Paladin: No resource to manage and every ability basically deals aoe damage and mitigates damage. You don’t really have to worry about how you spend your globals. Ranged interrupt and solid self healing/cooldowns.
Death knight: Your mitigation abilities deal damage and you have huge utility and self healing. Battle rez. Not very mobile, but can slow mobs by 90% if specced for it.
Warrior: Highest aoe damage among tanks. Very mobile. Good cooldowns. Mitigation abilities don’t deal damage so you’ll have to manage your globals.
Demon Hunter: Your mitigation abilities deal damage. Very mobile. Something about them feels very fun. Currently on the weaker end as far as mitigation.
Druids: Next in line for a buff. Can stealth and battle rez.
I haven’t played Monks, so I can’t comment on them. I do know that they’re currently the best raid tanks, but that could lead to a nerf.
From my limited amount of it I cannot recommend brew for pvp.
The stagger mechanic just doesn’t seem to work that well and I think all tanks have been heavily neutered in pvp to stop them being unstoppable power houses.
Unlike pve where stagger pools up large and gets dumped by brews every encounter I’ve had I just bleed to death.
Stagger means (in pve) I take 15% of a hit up front and 85% over time. With the expectation that I’ll either purify large amounts or be constantly healed. In pvp it just means I take 100% of the damage over time with maybe a couple of low purifies. Didn’t feel like I mitigated anything.
I’m not a keen pvper though so take this with a grain of salt. Also my damage sucked. I can do like 10-11k single target in pve but I basically tickle people with feathers in pvp.
For mythic+ pugging, I’d say play DK or paladin tank. They are just good in all kinds of situations. Other tanks are O.K. too it’s just that their skill level needs to be higher.
For raid, BrewMaster is good and a warrior tank with all that physical damage mitigation is also good.
Raider IO and Warcraft logs. First 3 pages of top M+ runs were almost all Prot war last time I looked. Some DH surprisingly and I think there was a DK. Maybe that’s changed by now, but it’s worth a look. If you want meta go straight to the source. I haven’t played any tanks but the easiest tanks I’ve healed are Prot wars and brewmaster monks for M+.
One word… “Bubble Hearth”. Let’s be real here, the rest of the group was going to die anyway, no reason you should also be drug through the mud with them!
In all seriousness though. The utility, self healing, and visuals of a Paladin always appealed to me personally. You have such a strong utility belt of skills at your disposal to handle so many situations. They may not be the “strongest” of tanks in pure self mitigation (cough cough or mobility cough cough) but they bring a lot to the party.
At the end of the day, find something you personally find fun or enjoyable, don’t chase the FOTM tank class. You don’t want to be miserable with one of the more stressful roles just for a 5-10% strength difference. Each tank has its own strengths and weaknesses and they are all good in their own ways.
I said if the skill level is higher…and I think I forgot to mention if played with regular members not with randoms.
Pugging the Mythic + is very different from playing with a group of friends. It’s mostly about the DPS knowing the mechanics or not, but also the team work. When dealing with random players in Mythic+ DK or Paladin is better I think. It’s mostly about DPS not knowing to interrupt to kite the caster mob out of the Sanguine and some DPS not stopping for Bursting Stacks. DK can AMS or Paladin can self heal or bubble and rez the fools and both can kite the casting mobs.
Bursting = 14% HP loss for 4 sec debuff
it stacks and its duration gets refreshed when stacked higher.
1 stack = 14%, 2 stack = 28%, 3 stack = 42%, 4 stack = 56%
so let’s say the debuff gets reset every 3 secs(think of Shrine or Atal’Dazar little adds) so on average, it will be like 10% + 25% + 35% + 45% = 115% HP Loss by the time 4 stack finishes. It takes one DPS not knowing to stop for 4 sec that can cause the wipe.
