WoW Tanks; Paladin or Warrior ?

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Zorachus

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I have a Level 78 Horde Blood Elf Tankadin I have been leveling up, and this dude kicks some serious booty in dungeons. I was Ret tree until Level 75, then switched, and now love the Tank style of game play, and much easier to get picked into dungeons.

Now I also have a Level 69 Alliance Night Elf Warrior, that has been Fury the whole time. I have not played him in quite awhile, but now that I love Tanking so much, plan to switch him to a Prot/Tank Warrior.

Guess my main question is, what makes Paladins and Warriors so different at Tanking ? I know since WoTLK that Paladin's are the top Tankers now, but what is so bad about a Warrior Tank ?
 
I don't tank on either. Have a Fury war. However, it appears that Pallys can AOE tank better while wars single target a bit better.
 
Justinimcool2001 said:
I don't tank on either. Have a Fury war. However, it appears that Pallys can AOE tank better while wars single target a bit better.
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I always preferred the Fury Warrior and Ret Paladin for the high DPS ass kicking, but Plate wearing safety, they were fun to play.

Well that was before I tried the Tank style, and oh boy, I totally love tanking 100 times better
 
Any guild will have both. Which you prefer comes down to personal preference since they're both very capable. Keep in mind they can use alternative specs which may help your decision.
 
25 raid main tank: Warrior
10 raid main tank: Any
Heroics: Any

Off tank: Any

Currently I am leveling a druid. I will tank on him...currently spec'd kitty and still have more HP in cat form than some tanks I've seen in the pug finder. (Had a shaman cast ES on me for the first few pulls, then he asked why I was tanking in cat and why the real tank was taking so much damage...) I will be switching over soon. Maybe the next time I play.
 
Zorachus said:
Guess my main question is, what makes Paladins and Warriors so different at Tanking ? I know since WoTLK that Paladin's are the top Tankers now, but what is so bad about a Warrior Tank ?
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Both are good and both have strong and weak points.

In my opinion, Pally tanks are easier to play at a respectable level and better for 5 mans, especially w/random groups. That opinion is based on my observations that when I dps, random heroics tend to go more smoothly with a random pally tank vs. a random warrior tank. Also, I have a lvl 80 pally tank and frankly, it's pretty darn easy with a little practice.

I used to tank with a warrior back before Lich King, and while it wasn't rocket science, it was more difficult to master than pally tanking has been. I honestly have no idea how hard/easy warrior tanking is now since 3.0 but I suspect pally's still have more/better AE tools to generate aggro.

Disclaimer: I do not do bleeding edge raids since I stopped hardcore raiding a couple years ago. I know that warrior tanks used to shine in that environment and maybe they still do, but Blizzard has made a dedicated effort to ensure that most tanks, dps and healers, regardless of class, are roughly interchangable.

That said, with the current "faceroll" mentality, pally tanks are indeed preferred because AE is easier/faster against easy content

TLDR version: Nothing is "so wrong" with warrior tanks aside from the fact that they may have a little more difficulty dealing with large groups of spread out mobs and/or with dps who don't assist and constantly pull aggro from adds.
 
I'd go for a pally tank. over the warrior. I'm currently leveling a druid and have been doing some tanking because the queue times for the dungeons are pretty much instant.

But as for the tanking part. I found that having your aggro based on the availablity of mana is far better than rage. Atleast with mana you can go into a fight and use all your aggro grabbing abilities as you need. With rage you have to wait for your rage to build before you can use your aggro building abilities.

I'm still learning the whole tanking thing and I've been doing pretty good but if things get out of hand on a multi mob pull and aggro gets split up that means no one is hitting me and I'm not building rage so I can't even use my abilities and get things back in control. I'm wishing I leveled a pally.



Also, I do play a shaman healer as my main and for the most part things seem to just go a bit smoother with Pally tanks vs warriors or druids.

Maybe it's all just in my head because I truely truely don't like how rage works. I'd much prefer that rage just built like a rogues energy does (of course some abilities would have to be adjusted to no make it overpowered)
 
CannibalTrout said:
*snip*I'm currently leveling a druid *snip*

Also, I do play a shaman healer as my main and for the most part things seem to just go a bit smoother with Pally tanks vs warriors or druids.

