What does each tank have going for and against them?
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As a scrub, my observations for Blood are this:
Strengths: Lots of self heals (obviously) and CDs.
Weaknesses: Active mitigation requires melee; slower than cold molasses.
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Bear tank is probably most looked down on right now, and that is the major problem with it. In reality it can do nearly anything the other tanks can do. Wish it had a hard CC (aside from hibernate, since not much beast trash out there to CC) like DK/DH/Monk/Pally has, but other then that they have a solid kit. Had issues previously with the stacking MS debuff affix, but now with ursols vortex available to guardian that wont be an issue.
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Poor bear tanks are pretty much a meat shield. Self healing is there but just not good enough. They are not bad for physical damage mobs but if there are multiple caster mobs in a group, they go down like sponges. Hence it makes them not an idle tank for higher keys in M+. In raids on the other hand, since its usually one type of fight each boss, they can be either MT or OT and do just fine.
Warriors are not far ahead of Bears in M+ either. They do have spell reflection, aoe stun and ignore pain (while not great) still works on spell damage too. They also bring 10% AP buff to the group. Warriors, just like Bears, still have rough time with caster mobs.
Blood DKs have mobility issues but they are the champions of M+ not only because of self heal but also because of damage absorb mitigation they have. Add few/many deffensive CDs, mass grip to round up mobs and higher M+ keys can be like a walk in the park with a skilled Blood DK.
Haven’t tanked on my Monk much, can’t say how they perform but pretty sure they are the most mobile tanks, same for Demon Hunters. Altho, DHs have those AOE silence and stun sigils too which helps. I am sure others can give better feedback on those two.
Monks: Kings of damage smoothing. You never take huge spikes in damage (and if you do the hit probably would’ve flat out killed another tank). Very mobile, a nice 45s CD CC, Ring of Peace is great for mob positioning and making breathing room to help kite, leg sweeps also another great AoE stun that’s now baseline. Their weakness is that they don’t have great self sustain. Their healing is rather weak so while they take forever to die, they do eventually need a healer. Pretty simple rotation and can keep their active mitigation up 100% of the time (assuming you’re not getting wrecked requiring lots of purifying). Another nice thing is that they can use their dispel while tanking.
Bear: Decent tanks with large health pools and able to generate lots of armor through ironfur. Relatively simple rotation and with talents can easily keep up 100% active mitigation. A nice charge interrupt and wild charge can be helpful to counter act knockbacks. Typhoon is great for mob positioning and a pseudo interrupt. Stampeding roar is nerfed since Legion, but can still be helpful. Incapacitating roar is another great pseudo-interrupt, though some mobs are immune. Down side is that similar to monks they don’t have great sustain with only 2 charges of frenzied regen. Also, except for roots (which requires caster form), they don’t have a CC. They can’t use their dispel while actively tanking as it swaps them to caster form, though you can typhoon dispel in clutch situations. They do have soothe though, which is great to remove enrage effects. They also have a Brez, which is always nice.
Paladin: Interrupts, interrupts, interrupts! Rebuke + Avenging Shield makes you the god of interrupts. Relatively easy rotation, though you cannot maintain 100% uptime on your active mitigation so will need to manage that smarter than a monk or druid. Pallies also have a BUNCH of tools to aid the group between BoP, BoF, Off healing, LoH, you name it. They do have a CC via repentence and can use their dispel while tanking. They have a 5 second ST stun.
DKs: Haven’t played mine since legion, but IIRC (and I doubt they’ve changed much)… these are gods of M+. The best self-sustain by far, with plenty of defensive CDs, and best of all… mass grip… Mass grip and Death grip are absolutely fantastic for making death balls of mobs for the DPS to AoE down. They also have control undead, which is not only a CC, but it also forces an undead mob to become your minion. Dangerous mobs in AD and KR can be used against the dungeon so that you can do muuuch more damage. The one downside is that they do have a bit more of a learning curve as if you don’t utilize your abilities correctly, you’ll get stomped flat. Also they can’t maintain 100% active mitigation, so you’ll have to plan for abilities that require it to avoid.
DHs: I want to like my DH, but at the end of the day… the main problem I have with it is that it’s just too darn random. It’s super mobile with a fun rotation, but your health will spike up and down regardless of your play. You can’t keep your active mitigation up 100% of the time as well so like Pallies and DKs you’ll need to plan accordingly. You’ll find yourself often having to kite dangerous enemies that you can face tank with other tanks. That being said, via sigils and leaps you have plenty of utility. You also have a great CC (and an AoE CC) and an offensive purge. You also get to look super edgy (I’ll let you decide if that’s a positive or negative).
Warriors: Have never tanked on a warr before (aside from leveling). During 8.0, they were considered bad, supposedly recently got buffed. Will have to let others fill you in on them.
Anywho, that’s my opinion on the tanks at a mid level of play +10-15 dungeons. I’d go read up more about them if you’re deciding whether you want to play higher than that. I always say though: Unless you’re really trying to push content (ie going for the MDI or ranked CE progression), all classes are viable. Play what you enjoy.
My fav tank: Complicated as I like them for different reasons. I love monk damage smoothing, I love paladin avengers shield, I love DH mobility, I love mass grip, and I love big bear butts (and I can not lie).
Tank rank from easiest to hardest (imo): Monk = Bear > Pally > DK > DH.
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Oh our weaknesses that’s simple
“Path not found” , “not enough rage” and “you can’t do that yet”
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As a healer, I found this post helpful. Thanks.
Pally tanks the only one I play and they have a ton good def abilities any good pally tank can get out of almost any oh shoot situation without making your healers be like mash mash mash mash to save them, plus the rotation is simple, plus as someone said we can dispel ourselves if needed and their AoE threat is beast.
Only things I disagree with with pally is most pallies arent taking repentence in that talent tree as out hammer is just better. A lot of tool are more so a plus if your offtanking but if I am main tanking im not offhealing a dpser maybe myself ya nor tab targeting off the boss to BoF a dpser as those tool are more suited to a ret pally or holy. They are there and as a MT your not looking at your prot pally to take care of those unless absolutely needed with the exception of LoH or BoP to save a full wipe.
We Blood Death knights are the best if you want to be the best as possible at Mythic plus and be pushing cutting edge progression…
If you play Blood right you can be a God and rarely die or much harder time of dying in Mythic plus… Downside is our class is quite hard to learn to play properly… I remeber when I was new to Blood I was horrible and died so much…
But Now I gotten better dying is not much of issue… I am more worried about dps dying…
The only other downside to blood is our threat can be quite low at times due to our low DPS… Will have to cap next part so people understand importance of it.
IF DPS BLOW THEIR LOAD BEFORE YOU CAN GET THREAT PARTY WILL LIKELY WIPE ESPECAILLY ON HIGHER KEYS!!!. Sorry for caps but nesscary to get point across…
You need time to get threat as a blood and get your boneshield up… If given time DK can be OP god… .We are the weakest and most prey to dying fast in the opening attack of boss/big mob…
A good DK will survie opening attack a bad one will likely not…
Overall Blood is most hard Tank class to learn next would be DH… But I would argue our class is most rewarding when you git gud… Its nice to feel like an OP god.