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This article is about the game term. For other uses, see Tank.

A tank is a character whose primary role is to absorb damage and prevent others from being attacked. Tanks are "meatshields", so to speak, putting themselves between the mobs and the more vulnerable party members. The tank assumes the aggro of the mobs and tries to keep them off other group mates. With everyone nuking the same target (directed by the main assist), the mobs go down faster and there is less damage done to the group.

Because of the constant abuse upon their armor and weapons, high repair costs are a fixture in a tank's life. An often-used abbreviation for tank is "MT" (main tank). The tank's role must not be confused with the "MA" (Main Assist). Also used to contrast from a damage dealer or a healer.

In a classic tank-and-spank fight, the tank should be the only one taking damage, and therefore be the only one who needs healing. Even in more complex fights, the healer should be able to concentrate most of their healing on the tank with healing on the rest of the group being significantly lighter most of the time.

If the healer is healing everyone in the group, then either the tank is not generating enough threat or the other members in the group are generating too much threat by dealing too much DPS and pulling aggro off the tank. This has to be watched or the group will likely wipe.

Tanking Basics

Tanking is heavily tied in with the mechanic called Threat. Threat is the numerical value of how much an NPC dislikes each of its enemies, and the player or other creature with the highest threat is the one that the NPC will usually attack. Threat is mainly caused by three things - damaging that enemy, healing, and using special abilities that cause extra threat (such as [Thunder Clap] or [Mangle]). Each NPC has a separate threat table.

A tank has to do three things. First and foremost, they must generate more threat than the healer on all targets. The healer will generate threat on all enemies when they heal the tank, and it's the tank's responsibility to keep the enemies off the healer by staying ahead of them. Second, they must survive. Survival is (at minimum) a two-person job and both the tank and the healer are responsible for this. For the tank, survival comes either by avoiding hits, reducing the severity of incoming damage, establishing a vast pool of hit points, or self-regeneration (healing from items or abilities). A tank's third responsibility is generating extra threat on the current 'kill' target to allow the damage dealers to kill it effectively without attracting the monster's attention (all damage dealers should focus on the same target for this and other reasons). A good tank will try to produce as much aggro as he can. However, it is also damage dealers' job to make sure they stay below the tank's threat by using threat reduction abilities or even holding back their fire if necessary.

The first two of these are the most important as if they fail at them then the tank or the healer will die and the group will wipe very shortly after. The third is also important in the long run, as if the damage dealers have to hold back too much then the enemies will die too slowly and the healer will run out of mana.

Primary Tank Classes

There are six combinations of class and spec which can truly be considered main tanks: Protection Warrior, Feral Druid, Protection Paladin, and Frost, Blood and Unholy Death Knights who have chosen tanking talents. Many other combinations of spec and class may substitute as tank in certain situations, but the limits of their abilities will not be enough for most instances and bosses their level.

The following criteria define a tank's performance:

Health
Damage Mitigation (Avoidance, Block, and Armor)
Threat Generation

Each class has its strengths and weaknesses; and, in end-game raids, each of them will find easy and difficult bosses. Generally, Protection warriors are considered the best single-target tanks, while Protection paladins are easily the best mass-aggro AOE tanks. Feral Druids are best in situations where high amounts of physical damage are incoming, while Death Knights are the best at handling magical damage.

See also: Comparison of tank classes.

Note that on certain Raid-level encounters, unusual classes may be required to tank (for example at High King Maulgar a mage has to serve as tank on one of the adds).

Protection Warrior

Main article: Warriors as Tanks

Protection-specced Warriors with appropriate gear are the classic boss-encounter tanks in the game. They have great damage mitigation vs. single targets, and a large and versatile array of tools for tanking, which include: threat-generating tools such as Revenge, Shield Slam, and multiple taunts; many mitigation abilities; and finally a few panic buttons like [Shield Wall], [Shield Block] and [Last Stand]. A warrior tank has the fairly useful ability to break fear effects at will. [Warbringer] makes warriors the most mobile tanks in the game.

Problem areas include AoE threat generation. Warriors are certainly capable at this, but they must work for it. They lack a spammable or fire-and-forget ability. Warriors also tend to have somewhat smaller health pools than other tanks, though the difference is not too large.

