So what exactly are peoples opinions on the optimal raid tank team?
Warriors are almost universally acclaimed as the best main tanks in the game, but my question is what about the OT, and possibly even the third tank?
There’s only really one choice besides warriors, and thats feral druids. Is it better to bring 2 prot warriors and 1 feral? is the feral better as the dedicated ot? or as the third 3rd tank?
I play a feral drood alt and I maintank a few of the bosses in Mc. Due to our lack of cool downs and other necessities we are not the best maintank for many fights but do more then fine in others. Realistically warriors are the best option but for threat generation feral droods can’t be beat. Also feral tanking is just a blast to play. We usually bring 2 warrior tanks and 2 feral tanks to Mc. I imagine bwl won’t be much different. We also utiize a couple of dps warriors to stick a shield on for a few of the fights (ie domo, Garr, etc…)
warrior MT for 2 taunts and high +defense to avoid crushing blows.
paladin for best multi add pickups and utility.
druid for best single target threat generation, highest health pool for magic heavy fights.
so they really all have their uses. but best general purpose goes to bear for highest threat generation thanks to MCP and maul spam.
Optimal mt is going to be a warrior tank
Optimal raid comp will have at least 1 feral Druid
Druids have taunt and aoe taunt too.
Optimally all your tanks are prot wars, but its not necessary.
Warriors are better at tanking when it comes to stats. I’ve found that the best tanks are the ones who show up and have any level of competence.
Edit: we can say pretty much the same thing about any other role, too. The game isn’t nearly as class-dependant or gear-dependant as folks let on. (Yeah, AQ and Naxx might shake things up some, but we’ll all be fine.)
Well yeah, the tanks that show up prepared and are dedicated are gems in the first place, doesn’t matter if they’re warriors or druids.
Kinda depends on what faction you play, but not really. On bosses who fear ally druids have an easier time with fear ward. Shaman tremor totem pulses and can get a bear killed if the pulse is off. Not many bosses fear and classic is a joke on 1.12 talent progression. I’ve tanked every dungeon and raid boss as a bear and done just fine. Also, a lot of people think druids can’t use sappers/health pots/resistance pots/potions when tanking. Lag and latency are not a problem like they were in 2005. Since we have the legion macro system you can make a powershift macro and use all those consumes/sappers.
I would say 4 tanks best 2x warriors, 1x Druid, 1x pally.
Paladin and Druid swap rolls when needed.
Agree with all of this except to note that there are several boss fights that Bears simply cannot tank reliably, particularly the back half of BWL will be a problem. Warriors are the only way for those drakes + Nefarian.
A warrior will always be the optimal tank in the vanilla version of classic wow, especially if you’re able to acquire thunder fury.
That being said, druids can serve the roll very well, and I’ve seen quite a few guilds that have druids as their main or of tanks.
Sadly, this. I am currently my guild’s MT, and I’m switching to Boomkin until AQ40 because as much as I LOVE Bear tanking and have really made it shine, even I can admit that I’ll be hot garbage in BWL compared to Warriors in T2. Not that Boomkin is any better, mind you, but like I always say to my guild:
Don’t let your memes be dreams.
For Horde, a Fury/Prot MT (provided your raid DPS is high enough to justify the extra TPS + they don’t suck at the spec), a Deep Prot OT, and a Feral Druid OT. The Feral Druid is BEEF, the Deep Prot tank can be a mitigation focused-tank (and Orb tank on Razorgore, first tank on Vael- I’m a Fury/Prot MT, so I take 2nd tank on Vael for execute phase- and we’ll probably only get 1 tank death) and the Fury/Prot or Bear tank will have no issues catching up and being #2/#3 on threat, which makes the tank swap fights later on in Classic a breeze.
No reason to go Fury/Prot on Alliance ever, so just 2 Prot Warriors/Feral druid. Imo, at least 1 feral druid is CLUTCH. I would never take 3 warriors if I could take 2 warriors and a bear.
3% crit/spot off-heals/CHONK is way, way, WAY more valuable than a 3rd warrior, and there’s no fights that REQUIRE 3 or more warrior tanks specifically until Naxx so
Anything deeper than 3rd Tank before Naxx is just a fury warrior with a shield on
well, druids can stack enough hp and buffs to not care about about back to back crushing blows conditionally they have 2 dedicated healers. but i agree druid itemization just isnt here yet, need AQ gear.
It depends on gear, as the game progresses with gear more and more warriors can go fury prot however at this stage of the game Feral Druids are very potent.
and even when Ferals fall off they are still excellent off tanks
In no particular order
Warrior
Warrior
Warrior
Warrior
Warrior
After that I’d say in particular order
Warrior
Warrior
Warrior
After that paladin and druid are pretty even, YMMV
bears actually pick back up in aq/ naxx because raid dps outscale warrior threat generation so youll actually need a bear just to hold aggro or the pimping fury warrior “tank” (dps) to stand im front and taunt as often as possible.
dont get me wrong, warriors are better mitigation, but its an inevitability.
Why on earth would the drakes be problematic? Or Chromaggus? Nef’s fear is the only “issue” and Alliance have Fear Ward and Horde have Tremor Totem. Even the class call isn’t bad because “Berserker Stance” that Nef forces on Warriors isn’t the normal one, but one that takes even more increased damage.
It depends purely on the skill level of the tanks you have available.
Gearing up bears is a real PITA but they can work, just not in a MT situation so try to have atleast 1-2 warrior tanks (not prot, warrior) with you.
Realistically you’re gonna need 3 tanks at all times so having a bear is a good thing.