About to start leveling a tank...

I know there are threads out there like this already, but with 3.05 out now and tweaks made to abilities and what not I just want to know:

Which tank would be best to level for someone interested in tanking but has never done so?

At the moment both my Gladiator and Marauder are below level 20 and then, of course, Dark Knight is at level 30. I know regardless of which one I have to level them all some for cross class abilities. Thoughts?

Take the Pld to 22 run some dungeons. If you don't like it go WAR to 35. If you don't like it play the Drk.

All of them, of course!

But a more realistic (and highly opinionated) answer: You'll likely find the Gladiator/Paladin to be the easiest of the three to pick up and, in the long run, master. Arguably, the PLD has the simplest mechanics which allow you pay a bit more attention to the field of battle and strategy, and not having to stay glued to your hotbars quite as much.

I may be biased. My time with MRD and DRK is very limited at this point, and I can only judge by friends and other poster's comments on the matter over the years.

PLD is the best to teach you the basics of tanking - simple AOE threat, threat combo and defensive cooldowns are all just a button press. Warrior and Dark Knight have more complex mechanics. I would suggest PLD until you are confident with the basic concepts of tanking, and then try the others to see which you prefer.

IMHO, it is a matter of playing style and learning curve.

PLD gets some of its best stuff later in the game, and then again past the 50s with the expansion, while around the 20s-30s your toolbox will be somewhat more limited in scope and it will be harder to maintain aggro. It's probably the more balanced tank out of the three, strongly party-oriented and with great damage mitigation skills; the rotations are easy to grasp and there's the added benefit of cross-class skills with Marauder and Conjurer.
The defensive and DPS stance are clearly defined. All-around, a nice place to start learning the basics, as others have pointed out.

MRD/WAR has stance dancing of its own, straightforward tools to maintain aggression at acceptable levels most of the time, while dealing a nice amount of damage across the board. Good at picking multiple targets quickly, it's less oriented (IMHO at least) towards mitigation while wielding abilities that facilitate recovery. It does still have some of the best defensive tools in the game, such as Holmgang.
On the flip side, some of its best abilities require some learning to get the best of them (for one, managing Wrath and the recently updated stances).

Regarding DRK, I'll leave a more detailed explanation of this job to those with far more experience into it; but it's certainly its very own thing, not a mere mix of the former two -- as it should be, since as a Dark Knight, you're the sword that cleaves evil. :-)

If you've never tanked before at all then you absolutely can't go wrong with a Dark Knight. Grit + Unleash spam with generous methods of replenishing your mana (one combo attack, + two different cooldowns) make it nearly impossible to fail unless you're deliberately going out of your way to be bad. Unleash doesn't have to be targeted and has an enormous circumference. It's perfect for leveling tanks with all the more difficult minutia (maximizing dps mainly) saved for end game in harder content.

Start with Gladiator, it's Provoke skill is a must have for all tanks.

Speaking as a career PLaiD, I'd suggest doing MRD/WAR. Why? It's the most versatile tank and it gives you plenty of room to DPS, which a lot of folks like. Plus, your stun is off-GCD, which is more important than you might think, especially for new tanks.

I would suggest you may feel rather passive playing a PLaiD as the other folks are suggesting, and turned off of the experience. That said, if you want to tank anything more serious than a level 35 dungeon, you absolutely NEED Provoke (GLA 22).
It's great that you have WHM levelled to 50 but honestly the only cross-class skills you really want, as a PLaiD, from the WHM selection is Stoneskin. Prot, Cure, and Raise are nice (you don't get the in-combat buff for raise so it's not really useful; your healing stat(Cure) sucks because hey you're a meatshield, no mind skill!) so your meat and potatoes cross-class skills are from the WAR selection set anyway.

Levelling tanks is relatively painless, you can queue up for roulette and quickly get to L30, L35 at least before things start to slow down, and your queues - while not as quick as healer queues - will pop fairly quickly.

I've got PLD and DRK at 50 and WAR at 60 so I've got a bit of tanking under my belt. For new folks I'd suggest leveling marauder first because it's laughably easy to maintain threat, and holding threat at the lower levels can be an issue for gld/pld. Plus the low level PLD combos are very repetitive and boring. Get your gladiator high enough to cross class provoke, stick it on your marauder, and go to town. I'd level WAR to 50, see how you like it when you unlock all the abilities, and maybe try getting PLD to 50 next to see if you have a clear preference.

For me it's WAR all day not only for the versatility but also because the play style is so much fun. I will eventually get my other two tank jobs to 60 but warrior is really where it's at for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Galgarion

If you've never tanked before at all then you absolutely can't go wrong with a Dark Knight. Grit + Unleash spam with generous methods of replenishing your mana (one combo attack, + two different cooldowns) make it nearly impossible to fail unless you're deliberately going out of your way to be bad. Unleash doesn't have to be targeted and has an enormous circumference. It's perfect for leveling tanks with all the more difficult minutia (maximizing dps mainly) saved for end game in harder content.

