WoW Season of Discovery: Best Tank Classes in SoD, Ranked

Tanks are more diverse than ever in World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery, with no less than 6 of the 9 available classes able to fulfill the role. Rogues, Warlocks, and Shamans now have the ability to Tank thanks to new Tanking SoD Runes, while Paladins, Warriors, and Druids all get new Runes that improve their ability to maintain Threat and take hits.

Though every Tank in WoW SoD is able to take on endgame group content, some are much better at maintaining Threat, come with better party utility, or outright take less damage. This guide to the best Tanks in SoD ranked places each Tank class based on its strengths and weaknesses in endgame PvE content – most importantly, each Tank class’ ability to keep enemy aggro.

Updated February 24, 2024 by Erik Petrovich: WoW Season of Discovery is meant to be a constantly changing experience with new, revamped content to change how players experience the original World of Warcraft. At launch, the best SoD Tanks were the ones with the most complete toolkits at level 25, or the ones with the best Runes – including the newly Tank-capable Rogue and Shaman classes, plus Runes to enable Paladins to Tank much better. Similarly, with the release of Phase Two, new Runes and a new level cap of 40 has shaken up the vanilla WoW meta once again. This guide to the best WoW SoD Tanks has been updated and refreshed to account for Phase Two changes, and will continue to be updated as future Season of Discovery phases release to change things up more.

Rogue

New Rogue Tank Tools Aren’t Up To Snuff

Rogues are new to Tanking in SoD, and the relatively few players who have attempted to tank as a Rogue have generally found it to be a rewarding playstyle. Rogue Tanks don’t have to sacrifice hardly any DPS, making it easy to maintain Threat once established on a single target, but they lack two important things: the ability to tab between targets effectively, and any AoE Threat generation abilities.

Rogues lose all their current Combo Points if they tab to a new target, which Tanks have to do quite often to maintain Threat. With the new Phase Two ability Redirect trained, Rogues can swap their Combo points to a new target once every minute – but that’s not often enough to be that helpful, and oftentimes, it’s better to just Mutilate a new target to get two Combo points and deal damage at the same time.

Additionally, the Shuriken Toss Rune was added in Phase Two to try to mitigate Rogues’ lack of AoE threat generating abilities. On activation, you will launch an array of Shuriken at enemies nearby, causing a small amount of damage and generating threat. The thing is, it costs a lot of Energy, and deals a miniscule amount of damage. It’s more effective to tab-target and Mutilate than to use Shuriken Toss, as it stands.

For now, Rogues stand at the bottom of the best SoD Tanks tier list. In future phases and updates, one can only hope the Rogue Tank toolkit expands to match the effectiveness of other new Tank specs (Warlock and Shaman).

Druid

Difficult To Manage Threat, But Improving

Guardian Druids are the Tanking spec for the class, and true to its jack-of-all-trades nature, it’s not quite the best Tank in WoW SoD. Tank Druids can have a hard time maintaining threat on enemies, especially with many of their most useful abilities locked at high levels or behind lengthy Rune questlines.

With Phase Two, Guardian Druids got some much-needed Runes, but they weren’t very powerful. With hotfixes, the Druid Tank build is looking to be in a better place for the rest of the Phase, but it could still use some buffs to its core abilities (like Swipe).

Shaman

A Great Phase One Tank, Less So In Phase Two

Shaman Tanks didn’t really exist in vanilla WoW, though the class could fulfill the role in a well-put-together group. With the new Runes in SoD, Shaman Tanks have gone from a niche off-meta spec to one of the best Tanks of the first Phase.

Phase One Runes like Molten Blast and Way of Earth help the class maintain Threat better than almost any other, for both single and AoE targets. In Phase Two, Shaman Tanks got the powerful Maelstrom Weapon Rune, as well as the Spirit of the Alpha ability that can almost entirely eliminate the Shaman’s slightly less reliable Threat generation.

Another benefit of Shaman Tanks is that they can use Totems, which can be the source of some seriously powerful party buffs like Windfury.

But Shaman Tanks lack self-sustain, and don’t have defensive cooldowns on the same level as those of Warriors, Warlocks, and Paladins at Level 40. In the second SoD Phase, Shamans aren’t quite as high-tier Tanks as they were before, but they are still more than competent and a great addition to any group comp.

Warlock

Warlock Tanks Continue To Impress

Warlocks, like Rogues and Shamans, are now able to Tank effectively in the Season of Discovery. Also like Rogues, the Rune that enables this build, Metamorphosis, is a bit out-of-the-way. Instead of being locked behind a reputation grind, though, Metamorphosis is locked behind a lengthy, cross-continental questline.

Once unlocked, though, Warlocks may be surprised to find just how effective the new Tank playstyle is. Their ability to pull enemies effectively, hold threat, and maintain higher-than-average DPS across multiple types of fights makes them extremely good.

Where Warlocks stumble in Phase Two a little bit is just in comparison to Warrior and Paladin Tanks. Despite a massive Armor increase, and other buffs that help let Warlocks avoid taking lethal damage with every hit, Warriors and Paladins are just more effective at the job because of their more effective Threat and Defensive abilities.

Warrior

At Level 40, Warrior Tanks Are Back

Warriors have always been pretty good, if not arguably the best, Tanks in WoW Classic, and they are certainly up there in the Season of Discovery Tank rankings too. In Phase One, Warriors have most of their Tanking toolkit, as well as some handy Runes that give Protection Warriors some handy boosts.

Protection Warriors had some issues with AoE Tanking, but this weakness is shored up by the Furious Thunder Rune. Devastate is a great debuff for party DPS, while Warbringer is one of the best Warrior Runes available in SoD, period. As it stands in Phase Two, with much more of the Warriors’ trainable abilities and Talents unlocked, Warriors are amazing Tanks because of their high DPS, threat management, and defensive capabilities.

Warriors lack the party buff utility that Paladins bring to the table, though Phase Two has helped them out a little in that regard. Runes like Rallying Cry are incredibly useful for helping Healers right before party-wide attacks, and Intervene can mean all the difference in avoiding a wipe because a mob decided to run towards your backline.

Ultimately, between Warriors and Paladins, it’s difficult to choose the best SoD Tank Phase Two offers. But in the end, Paladins’ expanded toolkit and extremely party-friendly base abilities make them the best Tank in most content.

Paladin

Self-Sustain, Threat Management, & Plenty To Love

In WoW Classic Paladins are good tanks, but not quite as good as Warriors, and that’s thanks mostly to its lack of a direct Taunt. Other than that, Paladins and Warriors were both good Tank choices for endgame PvE content. With the Season of Discovery, Paladins get Hand of Reckoning, shoring up this weakness and transforming Paladins into the best Tank for SoD.

Paladins bring party and raid-wide Auras and a suite of buffs that suit different class’ needs. Their single-target DPS in the Tank role is nothing to sneer at, especially with a two-handed weapon equipped instead of a shield and 1h, and their ability to generate AoE threat is unmatched with the new Divine Storm Rune (plus Consecration).

Phase Two made Paladin Tanks even more powerful with abilities like the Guarded by the Light Rune, which greatly increases mana regeneration in combat. Plus, their party utility is even better now with the Enhanced Blessings skill book, which doubles the length of Blessing buffs and halves their mana cost.

Paladins bring a lot that other Tanks don’t have, including interrupts, AoE damage, self-healing, single-target burst, party mana regeneration, and a lot more. Their large range of abilities and vastly buffed spells make them a first choice for endgame PvE content.