meaning that if Mark of the Wild was the only reason your raid team would consider a Guardian Druid this would be handled already. There has also been a rework to the Apex Talents going into 12.1 which should make the damage output more consistent rather than a lottery where you held the use of the Apex buff for a full incarn cycle for burst phases. 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.

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. If the DPS Warrior specialisations are not looking too strong 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: A-Tier
• Utility: A-Tier

Protection Paladins bring lots of useful raid tools in the form of Auras and External Cooldowns, and have recently recieved a talent reshuffle to improve their defensive capability. 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 value proposition has not changed in Season 2 of midnight, they remain to be a strong all-round tank but have issues with friction in the talent trees where you can either build very defensively with a DPS loss or gain damage at the expense of utility or defensive talents. 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.

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