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Gosh no people like you give bad advice....I was doing A2 yesterday and this DK was just doing unleashing losing all the aggro to the healers and dps and I ended tanking everything....Just no...

Just go Pala first so you can get a feel and if you don't like it go War. If you go Pala make sure to spent the extra attribute points to STR and then reset to VIT at level 50.

Paladin is the best tank to learn on if you're not use to tanking.

Warrior is the best over all tank currently in a group setting, but requires some in depth knowledge of it and the encounter you're going into to get it's full use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crimess

Gosh no people like you give bad advice....I was doing A2 yesterday and this DK was just doing unleashing losing all the aggro to the healers and dps and I ended tanking everything....Just no...

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Don't be a dullard. Using unleash in the manner I described is a viable tactic for a leveling tank new to the role, which I presume the original poster to be? Of course she'll have read the appropriate guides and gained enough experience by the time she hits 60 to have developed more effective means of gaining and holding threat in a full party. Not that your anecdotal experience wasn't a refreshing digression from the topic at hand; after all who doesn't enjoy a pointless non sequitur on the internet? But by all means, Crimess was it? By all means, please offer an alternative stratagem for holding AOE threat in the wilds of Haukke manor and Brayflox. I'm certain there's all sorts of ways for a fledgling Dark Knight beyond turning on grit at the start of the encounter and using unleash. Offer us your tactical acumen that we might improve our insight into the art of meat shield.

PLD doesn't get good until 40.

A lot of people are saying that PLD is the easiest to play/learn on, but I disagree. PLD is great for single target tanking and easy mitigation, but it's not as good for AoE tanking (not bad at it by any means, but both WAR and DRK are better).

The one thing you have to do is level Gladiator to 22. You absolutely need Provoke. Then level Marauder to at least 8 for Foresight and Bloodbath.

As for which to take to 60... it really depends on what playstyle you enjoy:
PLD is your stereotypical tank, using shield to block and having a lot of direct damage reducing options. It's playstyle is straightforward: Flash and Enmity combo for threat and then use defensive cooldowns and healing (at 58+) for heavy attacks. And if story matters to you, they are the "righteous hero" types.

WAR lends itself better to an Off-Tank role, though it can still perform the Main tank role perfectly well. It's a more damage-focused tank. They have roughly the same base mitigation as the PLD, but lack the shield. They make up for lack of shield with extra healing and more short-term defensive mitigation. Takes a bit more planning to make sure you'll have your defensive buffs available. WAR's playstyle takes a bit more thought: Overpower and Enmity combo for threat, but manage your Wrath (gained through attacking while in Defiance) for defensive cooldowns (mainly Inner Beast). Story-wise, WARs are more about the thrill of battle and the inner beast.

DRK is more similar to WAR than PLD. It's like WAR in that it's a more damaged-focused tank. It again has the same base mitigation as PLD or WAR, but lacks the shield. DRK makes up for lack of shield with Self-healing. DRK's playstyle has a lot to do with managing MP and choosing when to use Dark Arts, which buffs a number of skills the DRK has. Story-wise, DRKs are all about justice... but with an ends justifies the means sort of philosophy. They harness and control the "dark side" that exists within everyone but try to use it for justice.

I haven't had a chance to play a tank to 60 yet, but up to 50 I found WAR to be more my speed. It plays a lot like DRG, juggling a bunch of debuffs while occasionally blasting the victim with enmity combos or overpower/flash. There's a lot of stuff in WAR's toolbox to keep track of though, so if you're looking to nap in your bluebox slot, you might not want to play WAR.

PLD was a lot more white knuckle for me until I got shield oath at level 40, which is PLD's main mitigation skill/spell. Sure, you have rampart and sentinel, but you could be cutting incoming damage by 20% before you even use a cooldown. It makes life after Cutter's Cry so much easier, and you can easily coast after you get shield oath to 50 with a couple weapon upgrades in between. A PLD that's on top of his flash/halone game isn't going to let anything get away from him unless he goes afk for a full minute, and it's really easy to rotate your one combo around on trash pulls to keep everything locked onto you.

I personally love the WAR. Playstyle, animations, and the balance of tank/damage. very fun class. PLD is enjoyable from the perspective of role: I love the shield/sword look! unfortunately (just for me) they feel very slow early on with their solo damage output, and it's more work to keep threat with them. Once 40 hits though, they are the easiest from a mitigation perspective...my WAR has to watch her CD's and effective use of her Determination stacks, whereas the PLD just hits a button and goes to town.

DRK can't say...but if you want to feel like FotM, can't go wrong with one. everyone's leveling a DRK it seems. FYI...WAR has just as much threat gen, it's just a cone instead of a circle, so you actually have to aim a bit.