Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria tank tier list! We will rank each tanking specialization available for the expansion and explain each spec’s position on the tier list.
 |  Blood Death Knight |  Brewmaster Monk | ||
 |  Protection Warrior |  Protection Paladin | ||
 |  Guardian Druid | |||
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- Blood Death Knight
- Brewmaster Monk
- Protection Paladin
- Protection Warrior
- Guardian Druid
The first phase of Mists of Pandaria arrives with three distinct raids that adventurers must conquer: Mogu’Shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring. Those raids bring no shortage of dangerous foes and threatening mechanics that Tanking specializations must face, with some builds faring better than others.
While there are clear differences between the Tanking specializations, it is essential to specify that every single one is completely viable and engaging to play, despite some shortcomings. Due to their kits and stat dependencies, some specializations become far stronger as the expansion progresses, with the tables being turned once the expansion reaches the Siege of Orgrimmar stage. One example of a class that becomes considerably stronger is Protection Paladin due to its dependency on Haste. In contrast, others, such as Blood Death Knight, consistently perform throughout the expansion.
The current Tank Tier List is a subjective estimation based on the data available on Warcraftlogs and the Worldoflogs web archive. The list also considers the 5.4.8 specialization versions, which will be available at the launch of Mists of Pandaria: Classic.
How the specs are ranked:
- Threat: Threat Generation that the spec can put out, in Single-target and AoE situations.
- Survivability: How beefy the spec is against bosses, packs of enemies, physical mobs, and spellcasters.
- Utility: What the spec brings to a raid besides its tanking, such as various raid buffs and helpful debuffs.
- Off-tanking Power: How useful the spec is while not actively tanking, i.e., on fights where only one tank is needed and that spec is not tanking.
S-Tier
The S-tier represents the most powerful tanking specs in the current meta – those with the best threat and survivability. You will see one of these specs in every single raid as people naturally gravitate towards them, and it won’t be completely uncommon to see 2 — which is very telling of how strong they are, as how many raid groups will have only two dedicated tank spots anyway!
Blood Death Knight
Arguably the most powerful Tanking specialization throughout Mists of Pandaria, Blood Death Knights occupy the first spot in the S Tier. They bring one of the most versatile builds, displaying powerful self-healing and absorption effects through Death Strike, Mastery: Blood Shield, Vampiric Blood, and Rune Tap, multiple powerful defensive cooldowns such as Lichborne, Icebound Fortitude, Anti-Magic Shell, Anti-Magic Zone, and a very high damage output through new mechanics such as Soul Reaper and Riposte.
Their Threat Generation and overall control are amazing, especially in AoE scenarios where Gorefiend’s Grasp grants the only AoE Taunt in the game. While their kit is filled with defensive tools for themselves and their allies, they lack the varied utility of other specializations, such as Protection Paladins.
While they are known as immortal Main Tanks, they also perform as Off-Tanks with their powerful Heart Strike, Rune Strike, & Death Strike. However, they deal much more damage in the Execution Phase due to Soul Reaper rather than the rest of the encounter, due to the lack of a trigger for the Riposte mechanic, which guarantees that most of their attacks are critical strikes.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Some of the best self-healing tools in the game | Relatively stat-dependent |
Powerful self & raid-wide defensive mechanics | Fewer utility tools than other tanking specializations |
Consistent physical damage absorption effect | Fewer mobility tools than other specializations |
Excellent damage output in Single-Target & easy to play | – |
Amazing AoE control & AoE taunt | – |
Brewmaster Monk
Brewmaster Monks are the new kids on the block as tanks go, instantly becoming one of the best Tanking specializations in Mists of Pandaria. They occupy the S-Tier alongside Blood Death Knights. Brewmaster Monks come with a new mechanic in the tanking world called Stagger, which only makes them take 80% direct damage with the other 20% being received instead as a DoT that they may even purge themselves with a spell called Purifying Brew.
Their kit is filled with mobility, self-healing, utility, major defensive cooldowns, and many damage spells, making them arguably the most versatile tanking specialization in Mists of Pandaria. However, this extraordinary kit also comes with the disadvantage of being incredibly tough to master, making Brewmaster Monk the hardest specialization to play in competitive environments.
Some examples of abilities that put them in the S-Tier are Avert Harm & Summon Black Ox Statue, which grants raid-wide mitigation, Guard, which increases all self-healing by 30% and provides a consistent absorption effect, and Dizzying Haze, which effectively can make any attack against them entirely nullified and deal damage to the target instead.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Extremely mobile | Large kit that is hard to master |
Versatile kit against any threat | Very stat-dependent |
Strong self-healing | No AoE taunt |
Very high survivability & absorption/stagger effects | – |
Powerful utility | – |
Very high AoE damage | – |
A-Tier
The A-tier represents strong tank specializations that offer very solid threat and survivability. You will frequently see these specs perform the off-tank role since they’re not as strong as the S-tier tanks (which will likely be the main tanking) while having some unique strengths that make them worth bringing. These specs will be very common in raids, and many will have 1 of them, but no more, as tank spots are pretty limited.
Protection Warrior
Protection Warriors are on the rise in Mists of Pandaria, receiving an entirely overhauled kit with the potential for strong performance in competitive raid environments. The Block & Block Chance playstyle has been emphasized even more through the changes to Shield Block and Bastion of Defense, increasing their survivability significantly. In addition, they gained a spammable absorption effect, Shield Barrier, that can safeguard them from any damage type, scaling with Vengeance and their Attack Power.