Maybe it's all just in my head because I truely truely don't like how rage works. I'd much prefer that rage just built like a rogues energy does (of course some abilities would have to be adjusted to no make it overpowered)
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Are you my WoW doppelganger?

/Resto Shaman main
//Currently leveling a druid
 
As a dedicated healer. In randoms it's easier to heal paladins then warriors and Druids / DKs last. Too many people rolled DK and fancied themselves as a tank same with Druids.

However in guild or semi guild 10/25 all are good at tanking.

Also having more health as a Druid tank is given. That is why they are a soaker tank.
 
CannibalTrout said:
Also, I do play a shaman healer as my main and for the most part things seem to just go a bit smoother with Pally tanks vs warriors or druids.
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QFT, same for me. I find healing Paladins to be the easiest, followed pretty closely by warriors and druids. DKs are a distant fourth and a pain.
 
zoobaby said:
Are you my WoW doppelganger?

/Resto Shaman main
//Currently leveling a druid
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Hahahaha totally lol.

I agree with the post above though that DKs are a pain. Alot of the random DK tanks just don't use their damage reduction abilities. Most DK tanks I see don't even use bone shield or Unbreakable armor (if they are specced for it) or even the anti magic bubble. It drives me insane sometimes.

Heck I was running Heroic Pit of Saron on my healer and was wondering why the DK tank was taking such insane damage. when I got a chance I noticed on his buffs he was in unholy presence.....sigh.

So, to the original poster. All the classes have their pros and cons. It really boils down to learning all the abilities of your class and how they are benificial. Every class has a lot of abilities and sure they don't all make that big of a difference in a fight wether you use them or not, but every little bit helps. I for one would rather be known as that badass tank that chewed through such and such instance instead of the retard DK tank that I mentioned about above.
 
Main is, guess what, a shaman healer, and DK's have been the worst to heal in random groups. Yet I've done raids with DK tanks that went smoothly, and a good DK tank impresses me a lot more than a good pally tank (who isnt?).

I was wondering if its worth it to level a DK only for tanking. Getting a 60-level headstart is a huge incentive. The drawback being if you hit 80 and get geared, learn the finer points of tanking, and realize its still subpar in the role.
 
Healing randoms: Pallies definitely easiest to heal, though I haven't had issues healing any tank unless they are way under geared. Example: Pally in H-ToC with 27k HP buffed.

Currently leveling my druid, I see many DK tanks. So far most have been tanks before so seem to understand the concept of tanking and actually use the abilities they have. They only downside to these guys are the fact that they are used to being over geared with over geared healers. They keep chain pulling while the healer is OOM.
 
I tank as a DK and naturally want to keep the pace kind of quick as it keeps the Runic Power up to where my Rune Strikes are available, but try to make a point prior to every pull to see if the mana users aren't low and keep the chain pulls to a manageable level.

I will DPS on occasion to keep my chops up and my "rotation" fresh in my mind and see way to many tanks trying to pull every mob they can. These seem to usually be people who group as a bunch of plate DPS and a pally healer, all who can easily survive a one or two on one fight with trash mobs. I tend to run with a clothie or two and their melee survivabilty is just not quite as high as the plate wearers.
 
Warrior tanks ftw. I don't think there is any other class other then my priest healer (thank god for grid+clique) that required me to bind and macro so many different abilities. Its a very active play style to tank as a warrior compared most other classes.
 
Now I get it I am in nerd love with my Level 80 Tankadin. He is geared pretty well now, NOT uber ICC 25man gear, no way yet, but still have majority 245 gear and some 232. He has 36,000 health right now unbuffed, which is mediocre. But this Blood Elf Tank looks so awesome, he is gear is all red/gold/black, looks so cool, and my Sword and Shield both glow same color. Sword has Mongoose, and I have the "Northern Barrier" Shield from Uld, which glows same color. Really digging this guy, he is a meat shield

Now I also have an Alliance Night Elf Warrior Level 69, haven't played in awhile. Think I will concentrate on him now, get him to 80, and see how an end game Warrior does at Tanking ? Will go for pretty much the same gear my Horde Blood Elf Paladin has.

