I'll state up front that this isn't an OVERALL comparison on tanks, but my perspective based on the team makeup that I am trying out and my constructive criticism.

Many people have been doing the five paladin melee route, or the Ret paladin plus DK route for a few more buffs/debuffs. I decided to try it out and figured I would post up my thoughts and concerns over the team makeup that I chose to go with and why.

Why a protection warrior instead of a protection paladin:
<Things I liked about the prot warrior>
  • I already had a protection paladin and wanted to level up another tank
  • Sunder armor was a noticable increase in damage
  • good tanking cooldowns (last stand, shield wall etc)
  • commanding shout was a nice health bonus
  • crowd control with fear and stuns along with intervene and intercept along with a usable charge during combat
  • ability to break fear
The warrior was great for a few things such as a rage based spell mechanic and he did so much damage that rage was never an issue. The warrior's avoidance was also great and he had some self heals which meant I rarely ever had to "spot heal" him. I played with this team composition until my guys were about level 66 and decided to swap out the protection warrior with a druid tank instead.

<Things I didn't like about the warrior>

  • very limited buffs
Honestly, that was the only thing I didn't like. The warrior was great for breaking fear, fearing mobs, cooldowns and dps. I may switch back to the warrior once I test the druid's usefulness at 80.

My reasoning for bringing in a feral druid tank was:
<Things I like about the Druid>
  • Improved leader of the pack... getting 4% health back every 6 or 7 seconds from a crit was appealing since I lost some healing by swapping one ret pali to a death knight
  • mark of the wild: some spell resist for nature/arcane etc along with the stat increase and armor
  • Leader of the pack: the 5% crit was noticable right away
  • Easy aoe damage through swipe.
  • faerie fire. the armor decrease must help a little but isn't that noticable (at least compared to sunder armor)
  • A res on my main character, plus in combat res.
  • tranquility... it's useful since these melee teams take aoe damage.
  • curse removal
  • Feral charge
<Things I don't like about the Druid>
  • I'm rage starved.. My spammable macro is swipe + Maul. This may be corrected over time or with gear.
  • Lack of tanking cooldowns. I have survival instincts and it helps along with frenzied rejuv, but it doesn't seem nearly as good as a warrior. (this may be an unfair comparison between a level 71 druid and lvl 75 warrior)
  • the taunt cooldown is rough at this point in time because my guys pull aggro. this may be because of my low dps or my bad macro. i'm working on this...
At this point in time I am leaning toward the druid. The improved leader of the pack heal and the 5% crit is VERY noticable. The extra buffs are also nice and so far I have enjoyed the use of a a resurrection and in combat res on my tank.

If you have any feedback or thoughts on this, or have a druid tanking macro you use please reply. Any other thoughts etc are welcomed.