Both are fun to play, but which is more useful as a tank? Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!
Paladin by far. Demon hunter tanks are terrible. They’re only good for kiting, and most of the time they screw that up and just make everything more difficult for dps and heals.
DH could get buffed, figure out the one you enjoy more. Though I warn you DH mobility might spoil you
I’ll vote Pally. Unforunately, not many races have access to Paladin.
DH are the worst though. Only two races.
I have both - it is purely a playstyle thing. Paladin is certainly easier in my opinion in terms of both keeping aggro, healing if need be, and tons and tons of interrupts because of avengers shield refreshing.
Vengeance is more of an offensive tank, it won’t be able to heal party members or throw as many interrupts but it has AoE Silence, insane self sustain and AoE pull. Has fewer ‘emergency buttons’ but the second life and essences help to mitigate this.
Main reason I’m asking is because I have a max level DH and a Level 71 Pally. I really enjoy both, but I want to be useful for endgame content Which one should I focus on more?
I’ve never played a DH tank, but I can tell you from experience that my prot paladin is a tanking badass. Most of the time I feel like I can pull everything in sight and be just fine.
They have a good self sustain heal.
-Light of the Protector (Heals a big chunk of life on a 15sec cd)
Multiple oh crap buttons.
-Lay on Hands (fully heals you)
-Blessing of Protection (100% protects you from physical damage)
-Divine Shield (100% blocks ALL damage)
*Please note that using Blessing of Protection or Divine Shield will cause you to lose all aggro in a group setting, please use responsibly to not get your group members killed.
Your main abilities are all aoe damage.
-Consecration (aoe on the ground, very short cd)
-Avenger’s Shield (hits 3 targets)
-Hammer of the Righteous (while standing in consecration hits everything around you)
-Shield of the Righteous (aoe cone in front of you that also buffs your armor)
Plus, with all their “light” armor, you can become your own personal flashlight
All tanks are viable for end content. Paladin tanks are pushing mid 20 keys and I’m sure DH are there too. It really comes down to how you enjoy each class. Paladin with seraphim, one or two haste trinkets, blessed hammer and double judgment makes for a high APM class - but I dig that pace!
And as has been said, avenger’s shield with grand crusader proc (fishing for them with blessed hammer helps) can keep mobs completely interrupted. Especially the council fight in Shrine.
Also consider that Paladins are hybrids and have access to all roles, if you have any interest in branching out.
Paladin tank is better. The only thing i have seen a DH tank useful for is running flags in BG’s and that’s about it.
Play what you like better though for the content you want to do.
DH is all flashy laser beamy dps. But when it comes to tanking, paladins are the flashy captain americas you want. Way better at it.
These people don’t know what good DH tanks are. It’s a very unpopular to play but it’s incredibly powerful. Not top tier but it has amazing self sustain, dmg, utility, mobility.
Pali is also a great tank. In fact, I think the tank balance is the best of all roles. Healers have super OP roles and so do dps but tanks seem pretty well balanced to me.
Warriors and monks are the meta for warriors and dpsing. But from what i feel like. Vengence is a hp sponge tank with nice utilities (1 minute aoe silence sigil, fear sigil, etc), but warrior tanks just mitigrates damage so much better.
Offense tank was a legion thing. It’s decent in 8.3 with the right corruptions, but a vanilla 8.2 DH with no corruptions lags a bit behind and doesn’t really go to raid. But the dps offspec is decent and shares gear so it has the strength of “change spec”.
But if you roll the right ones, it can be a surprisingly decent tank, it’s just to properly utilize damage mitigration you go into a build that has like 1/2 of prots damage with 1/2 of prots mitigration with double the hp. So… the base stats suck, but the mobility is really fun. Easily highest mobility tank out there with double leap, fun for pugs, decent with corruptions. With the right corruptions it can be a #3 after Wars/brewmaster. Without corruptions it was like #5/4 of 6 in 8.2 for M+ and dead last for raid tanking. Don’t expect raid spots with it anywhere in tank spec with it.
And then Ret pally for M+ is weird, i’ve seen it all over the place, topping dps charts but falling on total damage, or putting out respectable group heals and damage. It’s not unusual for the overall dps on charts to be 10% higher than a dh, seeing them pop 140k-200ks for 10 seconds and then fall back down to like 50k-60k but with 10-15% lower uptime. When they pop things melt though, but they’re not as highly desired for some reason, but there are some pretty good ones there.
Thanks for all the advice and input, folks! It sounds like my Pally is the way to go. That being said, should I continue to level him, or give him my 120 boost that I received from pre-purchasing Shadowlands?
I say paladin but that is probably colored by the fact that I have several paladins that I have been playing for years and am not nearly as experienced w/ the par of demon hunters I have.
Maybe I am doing it wrong but I find Vengeance a tad more fun than Protection. But then again I love speed and mobility. Prot just feels very slow and lumbering to me. I played a Bear druid since '08 and love tanks in general. Currently levelling a BM and loving it.
If I had to rank right now, I’d say: Vengeance > BM >> Prot Pally >> Bear (just cuz I find bear boring tbh)
Stompy! All ways good to see you!
Prot paladin is better as a tank due to better utility and better cooldowns, BUT
DH tank can be very tanky with the right essences and class traits. You lose put on damage.
Outside of tanking a 12 or up, there isnt much of a difference in tanming efficiency.
I am the same way. I had one demon hunter as a tank and one as damage and found that I was dying more often as a tank spec. I ended up making them both damage. Sorry can’t remember which spec name is which.
Thank you and same to you. Hope you are well this fine morning.
So many people in this thread are basing Veng off Legion. Essences have made Veng more then viable and they are actually great tanks for the most part. It really comes down to a playstyle thing because both tanks are for the most part pretty even. I personally think veng DH is actually one of the most fun and satisfying specs in the game atm and love playing mine.