Should I run majority of random dungeons to get this Warrior to 80 ? How long would it take a a semi casual WoW player to get these 10+ levels to 80 ? I play every night before bed usually, maybe 1 to 2 hours each night. And a bit more on weekends.
 
Zorachus said:
Should I run majority of random dungeons to get this Warrior to 80 ? How long would it take a a semi casual WoW player to get these 10+ levels to 80 ? I play every night before bed usually, maybe 1 to 2 hours each night. And a bit more on weekends.
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For pure leveling:
If rested run randoms...quest when rested is used up. On my druid, I get 2 to 4 bubbles of XP per random run, while rested. Also, I figure out which quest gear you want along the way and do those to supplement gear from dungeons.

If you want to make max gold, quest. Do a random or two a day for the emblems and gear.

I play casually as well, my druid (guessing from my first post in this thread) went from 60 to 78 in the month of January, and that is playing him 4 to 10 hours a week (1 day I played him quite a bit, but still think it falls under the 10 hour a week average), with heirloom shoulders and chest for +20% xp. (Though the gf is gone this weekend, so I will hopefully get him to 80 and get him geared out..got a few crafted items for him.)

EDIT: While my playtime is casual, my style is somewhat hardcore. I know most quest chains and do them in a fashion to maximize XP versus time. I also keep my toons gear enchanted, use elixirs, food buffs, and scrolls. I have very little downtime when I play. Example, on one night that I play, I only play for 2 hours and I generally squeeze in 3 to 4 random dungeons in those 2 hours. (tank queues FTW) Usually that gets me half to 3/4 a level in the 70 to 80 range.

Another tip: Grab the quests for all dungeons you are eligible for. Some of those are like 50k xp!
 
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Zorachus this a request that you stop double posting the same exact same text, you revived two threads with the same text. Both concerning WoW.....and both began by you. I mean I know it helps your post count and all, but it's really friggin irritating, especially since both haven't been post in since 1-5-2010 at the most recent. I don't know if it's against forum rules, but it's irritating to read the same post twice even more so when the post is in a nearly month old thread.
 
I have both and a feral druid. I find the paladin the best and probably the easiest. Given I have only tanked 5 mans this expansion but I was a main tank prot warrior last expansion.
 
veterator said:
Zorachus this a request that you stop double posting the same exact same text, you revived two threads with the same text. Both concerning WoW.....and both began by you. I mean I know it helps your post count and all, but it's really friggin irritating, especially since both haven't been post in since 1-5-2010 at the most recent. I don't know if it's against forum rules, but it's irritating to read the same post twice even more so when the post is in a nearly month old thread.
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I give two craps about my post count :rolleyes: Sorry I posted the same comment on two similar threads. Did not know it would offend people so badly.
 
veterator said:
Zorachus this a request that you stop double posting the same exact same text, you revived two threads with the same text. Both concerning WoW.....and both began by you. I mean I know it helps your post count and all, but it's really friggin irritating, especially since both haven't been post in since 1-5-2010 at the most recent. I don't know if it's against forum rules, but it's irritating to read the same post twice even more so when the post is in a nearly month old thread.
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Use the report button, that is why we have it.


Zorachus said:
I give two craps about my post count :rolleyes: Sorry I posted the same comment on two similar threads. Did not know it would offend people so badly.
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I closed the other thread, we only need one. ;) Happy Tanking!

Back on topic: Warrior tanking is much more involved than pally tanking.
 
For tanks it would be a Pally, hands down. They are the best tanks in the game.
 
I am excited to soon have, two different Tanks, one on each Faction. Already have my Epic 80 Horde Blood Elf Tankadin. And I love him, except sometime can use a bit of mana, :)

And now have a Level 69 Alliance Night Elf Warrior Tank, will level him up to 80 this month, and see how he does Heroic 5man dungeons as well as my Paladin ? They will both have pretty much the exact same gear, I like how my Paladin is geared up, so will do the same for the Warrior.
 
