Help me pick a tanking class!

[Hellkung]

Warriors have the most pure tanking tools, very high mobility and basically a button for every situation like many have said before me.

Thing is, no doubt Paladin was going to win seeing as you posted this in the Paladin forum.

So what I would basically suggest is why not level both? At the same time would be even better to see which style of protection you prefer.

My 2 cents.

[Stieger23]

Pick the one you enjoy the most. Don't go off of what is "best" now-- all that can change in a patch.

Personally I find warrior and DK tanking to be more interactive than the other two options. Not that they're "better" or I'm more skilled than people who like other options, just my personal preference.

EDIT:

Pally has secured the lead by a long shot. I will be home in a couple of hours to create mine.

Your opinions/advice on leveling spec & anything else I might need to know or be cautioned about would be beyond my expectations. Thank you so much for the intelligent discussion & opinions. You guys have restored a once lost faith in the Champ community

You're reading a post in the pally forums, of course paladins won by a long shot... well, that and the fact that Paladin tanks are just generally "better*" right now. Paladins have great AOE threat, good damage, nice utility, great survivability under most situations. About the ONLY weakness a pally tank has is in a situation that calls for rotating CDs (e.g. festergut with 3 inhales), they only have one real CD.

[NathSB]

warriors have lots of offensive utility O.o like what? and whats more rewarding about playing a warrior then any other tank class...
lowest tps lowest dps and worst survivablity yes you can tank as a warrior its more of a challenge i guess thats why i enjoy at the moment but we're about to lose quite a bit of what makes warrior tanking fun.

Throws, charges, fearbreakers, sunders, and stuns (useless on bosses ofc) can all loosely be considered offensive, especially when compared to Paladins. Also, it's probably not that warrior's TPS is too low, but that the other tanks' TPS is too high.

[gamerguy19876]

Paly or Druid because you might change your mind in the future and those are good fall backs because they can do anything. ;D

[scintal]

honestly i shied away from warriors low levels can be a pain and rage generation wasnt for me rather have mana instead of rage gain, dks, and druid have the same type of generation, dks right now seems to be in a bad state takes a lot of work and can still be squishy if you don't know what your doing, paladins right now are probably the OP tanking class right now and easy to learn and use

what? no.

Warrior OWNS in leveling speed.

Their fury tree was awesome for leveling. (as long as you can get nice blue/heirloom weapons). I would even go as far as saying they are a little OP with the right weapon against leveling mobs. (same thing for DK/Pal)

Then again, all the tank classes' dps tree is pretty good for leveling. ( I have leveled all of them, I'd day pal is the easiest follow by a close 2nd/3rd by DK or warrior, and druid comes a close last)

In terms of damage though, I think it's warrior slightly higher than pal then DK/druid, since druid's dps tree is less brusty than the others. Warriors does better dps when they can titan grip.

IMO.

[iglocska]

I am tanking on 3 characters currently (Pally, warr, DK)

Here is the breakdown:

Warr:
Warrior tanks are focused on situational offensive tools for tanking and mobility. You have 3 types of charges, allowing you to zip around the battlefield, whilst having a huge toolbox for all kinds of situations (Spell reflect, interrupts, disarm, etc). The most important bonus you bring to the raid is your sunder armour debuff, reducing the target's armour rating. Rotations for warriors don't exist as such, they have a priority system which makes tanking itself somewhat more reactive (but quite frankly in single target situations this isn't a lot more complex than the pally rotation). Threat in single target situations in never an issue, warriors easily excell paladin threat and are fighting for the top spot with druids. Aoe can be very tricky and this is where tanking on a warrior becomes challenging.

Pally:
The Paladin tank has a somewhat rigid rotation, which can make them seem "simple" at first, but the challenge with them lies in using all your additional tools while tanking. Actively controling the threat table with hand of saslvation, protecting a raid member from harm with HoP, freeing snared / rooted target or just generally cleansing while tanking can go a long way. Whilst having fewer cooldowns for himself, the paladin tank offers cooldowns for his off-tank on tank swap situations for example (Hand of Sacrifice) or for his party / raid (Divine sacrifice). Their capability to survive is very close to a warrior, though slightly better with their marginally better EH and due to the nature of AD (though I never felt this to be a big issue on my warr if I used my CDs well). Single target threat is good, but below that of a competent warrior or druid. Aoe is extremely good, especially in ICC (Consecration, tabbing to stack SoV, Holy Wrath).

Druids:
Incredible single target threat and most "mobile" aoe threat (can't move a consecration for 8 sec, but every swipe can be made from a different position, making add-pickup very easy if dps can hold back for 1 sec to mitigate the lower aoe threat output). Druids have the highest effective health, allowing them to survive what no warrior or pally could, whilst wearing lower end gear. With all that being said, I personally do not really enjoy tanking on my druid due to it's VERY simple playstyle. A rotation that's basically simpler than that of paladins with no real support while tanking (Innervate + BR require you to leave form). Overall a very strong but not very fun class to play.

So all in all I'd pick a pally, with warriors being an extremely close second. The pally atm is the only tank where I feel truly in control and where I can make up for the mistakes of others, thanks to all the utility skills. I find it very satisfying to do my job as a tank while also saving some raid members.

DKs I've never tried so I didn't even mention them

[Cortano]

With all that being said, I personally do not really enjoy tanking on my druid due to it's VERY simple playstyle.

Bear tanking is dumbed down warrior tanking, minus the utility abilities, plus training wheels.

The best thing about bear tanking is you have a lot of time to watch what is going on, where you are standing, and what other people are doing. As a raid leader, you can easily divide your attention between calling out what people should be doing and playing your character. Playing a bear doesn't consume a large fraction of your attention,

The second best thing is it is very good if you don't have use of both hands. (STOP thinking dirty thoughts! There are plenty of legitimate reasons for playing one handed from disabilities to smoking.)

You can use the macro:
/castrandom Mangle, Lacerate, Swipe, Faerie Fire
/cast Maul

and that is the only button you press. Bind it to your left mouse button, put taunt on the right. You are pretty much sorted.

[thonga]

Choosed warrior.. Even i play feral as main.

After played all tanks, i must say Warrior wins the fun meter by miles, the others are just.. boring, to easy, 2 button spam. Warriors ftw

[Grob]

bears just look like bears in any gear=(

[Phenetix]

You guys are great thank you!! I feel like a sponge with all this tanking info I'm absorbing.

I wanted to address an earlier post that suggested that had posted my poll on the pally forums because I knew they would win. I posted here because the pally community is active and intelligent. I thought my poll & hunger for knowledge would best be suite for this forum.

I have kept an open mind & considered them all, otherwise this would have all been pointless. I have rolled a pally & look forward to tanking for you in the future Much love guys, this was a success.