Feral Druid

Main article: Druids as Tanks

Feral Druid tanks feature the hit-point values of any class in the game. They formerly also had the highest armor, but changes in Wrath eliminated most of this advantage. Besides the basic allotment of tanking skills (taunt, high-aggro moves, etc.), feral tanks are immune to [Polymorph] and can shift out of rooting and snaring effects. [Rebirth] and [Innervate] provide exceptional raid utility, though these abilities cannot be used while main-tanking as they entail leaving bear form.

Feral Druids have the advantage that even in tank gear and with a tank spec they can deal decent damage in Cat form. This makes them attractive off-tanks in raids, as they can switch to Cat form after their tanking targets are dead and help DPS.

Protection Paladin

Main article: Paladins as Tanks

Paladins are tanks that use mana and build threat with spell damage. They can wear plate armor. They excel in pulls with many mobs, with abilities such as [Consecration], [Holy Shield], [Retribution Aura], [Blessing of Sanctuary] and [Avenger's Shield], enabling them to keep many mobs on themselves with far less trouble than a Warrior or Druid. Previously, a large proportion of their threat generation was reactive, making them poor secondary aggro tanks or tanks for casters. With the new [Hammer of the Righteous] and [Shield of Righteousness] in WotLK, this is less of a problem now. However, they are vulnerable to mana-burn abilities and rely on magic-based threat, making it difficult to gain aggro on mobs that Silence.

They have more stamina than other plate tanks, and more raw damage reduction. [Argent Defender] is the strongest ability of its type in the game, letting paladins cheat death every two minutes without needing to be activated. Weaknesses include a lack of an ability to quickly close distance with a mob.

Death Knight

Main article: Death knights as tanks

Death knights have the best mitigation against magic users of any tanking class. They wear plate armor but cannot use a shield, but make up for this with [Frost Presence]. Their tanking strengths and weaknesses, as well as their tanking style, will vary, depending on what talent tree they specialize in. In general, they have excellent sustained AoE threat (particularly in the Unholy tree) but poor snap AoE threat (though Frost compensates). They are quite adept at avoidance, particularly in the Frost tree, arguably the best in the game at this. The lack of a blocking mechanic means that they will often take more damage than other tanks on trash and adds, though bosses hit hard enough on everyone that the difference is felt less.

Secondary Tank Classes

Several other classes have limited tanking abilities, mostly as off-tanks or tanks the 5-man instances below the level cap. Secondary tank classes generally require special builds to tank effectively. All other combinations of class and build except the three main tank types fall under this category.

There are exceptions; Shamans and Moonkins have both tanked raid bosses and some heroic instances[1][2], and pets and minions have tanked pre-BC raid bosses; however, this is usually done with high-tier gear not generally available to those trying to run such an instance.

Shaman

Main article: Shamans as tanks

The Shaman is probably the best tank-replacement class. Wearing mail armor and being able to use a shield, they have access to the second-best type of gear. They have no problems at all with one half of tanking - aggro generation. Beyond the threat generated by melee attacks, Shamans can cast [Frost Shock] which creates extra threat, use self-heals to add healing aggro, and finally use [Chain Lightning] for AoE situations.

However, the other half of a tanks job is damage mitigation, and in that department Shamans are severely lacking. They lack the good damage reduction abilities/talents of the other primary tanks, and their gear has no avoidance/mitigation stats.

If acting as healer or ranged damage dealer, a Shaman is in a good position to pull aggro from cloth wearers in an emergency. Even with caster gear, Shamans are not quite as "squishy" as most other caster classes (Shamans usually survive two or three hits when cloth wearers are one-hit kills), but they should still avoid melee combat as much as possible.

Moonkin Druid

With [Moonkin Form] granting an additional 400% armor, and significant threat through DPS, Balance Druids have recently gotten attention as alternative tanks. While they lack a taunt in Moonkin form, Moonkin Druids have successfully main-tanked heroic instances and some raid content[3], however it is not feasible for a moonkin druid to become immune to critical hits, severely limiting their usefulness as proper tanks in raid content their level. The ability of moonkins to heal themselves more sustainably than paladins or feral druids is an advantage in situations where the moonkin is able to shift out to heal.

Minions as Tanks

Some pets can actually serve as tanks. In the early game (prior to the level cap), pets can even sometimes replace a full tank. In such a situation, the healers should always remember to heal and buff the pet.
With Pet Talent Trees, introduced in Wotlk, tanking even 80 lv instances is possible. WIth 4 hunters and one healer, killing Coren Direbrew was not so hard. But remember, using pets as a tanks in "real" bosses is not recommended, since they dont have such large health pool and avoidance stats as real Tanks.