The Tankadin and prot warrior are really different styles of play. A lot of the tankadin moves are fire and forget. The warrior has more active abilities that give warrior tanks a rush feeling. I'd say there's no guarantee you'll like it, so why not try it? Just respec and give it a go for a few.
 
Dreaz said:
The Tankadin and prot warrior are really different styles of play. A lot of the tankadin moves are fire and forget. The warrior has more active abilities that give warrior tanks a rush feeling. I'd say there's no guarantee you'll like it, so why not try it? Just respec and give it a go for a few.
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Thank you. I have been Tanking since I reached Level 68 on the Warrior, almost 70 now. Ran a couple of standard dungeons, it was for sure a different feel than the Tanakdin. But where the Paladin can be a mana whore a few times, this Warrior seemed to become a Rage whore ? Needing more to Rage to keep my spells going ?

Main thing that is hard with this 69 Warrior Tank, is keeping the aggro on me at all times, in dungeon runs. I do Thunder Clap as much as possible. And I did read alot of the Tank websites and which rotations to use, etc...but still I think I need more time to really learn this Tank style. I have another 10 levels to learn it :)

I do like the "Charge" to get into battle. And his moves seem pretty bad ass, like Shield Slam, Devastate, etc...But he moves slow as a turtle walking around. On my Paladin I did go into the Ret tree to get him the extra speed movement, I LOVE that, I can jog through the dungeons at a nice clip.
 
Pally Tank FTW, nothing says fun like AoE tanking alot of monsters at once! Plus healers love us because we are alot easier to heal. currently i have a 80 that has all T9, some ilvl 200-245, and i have no issues keeping threat at all rocking thru ICC 5 mans, Pre ICC 5 mans, also Ony 10 is pretty cake with a good set of healers and such. So stick with the pally!!! cause we roxxors the soxxors!!
 
I really do love my Blood Elf 80 Tankadin, my fav character ever in my 5 years of playing. I love helping my lower level Brothers in dungeons and just owning those instances. One is a 77 Warlock, and I can do pretty well in there, without taking too much of a beating. Other Brother is a Level 51 Hunter, and running a dungeon with him is silly fun :)

But back to my Level 69 Warrior Tank, can they not do AoE damage, or attract a large mob and put them down like my Paladin ? I am brand new to Tanking with this Warrior, was fury before this, but want to have killer Tank skills once I DING 80.
 
a great site for tanking in general is Tankspot.com, there is lots of great info and videos there and i highly reccomend it!
 
My Alliance Main is a level 80 Night Elf Warrior, Protection (tank) spec. The way the game has evolved, Paladin, Druid, and Death Knight AOE tank MUCH better than Warriors. Warriors have TOO MANY BUTTONS compared to the others, and there's no "AOE threat for free" spell like death and decay or consecrate. Thunderclap has a cooldown, you'll need to cleave, manually switch targets and more to tank more than one enemy.

Back when the game was designed for single-target tanking, Warriors were great. Sadly, most encounters today are multi-target, and its simply harder to be as effective as other tanking classes. You have to be a better player, have better gear etc... If I was starting from the beginning today as a tank, I'd go Paladin.
 
I tank on my Pally and in 25/10 ICC my tanking partner is usually a druid. Once in a while I will have another pally or warrior but we do just fine.

His name is RazilDazil if you want to armory him.
 
Zorachus said:
I give two craps about my post count :rolleyes: Sorry I posted the same comment on two similar threads. Did not know it would offend people so badly.
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All I can say to this is: Imagine if everyone started doing it. Every semi-related thread topic would contain the posts of all other threads and vice versa. It negates the need to have threads to begin with and becomes more like a list of comments on everything in the overall subject matter of "PC Gaming & Hardware".


