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The Death Knight, the first and only Hero class thus far, was introduced with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. What makes this class a “Hero” class is that it becomes available to play as a level 55 character once a players account has at least one other character at level 55 or higher. Like the Warrior, a Death Knight is capable of both tanking and DPSing. As a tank, players will use the Blood specialization which offers tremendous health regeneration abilities making Death Knights very formidable and a healers best friend.
Death Knights manage two different resources making them slightly more difficult to play than some of the other tanking classes. Like the Monk though it’s not overwhelming, it just requires a bit more practice to get right. In terms of resources, Death Knights have two-each of three different runes, Blood Runes, Frost Runes and Unholy Runes. Using abilities consumes these runes where they are placed on a short cooldown until they can be used again. When these abilities are used they generate Runic Power which is then consumed to use a few other abilities.
The Death Knight is a great tanking class and a lot of fun to play because of the unique resource system. The more demanding play style, just as with the Monk, is the primary reason why I rank them in the number 3 slot on this list. Death Knights also have the Death Grip ability which allows them to pull far away enemies close to them for when that one enemy gets away or to shut down that far away caster who’s lobbing fireballs at the party. With good survivability and great self healing, the Death Knight is a very fun class to play and you often feel pretty bad ass especially being able to wield two, two-handed weapons!
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The Paladin is another class that can fulfil the three main roles just like the Monk and Druid. As with the Warrior, a Paladin takes into a battle a one-handed weapon and a shield for their off-hand. Resource management is more straight forward with this class as you manage a mana pool and Holy Power. Most abilities simply cost mana to execute which increase a Paladins Holy Power. The Holy Power is spent to enhance those mana-cost abilities in addition to being used on abilities that only require Holy Power.
The Paladin class is very good at maintaining aggro among many enemies and also brings great buffs to the party. Tanking with this class is fairly straight forward just as with the Warrior with the added benefit of being able to offer a few heals here and there. The Paladin is a great choice for a class because it can fulfill all three roles and has tremendous utility for any party or raid they’re apart of.
Most players I know would rank the Paladin higher than the Warrior in terms of most fun to play but for me the clear cut focus of the Warrior prevails but the Paladin is a great runner up for those who want something a tad more intricate and also for those in smaller guilds who may need you to swap to a healer or DPS specialization from raid to raid.
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Here we are at the bottom of the list where we find the shape shifting Druid. Don’t be fooled though as the Guardian Druid is very similar to my first place Warrior as it uses Rage as its primary and only resource to manage. The Druid sits alongside the Monk and Paladin as it can also heal and DPS.
The Guardian Druid is the least fun of all the tanking classes because there are very few abilities to use when compared to the others. They do however have the ability to resurrect an ally during combat which can be extremely powerful. Druid tanks are able to sufficiently manage single targets as well as groups - make no mistake, they are very viable tanks. It’s the actual gameplay that keeps them at the bottom of this list. If you’re looking for a very easy to operate tanking class, then give them a try. I would say it’s safe to assume they are the easiest to learn and manage during fights. With the added bonus of being able to switch to a healer or DPS, the Druid is a great option for a class over all. The only real bummer is that when the Druid is in its various forms (a bear for tanking), all your hard earned gear is no longer visible.
With the recent announcement that Blizzard will be paring down the amount of abilities that each class has in the next expansion, there’s a good chance this list will need to be reorganized at some point in the near future. It will be interesting to see what abilities get combined and/or removed entirely - hopefully we’ll get some news on this soon!
What are you favorite tanking classes? Which do you think is more fun to play? Let us know in the comments below!
- This week’s throwback item: Pendant of Titans
- Heartstone card of the week: Fen Creeper
Further Warcraft reading:
Reza Lackey / Reza is a giant nerd who loves video games, board games, film and way too many other things. Works in the film industry, on some startups and thinks science is cool. Also launches rockets.
