Beginner-friendly tank spec

Community General Discussion
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Hi guys, I currently main a fury warrior and got interested in an alt tank.

Between prot warrior, paladin, blood dk, and brewmaster, which one is the most beginner friendly/idiot proof?

I heard people said blood and/or guardian are the easiest but the Druid talent trees isn’t exactly the best atm to my awareness. Also fantasy wise, I think I’d rather be a knight (prot wr) or holy knight (prot pally) than a bear. I’m also welcome to dh or monk (love their touch of death) but I heard brewmaster is quite unforgiving for mistakes.

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Prot warrior op right now but blood is pretty easy

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Bear is easiest.

I know it’s not under your pool of what you asked for but js. I think they’re a lot of fun too.

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None of them are particularly difficult to pick up. The trickier part is adapting to the group, pulling correctly, positioning stuff, cycling defensives in response to incoming damage, etc, etc.

Mostly fundamental stuff.

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Bear is very easy… but you didn’t include Demon Hunter on your list and they’re the one I have the easiest time tanking on.

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I’m not trying to be a jerk… but do you know the routes and the different mechanics ?

Lately there is a lot of hate directed at tanks and for someone to innocently come in here and jump into this fire I don’t think it’s very healthy for anyone.

I will definitely say something similar if it’s the case of a player trying to get into the healer role in this Season with so much damage impossible to avoid.

Tanks or healers, if they don’t have the right mindset they are only going to suffer.

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Tanking up to M0, any of them are fine even for a new tank. Here’s my $0.02

Druid - easiest tank, and I don’t think it’s even debatable. Right now, despite the tree “feeling” bad, they are tuned very well and they are 1 or 2 for S tier.

Warrior - next easiest, as far as knowing what to push. High APM (actions per minute) though due to constant upkeep of shield block and ignore pain. Very fun, but don’t blame me when you have carpal tunnel in 10 years.

DH - easy and mobile. Lots of self healing. I think it has the fewest buttons and not as spammy, but also has fewer cooldowns for oh crap moments. Damage is really good right now.

Paladin (my main since Wrath) - is usually top for APM among the tanks, but I think Warrior and maybe even bear beat it out so far in DF. A lot more different buttons to push, especially if you want to make use of your utility in groups, e.g. blessing of protection or sacrifice, party healing, etc. Multiple long cds instead of one/two active mitigation you’re mashing over and over. And I mean comeon, who doesn’t love the sound of your shield bouncing off of beastie noggins?

Blood - Spiky HP. You got big heals because you need them. Easy to pick up, but IMO, Blood and Monk are hardest to master. Biggest gap between average and skilled are a rivalry between DK and Monk.

Monk - I gave up. Didn’t like it. TONS of potential, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to ever try hard enough to get good. Most reliant on heals because you don’t have much of your own. You smooth out your damage intake (if you learn how to do it right) so that you are easy to heal, but you’re not going to self heal or avoid nearly as much damage as the other tanks. Very unique play style that seems to be love it or hate it.

Get a pocket healer. Talk a friend into leveling a healer with you, or make a healer friend to do it. They can help smooth out any bumps in the road from learning, especially if you’re in voice to coordinate.

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Brewmaster is the go to beginner friendly easy to play tank. With added great survival with stagger.

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Prot pally if I can tank dungeons with as dumb as I am in 2022 anyone can on a prot pally.

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Either prot pally or bear.

Since bear isn’t on your list, you know what’s left. Prot warrior punishes screw ups the most.

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Playing a prot pally is like playing a tank and a healer at the same time. To get the most out of it, you need to have raid frames up monitoring your group to use all your utility effectively. The mechanics of the class itself aren’t hard, but you need a lot of awareness to really make it effective.

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not cool. not cool :slightly_frowning_face:

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Bear is by FAR the easiest tank to play.

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A lot of truth to this.

Bear - I don’t have any special setup other than some macros to fit all the buttons
Warrior - some weakauras to monitor shield block/ignore pain
DH - some weakauras to monitor active mitigation
Blood - weakauras to monitor your self healing
Monk - who knows. Gave up on it in MoP
Paladin - full tank and healer setup so I can monitor all of my cds, blessing of dawn and dusk, and click cast utility spells like I would heals on a healer (lay on hands, word of glory, battle rez, blessing of sacrifice, blessing of protection, hand of freedom, dispel)

Since I have to use those addons anyways, I also use them on my other tanks for druid battle rez, warrior intercept if you spec into it, etc, but it’s usually one or two things that I might not have bothered with setting up grid, etc, if I didn’t already need them for Paladin.