And I'll have to throw in with paladins since druids are not part of the topic. Unless you want to be a tank full time from now on, I can't see warriors giving you the versatility a paladin will with healing/dps(melee/caster)/tanking...versus just dps/tanking with the warrior. That being said, warrior is a pretty technical class to play since every build combo can give you an edge in one situation or another and it's a pretty different play experience for some similar roles if you're coming from a druid or paladin. Been awhile since I played, but I enjoyed my warrior after being a druid for quite awhile...just because it was a lot less headaches with only having to worry about the rage bar more or less. Since there wasn't a whole hell of a lot you could do about your health bar. Taking mana out of the equation is liberating in a lot of ways.
 
Just my two cents: Pally tanks are easy, plentiful, and effective. Prot warriors are few, mostly bad, much more difficult to play well. I have seen maybe 5 skilled Prot warriors in the time I've been playing.

DK tanks are, for the most part, completely useless. Dr00d tanks are just soooo squishy...
 
A little bit more background to this whole debate.

Throughout the course of WoW's history, the largest consensus was that Warrior tanks were the best raid tanks.

During the Burning Crusade, more non-warrior tanks began to sprout up (Pallys + Druids). However, due to better cool downs, emergency buttons, and overall damage mitigation, warrior tanks predominately dominated raiding guilds.

Part of the problem was: Paladin tanks were generally left to handle off tanking, or trash duties. Fights such as the raid in Mount Hyjal, and running shattered halls were preferred (or almost a necessary) by using a pally. Thus one of the biggest critiques by the paladin community was "all we get to do is tank trash, and never raid bosses". While conversely warriors (and to a lesser extend druids) said "we love being raid tanks, but it's too hard to tank heroic dungeons and trash".

So, to make a long story short, in an effort to appease the community in Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard gave Pally tanks their first opportunity to be raid boss tanks. Currently (and you could argue) Paladins are the best tank the the game. They have the best defensive cool downs, more stam, plenty of mitigation, amazing threat generation - you name it.

Warriors and Druids are now (still preferred since they are tanks, and we love tanks) sub-par at aoe tanking, and second tier raid bosses. While DK tanks, are probably the "worst". While I'm not getting into the whole nub aspect of undergeared DKs tanking while leveling up, however, poor threat generation meant Death Knight tanks COULD NOT do Ulduar, since rune strike could not generate enough threat fast enough, and DPS couldn't afford to wait for a DK tank to build up enough threat.

So there you have it, currently Paladins are amazing tanks. However, as with Blizzard, 3 months from now, Druids, DKs, or Warriors could be the "best" so pick whichever one you think looks coolest - get some gear- and have fun!
 
mwarps said:
Just my two cents: Pally tanks are easy, plentiful, and effective. Prot warriors are few, mostly bad, much more difficult to play well. I have seen maybe 5 skilled Prot warriors in the time I've been playing.

DK tanks are, for the most part, completely useless. Dr00d tanks are just soooo squishy...
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Prot warriors used to rock, but the play style requires more skill, especially in todays game of AoE pulls/dps. Most prot warriors I know, queue heroics as dps and raid as prot. The headache of tanking random heroics for them is too much.

Druids - a bit squishy, but not that bad. You can blame Blizzard for crappy itemization (though much better than in the past). Most druid tanks are wearing rogue gear with stam gems.

Single target tanking (Best to worst):
1. Warrior
2. Druid - (Maybe better than Pally here, not sure of Pally faceroll direction..I mean spell rotation.)
(t). Pally
4. DK

AoE Tanking
1. Pally
2. Druid - (Barely, but only because a bit easier than warrior AoE tanking)
3. Warrior
4. DK

DK's may be better, I've only ran with a few that were worth a damn. Most were bloody awful.
 
Pallys are probably the best overall tanks in the game. 25 10 or 5 man.

Great AoE and single target threat. 2 Short cooldown useful taunts. Holy Wrath in an instance full of undead (Icecrown for example) make's them extremely powerful.

Also, paladins are the only tanks that can prevent a wipe due to healer error simply because of their class. I can't count the number of times Ardent Defender has saved a group when there was rng spike dmg or a healer messed up. Having a "cheat death" type spell on a tank is soo amazingly useful.
 
I think with the brand big patch today that Warrior Tanks got a couple of their AoE spells beefed up for better threat/aggro ? Not sure if these changes are enough to make much of a difference for them now ?
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