In light of the paradigm shift where neither Tailoring or Leatherworking creates Bind on Pickup epics, here’s help deciding between the additional benefits of these two production tradeskills.
This is a fun question that was sent in by Carlvonlinné of Skullcrusher (EU), author of the new blog called Carl the Tree blog. Carl writes:
Which is your favourite tank? (class)
I guess I would have to say a Bear is my favorite tank for 5-mans because I get 2x the Innervate lovin’, and he can help supplement my lack of a normal resurrection spell, making things easier on my group if things were to when things go wrong. It’s nice that Druids have such great synergy together, even especially when we’re different specs. My second favorite tank is the Warrior since they tend to mitigate damage better than do Paladins. Of course, Paladins hold aggro incredibly well, but I group with some great Warriors where aggro is rarely an issue. A Paladin might be considered the ideal tank for a Druid healer, however, as their ability to resurrect can make up for our deficiency. In raids, a Druid can be harder to heal since they tend to get their fur crushed, but I’m really not one to complain (over voice chat) about who is tanking for any given encounter.
Thank you for the question, Carl! What about you guys? Do you have any tank preferences and, if so, why?
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I’m a bit biased right now! I have a bear tank (my main 70 feral druid), and I’m currently trying to use 2.3′s enhanced leveling to level up my 21 paladin, and I don’t like (playing) warrior’s much… I like buffing classes: feels odd when a common joe or jane passes by and I can’t flash him with a buff!
Warriors are definatly the easiest tanks to heal. I love healing bear tanks just because i feel some deep class kinship with them (not that i don’t feel a kinship to my guild’s warriors but it’s understandably different). Tankadins are just insane with their ability to grab and keep aggro. Tankadins visibly take alot more damage thouge.
I am currently specced resto and really loving it. Personally, I like druid tanks for boss fights in 5 mans, heroics and Kara (as far as my small guild has gotten). Its nice because the damage they take is more even. They may get hit more often than warriors or palidins, yet their armor is considerably higher, so they take less damage per hit. I feel the bear tank has greater synergy with my HOTs. Though I must admit healing my paladin friend in Shattered Halls speed runs is alot of fun. Its really exciting to get to dump out TONS of HPS as he aggros entire rooms of trash.
I like bear tanks because their high armor and hp give me more of a cushion against spiky damage. I also like pally tanks because it means there’s someone else out there who can res, if there’s an oops moment or two =) What I don’t like about pally tanks is that they tend to have lower hp, and some try to tank several mobs at once instead of using all available CC. That combination makes a healer’s job a bit more difficult.
My first choice is bears. Even though they have some problems when target is immune to bleed effects, I prefer armor mitigation over block/parry abilities (and if propperly geared they should not get any crushing blows), because of damage being more predictable (i.e. less overhealing), and lacerate+swipe give them enough resources to tank a main target while building up threat on a couple more. Plus their DPS is considerably high! Big disadvantage: they have no Oh-Crap button. Frenzied regeneration is.. well.. let’s see.. It drains their rage…mmmm.. and heals .. over time. Mmm- oh. /cry
Paladins versus warriors is a tough choice; I’ve met few but very skilled protection paladins and too many warriors that think they can tank just by getting a shield, so I don’t know how objective I can be about this. From a healer’s point of view I think bubble wins against last stand, but both have so many good abilities it’s hard to decide. I see at least another advantage paladins have other than having bubble and being able to ress. If I combat-ress them they can quickly get aggro (of course not from a boss unless it has just reset its aggro for some reason), which can prevent a wipe in a bad pull during a 5-man instance. They seem to require more healing though but I haven’t played these classes so I don’t know if it’s a matter of gear or what.
I’ve noticed paladins are a source of trouble, specially in PuGs, when people don’t know how to play and/or don’t have threat meters. Everybody learns (well, almost everybody) to wait for a few sunder armor/lacerates before dealing damage, and then go wild when margin is believed to be wide enough, but paladins may eventually run out of mana so can’t maintain the explosive threat generation they begin fights with (which also makes DPSers overconfident). I’ve had a few wipes thanks to some crit-addicted rogues and mages because of this.
I’d have to disagree a bit on Paladin tanks. Well geared, CORRECTLY geared (shield block is your friend) they are fantastic tanks. Best area aggro class in the game. I’m not sure if their mitigation is exactly equal to warriors in similar gear.
Pallies main prob comes when their gear is far above what they’re tanking. Not enough damage = low heals = OOM. Pallies wont Oom on boss fights, so they really shine there.
I found druids good to heal for in heroics, hence why I rolled one. That and I met too many druid tanks doing a horrible job of it and wanted to see if it was the class or the person, or both. Now im a bit better geared (420def, 14k hp, 25k armor, 29.5% dodge, 1700ap) im really liking the results. My only advice to bear tanks on a single target (with surplus rage) is do cycle in mauls (if struggling with aggro). They proc on your normal hit, so you can keep lacerating, mangling, and they definitely aid aggro. Just dont use it too often that you burn your rage bar entirely.
Our bear friends are relevant soakers due to HP they have, but lack of avoidance (except of dodge of course) makes them harder to heal. But at least it means less overheal
Pallys are great trash tankers but might face problems with spellers due to OOM or just a lack of spell defend abilities.
If your group is about to kill raid boss with some spell abilities, high constant melee damage and bleed/spell resistances better get decent warrior.