Tanking Classes

[Epimethius]

With the upcoming X-pac being so very close I am curious as to how each tanking class is percieved.

My impressions are as follows.

Warriors: Good general purpose tank.  They have alot in common with paladins due to their gear being itemised the same way.  A good all around tank with no real weakness or speciality.

Paladins: Good general purpose tank with added AOE goodness.  With the changes to Prot pallys tank very much like a warrior now, all be it with a reverse rage machanic meaning that they start a fight with a full (blue) rage bar.

Bears:  Damage spounges, while having a harder time pushing crushing blows (not so much of an issue now as it was before) they can take huge hits and live though them.

Death Knights:  Parry tanks with added Spell caster tanking goodness.  Owing to their lack of a shield DKs use parry as the primary mitigation stat.  They have a few nice abilities that help with tanking casters.   

[Gruscovac]

Warrior Tanks:  Single Target Mitigation tanks, the best overall mitigation of any tank now that crushing blows have been removed, otherwise overall average, middle of the range dps, spell reflect gives warriors the ability to be superior caster capable tanks than all except DK's.

Paladin Tanks:  Block tank, Multi-target tank (yeah sorry warriors and druids even though they gave you the ability to do some AoE tanking) with the changed to the Paladin tanking mechanics (ie moving from SP based generation to AP based), and an increased utility out of Block Value, Pali-tanks are still Supreme in this field... Also have the ability to generate far higher front end threat loading due to mana mechanics. Capable of generating good early threat lead, palis actually edge warriors on quick enrage bosses, where maximum DPS time on target is needed. Interesting mechanic with pali tanks is the faster they are hit them faster they generate threat, so fast hitting melee bosses can actually be right up a pali's alley. However, Paladins are still the weakest of the tanking classes against caster capable, interupt immune, Bosses, (HoJ casting interupt still works now even if the mob in immune to the stun). not as much debuff utility as a warrior, ie no thunderclap (note:that ability is counter productive to pali tank mechanics anyway), no sunders, etc. however due to palis dealing primarily holy damage, it's largely a non issue for the threat generation.

Druid Tanks: The DPS tank. Capable of the highest single target DPS on a boss of any tank, also with the largest health pool, now with the removal of crushing blows from a boss mobs combat table, THE tank to have for the hardest hitting of bosses. Capable of standing up to abuse all other tanks will go down to, no particular weaknesses against mob type.

Death Knight Tanks: Parry tanks/ pet tanks/ caster tanks.... that antimagic zone is kinda drool worthy...
 High parry rating will lend itself to quicker attack which leads to high threat generation, they have v.high dps, (second only to druids), and with there ability to summon pets and adds of their own will be an interesting mechanic to watch for boss fights, particularly those that have *splits damage between main tank and x other targets.  Plus will be able to turn dead players into ghouls under that player control, gimmicky WIN!... (which tastes like strawberries).