hi, so I heal on WoW and ill be tanking on shadowlands release.
The only tank experience I’ve ever had was dark knight and gunbreaker in ffxiv, as I exclusively healed for wow.
I was wondering if anyone who has played both games could advise if their is a tanking class that is similar to ffxiv Gunbreakers play style.
Sorry for the silly question but would appreciate information as I really enjoyed gunbreaker.
Only one of them really is similar to the feel of a 14 tank, and that’s the Warrior. That said, none of the WoW tanks are that similar to one another - in 14 all tank jobs, despite their differences, have the same basic defensive toolkit, a short cd toolkit, a minor support toolkit, and their damage toolkit.
DRK/WAR/PLD/GNB all have Rampart 20% DR, and their class specific 30% DR, along with Arms Reach and Reprisal for generic damage reduction cooldowns, and their own version of invuln.
So with that, all tanks have 3 generic low CD abilities, 1 long CD DR, and an invulnerability.
Then they all have an active mitigation ability on a short CD (TBN, Shelltron, Raw Intuition/Nascent Flash, etc), and then some job specific DRs such as Dark Mind or Camouflage, etc.
The real defining difference between tanks in 14 is 1) how they dps and 2) how they provide support.
In WoW…it’s totally different. NONE of the tanks have generic DR abilities, and only one of them has an actual invul (but it drops all aggro). They all have different means of defensive CDs and some have more than others.
Death Knights have a passive DR maintenance buff (Bone Shield) and Death Strike, which is a reactive ability that heals you for a % of the damage you’ve taken over the past few seconds. It’s most powerful when you’ve just sustained a large amount of damage, and pretty useless when you haven’t. You can’t preempt damage intake on a DK like you can in all jobs in 14. That said, some boss mechanics require you to Death Strike prior to being hit, which is contradictory to the actual mechanic of the ability. They have one powerful CD that reduces damage by 30% on a long CD, and their main short cooldown defensive is Vampiric Blood, which grants them extra health and extra healing received. It’s their main defensive and synergizes with Death Strike.
Demon hunters are fast paced and do a lot of damage, but have pretty poor mitigation overall. They have a super ability that gives them insane leech and HP, but otherwise they only have a couple of ways to reduce damage. Mobility is great on this class, as you can hop around the battlefield twice on 2 charges.
Paladins are very weak mitigation wise, that is they feel like paper when their short CD defensive isn’t up, and due to the way they play it isn’t up as much as you’d want it to be. They do a lot of damage but mobility is horrible.
I can’t speak for monks and druids, as I haven’t played them much, but they are not at all like 14 tanks from what I can see.
Warriors are PROBABLY the closest thing to a 14 tank. They have the following CD’s:
Demo shout, 20% DR against all enemies for 8s, last 8s, 45s cd (think super powered Reprisal)
Last Stand, increases max health by 30% for 15s and instantly heals you for that amount (kind of like Thrill of Battle)
Shield Wall, reduces damage by 40% for 8s on a 4m cd (basically Shadow Skin)
Rallying Cry: 15% temporary hp for everyone in raid for 10s, 3m cd (Think Thrill of Battle for the whole raid)
Spell Reflection: 20% magic DR 25s cd
Short CD defensives:
Shield block is basically shelltron on a 13s recharge, 2 charges. block everything while active.
Ignore Pain is basically a 50% DR up to a limited amount absorbed. It can be spammed but costs resources.
Warriors have a resource rage which they generate over time. They use this for damage abilities and the short cd defensives. They also have passive block chance, which ends up being close to 20% DR from every block.
They also have baseline abilities that generate rage, such as shield slam and thunderclap (aoe).
They have Intercept, which is similar to Plunge and has two charges, it can also be used to go to an ally.
Additionally for mobility, they have Heroic Leap, which they use to jump around the battlefield.
They can fear groups of enemies every 1.5m as well.
They often talent into an aoe cone stun.
So I think Warrior is closest to ANY of the 14 tanks, and by that metric, closest to gunbreaker.
Lots of long CD defensives, fast paced play, lots of short CD defensives, lots of damage output, lots of mobility, and decent utility.
For me intensity of play is Warrior -> Paladin -> Death Knight. APMs on DKs are just not there because of always waiting on runes. Paladins always have buttons to push, and warriors have more buttons to push than they probably can.
Thanks for this, I appreciate it its pretty helpful. Looks like I’ll give prot warrior a good go!
Feral Guardian Druid is an easy tank to play in WoW, you charge in and spam your AOE on groups. Kind of boring tank, but it’s a good tank to start with.