There are only 7 Groups of little adds at Atal’Dazar and all we need is stop for 4 sec for each group after killing 3 mobs = 28 Sec loss but no drama or wipe. Anyhow, if played with a group of friends then yeah definitely warrior, more defense and I know for a fact that it deals a great deal of damage almost like a DPS in AOE, so definite + for higher keys. Warrior tank in Mythic + is not a tank.
It’s DANK = DPS + TANK
But hey, thanks for bringing this up, so we could discuss this further.
I’d say (obviously I suppose) blood DK. It really depends on your play style though. I enjoy self healing, so blood dk is fun to me. Blood dks also have a ton of utility. Mob/enemy placement in pve/PvP with death grip is a huge factor, especially in m+. Relatively easy to learn, the core gameplay centers around stacking bone shield and timing death strikes to get the most health back as possible.
Demon hunters are known for not wearing shirts to show off these sexy sexy tattoos. Plus wings, mechanic shoots you in the air? /lol at the group as you glide down to safety.
Plus, metamorphasis. This 100% unique to demon hunters never been used by any other class transforms you into a sexy demon.
What’s not to love about demon hunter tanking? We are the mediocrest!
While warriors aren’t huge on utility, I do still feel like I’m bringing something to the table other than being hit by stuff. The attack power boost is a nice bonus. With storm bolt and shock wave, I’m bringing some extra survivability to my comrades by shutting down some extra enemy attacks.
Also in M+ situations I’m effectively a fourth DPS. Pop Avatar and Intimidating Shout (with deafening crash), and I’m leading on damage while shouldering everything the enemies are throwing at me.
For a strictly LFR/possibly maybe even low m+ tank? That’s what you’re looking for from my interpretation of OP… If that’s truly the case…
Whichever you like the look and lore of most. Can’t go wrong here. All tanks are 100% capable of that, without a doubt.
I’ll toss in a bit more here: Simple and fun? Vengeance Demon Hunter, especially for PvP. In BFA they lost an entire button from their Legion already simplistic rotation. Just remember to leap into pulls as that not only generates damage and therefore threat, but also souls (Veng DH souls are this tank’s form of self healing). Pop Demon Spikes when the damage starts making you a little uncomfortable/at the start of every pull and use Meta when you’re in danger or start kiting.
Focusing on the simple aspect at the cost of fun: Guardian druid. Nuff said. Completely fine for your level of difficulty and a clever druid always excels at PvP regardless of spec.
I’d stay away from Brewmaster, at first it isn’t simple and they offer nothing in PvP that isn’t outclassed by a Veng DH. Awful, awful self healing. This tank is highly susceptible to dying from a million paper cuts and never proccing a healing orb due to dying to tons of tiny hits.
I’d stay away from Protecting Warrior, they’re too good right now and Blizz is readying the Nerf hammer I’m sure. We all know Blizz doesn’t slightly nerf either, ever.
Protection Pally is kind of the opposite of what you’re looking for imo. A lot of buttons, stat dependent (as always…), proper timing of active mitigation is a must, you can cheese stuff with bubble but for the love of God BE READY TO CLICK IT OFF since you’ll drop any and all aggro once it’s activated… No inherent PvP advantages over Veng DH.
Blood DK is what you’ve heard, plus really great CDs. AMS can make entire tank mechanics in m+ just not a thing anymore. Once you learn the kind of ebb and flow of when to Deathstrike and whatnot, you can Blood DK in your sleep. Keep up Boneshield, Deathstrike, win. Pretty simple. Slow AF though. Kiting isn’t hard since D&D can slow most things that stand in it.
Prot Pally - the Cap A style shield toss to knock heads of closely packed foes is super satisfying, and has range. Off-heals, buffs as well.
Only other tanking I have done was pinch-hitting back in Vanilla on my Druid in Bear form. Wouldn’t trade that for Prot, even with a healer as good as we had.
(Veng DH souls are this tank’s form of self healing). Pop Demon Spikes when the damage starts making you a little uncomfortable/at the start of every pull and use Meta when you’re in danger or start kiting.