Tank performance in Mists of Pandaria Classic Phase 1 is much more balanced than DPS roles, where power gaps can be massive. Every tank spec can handle both dungeons and raids, each bringing unique advantages that make them valuable in different situations. Unlike previous expansions, there isn't a huge difference between tanks, and each has situations where they perform best.
Understanding Tank Rankings in Phase 1
Current Tank Tier List Rankings for Tier 14 (Phase 1)
S-Tier (Exceptional Performance)
- Brewmaster Monk - Superior damage mitigation and exceptional utility
A-Tier (Strong Performance)
- Protection Warrior - Outstanding utility and damage potential
- Protection Paladin - Excellent mitigation and self-sustain
- Blood Death Knight - Strong survivability and versatility
B-Tier (Solid Performance)
- Guardian Druid - Limited utility but specialized strengths
How We Rank Tanks
Tank rankings consider multiple factors with different weightings based on encounter types:
Tank effectiveness changes dramatically based on whether your raid is farming content or progressing for the first time. On bosses where both tanks spend equal time tanking (no dedicated off-tank role), survivability becomes more important. Fights with clear off-tank phases favor tanks with strong damage during downtime.
Detailed Tank Analysis
S-Tier: Brewmaster Monk
Brewmaster combines fantastic damage mitigation with outstanding raid utility, making them the most versatile and valuable tank for Phase 1 content.
What Makes Them Great:
Game-Changing Raid Utility: Summon Black Ox Statue and Avert Harm provide incredibly strong benefits for the entire group. These abilities offer defensive support and tactical advantages that other tanks simply can't match.
Unmatched Mobility: Roll, Tiger's Lust, and Transcendence give unmatched movement options for positioning and encounter mechanics throughout Phase 1 content.
Smart Stat Design: Brewmasters can pursue damage stats without losing defensive power since Crit helps both offense and defense (along with Hit and Expertise). This makes gearing straightforward without compromising survivability.
Vengeance Synergy: Mists' new Vengeance mechanic heavily benefits Brewmaster, primarily through their Stagger ability. This scaling advantage becomes increasingly valuable as encounters progress.
- Superior damage mitigation
- Exceptional raid utility
- Outstanding mobility
- Vengeance synergy
- Weak self-healing
- High skill requirements
- Complex rotation management
- Unforgiving if played poorly
Where They Struggle:
Weak Self-Healing: Brewmasters don't have great self-sustain, especially in single-target fights. Gift of the Ox healing requires moving to collect orbs, which can be awkward. Chi Wave and Expel Harm provide decent healing but nothing spectacular compared to other tanks.
High Skill Requirements: Brewmasters have a high skill floor. Poor play makes you much more likely to die compared to other tanks. You need to maintain 100% uptime on Shuffle and use Elusive Brew correctly to be valuable.
A-Tier: Protection Warrior
Protection Warriors excel through incredible raid utility and fantastic damage output, making them particularly valuable as off-tanks in 25-player content while maintaining strong main-tanking ability.
What Makes Them Great:
Incredible Raid Support: Skull Banner, Rallying Cry, Vigilance, and Demoralizing Banner provide fantastic utility that significantly boosts group performance. This extensive toolkit makes Warriors valuable beyond their core tanking role.
Absurd Damage Output: Warriors can deal crazy amounts of damage in both single-target and AoE situations. Their damage often exceeds other tank specs significantly, even while handling defensive responsibilities.
Flexible Active Mitigation: Shield Block provides powerful protection against bosses like Sha of Fear, while Shield Barrier gives outrageous absorb effects at high Vengeance, especially on fights like Grand Empress Shek'zeer during add phases. Proper Rage management lets Warriors handle most dangerous mechanics effectively.
Best Off-Tank Choice: Warriors work as the best off-tank in 25-player environments, providing exceptional utility while maintaining strong main-tanking when needed.
Where They Struggle:
Stat Conflicts: Warriors prefer pure Crit for offense, but this comes at a high cost to defensive utility, creating tough gearing decisions.
A-Tier: Protection Paladin
Protection Paladins combine fantastic utility and defensive capabilities with scaling self-sustain, making them excellent for both main tanking and raid support.
What Makes Them Great:
Strong Defensive Performance: Recent buffs significantly improved Protection Paladin defensive capabilities, letting them handle incoming damage much better than some other tanks. They perform extremely well defensively with strong baseline mitigation.
Excellent Self-Healing: With enough Holy Power generation, Paladins can basically become another healer through Eternal Flame. A good Sacred Shield snapshot plus passive healing from Seal of Insight makes them nearly self-sufficient. This self-sustain scales well with Vengeance.
Valuable Raid Support: Devotion Aura, Hand of Sacrifice, and Hand of Protection provide fantastic utility. They can also provide great raid healing through Arcing Light when they have high Vengeance.
Smart Stat Synergy: Paladins benefit from having their strongest offensive stat (Haste) also be their strongest defensive stat, making gearing decisions straightforward.
Where They Struggle:
Single-Target Damage Issues: Paladins struggle compared to other tanks in single-target situations, limiting their damage contribution in certain encounters.
Active Mitigation Gaps: While Shield of the Righteous is powerful, you can't maintain 100% uptime. With Phase 1 Haste levels, Paladins mostly focus on defensive utility for themselves and their co-tank through Sacred Shield rather than extensive raid healing.
A-Tier: Blood Death Knight
Blood Death Knights maintain strong performance through incredible self-sustain and competitive damage, though they no longer hold their previous position as the clear best choice after receiving nerfs during development.
