Seaon of Discovery Tank Tier List - Best Tank Class & Specs Ranking in WoW SoD Phase 1

With this WoW Classic Season of Discovery Tank Tier List, we break down the best Tank Class and Specs to main in Phase 1!

WoW SoD Tank Tier List - Best Tank Class To Main in Season of Discovery Phase 1

Unlike DPS, Tanking is a job of Good Enough, and not More is better. So long as you maintained at least 1 more threat rating than every other raider during the fight, you survived the encounter and didn’t kill anyone with a mechanic (tail swiped the raid). Then you completed your job 100% perfectly. So long as you are completing all 3 of those duties the only other thing you should worry about is how much damage you are contributing to the raid.

A tank's job in classic wow can be summarized down to exactly 3 core responsibilities:

Maintain enough threat to keep aggro on the enemies

Have enough mitigation to survive having that aggro

Follow Mechanics that would wipe the raid

(i.e. positioning a dragon’s breath away from the raid)

1 - Feral Druid (S Tier)

Ferals excel in Season of Discovery due to strong mitigation from armor and critical strike immunity. Their improved weapon skills allow excellent threat generation, while Mangle and Lacerate provide powerful single target and AoE abilities. Ferals benefit greatly from additional damage reduction through talents and the Ferocity rune. With very high armor uptime and enormous health pools, Ferals are unquestionably the most durable and effective tanking class.

2. Warrior Tank (A Tier)

Warriors maintain formidable defenses through block, parry and avoidance. High base stats mean Warriors can survive heavy hits better than any other tank. The Vigilance rune enhances crit avoidance and vengeance uptime, further strengthening their sturdy mitigation. Excellent threat generation through sunder armor and auto-attacks ensures bosses remain locked onto Warriors. While slightly outpaced in damage reduction, Warriors compensate with versatile tanking utility.

3. Paladin Tank (A Tier)

With high defense, devotion aura and Blessing of Kings, Paladins can easily reach passive levels of mitigation through Aegis runes. While perhaps lacking the highest avoidance, Paladins offset damage through strong self-healing. Their new taunt ability opens up powerful AoE tanking potential. Though limited in single target threat, Paladins bring formidable survivability through damage reduction and healing.

4. Shaman Tank (B Tier)

While best utilized as off-tanks, Shamans can effectively tank 5-man dungeons. Block increasing runes combine with armor buffs to improve survivability and damage nullification. Windfury totem amplifies group DPS. However, Shamans lack the health pool or mitigation to maintain main tanking duties in raids beyond an emergency basis.

5. Rogue Tank  (C Tier)

Rogues may reach extreme avoidance levels later on, but starting out have low effective health for the role. Their potential comes with significant gear investment and support. While runes offer some mitigation, Rogues simply don't have the innate durability to withstand boss hits like other tanks can. Survival relies entirely on avoidance procs which aren't reliable enough for the job.

6. Warlock Tank (C Tier)

Warlocks offer only a modest boost to armor which isn't enough to cope with infrequent yet powerful boss strikes given their intrinsically low health and armor values. Better utilized providing utility through spells and shadow bolster, Warlocks aren't meant for the role despite rune modifications. Low eHP prevents them from effectively filling the main tank position.