Hello, Librarian Husky here! You want to get into Tanking, but you don’t know what to play, and you’re afraid that you will mess it up. So, you might as well try an easy tank to get you in smoothly. Now you’re here trying to figure out exactly what we consider the easiest tank to play. We’re going to be ranking them today for your enjoyment. Of course, this is subjective, but I will justify my picks.

Blood Death Knight Overview

We’re going to start off with the Blood Death Knight. With the recent rework, it has a little bit of extra sauce to the meatball Bonanza that is Blood Decay. I don’t know why I said meatballs, but it does have balls of steel and blood because you’re going in with no healer. That’s right, if you play Blood Decay, you will have no healer because there’s a secret society of healers that said nobody will ever heal a Blood Death Knight. Do you know why? Because you don’t need a healer.

Spec Difficulty and Mechanics

In terms of the actual Difficulty of the spec, or let’s say the easiness of the spec, I will actually put it in eighth. I’m not sure if it’s the easiest tank to play, although it is fairly easy. It’s also very straightforward. You want to build up your runic power and then use it on Death Strike. There are a few ways you can build up runic power, but mostly with Heart Strike. You want to make sure that whenever you take damage, you hit your Heart Strike. That is your only job in the world, and if you do so, you will survive and also, weirdly enough, tank mobs for some reason.

Self-Sufficiency and Utility

You’ll never need a healer because that is exactly what Blood Decay is all about. This is also part of why this is a really cool tank to get into because you are 100% relying on just yourself. Maybe this makes it a little bit harder and more intimidating because there’s nobody there to save you except you, but that’s also very liberating because you’re not reliant on the healer being able to do their job properly. So, you can just heal yourself. Outside of that, you do have plenty of Utility that you can get out there in the open, mostly in terms of dungeons, but you can also be the grip tank of your raid.

Raiding with Your Tank

If you do decide to raid with your tank, you will be very welcome in raids since everybody loves grips. You might have to compete with some Unholy DKs, but we don’t know exactly how good they will be considering that Windwalker and Survival are just crushing the meters right now. In terms of the tank, it’s not particularly hard to play.

Utility and Play Style

Your Utility is very mobile, which can add some level of Difficulty, but you don’t need to worry about rolling, charging, or leaping into packs that you didn’t intend to engage. The overall play style is straightforward: consume your runes to build runic power and spend runic power to stay alive.

Brewmaster Tank Difficulty

As far as Brewmaster is concerned, if S is the easiest tier, then surely Brewmaster will go down in the “holy [ __ ], this is not an easy tank to play” category, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t think it has been an easy tank to play for the last two years. Although it is a better tank to play in the world within as opposed to Dragonfly.

Brewmaster Tank Challenges

We know that Brewmaster has been significantly squishier than you might be comfortable with when it comes to a new tank, but it is also a tank that personally I don’t recommend a new player to pick up unless you just really like it. At the end of the day, you can play whatever you want. It’s fine. Just have fun. You are paying your own subscription; I don’t care as long as you enjoy the game.

Considerations for New Players

If you are looking for an easy tank to play or just want to be prepared before you dive right in, then Brewmaster is not your guy, gal, or panda because real monks are Pandaren. Brewmaster has a lot of intricate mechanics and behind-the-scenes workings in how you do your Rotation. You still have quite a few buttons, though the button bloat has been dialed down with Dragonflight.

Mechanics and Mobility

You do have to understand how stagger works, which is not necessarily complicated, but factoring in all of your dodge, brew cooldown reduction, and actual defensives takes quite a bit. Unlike Blood Death Knight, Brewmaster is the most mobile tank with some of the most specific Utility usage possible. If you mess up with a poorly placed Ring of Peace, you might end up harming your team’s performance, which is not what you want to do.

Final Thoughts on Brewmaster

I’m not trying to discourage anybody from playing Brewmaster; it’s one of the tanks that I am mostly enjoying at the moment. However, you need to know that it’s not an easy tank to master. Chew your cakes carefully.

Looking at Bear

Before I derail any longer, let’s look at Bear. Over the years, Bear has been known to be one of the easiest tanks to play in the world, and I’m actually debating…

Protection Paladin Overview

If you can reliably delete it, but as far as Protection Paladin, it’s easier to get behind. You block and you heal yourself. Block is easy to understand; you just put your shield up and take less damage. Plus, you can block spells with Protection Paladin, and that’s not something you have to actively engage with; it just happens passively, so you don’t need to worry about it or spin another plate.

Defensive Cooldowns and Talents

You also have many defensive Cooldowns to engage with, and the Talent Choices actually change the play style slightly. Staying in consecration is a pain, and if someone new with Protection Paladin doesn’t know to take the talent Sanctuary (or whatever the talent is called that makes you retain your tankiness for about 4 seconds once you leave consecration), it’s going to be difficult. It is particularly harder to play without knowing this.

Comparing Paladin and Brewmaster

We could probably interchange Protection Paladin and Brewmaster depending on your personal preference. Some find Paladin harder, some find Monk harder. Maybe because I’ve played more Paladin than Monk, I consider Paladin a little bit easier, but they might as well just change places depending on where you are coming from. Just know that they’re both particularly difficult. I might even put them on the same tier, but I feel like Brewmaster is slightly more complex and more punishing if you mess up.

Protection Warrior Simplicity

As far as Protection Warrior, it used to hold the spot as the hardest tank to play, but that is no longer the case. It has not been so for the entirety of Dragonflight, and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to change in the world within.

Protection Warrior Simplicity

You don’t need to learn different builds, spells, or interactions. You just Shield Block and do damage, and that’s pretty much it. Of course, I’m simplifying a little bit, but overall the Rotation is very easy. The only reason why I didn’t put it all the way into the easiest tier is because, although I consider it maybe even easier than Bear and Blood Death Knight, you’re just so naturally tanky and do so much damage.

Button Spamming and Stability

You spam a lot of buttons, and although the order matters, it won’t impact you as much as it might with other tanks where you might die. With Protection Warrior, it’s very hard to die unless your healer completely ignores you. You have one of the most stable HP bars in the game right now. That’s probably why I don’t see it in the easiest tier, although it could be one of the easiest tanks to play.

Actions Per Minute

Currently, in Dragonflight, I don’t know if this will continue in the War Within, Protection Warrior is the spec with the most Actions Per Minute (APM) in the game. This means the number of buttons you press in one minute is very high. So, you spam a lot of abilities.