What Makes Them Great:
Incredible Self-Healing: Blood DKs bring incredible self-sustain with Death Strike and provide raid healing through Blood Parasite. This healing is often overlooked but provides substantial value, though it's uncontrollable and RNG-dependent.
Competitive Single-Target Damage: Their single-target damage remains competitive. Dancing Rune Weapon enables very high burst damage when it matters most.
Excellent Add Control: DKs excel at controlling adds with grip and mass grip abilities. Gorefiend's Grasp provides situationally strong utility, though with many Unholy DKs in raids, this becomes less valuable since you rarely need more than one or two mass-grips.
10-Player Specialist: In 10-player content where self-sustain is valuable and boss damage is lower, Blood DKs stand out due to their exceptional survival capabilities.
Where They Struggle:
Lost Dominance: Blood DKs were still considered the best tank going into MoP Beta, but after a bunch of nerfs, they fell from grace and ended up in the lower section of A-tier rather than maintaining their previous supremacy.
Limited Unique Benefits: They don't bring much additional utility to justify choosing them over other alternatives in many situations, particularly in 25-player content where other tanks' raid-wide benefits become more valuable.
B-Tier: Guardian Druid
Guardian Druid currently sits as the only B-tier tank since they don't bring enough to justify choosing them over alternatives, despite having some specialized strengths.
What Makes Them Decent:
Solid Defensive Ability: You're not a bad pick defensively. Savage Defense makes you nearly untouchable against physical damage while active, and you have good baseline toughness for surviving encounters.
Scaling Potential: Guardian Druids scale well with gear, so even with their very limited raid utility, they eventually become good enough to bring simply for their defensive and offensive capabilities as content progresses.
Movement Support: Great mobility and raid movement utility through Stampeding Roar can provide valuable benefits on certain fights, though this ability isn't exclusive to Guardian Druids.
Major Problems:
Conflicting Talent Choices: While talented into Heart of the Wild for damage during non-tanking periods, you miss out on the only forms of raid healing available through Nature's Vigil and Dream of Cenarius.
Lacks Overall Impact: While Guardian Druids have solid defensive utility, they lack the damage output and comprehensive raid utility that other tanks provide, making them less attractive overall.
Vengeance Mechanic Impact
The Vengeance system gives tanks Attack Power based on damage taken, fundamentally affecting performance and scaling. This mechanic particularly benefits certain specs:
Strategic Applications: Tanks can potentially exploit encounter mechanics to achieve high Vengeance values, particularly Protection Paladins who can cheese mechanics to gain high Vengeance and deal very high damage on AoE encounters.
Raid Size Considerations
Tank Performance by Raid Size
| Tank Spec | 10-Player Benefits | 25-Player Benefits | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blood Death Knight | Self-sustain valuable | Limited utility impact | 10-Player |
| Protection Warrior | Good utility coverage | Best off-tank choice | 25-Player |
| Brewmaster Monk | High individual impact | Broad raid benefits | Both |
Phase 1 Encounter Breakdown
Tank performance varies significantly based on specific Phase 1 encounter mechanics:
Encounter-Specific Tank Performance
Guardian Druids with Savage Defense excel against pure physical damage. Brewmaster Monks handle physical damage spikes effectively through Stagger.
Blood Death Knights excel with Gorefiend's Grasp for positioning multiple enemies. Protection Warriors provide superior AoE threat and damage for add phases.
Protection Paladins excel with Shield of the Righteous against burst damage. Brewmaster Monks handle unpredictable damage spikes through active mitigation.
Protection Warriors shine with their extensive utility toolkit. Protection Paladins provide valuable raid-wide defensive support.
Practical Recommendations
For Progression Raiding
Best Choice: Brewmaster Monks provide the most reliable performance for progression due to their superior survivability and utility combination.
Strong Alternatives: All A-tier tanks offer excellent progression capabilities. Choose based on raid needs:
- Protection Warriors for utility-heavy encounters
- Protection Paladins for self-sustain requirements
- Blood Death Knights for 10-player content
Risky Pick: Guardian Druids require careful consideration and adequate gear before attempting challenging progression content.
For Farm Content
Damage Focus: Protection Warriors and Guardian Druids can provide exceptional damage when survival is assured and Vengeance stacks are high.
Utility Focus: Protection Warriors and Protection Paladins offer the most raid-wide benefits during farm content.
Experimentation: All tank combinations become viable, allowing fine-tuning for specific encounter strategies and group compositions.
For New Players
Protection Paladins for strong self-sustain and forgiving defensive mechanics. Blood Death Knights for incredible self-healing and recovery options.
Protection Warriors once comfortable with resource management and utility timing.
Brewmaster Monks require significant skill investment but offer the highest performance ceiling.
Guardian Druids due to their limited utility and gear dependency for effective performance.
Gear and Stat Breakdown
Stat Priority Benefits by Tank
Gearing Strategies
Phase 1 Priorities: Focus on meeting Hit and Expertise caps, then go for spec-specific beneficial stats.
Progression Gearing: Emphasize survivability stats and active mitigation effectiveness over pure damage.
Farm Gearing: Balance survivability with damage-enhancing stats, particularly for tanks with strong Vengeance scaling.
Final Thoughts
Tank balance in Mists of Pandaria Classic Phase 1 allows all specs to complete available content. Tier rankings reflect ease of play and peak performance rather than strict viability requirements. Brewmaster Monks lead through superior damage mitigation and exceptional utility, while A-tier tanks offer strong performance with specialized advantages suited to different raid environments and encounter types.
The relatively close performance gaps between tanks mean that player skill, encounter knowledge, and raid coordination often matter more than strict tier adherence. However, understanding these performance differences helps you make informed decisions for your specific raid needs and Phase 1 content goals.