Pets usually can tank a single mob adequately. Theoretically it is possible to have several mobs on one pet by switching targets, but in practice the threat generation of pets will not be high enough to keep aggro off the healer for an extended period of time.

Hunter Pets

Hunters can have an assortment of beasts as pets, and some of them can actually serve as tanks quite well. All pets have a taunt-like ability growl, and hold aggro reasonably well. The use of the pet often allows the Hunter to solo various group quest bosses without the help of other players

Pets can also use the cower ability, which reduces threat, to shed aggro if needed; this sometimes makes life easier for Warriors. A hunter can have a pet growl to draw aggro when the main tank is in trouble, then cower to let the MT return to duty after recovering.

Tenacity family pets are the best for tanking, both due to their extra health and armor and their available talents. Turtles and Warp Stalkers are the best at tanking tough enemies due to their [Shell Shield] and [Warp] abilities mitigating damage. Bears and Gorillas are the best multi-target pet tanks due to Swipe (pet) and Thunderstomp (pet) that lets them hold multiple targets easier, and are on a short cooldown.

Gimmick hunter builds and gear (stacking stamina, and resilience for crit-immunity) can yield a surprisingly capable tanking pet, though at the cost of completely crippling the hunter's DPS. Pets have actually tanked raid bosses, though more as a stunt than anything else. Pets can get certain abilities that would be hugely imbalanced for a "proper" tank, like a 40% increase to all healing received

Warlock Minions

The Voidwalker minion is designed as a tanking pet. Although the Voidwalker lacks a true Taunting ability, it does have two abilities which generate rather high amounts of threat: single-target, fast cool-down Torment; and Suffering, which generates threat against all enemy targets within 10 yards, but has a relatively long cool-down and can be resisted.

Hunter

Even though Hunters can wear the same armor types as Shamans, they cannot use a shield and thus their damage mitigation is even worse. In a group, Hunters should only draw aggro when they are kiting, or as an emergency measure to ensure the survival of a healer. Similar to Shamans, Hunters have many abilities which help them create and hold aggro ( [Distracting Shot] is a shot with very high threat,and [Aimed Shot] creates high threat by damage).

[Deterrence] can be used to boost damage mitigation by 25%, however this ability only lasts for 10 seconds. With sufficient Agility, File:Ability Hunter AspectOfTheMonkey.png [Aspect of the Monkey], and 5/5 [Deflection], (which boosts parry chance) during Deterrence a Survival Hunter's overall damage mitigation can approach 100%. Survival Hunters with [Readiness] can also use Deterrence twice in rapid succession, effectively allowing for 20 seconds of Deterrence.

It should be emphasized that although emergency flash-tanking for wipe prevention can be a key element of the Survival role, such tanking can only be viably performed on an extremely temporary basis. [Survivalist] melee should be employed as part of a hybrid strategy which incorporates at least equal, and probably preferably greater, amounts of ranged combat. Attempting to rely primarily or exclusively on melee for extended periods can result in a dead Hunter.

Rogue

Rogues can temporarily increase their damage mitigation greatly and survive tanking through abilities such as [Evasion] and [Cheat Death] (sometimes known as "evasion tanking"). These have a short duration, however, and Rogue tanking should be very temporary. Rogues have no threat generation abilities, meaning aggro must be achieved through superior DPS. Rogues wear leather armor, which is not as strong as plate, so they must tank by relying almost entirely on avoidance rather than mitigating damage.

Rogue tanking is very important in the first phase of the Reliquary of Souls encounter in the Black Temple, due to the high dodge chance it can achieve with [Evasion].

It was formerly possible to accumulate enough agility as a Rogue to become unhittable, but this could only be achieved with [Insect Swarm], [Scorpid Sting] and the [Quickness] racial. This combination allowed a rogue to tank certain bosses (including raid bosses) who mainly deal melee damage. However, threat generation was much lower than that of a regular tank (as he is not specced and geared for DPS), and with such low health he had no hope to survive bosses that do significant spell damage. Therefore, it was generally not something worth trying except for the amusement.

