Warrior / Marauder DPS definitely viable

[dragonblade369]

warrior tanking is fine if they buff increased healing to 10-15% without stacks, and 25-30% with stacks or something like that

The main problem for this is let's say warrior and paladin have the same tanking effectiveness, but warrior's damage output is a lot higher than paladin's, then why would any group take a paladin in?

[Xariann]

The main problem for this is let's say warrior and paladin have the same tanking effectiveness, but warrior's damage output is a lot higher than paladin's, then why would any group take a paladin in?

Maybe rebalance the damage aspect when Defiance is on?

[Kiteless]

Maybe rebalance the damage aspect when Defiance is on?

This I would not mind. If they really focused on reworking defiance, and made its real defensive skills shine through with wrath (replace steel cyclone with a good defensive skill, for example), it could end up working really well. Make Warrior a functional bulky DPS/offensive tank with Defiance off, but once it's on, Warrior can go full tank with the best of them. Perhaps throw a cooldown on the stance change. You get the ability to do both functions, but not at the same time.

It would require a fair bit of effort, essentially retooling the job's mechanics, but it would be worth it. I've only done one 8 man dungeon so far, but I felt kind of left out outside of the boss fights, when I was finally given the job of tanking adds when they popped up. It would give us something to do when we're not needed to tank the trash, or against bosses that don't have minions/minions that require tanking.

Perhaps make the skills while using defiance focus on damage mitigation through debuffing enemy attacks, to keep the focus on 'aggressive' oriented tanking (breaking bones and concussive blows to lower enemy effectiveness, etc.), while non-defiance warrior play would focus on the current standard of piss-poor damage mitigation in favour of hitting hard in order to recover hard, but with a stronger focus on offense than on tanking, with the only real tanking factors without defiance being the class's natural bulkiness and enmity generation. It would be sufficient for handling trash mobs, some adds, and DPS contribution, but wouldn't be effective for dedicated tanking.

There would still be the issue of balancing the disparity of the Warrior's versatility and utility with the Paladin, but by being forced to choose between damage and tanking, the job of balancing will at least be easier.