[Aggathon]

Source: lyd it's been awhile since i've tanked on my warrior, but everything i've ever read shows warriors favoring fast weapons because heroic striking with greater frequency is more effective over time than slower, bigger strikes. besides, past nax 25 you really don't have any slow tanking weapons to choose from, so it seems to be a conscious design decision. acknowledged. I still don't see many warriors swinging slow weapons, though. especially since past nax 25, there are no slow tanking weapons, unless you count QS, which is sort of a hybrid.

True, which is another reason why I've said that warriors typically don't give 2 !#$%s about weapon speed, it is the very last thing considered.

[abqmedic77]

Source: Encr Perhaps you should read up on Paladins too, OP. Your view of reaching the 102.4% avoidance cap as any class (yes, even a Paladin) is wrong. It is entirely useless for any tank that isn't tanking H Anub adds.

So I have gotten flamed like 800 times for mentioning the "Uncrushable" goal. In reading theorycrafting from other sites it seemed to me, as a paladin, that if you keep the now named "unhittable" status with 100% uptime of holy shield all you are doing is increasing threat and mitigating more damage.

I AM IN NO WAY ADVOCATING "UNHITTABLE" AS THE BE ALL END ALL PRIORITY.

As I said in my original posts, I knew nearly nothing about other tanks and how the mechanics worked. IMHO knowing that ins and outs of the various tanks strengths and weaknesses could only make me a better Officer. I harbor no illusions that any tanking class can tank any boss, but the process steps each tank goes through was a mystery to me.

However, seeing as how none of us knows the IC fights; at this point, having the paladins "unhittable" with as much of an HP pool as possible and as close to melee hit cap and soft (dodge) expertise cap seemed like a good starting point in my mind.

I would like to get my other tanks to a similar level so that, walking into any raid, any content, the tanks are squared away. I have been given some very good advice and thank you all for your patience and mentorship.

[WarTotem]

Source: lyd acknowledged. I still don't see many warriors swinging slow weapons, though. especially since past nax 25, there are no slow tanking weapons, unless you count QS, which is sort of a hybrid.

Reason you don't see slow swingers

[Insahnity]

Source: abqmedic77 So I have gotten flamed like 800 times for mentioning the "Uncrushable" goal. In reading theorycrafting from other sites it seemed to me, as a paladin, that if you keep the now named "unhittable" status with 100% uptime of holy shield all you are doing is increasing threat and mitigating more damage. I AM IN NO WAY ADVOCATING "UNHITTABLE" AS THE BE ALL END ALL PRIORITY.

I think what landed you in that was the following from original post:

Source: abqmedic77 Hello Everyone, I am the Officer in my guild in charge of tanking and tank development. I feel that I have a good overall understanding of the mechanics of Paladin tanking as that is my class and I have done the most research in this area. For example: To "end game content tank" as a Paladin I feel you must meet these requirements. You should meet or exceed all caps: D-Cap(540), Block Cap(102.4%), Expertise Cap (26), Hit Cap(263) and having met these criteria, you gear itemization should push you above 30k unbuffed HP. <snip>

I will take your subsequent post as meaning it isn't a huge priority to you, but you have to admit it could be construed as coming across that way based on the wording.

I'm glad you have gained some good info, but as you have guessed earlier, the only true way is to actually roll a toon and find out yourself, something you don't quite have the time for. Even if you do manage to roll one, by the time you get it up to speed, you will find that you know way more of one over the other(s) because getting several alts to that level and to raid that often is pretty spectactular, given the relatively few spots available for tanks.

[Caric]

Actually druid mitigation is pretty impressive, they have very high armor pools, savage defense; which mitigates damage similar to shield block but which is based off crit and ap, they also have talents that further reduce the damage they take, a talent that makes them crit immune regardless of defense, as well as a talent that enables them to self heal off of their crits. In addition to this they have monstrous health pools, and a couple of decent cooldowns as well.

Warriors are always going to take spikier damage than druids or pallies because our mitigation is circumstantial. We don't have holy shield to smooth out the damage, we don't have ardent defender to provide the cushion where it is most needed (near death) and we don't have the extremely high armor pools of dk's and druids to flatten out all incoming damage. We have the ability to double our shield block value on a cooldown, and a chance to proc a critical block to up our block as well, but this is subject to the rng.

I personally enchant for defense as needed to hit 540ish, then stam on the rest of the pieces, gem for stam (unless i feel a socket bonus on armor is worth shooting for with some kind of purple/green/orange gem) and play with my trinkets a bit as needed. I imagine that is a fairly prevalent view among most of us (other than some folks who will simply gem for stam regardless of socket bonuses and trinket for stam no matter what).

Armor is great but in reality far more governed by item level than any other consideration and since as a general rule we tend to gravitate towards the higher level pieces anyhow, armor tends to take care of itself. There are always pieces that prove the exception to the rule but overall stam stacking tends to be the highest priority in gearing after hitting 540 defense no matter what kind of tank you are.

I know nothing of Dks, sorry.

For my money though, pallies are the top of the tanking tree, followed closely by druids. Warriors are the most engaging though .

Warrior 4 life.

(the druid is an alt, I swear)