What makes a good tank weapon ?

[Rupart]

So I'm sitting here looking at weapons, items, enchants.

I just hit 61 with my warrior that I started leveling up mostly just using any weapon I can get but I started thinking what makes a good tank weapon ?

Lots of stam ? Hit ? Def ?

Also

As I move into outlands and beyond to northrend I have heard people say I need to get my dodge/parry block to I think 25% is that all determined by adding them toghter ?

What kind of roll does expertise and hit play for tanking ? let me kind of rephase this at what point (percent) do we get diminishing returns ?

at that point is it best just to stack stam ?

I have been searching for the question about determing a good tank weapon for the last couple hourse and either what I was using as search criteria sucked or Im just and idiot and cant find it.

anyway thanks for the help

[Spazlord]

In end game tanking, warriors benefit from fast weapons (1.6-ish) as we can heroic strike more regularly = more threat.

While you're levelling, it's not super important, you'll replace gear fairly quickly. You also probably won't see many "tank" weapons (ie. weapons with stam/def/dodge) so just use a dps one.

At level 80, while you are still getting your gear together, you should prioritize survival > all, so find a 1.6 tank weapon. Once you outgear content to some extent, you could choose to use a dps weapon for more threat. Personally, for heroics and easy content, I use a 2.6 dps weapon. It hits very hard and boosts my dps a little.

[Redlite]

What makes a "good" tank weapon depends on what stats you need at the moment. As far as a good tanking weapon for your current level, there really aren't many (if any). If you are Horde, you can pick up the Grunt's Waraxe (Grunt's Waraxe - Item - World of Warcraft) which would serve as a decent weapon to use around 61.

I'll try to answer your other questions briefly (please correct me if this data is invalid, it's been awhile).

Three primary goals as a tank are getting your Defense/Hit/Expertise cap. Defense should be at 535 for Heroics and 540 for Raids (more never hurts but I wouldn't sacrifice other stats for more Defense). Hit should be at 8% (263 Hit rating) and Expertise should be at 26 (214 Expertise rating).

In terms of Dodge/Parry/Block, back when I was tanking I was told to go for 20%/20%/20% for starters. Personally, I've found it quite reasonable to drop some Block for Dodge/Parry (particularly Dodge). Just make sure you are Specializing in Deflection and Anticipation (how many points you put into Shield Specialization can very depending on needs and your build).

Hope this helped! You can find a lot more detail on the guides right here on TankSpot.

[Bihn]

What kind of roll does expertise and hit play for tanking ? let me kind of rephase this at what point (percent) do we get diminishing returns ?

Expertise and hit are threat stats. Expertise is sometimes seen as a survivability stat because it reduces a boss's chance to parry your attacks. If a boss parries you, his swing timer resets, which can cause two very big melee hits in a row. Being parry capped (57 expertise, not worth it to gear towards it) reduces the chance that a boss will parry-gib you.

Neither of these stats go on DR. They have a flat cap, before which each point is equally useful, after which each point is not useful at all.

To be clear, and to prevent anyone from swooping in and correcting me, let me say this about expertise: Up to 26 expertise, you are reducing both dodge and parry. At 26 expertise, a boss mob can no longer dodge you. In this respect, some people may characterize more than 26 expertise as "on DR" as it is essentially half as effective as it was before then. Those people are nit picking.

Neither your hit nor your expertise 'have' to be anywhere to be a good tank. 26 expertise is a fine number to shoot for, and it is rather easy to obtain through gear, but if you are shy of 26 that doesn't make you a bad tank.
In my eyes, hit is whatever. The amount of hit on ToC and ToGC gear was laughably small(I think 1 piece of 25-man tanking plate had hit on it), and this in no way prevented tanks from holding aggro or filling their roles well. The only situation where you will absolutely want hit rating is a situation where you can't have your taunt miss. And there is a glyph for that.

[Andomar]

The most important part of a tank weapon is its item level. The higher the ilevel, the more stats it contributes to your gear.

The stats themselves you can get from any item. Even a weapon's DPS is just a (large) part of your attack power.

[Talksick]

A fast weapon? Wow. The faster your weapon the more hits you land which means the more parrys your gonna take. I guess if you have threat problems than yeah you wanna go with a faster weapon, but I usually use Hunter weapons. High agility, High Stam weapons, 3.5 weapon speed. I'm a frost DK so it allows higher burst damage and better crits. But to each their own i don't know about Warrior tanks.

[Bihn]

A fast weapon? Wow. The faster your weapon the more hits you land which means the more parrys your gonna take. I guess if you have threat problems than yeah you wanna go with a faster weapon, but I usually use Hunter weapons. High agility, High Stam weapons, 3.5 weapon speed. I'm a frost DK so it allows higher burst damage and better crits. But to each their own i don't know about Warrior tanks.

He said in the second line of his post that he is a warrior, which would indicate to most people that he wants to know what other warriors have to say. I wouldn't mind if you just posted something off-topic, but why did you have to do it in a condescending way?

[the27thvoice]

Frankly, I'd say until you hit 80 you don't want a good tank weapon, you want a high DPS weapon. Sounds simplistic, but weapons usually carry fewer stats than leggings or chest pieces, the stats on a weapon aren't all that important to your survivability. It is, however, the most important item you have for threat generation.
Use your highest DPS 1hander for tanking and you'll be fine.

For gear, think stam and defense. Until top level, those are key. And hell, at top level, those are still key.

[Vrekgar]

By and large you want a nice Slow Weapon with plenty of Stam on it.

Diffrent tanking classes can use diffrent weapons for Tanking. Warriors and Paladins use the same pool of 1h Defense weapons. These are all usualy fast weapons with Defense, Dodge, and Parry stats tossed on.

Druids use Stat Sticks and dont care other than if the added stats are better than what they were useing before.

DK's can use the most varried weapons but it depends on how your speced as to what type of weapon your going to want but by and large you want Nice Slow Weapons with good Stam values added. Ive been shoehorned into the Agi/Stam weapons since ulduar due to getting lucky when stuff dropped. Agil does help defensive stats a bit but it sacrifices the threat of STR values.