Thanks to the overhauls, they now have new Rage Generators and Rage Spenders, significantly improving their former Rage Generation. They also now have a significantly higher damage output. However, their convoluted new rotation can often lead to confusion for new players, making the specialization challenging for players who can’t quickly decide on how to spend their Rage in specific moments.
One of the key points that makes Protection Warriors very popular is their great utility through abilities such as Skull Banner or Demoralizing Banner, alongside the many powerful self-defensive tools, such as a 2-minute cooldown Shield Wall or Rallying Cry, that make them resilient and tough to kill. Unfortunately, they are the only Tanking specialization without a consistent self-healing tool, which makes them very reliant on Healers.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Very high survivability against physical damage & magical damage | Lack of self-healing |
Extremely mobile | Awkward & complicated proc-based rotation |
Potent raid-wide utility through banners | Fewer utility tools than other tanking specializations |
Amazing damage output in both Single-Target & AoE | No AoE taunt |
– | Clunky design focused around Shield Block & Shield Barrier |
Protection Paladin
Protection Paladins have a rough start in Mists of Pandaria, being heavily plagued by one crucial thing: a severe lack of Haste. In comparison, the specialization is one of the best as the expansion progresses, arguably one of the strongest alongside Blood Death Knight and Brewmaster Monk. Their overhauled kit, which now supports up to 5 x Holy Power, grants them percentage-based Physical Damage reduction through Shield of the Righteous. This results in highly proactive gameplay, consistently spamming their Holy Power generators to keep the effect up. However, this new, overhauled playstyle is impossible without enough Haste, ranking them very low compared to other tanks at the beginning of the expansion.
Besides Shield of the Righteous, they have powerful cooldowns that ensure they can survive even the fiercest foes: Divine Protection, Ardent Defender, and Guardian of Ancient Kings. The specialization also turned towards a self-healing approach, with Word of Glory/Eternal Flame being their main self-sustaining tools.
They still confer the most versatile utility among the Tanking specializations, even if they can no longer provide Auras to their team. They can fit Off-tank roles as well, given their massive utility and off-healing potential, yet the dependency on Haste due to the Sanctity of Battle effect makes them awful as Off-Tanks early on in the expansion.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Very high survivability through percentage-based physical damage reduction | Extremely dependent on stats (Haste) |
Potent self & raid-wide defensive tools | Spam-like rotation that can be messed up |
Potent self-healing tools | Relatively long cooldowns |
Extremely versatile utility tools | Fewer mobility tools than other specializations |
Great Single-Target damage output | No AoE taunt |
B-Tier
The B-tier represents tank specializations that are very viable but have weaknesses that render them notably weaker than the specs listed in previous tiers. Your raid is unlikely to wipe just because you’re using a B-tier tank, as they can tank most things just fine, but if you’re aiming to optimize your raid, you’d rather have a different class main tank, and you should probably avoid stacking specs found in the B-tier.
Guardian Druid
Guardian Druids are sadly at the bottom of the pack when it comes to Tanking specializations in Mists of Pandaria, being the “average” tanking specialization in the first phase. They excel at being off-tanks, mainly due to mechanics such as Heart of the Wild, which offer them great versatility when it comes to either dealing damage or healing. However, in the role of main-tank, every other specialization outperforms Guardian Druid, even with the new Savage Defense overhaul.
While they are average tanks, they are still viable and can be played even in progression raids. They have fewer defensive cooldowns than the other specializations, with Might of Ursoc and Survival Instincts being the most impactful. Similar to Protection Warriors or Protection Paladins, they must upkeep Savage Defense at all times to keep up their damage mitigation, which may make the specialization feel clunky, especially for new players. Their self-healing is also mediocre compared to Blood Death Knights, Brewmaster Monks, or Protection Paladins. Frenzied Regeneration often gets in the way of the rotation instead of properly helping. Ysera’s Gift somewhat solves this issue, although it still implies that Guardian Druids mainly depend on healers.
Fortunately, they provide great utility, especially through the Symbiosis effect, which grants them access to many effects.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Excellent off-tank potential through Heart of the Wild | Somewhat mediocre self-healing tools |
Highly mobile | Underwhelming main-tanks when compared to other specializations |
High survivability against physical damage | No AoE taunt |
Extremely versatile utility through Symbiosis | Only two powerful but long defensive cooldowns |
Powerful AoE damage | Clunky design focused around Savage Defense |
C-Tier
The C-tier comprises tank specializations that are on the weaker side. It could be argued that they’re still viable, as they can generally get the job done. However, it will be a struggle compared to S-tier or A-tier specs, as C-tier specs lack the threat and survivability that the “big boys” have, and as a result, your DPS players will have to be careful with threat. Healers will need to pay a lot of attention to your health pool.
Mists of Pandaria ensures that all tanks are viable, even with their shortcomings, meaning that no specialization is weak enough to be considered C Tier.
D-Tier
Simply put, specs in the D-tier are considered to be not viable. They can be fun to play, but you will struggle to get invited to raids when playing one of these, and you may even find yourself getting kicked from groups, as your tanking will be bad, with very sub-par threat and survivability.
As with the C Tier, fortunately, no specialization is weak enough to be placed in the D Tier.