Tank in the making

[DestroyerOfLargePlanets]

WAR has a strong mitigation kit with relatively short recasts on its defensive abilities. The flipside is that WAR starts to hemorrhage dps if you put sustained pressure on them, forcing them to become more reliant on Defiance and Inner Beast. Survivability is not an issue for any tank, but different tanks are better suited offensively to tank certain parts of a given fight.

^This. Surviving is definitely not an issue for a WAR (they basically have unlimited defensive cooldowns due to Inner Beast). However, the fact that WAR can deal insane amounts of damage as a tank -- compared to the other tanks -- makes it almost mandatory that a WAR fills the off-tank role rather than the main-tank role in most fights. When a WAR goes main-tank (MT), it's generally considered to be a significant loss of potential DPS, since WAR must use Inner Beast instead of Fell Cleave sometimes in order to mitigate huge tank busters. Of course, the mechanics and mechanic timings of a fight can potentially make the main-tank role more favorable in terms of DPS for a WAR than the off-tank (OT) role. ie: A WAR may get more DPS uptime as MT, whereas the OT role in a fight may be more mechanic-focused with less DPS uptime. DPS uptime is a major factor.

I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but if you're the type of tank who likes to maximize your DPS, then WAR is probably the most complex. In other words, (IMO) it's harder to maximize your DPS as a WAR in Savage than it is to maximize your DPS as a DRK in Savage. That is because WAR must make sure to use Berserk as much as possible. Not only that, but you can't just be popping Berserk just when it's up -- you have to use it when it's MOST effective. Often you're going to have to plan ahead to figure out how and when to use Berserk. Is it better to open up with triple fell cleave (500 potency * 3) on the boss as soon as the fight starts, or is it worth it to wait 60 seconds to get a double or triple berserked decimate on that group of 7 adds (280 potency * 7 * 3) that show up 60 seconds into the fight? Is it still worth it if you had to hold berserk for 90 seconds? For 120 seconds? How about if there were only 3 adds? At what point would it NOT be worth it?

For DRK, you don't really have to think about it as much. You just keep your DoTs up (Salted Earth, Scourge) as much as possible and stay out of Grit as long as possible. Use Blood Weapon, Dark Arts > Carve and Spit as often as you can while out of Grit and pop them abilities (Dark Passenger, Low Blow, Plunge, Reprisal) as much as you can. DRK is not reliant on huge damage spikes, so it's not necessary for a DRK to plan out an optimal DPS "plan". If anything, a DRK will be on MT duty so he'll have to plan out when he'll have to go back into Grit and how he'll use his defensive cooldowns. DPS-wise a DRK is much more simple.