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Tank and Healer Loot Priority

The 'DPS first' rule works most of the time because tanks and healers scale poorly with gear, but there are exceptions based on your progression needs.

7/8/2025
6 min read
Penkek

Tank and Healer Loot Priority

The WoW community has a long-standing belief that tanks and healers should get loot last. This comes from the idea that DPS players benefit more from gear upgrades, and that tanks and healers can function adequately with lower item levels. While this has some merit, it's more nuanced than "DPS always first."

Tank Loot Priority: Usually Straightforward

For tanks, the traditional approach works most of the time. Tanks can be effectively deprioritized as long as two conditions are met:

Tank Loot Conditions

✅ Safe to Deprioritize Tanks When:

  • Survivability threshold met: They won't die from low stamina/effective health (very unlikely in recent tiers)
  • Crest optimization available: They have Mythic items to spend Mythic crests on for meaningful upgrades

I know I won't be making friends with the tanking community with this one, I'm sorry.

The DPS Value Comparison

Almost every item that can go to either a tank or DPS will provide more value on the DPS player. Even when the simulation numbers look similar, consider whether the DPS gets a significant survivability increase from the upgrade.

Healer Loot Priority: More Complex

Healers sit between DPS and tanks in priority. The current order is DPS > Healers > Tanks, but this requires more analysis than just following a strict hierarchy.

Anticipating Healer Needs

Look ahead at your progression context:

  • DPS performance vs other guilds: If you're meeting damage requirements comfortably, healer gear becomes more valuable
  • Composition optimization: Some bosses heavily favor certain healing specs that might need gear to be viable
  • Previous encounters: Did you struggle with healing on earlier bosses? Those patterns often repeat
  • Upcoming difficulty spikes: Healing-intensive encounters may require investment before you reach them

The Throughput Reality

Additional healer throughput prevents raid members from bleeding out, allows players to hold defensives longer (improving DPS uptime), and enables healers to contribute more damage when healing requirements are met.

Contextual Factors for Healer Gear

Favor Healer Gear When

  • Progression is slow on healing-intensive fights
  • DPS team is strong relative to healing team
  • Close to meeting DPS requirements
  • Healers are skilled at contributing damage

Stick to DPS Priority When

  • Failing DPS checks consistently
  • Healing team can handle current requirements
  • Large DPS upgrades available
  • DPS team needs survivability improvements

The Bigger Picture

We're not advocating for funneling gear to healers, but there needs to be more nuance than fully ignoring them in favor of DPS. The current DPS > Healers > Tanks priority works because of how classes scale with gear right now.

If future expansions improve tank damage scaling and reduce the need for constant retuning every tier, that priority could shift. But until tanks contribute significantly more damage and scale better with gear, they remain the lowest priority.

The key is honest assessment of your team's limitations and where additional gear will have the most impact on your specific progression challenges; not just following a rigid hierarchy.

TL;DR
  • Current priority: DPS > Healers > Tanks based on how classes scale with gear
  • Tanks: Lowest priority due to poor gear scaling and low damage contribution
  • Healers: Consider when DPS requirements are comfortable or healing is limiting progression
  • Anticipate needs: Look at boss performance, comp requirements, and upcoming encounters
  • Future consideration: Priority could shift if tank scaling improves in future expansions