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Druid swipe thrash swipe swipe thrash maul rinse repeat rage regen/iron fur/bark as needed.

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Prot warrior. Trust me, I’m a noob.

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Meh you over complicated the hell out of prot paly I been rolling prot since 2008 its 1234 rotation.
You would have to be messing up huge or pvping to need Loh and what not.

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Play whatever you want. Some things are going to take more time when it comes to you feeling comfortable, but if you actively try to get better, the tank you enjoy the feel of will serve you best. Additionally, tanks balance is insane right now.

My opinions massively differ from others, and thats becuase the inroduction of real talent trees has created playstyles for some specs that differ from what people are used too. Currently i would say:

EASY LEARNING CURVE
Warrior, Paladin

INTERMEDIATE LEARNING CURVE
Death Knight, Druid, Demon Hunter

HIGH LEARNING CURVE
Monk

Warriors are very simple, in a good way. Sblock and IP are strong and easy to keep up, the rotational buttons are few and far between. Theres a ton that can be and shoulded be added on from talents from 1 min cds to a swiss army knife of CC, but at its core its a tank that with even basic understanding, is very durable.

Paladins are similar. Press your buttons on CD, spend HP on sotr, rotate defensives, and your in good shape. They occupy the low skill floor - high skill ceiling spot they usually do. Plenty of utility to make use of as well as being a tank that can essentially trade in durability for damage like no other.

Blood is historically the “casuals consider it easy, hardcore players consider it punishing” tank due to the nature of its design. If the content never hits that hard, than you can be hohum with your healing and it doesnt matter. When its tough, one bad deathstrike can snowball into a quick death. However, the current meta build is very passive, and Blood Shield is in a really good spot, so naturally resource management is not as punishing.

Bear is normally a great beginner tank due to Ironfur having no CD and Thrash + Swipe making AoE pulls more forgiving. Currently though, they are far more reliant on self sustain, needing to track wildfire, moonfires on all targets, well-honed instincts and regens + renewal to make sure they can recover. They unironically have some oldschool blood dk vibes atm.

VDH is the definition of nuanced. Not a lot of buttons, and they often feel like a DPS with tank abilities bolted on, which means thkae tank abilities need to be used with care and precisiobm Frailty takes practice to get the most out of, Fiery brand build is punishing and Demon spikes uptime is awkward, especially if your not running Feed the Demon.

Monk is objectively the hardest. Survivability while not bad, is extremely punishing, sustain is limited, timing brews and defensives is paramount, the amount of buttons will test your keybinds, and optimizing cc and utility is really important. Ton of fun though, and if your a player who can stay calm pressure, youll find Brewmaster is actually in a pretty good spot.

Play what grabs you, otherwise Warrior or Pali.

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Agree to disagree. I’ve saved a lot of wipes with a LoH on a healer or myself, freedom on final boss in necrotic wake as just one recent example, cleanses, bops, etc. Granted, I’ve pugged A LOT, so a lot of groups may have relied on me more than is “normal”. And the worst part is, for every time I’ve saved a wipe with one of those, there’s probably 50 where after the wipe I’ve thought, “I should have used…”

Sure, if you never challenge yourself or join groups that turn out to be bad, you probably will rarely need utility, but if that’s what we’re comparing, then they’re all dead easy. Run in and push whatever and hope for the best. In some ways, utility you rarely need is actually harder because you won’t have the muscle memory or mindset to use it in that few moments it can make the difference.

I’m not implying a Paladin is rocket science compared to other tanks, I’m just saying it has a lot of utility, which means it requires a lot of awareness, which is helped by a lot of work on your interface to manage that awareness. What is a DH going to do to save the day if things go sideways? He doesn’t have any abilities to cast on anyone else. He can be a little less aware. If you want to do more than the absolute basics, Paladin requires more awareness, hence more setup in the interface. That’s all I’m saying.

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Yeah I would only play capt merica in a pug and only if it was going to achieve a clear.
Like last 10% or something, otherwise a guild/friend grp a healer screwing up that badly would probably be booted before you could toss a blessing.