Mythic+ dungeon runs have become the third pillar of the competitive WoW gaming scene, alongside the more hyped arena matches and race to world-first raiding. For those who are interested in exploring this, “relatively new”, game experience we have compiled a list of the top 5 tank specs to help you put together the strongest group possible for the dungeon runs. This list of course is dependent on the current patch/affixes, the meta of the Mythic+ runs, which we will talk about in a bit, and the level of difficulty you are running the dungeons. Take a look below and find out what might be the best fit for your playstyle!
5. Blood Death Knight
Blood DKs start our list off for a few factors. New talents such as Shattering Bone, which does AoE damage when Bone Shield breaks, and Bloodshot, which increases damage done by 25% when Blood Shield is up do provide them with increased damage. But of course, this means that you have to know how to maintain the shield otherwise you go back to doing just sad amounts of damage. DKs have a high-skill cap but also a high-skill floor, and if you play one casually, they can feel very weak. The upside is that once you master the DK, their self-healing is unrivaled and when played at the highest level, they are the most independent tanks that will require low amounts of healing. Their pulling ability is average, however, with Anti-Magic Zone they are good for high magic damage pulls and dungeons. Currently, because it is at the beginning of the expansion, survivability is pretty important which has Blood DKs performing well, however, looking forward as damage-dealing and pulling ability become more important, these tanks will drop off.
Works Best In: Algeh’ar Academy
- The pulls in this dungeon are simple and straightforward which is good for DKs
- Most of the boss mechanics are easily negated with the proper cooldowns
- Buff given by one of the Dragonflight recruiter NPCs at the beginning of the dungeon adds even more self-healing to their kit
- Trash has big AoE damage; being a self-sustaining tank is advantageous for the group as the healer can focus on the other members
- Death grip is excellent for the variety of ranged casters in this dungeon
Blood DK Mythic Dungeon build: Dreams ‹vodka› @ Zul'jin (US) (raider.io)
4. Protection Paladin
Protection Paladins provide tons of utility and at the lower levels of Mythic+ runs, can carry a group because of this. They have great interrupts, thanks to Avenger’s Shield and Divine Toll. They have multiple ways of avoiding burst damage, and they are on short cooldowns meaning that it’s not super hard to rotate through them as the first ones used will be back up in time. These spells include Eye of Tyr, Sentinel, Divine Shield, Guardian of Ancient Kings, and the cheat death ability Ardent Defender. On top of these, they also have powerful cooldowns to protect their party members, such as Lay on Hands, Blessing of Sacrifice, Blessing of Freedom, and Blessing of Spellwarding. The reason they are 4th is that once you start playing with highly skilled players that are doing the higher levels of Mythic+ dungeons, they can avoid damage, 1-shot mechanics, and the healers are better so you don’t really need all that utility. When that happens it becomes more beneficial to have a tank that does certain aspects really well as opposed to a jack-of-all-trades type like the Protection Paladin.
Works Best In: Temple of the Jade Serpent
- Multiple trash mobs place DoTs on the target, such as Corrupt Living Water, The Talking Fish, Jiang, and Xiang, or Depraved Mistweaver which can (and should be) cleansed
- Lots of casts to interrupt with Avenger’s Shield
- Most trash packs involve you staying stationary in a corner which is good as you won’t kite mobs outside of your Consecration
- Mobs such as The Golden Beetle or the buildup of Lesser Sha’s cause spike burst damage which can be managed with the large number of cooldowns that Prot Paladins have
- There isn’t much continuous pulling which is perfect for the Paladin’s lack of mobility
Protection Paladin Build: Lisarah ‹Okay› @ Illidan (US) (raider.io)
3. Guardian Druid
Guardian Druids are excellent tanks, they can pump out and absorb a ton of damage. They are very mobile which is great for pulling quickly, a super important trait the higher key level you are attempting. The most important part of their spec is really tied to one talent, Ursoc’s Guidance. This reduces the cooldown of their big spell Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc by 1 second for every 20 rage you spend. This significantly reduces the 3-minute cooldown, sometimes down to around 1 minute, meaning that you are significantly buffed for a much larger percentage of the dungeon than ever before. Their Moonfire ability syncs significantly well with a ton of their new talents and becomes very versatile. Not only can you pull from range very easily, avoiding damage to set up large pulls seamlessly, but it also does increased cleave damage, provides damage reduction, and heals you for damage done. The only slight weakness is to sustained magic damage however Guardian Druids are excellent tanks for almost any situation and are extremely easy to pick up.
