Tank Tier List Level 30 for World of Warcraft: Forever - PvE Rankings

By Riyani Updated: 2026/10/06

Tank Tierlist for WOW: ForeverTier List Considerations

Survivability: This includes the specialization's ability to survive high damage as a Main Tank, such as damage-reduction abilities, cooldowns, overall durability, and potential self-sustain.

Damage & Threat: This takes into account how much damage a specialization can deal and the amount of threat it can generate while still focusing on staying alive and main-tanking.

Trash & Adds: This focuses mainly on AoE threat generation and survivability.

Group Utility: This encompasses the utility a specialization has that helps the party overall.

NoteWOW: Forever Tank Tier List Breakdown and ExplanationsWith that being said, you can clear all content in WoW: Forever with any tank specialization. Each tank will have their own niche, and if a particular tank becomes unviable, they will likely receive changes to bring them closer to the other tanks.Rankings:

Protection Paladin (S-Tier)

Protection Warrior (A-Tier)

Feral Druid (A-Tier)

ConsecrationRetribution AuraShield SpecializationTemplar's BulwarkRevengeThunder ClapDefensive StanceShield BlockThornsSwipeFeral InstinctSavage FuryPrimal BiteLeader of the PackChangelog

Comments

Comment by Hazedesunna

I like the fact you specify that this is purely based off of level 20, don't include Shamans in the rankings but mention that Shamans are not fully fledged tanks because while they are good at Dungeons, they cannot raid tank... but no-one can raid tank at level 20 :P #JusticeForShamanTanks

Comment by Ashreon

I will come in from the sideline with actual numbers for threat and damage. Let me preface it with this: There's is possible 5% variance in the numbers. That means that these numbers can drift with 5% compared to what was simulated.

These are the numbers each can output over a 30s, 1, 2, 5min fight Single Target/AoE and post | for avoidance included for a same level mob
Warrior Threat:
30s: 2039/3175 | 1710/2733
1min: 4079/6351 | 3420/5467
2min: 8158/12703 | 6840/10934
5min: 20397/31758 | 17100/27366

Paladin Threat:
30s: 1194/2562 | 1101/2323
1min: 2389/5125 | 2203/4647
2min: 4779/10251 | 4407/9294
5min: 11949/25627 | 11019/23235

Warrior Damage:
30s: 666/1122 | 574/1031
1min: 1332/2244 | 1148/2062
2min: 2665/4489 | 2296/4124
5min: 6663/11223 | 5740/10311

Paladin Damage:
30s: 840/1695 | 768/1531
1min: 1681/3391 | 1537/3063
2min: 3362/6782 | 3074/6127
5min: 8406/16955 | 7680/15310

This is based on simulated numbers and normalized rage using 1 and 4 mobs to calculate potential threat with a 2s attack speed time for mobs (2.4 for warrior) with baseline abilities (so no AP and no SP added). It also assumes that you use the 50% chance to get 5 rage, as that keeps you in a rage surplus opposed to 20% revenge damage which causes you to lose Heroic Strike uptime.
The swing timers used are 1.7 and 2.8s for warrior (0.56 rage surplus on 1.7, 1.1 rage surplus on 2.8s and a 1.5 rage gain by being hit) vs paladin 2.4s. This also means that warriors will be able to rage dump into Heroic Strike in Single Target circumstances, but has fewer windows to do so in AoE circumstances. It was also assumed that warriors would only apply sunder armor up to max stack of 5 there on out only refresh, using Heroic Strike instead.

Warriors used their baseline high threat abilities (Sunder Armor and Revenge for ST, Heroic Strike rage dump and addition of Thunderclap on AoE) they use Bloodrage on cooldown and Charge at start, Paladins used their entire kit for threat generation.

So, a bit of explanation, Warriors lead in pure threat capabilities simply due to the fact that Revenge, Sunder Armor and Heroic Strike adds a flat threat, Paladins lead in damage simply due to the fact that their kit relies on pure damage to do threat.

I really don't want to be.. That guy, but if you intend on making tier lists, at the very least do some simulation on the numbers.

From this we can conclude that Warriors are S-tier threat, A tier damage. Paladins are S-tier Damage, A tier threat. They should probably put side to side, because very good DPS can and do steal threat from Paladins (especially with the 30% threat nerf). Could we argue that yes, paladins have bubbles and therefore a theoretical better survivability? Yes, but it also requires manipulating judgement and in this scenario it's being used on cooldown, so options to bubble have to be precisely managed and incurs a dps/threat loss whereas Warriors are free to use Thunderclap and Demoralizing Roar to reduce damage intake over a fight, therefore taking a lot less damage (also having 10% less damage taken natively). It would currently put Warriors as S-tier in defensive and Paladin as B-tier (since Druid would certainly take A-tier due to bearform armor and hp scaling). If that's included we're looking at the following ranking:
Warrior: S-tier
Paladin: A+ Tier
Druid: B-A tier (I've not run the numbers for them).

This does not include seal twisting the +holy damage seal in the beginning of a single target fight, while you could, it's also mostly guaranteed that you'll lose the boss immediately to unwieldy DPS.

Comment by Lowhaze

Respectfully Shaman for sure should be on the list. So people can be curious, educate themselves, and others to try the build out and not streamline a meta, that's what gives classic builds the uniqueness they have. Folks will always be coming to Wowhead for research, and to have creative builds especially ones that are viable dungeon tanks it only makes sense its including them on a tier list.

Comment by Utharion

I thought Shaman tank was a thing they would take from Discovery ?

Comment by mewhywhy

Riyani the goat!

Hope to see a lot of builds and hopefully some solo farm dungeon AOE/open world AOE guides for prot pally from this tanking legend.

Comment by InVain1337

Bear feels much stronger since the latest update. Swipe scaling with AP (3% AP scaling iirc) , Roar causing threat, and an additional 20% increased threat in bear form. AoE tanking feels great with these changes.

Tank Tier List Level 30 for World of Warcraft: Forever - PvE Rankings

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