It's good that you want to prepare!
The two tanks are fairly equal. There are some places where PLD is preferred vs WAR but you can tank equally well. For War you will not have nearly as many CD's as a PLD will have at his/her disposal. As a result you will be more dependent on your healers. In place of your CD's you will have things like the Storm's Path buff or Inner Beast to play with.
Needless to say you should make sure you have both Provoke + Awareness from PLD cross classed.

STR and VIT are your two attributes.
Go with VIT until you have good enough gear and then switch to STR.
It is good to get yourself a set of VIT accessories along with your STR ones just in case you need that extra HP.

As far as other stats go you always want to make sure you have capped Accuracy. After all, you can't tank well if you're missing the mob. Then you move onto Determination or Cit Hit. I'd say that Skill Speed is very valid.
In fact, I'd say go with Skill Speed over Parry as even an extra swing or two under your DD buffs will mean better hate + damage for you as a warrior.
Please note that a lot of your gear will have Parry as a stat but if you are on a budget feel free to go for more Parry, it is a very valid stat in its own right.

Hope this helps!