4 Tanks = More Options

In the good old days, there was really only one Tank, the warrior. Yes Paladins and Druids could kinda do the job, but there toolset was very limited.

Then BC hit and bam, you got Paladin and Druid tanking love. It took some time for old school people to trust these new tanks, but not in WotLK, these 3 classes seam to have no issues.

In steps the new evil spawn of tanking... The Death Knight. Evil, because, well they are the spawn of Arthas...

Anyways, the Death Knight Class is very unique in that Blizz designed it for 3 trees to be able to tank. All 3 trees have tanking abilities. This make them very versatile and difficult to play, because there are so many options on how to play and tank with them.

Because of this, many people are skeptical of trusting them in Raids or in 5 mans. Reminds me of the beginning of BC. What people have to realise is this.... Blizz now has designed the 4 classes to tank anything with the right speck AND the abilities of the player to use that speck.

Face it, we have all run with terrible tanks. I ran with some awful paladin tanks and missed my bear tank back when I was holy. But once I went tank, it was, Therigwin, can you tank this???

So lets look at what the Tank is supposed to do and how each tank gets this job done.

Damage Mitigation - The Warrior and Paladin share pretty much the same stuff. Dodge, Parry, and Shield Block with High Armor. Death Knights are similiar cause they have the same except no Shield Block, but they have talents that make up for that plus a higher chance to parry. Druids are soakers... They are designed to take the big hit. That is cause they have dodge, high armor, and More HP than the other tank classes. Pretty much if specked right, all 4 classes do great in this area.

Taunting - This is save the DPS and healers butt cause they are pulling too much threat ability. All the classes have a single target taunt. A good player will be able to catch one that has escaped and taunt it back to him. I am not that good of a player. I rely on my consecrate Area of Effect damage spell to keep everything on me. Warriors have a taunt everything in the room on to me taunt that is their oh crap taunt. Paladins have the Target a player and taunt 3 things off of them taunt. (This is how I keep healers alive, I just set them as my focus and hit it every so often). Druids have a taunt like the warriors as well. Death Knights, are in the same boat as the paladins. They do not have a get everything in the room taunt. But what the do have is a spell that causes high threat in a 30 yard radius that they can put down anywhere. I properly geared and specked DK can do better than a paladin in this aspect. They also have the let me pull you to me ability that they can use to drag a mob back to them that got away.

So all 4 classes have stuff dealing with keeping healers and misbehaviing DPS alive, the key is the player knowing how to use them.

Conclusion - It is not the class that tanks, but the person controling the character. Poor speck and gear contribute to a poor tank. Poor gamer abilities contribute even more.

So when you are out with a tank, give that tank time to establish agro and things will go great.