Tier 11 Tank PvE Tier List - Cataclysm Classic

Main Tank Survivability: this includes the specialization's ability to survive high damage as a main tank, such as damage reduction abilities, cooldowns, overall durability, and self-healing.

Off-Tank Capability: by design, off-tanks normally aren't taking the brunt of the damage in a fight, and so a specialization's ability to act as an off-tank factors in a number of other points, including the ability to deal damage when not actively tanking, utility that can help a main tank and the healers.

Main Tank DPS: this takes into account the amount of damage a specialization can deal while still focusing on staying alive and main tanking.

Off-Tank DPS: this takes into account the amount of damage a specialization can deal while acting as an off-tank, where it can use periods of downtime between tanking to deal damage.

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

Raid Utility: this encompasses the utility a specialization has that helps the raid overall.

Main Tank Survivability: Blood Death Knights are the chosen main tank for almost every single situation in Cataclysm, with exceptional self-healing via  Death Strike, strong damage mitigation with their Mastery ( Blood Shield), even going as far as allowing well-geared raid groups the privilege of dropping healers due to the massive healing Blood outputs. They are also by far the strongest tank against magic damage.

Off-Tanking: Despite normally being the main tank, and while there are very strong synergies with Feral Druids, Blood DKs can be played very efficiently as an off-tank as well, and it is likely that there will be double-Blood tanking setups in the more hardcore raid groups at expansion launch.

Main & Off-Tank DPS: Blood Death Knights have one of the highest damage outputs of all tanks in Cataclysm Classic, when compared with other tanks with the same gearing strategy (survivability or DPS).

Trash & Adds: Blood Death Knights have strong AoE damage, along with the benefit of being able to  Death Grip adds and group them for more efficient clears. They are at a slight disadvantage when having to pick adds up, simply because they are one of the slower tank specs, but Death Grip helps to alleviate that issue, along with external speed boosts.

Raid Utility: This is the weakest aspect of a Blood Death Knight's kit, but as the weakest, they still bring multiple buffs and debuffs that are extremely useful to the raid group in the form of  Abomination's Might,  Scarlet Fever,  Frost Fever, and  Horn of Winter. The thing they lack is a raid-wide cooldown that other tanks all offer, but this is by no means any reason to remove them from being the only S-Tier tank.

Main Tank Survivability: Feral Druids have a solid set of defensive capabilities, as well as a very large health pool, but by acting as a main tank, they often forego the main bonus they bring to a raid, which is their ability to DPS while in Cat Form, as they will often have to stay in Bear Form.

Off-Tanking: Feral Druids are undoubtedly the best off-tank in Cataclysm Classic in terms of synergy with the raid and the role of an off-tank.

Main & Off-Tank DPS: While main tanking, Druids are unable to enter Cat Form as often, meaning they lose a chunk of damage they would normally be able to deal. As an off-tank, however, they are essentially the closest thing to another DPS you can have from your tanks. They can swap into Cat Form and, due to Feral being a DPS and Tank specialization tree, deal a massive amount of damage for a tank.

Trash & Adds: With multiple movement speed increases and solid AoE threat generation, Feral Druids are excellent at picking up adds as necessary, only adding to their value as an off-tank.

Raid Utility: Feral Druids have a number of raid utility abilities to offer, including instant 3-stack  Faerie Fire (Feral) via  Feral Aggression,  Stampeding Roar,  Innervate, and the in-combat resurrection spell,  Rebirth.

Main Tank Survivability: With many defensive abilities at their disposal, as well as being able to hit their Mastery ( Divine Bulwark) cap in Tier 11, the survivability of a Protection Paladin is certainly close to, or even on-par with Feral Druids, but is still lacking compared to Blood Death Knights.

Off-Tanking: Paladins have a number of tools, such as  Hand of Sacrifice, to help them perform well as off-tanks and can be a solid choice for your raid.

Main & Off-Tank DPS: Protection Paladin DPS is, depending on the situation, either acceptable, or absolutely excellent. Depending on gearing strategies between tanks, Paladins should be able to contribute competitive single-target DPS output, while bringing absolutely superb AoE damage.

Trash & Adds: Picking up and managing trash or adds in a boss fight is one of the strongest parts of playing a Protection Paladin and it is one of the only areas they truly excel beyond their jack-of-all-trades role in. With  Avenger's Shield, they can easily reposition caster mobs, as well as doing it frequently due to  Grand Crusader resets.

Raid Utility:  Divine Guardian is Paladin's raid-wide utility, and it is excellent for helping to survive periods of large incoming damage. They also have  Hand of Sacrifice, which can be used to reduce the damage taken by your co-tank, along with the rest of their assortment of "Hand of" spells.

Main Tank Survivability: Warriors suffer from a similar issue that Paladins do, in that the lack of gear at the start of the expansion will impact their performance, and this is doubly true for Warriors, due to the poor scaling of their Mastery ( Critical Block). While they do have a number of defensive cooldowns, they are extremely susceptible to magic damage, and lack almost any form of self-sustain to make up for it.

Off-Tanking: With exceptional mobility and  Vigilance, Warriors can perform well as an off-tank, but may struggle to compete against double-blood tanking comps or Feral Druid off-tanks.

Main & Off-Tank DPS: The DPS output of a Protection Warrior is certainly strong, especially in AoE situations, and they also have the benefit of  Vigilance, which can provide additional DPS output as an off-tank by continuing to stack  Vengeance, something that no other tank can do.

Trash & Adds: The mobility a Warrior brings is excellent for picking up adds, but their weakness against magic damage is reinforced against caster adds, simply because they have no reliable way of grouping them up easily when compared to a Paladin or Death Knight outside of interrupting and manually moving them. Their AoE threat generation is, however, excellent, especially when picking up a group of adds that need an immediate burst of threat generation. They are also able to nearly spam taunt different adds or trash mobs when benefiting from  Vigilance and its taunt reset mechanic.

Raid Utility: Warriors have a number of useful raid utility spells, including  Sunder Armor,  Shattering Throw (which can be used to boost raid burst DPS on  Heroism/ Bloodlust), and  Rallying Cry, and while Guardian Druids can use  Faerie Fire (Feral) and instantly apply 3 stacks via  Feral Aggression, it will be fairly rare to see a Guardian Druid and Protection Warrior tanking duo, meaning Protection Warrior can substitute for the armor debuff when tanking with a Blood Death Knight or Protection Paladin. Protection Warriors also have access to  Safeguard, which essentially allows you to reduce the damage your co-tank, or another raid member, takes by 30%, on a 30-second cooldown.