For more information on rogue tanking, see Rogues as tanks

Learning to Tank

Learning to tank is an interesting challenge, particularly for Warriors and Paladins, because the excellent damage output abilities they've used for solo/small group play are so poor at generating threat. The WoWWiki article on threat has some basic numbers that can clue you in on which abilities to use to pump out the threat you need to hold aggro. That aggro article also has good information regarding how mob targeting works, and is a valuable resource for understanding how NPCs decide who to beat up.

While it might be true that you won't level as quickly as with other builds, if tanking is something you really want to do, you can start speccing Protection right from level 10, and leveling primarily within instances.

Low-level instances are more of a challenge for a tank than most people think, and your primary challenge will actually be in learning to deal with other inexperienced players who tend to just want to DPS anything that moves, rather than work with you. Luckily at lower levels enemies are less deadly and damage dealers' own defensive abilities are usually sufficient to keep them alive provided they don't go too crazy. As always the important thing is to protect the healer.

As with most skills, there's no substitute for experience. However, it has been suggested that drilling yourself in solo PvE play could help you develop skills that will be useful in tanking in instances.

For Warriors:
1. Practice staying in Defensive Stance and using [Thunder Clap], [Shield Block] and [Revenge] as much as possible.
2. For low-level Warriors, practice throwing Sunders on each of 2, 3, or 4 targets in turn (be careful not to over-pull and kill yourself!) - at higher levels, substitute Shield Slam, Revenge, and/or Devastate for Sunder.
3. Practice switching stances regularly to improve your reflex response to a need for an ability in another stance (e.g. [Intercept] or [Berserker Rage]).
4. Practice keeping your global cool-down ticking.
For Druids:
1. Practice Lacerating alternating targets with 2, 3, or 4 targets. (Be careful not to over-pull and kill yourself!)
2. Practice keeping your global cool-down ticking. [Mangle] at every cool-down, [Lacerate] when you can't Mangle, keep Faerie Fire up.
3. Practice pulling with Starfire or Hurricane, but be sure to shift to Bear Form before the mobs arrive.
4. Use Swipe and [Maul] for tanking multiple mobs, but be sure to get in a few mangles on the main target.
For Paladins:
1. Make sure you pull the mob/group; much of your threat is from blocking ( [Holy Shield] and [Blessing of Sanctuary]).
2. Make sure you have [Righteous Fury] up at all times!
3. Use a one-handed weapon and shield (you can get away with a two-hander at low levels if your healer is capable, but it's not recommended).
4. To tank multiple targets, use [Consecration]. Be careful not to break CC.
5. Seal of Command for multiple targets if you have it. Seal of Vengeance/Corruption for single targets at higher levels. Seal of Righteousness otherwise.
6. If you're tanking in Ret spec, [Crusader Strike] and [Divine Storm] are quite good for building threat.
7. Use line of sight or [Avenger's Shield] to pull casters
8. Mobs don't attack you while bubbled; you can use a macro for bubble/unbubble to get rid of fear or other forms of crowd control.
For Death Knights:
1. Use Frost Presence.
2. Use [Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle]/ [Rune of the Nerubian Carapace] (or at lower levels Rune of Sword Shattering). Unlike other tanks you have the luxury of free weapon enchant swapping at all times.
3. Use [Death Grip] or Line of Sight to pull casters.
4. Remember that [Death Grip] is not your primary taunt, [Dark Command] is! It's less flashy, but the cooldown is much shorter. Save Death Grip for pulls and emergencies.
5. Use [Pestilence] (once you've put your diseases one target!) and [Blood Boil], along with Death and Decay (be careful not to break CC), to tank multiple targets.

For ALL Tanks:
1. Make sure to keep your camera zoomed back whenever possible to keep your visibility to unexpected situations high.
2. Practice moving while hitting mobs, both backing away and strafing away or around.
3. Practice toying with caster mobs and a nice wall, rock, or corner to get a feel for how line of sight can be used to make mobs come to you.
4. Stay aware of patrolling mobs and be ready to rescue your group mates with some quick threat generation moves if someone unexpectedly pulls.
5. Watch for various kinds of normal or cone AOE attacks that mobs use and position yourself and the mobs to prevent as much of their potential damage as possible.
6. Learn which mobs use fear and which mobs run at low health. These are probably the most common cause of adds, and thus wipes. The best way of dealing with both is to pull well back, so feared players won't run into new groups.

Also, visit the Warriors as Tanks, Druids as Tanks, Paladins as Tanks, and Death knights as tanks articles for additional detail for each of these classes.

External links

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