Currently at 9.1 launch, Icy-Veins has projected (for SL Season 2) that the tanks in Mythic+ would rank as follows:
Guardian Druid (S-Tier)
Vengeance Demon Hunter (S-Tier)
Protection Warrior (S-Tier)
Blood Death Knight (A-Tier)
Brewmaster Monk (A-Tier)
Protection Paladin (B-Tier)
Without trying out the post-nerf/buff 9.1 builds for a sufficient amount of time myself, I can’t say for certain that I agree with how Icy-Veins is predicting. However, if they are proven to be correct in the next several days, I will have to reroll. XD
Tier lists are more useful if you’re pushing content at the high end. Not quite as important if you’re just looking to hit KSM.
I have one of each tank and it’s not so much that the tier list is wrong, it’s more that it doesn’t paint a full picture of rankings based on playing with pugs vs playing with average people with some coordination vs playing with top end players with a lot of coordination.
That’s cause they wanted a tank. Prot Pally wasn’t meta. VDH was the S-tier meta tank before 9.1. Now it’s been joined by bear and prot warrior. Prot Pally just went from A to B even though they haven’t received any nerfs.
I actually kind of feel that, of the 3 S-tier tanks (as predicted by Icy-Veins), Prot Warrior may actually be the strongest.
That said, RagingBeardedScot also said something in the past that he guessed that Guardian Druids might become the strongest, just like what Icy-Veins is saying now.
The problem with their list is there’s much more nuance than that.
I think Prot Warrior is probably going to be the strongest overall because it’s got just that right level of being able to outright survive all the time with a ton of damage. Vengeance trades some of that survivability for damage, and Guardian does the opposite and trades the damage for survivability.
But there’s a massive difference between PUG and premade group, all tanks are 100% viable and good for 15’s to likely 20’s if they’re getting any form of support from the rest of the group. If you’re getting next to none, then I’d strongly disagree with Prot Paladin being the lowest because of how many mistakes that spec can cover.
you can do 25 with survival hunter. do anyone put them in the same tier as Fire mage and boomkin? no.
Likewise for tank… The kiting potential of VDH \ Brew is miles ahead of BDK / pal
Guardian druid have 30 second of god-mode every 3 minute, while Brew cooldown are quite lackluster in comparaison.
Snap threat ( and this is huge in a world where DPS’Er stack everything they can in the first 5 second of a fight) … VDH can pre-cast kyrian sigil, immo aura, jump in and fel dev resulting in huge snap threat.
a BDK need 4 GCD ( DnD, blood boil, crimson mist, start heartstriking) to get going… assuming he doesn’t use any of those to, you know, marrowrend / death strike.
The tanks are wildly different… and yeah, I would agree with that tier list.
Even the people that made that list outright said specs esp tanks are among the closest they been for awhile why some specs like prot pally seen little to no changes and adjustments.
As people have said outside of running 25s it will make no diff at all. Groups will take you since they want a tank and you will get group just as quick as before as a pally. Pally was not meta last season and we got groups quite quick. At the 15 level you wont notice any diff between them at that level of play any diff will be a result of you feeling worse due to the group making it worse than it is. Eg treating a prot pally like a VDK and expecting you to kite without even getting hit. So long as the group is playing to your tanks strong points at the 15 level the diff between tanks wont make or break you or even be significantly noticeable, esp once people get a bit of gear which happens fast.
Even the people that made that list outright said specs esp tanks are among the closest they been for awhile why some specs like prot pally seen little to no changes and adjustments.
but that’s just not true.
Streamer keep saying that cause nobody care about tanks / tank stuff…
the mobility of a BDK / prot pal is nowhere close to VDH / Brew
the cooldowns of a brew are nowhere near as strong as a Guardian druid
the snap threat of a BDK \ druid ( outside of incarn) is miles behind the snap threat of VDH-Brew
AoE silence / grip / fear is amazing utility-wise and get some use on basically every other pack… how often do you freedom other people?
Pretending all tanks are equals just lead to angry healer when their current Prot warrior require healing while their previous BDK did not… or some annoying fury warrior wondering by he can’t jump and bladestorm on the first GCD when the guardian incarn is down.
You can call it untrue all you want but fact remains a random nobody on the fourms word holds far less value than the people that made that list. As well as quite a number of top/known tank including the people you see writing the guides on icy viens saying what I just said.
The tanks are quite close right now.
Also if you want to try to counter someone’s point first step is to read and understand there point at no point in my comment did I say all tanks are equal fact you tryed to make it sound like I did in your counter quite well discredits you as showing you are not likly to read what is said but instead only read what you want to see. As such likly don’t even understand the current state of the game or the views of the people that wrote that tier list we are talking about.
is that why there’s more VDH doing high key than all other tank combined?
is that why prot warrior did as much damage as DPS’Er during BFA and had more representation than all the other tank combined?
likewise for BDK in legion?
is this huge anomaly in representation due to a ‘‘quite close’’ balance?
Again, it’S easier to pretend all tank are balanced and close the topic cause nobody care about tank than actually talk about it… if the DPS situation was anywhere close to the tank’s one, we’d have protest line in Irvine.
But good on you for ignoring the differences I pointed out.
Did you really just try to use 9.0 data in season 1 to try to counter a statment about 9.1 and season 2.
Really do try to at least sound like you know what your talking about.
Obv season 1 data that was known to be one of the worst balanced tank metas is going to be lopsided. It was kinda the point of the tanks getting rebalanced.
Just like you talking about bfa and other meta those comments have exactly nothing to do with the subject at hand.
The statment made by icy viens and many top tanks is that tank balance in 9.1 season 2 is appearing to be quite close to the point it’s one of the closest we have seen in a long time.
Using old meta to try to say this meta is not is nothing more than a fools argument that dosent understand the topic at hand.
to counter a statement that’s been repeated ad-nauseum for 5+ years yes.
but i’m sure the situation is totally different now and we’ll have good representation all over the board in high keys for tanks. This time it will be different.
Obv season 1 data that was known to be one of the worst balanced tank metas is going to be lopsided
Oh was it? daaaaamn. so all those big people claiming the tank balance has never been better back in december were wrong?.. but they’ll be right this time. I’m sure.
The statment made by icy viens and many top tanks is that tank balance in 9.1 season 2 is appearing to be quite close to the point it’s one of the closest we have seen in a long time.
again, the same platitude that’s been said again and again for ages.
Furthermore when the statment in question vary clearly pointed out tanking about key level 15 and at most 20 even going as far to mention at the 25 level it will obv matter. Him bringing up 23s to counter a statment about 15 is just him showing once again he dosent understand what he’s reading before answering.
Earlier in 9.0 as a Blood DK, I was rejected by pugs like I was carrying Covid, which was why I rerolled Paladin.