Tanking - paladin or warrior?

Community General Discussion
1

Looking to dedicate one of these plate/shield wielding classes to tanking. Which would be better? More fun (subjective so tell me about it)?

2

I personally prefer pally tanking.
To me it’s less dependent on your healer, and lets them focus on the group.

Also, I enjoy the pally tank tool kit a little better than prot warr.
I do have both though.

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3

I agree with Coprophobia. My main is a pally, typically prot spec. Damage isn’t incredibly behind ret spec, especially when pulling groups. Because of this, I usually level & exist as prot spec. Case in point, on an Alliance alt, my tankadin is only around 350 iLvl, and can mass pull for WQ or in Naz and quickly burn everything down without much visible damage taken. This is handy due to the absolutely ridiculous mob density.

Add to that the Pally tool kit, and you have a fully self supportive spec. When tanking (at least in past expacs, took a break and have not tanked BFA instances) the healers can really focus more on keeping DPS healthy.

I do have a Prot Warrior, but he languishes behind four other toons before being leveled. It’s just not quite as much fun for me to run Warriors. That said, anyone who understands the mechanics of Prot Warriors can tank extremely effectively with one.

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4

Either one is pretty good. It just depends on how much work you want to put into it. I like simple, so with the paladin tool kit it’s really nice with an answer for almost every situation. It’s bad enough herding mobs around and the occasional player without much of a clue, so it’s nice almost relaxing.

If you want to get down and go knees and elbows then warrior would be up your alley. I’ve been wanting to dust off my warriors for almost two expansions, but haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet. There is a warrior on these forums that did get me to log in on her for 10 to 20 minutes but that as far as I got.

5

Paladin, but I am completely biased.

6

Imo Warrior is more fun, Paladin is easier.

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7

Warlock best tank imo

8

Sounds like I’d be well served with the paladin. I would like an easier entry because I’ve never tanked anything on any tank higher than a mythic 0.

9

I prefer pally over warrior tanking and I do have both.
My options may be based on the fact that I mostly play alone and paly’s “oh-$hit” tool-kit is much better.

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10

Paladin’s have a lot more powerful utility of not dying.

Divine Shield, Invincible.

Lay on Hands, heal to 100% health.

Ardent Defender, all killing blows will instead heal the paladin for a few hits.

Light of the Protector/Hand of the Protector, a self heal ability that can be empowered to heal more if standing on a Consecrated ground and if you have Avenging Wrath on to Crit Light of the Protector, making it a second lay on hands.

11

I have both and prefer the paladin for tanking. Warrior mobility is fun but the paladin feels like it’s better able to handle 5 man content. Whenever I’m not on my paladin tank I really miss the ranged silence on avengers shield.

I mostly only tank mythic + up to around 11-12 keys though. I don’t do much raid tanking.

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12

Can Paladins have their own reincarnation ability Blizzard?

13

If you want an easy tanking class with all the luxuries in the world, go with pally.

If you want to be a manly man instead, be a wartank.

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14

I don’t know, sometimes luxuries can be nice :wink:

15

I like laughing at hordes of enemies unable to damage me with Shield Block and Ignore Pain up. Who needs healing when your health bar never moves?

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16

They can be, which is why my alt is a pally.

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17

Maybe when I get comfortable with tanking I’ll drag my warrior up. I really do like warriors and fury is one of the more fun dps specs in the game right now.

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18

Once you do get comfortable, here’s the real difference I feel when it comes to endgame tanking.

Paladins almost never die and they keep everyone alive. They have so much utility in their toolkit that it makes every other tanking class look silly in pve. They do have a breaking point though.

Warriors, if played correctly, have incredible skill ceiling, can tank enormous pulls and kite forever. They don’t have much utility but they are absolute beasts when it comes to controlling mob packs. They’re also obnoxious in pvp.

My personal low lvl warrior tanking record - pulling 7 abominations in stratholme right before the abom boss, and not dying.

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19

That also appeals to me. I do enjoy being able to use my skill and pull off some amazing clutch stuff. Damn I might have to just play both lol.

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20

I have a prot warrior and he is very useful for farming mats and transmogs. Heroic leap and Intervene allow him to quickly move from mob to mob with very little out of combat time. Additionally, since warriors can use staves, fist weapons and daggers, they are able to collect tranmog appearances that a pally would only be selling to a vendor.

That said, I have a prot pally that i spend the bulk of my play time on because they are so hard to kill in pve content. I prefer playing pally, but it’s nice to go play my warrior too.