We need an overkill to get our position.

In a way I kinda agree with everyone's view point, there is no black and white plan of action that will make everything well in the WoW world. That being said, I feel not that we should be overpowered, nor should the other tanks suffer a nerf in lieu of the precedence of tanking. Druids have finally got the normalization that they needed so that they would be balanced, Paladins are coming along but the one thing the class is missing would be some sort of silence/interrupt. For the Alliance paladins, do not say Blood Elves have Arcane Torrent (this does not work on most raid mobs), whereas both Druids and Warriors have an ability that does. In my opinion so that every tanking class won't be a cookie cutter build, I think they should fold in a silencing effect into the Righteous Defense ability. Meaning, that only mobs affected by RD will be silenced for half the duration of the taunt, while this will not help us with mobs that are on us, it will help with the whole point of RD (how many paladins have used RD on a caster mob that is blasting on a healer only for it to turn and start nuking you once you taunt then once it wears off they go back to the healer because you can't get aggro on it?).
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The problem actually is that, regarding HP, avoidance and mitigation we're far far away from what it should be...
So, yes... We could talk about "skill"
So, if I understand correctly, we should have more skill than another tank with equivalent gear in order to MT a boss for a same risk rate? Ok... Let's assume this
But now... As we will be the tank known as the "passive feature" tank... It just mean that it will not be a question of "skill" but rather "luck"...

So, sorry folks, but there's lot of improvments to make on the avoidance/mitigation side before to say that we will be balanced against others.

You could say I'm cynik and you should be true of course... But I'm quite tired to try arguing that a tankadin can MT a boss as a warrior... So if there's no real fix about our specialisation... I don't know what I'll do... Perhaps try Warhammer in order to see something else and restart from the beginning...
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Niron - tankadin 70 - Marécage de Zangar

I would say quitting while you are ahead may be in your best interests.
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Being the GM/Raid leader I rerolled my pally as a tank after playing dps for 3 years early into SSC when we had 3 tanks burn out. We have always run with a tanking core based on who really felt like doing the fight as long as there wasn't a gimmick and it has worked out well for us. I'm sure the majority of my guild considers me the "MT" as I've tanked most of the progression kills from Leo through Illidan. The majority of my guild has seen the paladin changes and are insanely excited because they know I'm a competent tank and I've only gotten a majority of buffs. They aren't looking at gear and specific itemization because they'll know it can and will change.

In my opinion people need to get more focused on the "tank core" group more than the "WHO CAN BE THE MT" In 90% of the fights in this game the few percentage points difference we're talking will not get the encounter down. Something else wasn't going right if we wiped because I took 2% more damage than the warrior did.

I have to believe that although currently in the Beta we're not lined up correctly EH, mitigation, and avoidance wise, they will bring us in line so that there isn't a real difference between the classes again.

Peeps need to settle down and let them finish, but intelligently and thoroughly post the theorycrafting as to why we're different and what areas we're lacking.

TL;DR
The sky isn't falling, they'll make us in line.
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The problem I see here is that how can you claim the tanks are equal and still have a "Niche"?

Assuming Paladins are intended to specialise in AOE tanking, we will always be a superior AOE tank to a warrior as long as we have consecration.

How can you balance this and still make us as good as a warrior at tanking bosses? That would make Paladins the default tank because they would be:

1) Equal with warriors at tanking single targets
2) Far better than warriors at tanking multiple targets
3) Be the only class with non-interchangeable buffs (Blessings still stack with everything, while warrior shouts will not stack with Blood Pact or other AP boosts)

So why would you bring a warrior except for gimmick fights that require spell reflect?

The only way to truly "balance" all tanking classes would be to give warriors and druids AOE tanking abilities on par with Paladins (and DK's who I assume can AOE tank with death and decay). Until Blizzard does this I think you can safely assume that they are going to ensure Warriors are the superior single-target tanks.

Option #3 has already happened. Between Thunderclap, Shockwave, and Damage Shield, Prot Warriors can hold AOE aggro very well.

And before you say it: Shockwave is very good, only bad Prot Warriors claim it's hard to use.

On another note, this thread has been riding really close to the line of acceptability. Please keep things civil and constructive and stay out of the "the sky is falling qqqqq" mentality if you're going to post.
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Those who died are justified.