Works Best In: Halls of Valor
- The movement speed buff that occurs after you defeat Fenryr or Hyrja which is then amplified after defeating both, syncs extremely well with the already high mobility of Guardian Druids.
- There is a lot of physical damage done by the trash mobs which is great for Guardian Druids.
- All the boss fights require a fair amount of movement which once again plays well into the strengths of the class.
- Can deal good damage while on the move
- Halls of Valor is the largest dungeon in the rotation and even though we’ve mentioned this before, it’s important to hammer it home, speed, speed, speed! Especially as you start to progress through higher level keys, the speed at which Guardian Druids can pull and the relatively low skill floor make this the perfect tank for Halls of Valor
Guardian Druid Build: Haramabi ‹miscalculated› @ Blackhand (DE) (raider.io)
2. Vengeance Demon Hunter
Reaching the top 2, Vengeance Demon Hunters are in an excellent spot right now. If Protection Warriors weren’t so comically over-tuned then they might the top dog. They have excellent mobility, great damage and survivability, and multiple spells for AoE CC. The movement system in general takes a bit of learning for new players, but once you master it pulling dungeons can feel super seamless and smooth. The most important resource is actually not the fury bar but how you generate and spend Soul Fragments. These heal for 6% of the damage taken in the 5 seconds leading up to it being consumed. Once you figure out how to chain the usage of these and smooth out your movement to be able to grab them while tanking then you are in a very solid spot. Their AoE CC is great for large pulls, Chaos Nova stuns all enemies for 2 seconds and is very versatile especially once it’s buffed by Chaos Fragments which has a 30% proc chance on all enemies stunned to generate a Soul Fragment. Demon Hunters are going to continue to get better as the expansion progresses and being able to contribute high amounts of damage is going to get increasingly more valuable.
Works Best In: Court of Stars
- Demon Hunter stuns work great into trash mobs, such as the Duskwatch Sentries which try to sound an alarm and need to be CCed, or the Blazing Imps which cast Drifting Embers. This can be overwhelming damage if multiple of them are casting at once and is perfectly handled by AoE stuns.
- Several mobs in the dungeon cast frontal cone stuns or explode with high damage when killed. The snap threat provided by Demon Hunter’s high damage allows them to kite the mobs while still maintaining threat and do avoid the abilities. Then they can dash in AoE stun and do more burst damage to maintain threat until the mobs die.
- There are also several mobs that do high damaging AoE damage that need to be avoided by moving out of line of sight. Spells such as Fel Detonation cast by Felbound Enforcers and Charged Blast cast by Bound Energy can be avoided thanks to the high mobility that Demon Hunters have.
- Sigil of Silence is great for dealing with the caster mobs. Once it is specced into, it becomes a 10-second silence on a 48-second cooldown which can powerfully lock down groups of casters.
Vengeance Demon Hunter build: Cutestepsis ‹Desidia› @ Eredar (DE) (raider.io)
1. Protection Warrior
The undoubted king of the meta right now, Protection Warriors. As of the writing of this article, last week a whopping 37% of Mythic keys completed over the +15 level were completed with a Protection Warrior. And that number is expected to go up as players react to the strength of this class and reroll/gear up their own. Everything good about Demon Hunters is just amplified with warriors, they are mobile, deal big burst damage, provide utility for their group, and the biggest strength of all, they just soak up so much damage. Their traditional weakness from spell damage is no longer there thanks to Spell Block. They’ve gained self-sustain, from Leeching Strikes and One Handed Specialization, which combine to add 10% leech. Their two main abilities that reduce damage both can have their cooldowns reduced drastically by the talents Impenetrable Wall (reduces Shield Wall cooldown by 5 seconds each time you cast Shield Slam) and Thunderlord (reduces the cooldown of Demoralizing Shout by 1 second for each enemy hit with Thunderclap, up to 3 seconds). Their abilities are easy to just press in order while still making a huge impact, they are mobile which makes pulling fast and easy. This makes Prot Warriors the most forgiving class to learn as well.
Works Best In: Everything
- This is the go-to class at the moment, if you are serious about Mythic+ content, it’s wise to learn how to play one.
- If you are a new player and have never tanked before, this is a great class to learn on while you figure out how to path through each dungeon and the mechanics of the trash mobs and bosses.
- Seriously, this class is insane.
Protection Warrior build: Shuhwar ‹Benched› @ Tarren Mill (EU) (raider.io)
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