Need help/advice please!

[Sylvain]

I would say PLD would have it the easiest between that and SAM

First, you would just have everything instant, i mean, beside the 24man raid 2 weeks before the next patch, there's no content that wait for dps.
And trust me, this is HIGH QoL, no matter which group you'll look for in pf, 90% of the time you'll see 2 blue empty slot(tank spots)


Second, altough SAM rotation isn't super duper hard from what I've heard, you're still a dps meaning that if you fail at your rotation you're basically not doing your job and failing your rotation when you learn a fight isn't super hard.

On the other hand, PLD and DRK have it super easy rotation wise. You do 1 or 2 threat combo on pull and you simply do your basic combo the whole freaking fight while keeping your DoT up in the paladin case. (of course there's much more to that when it comes down to min maxing, but doing just that would ensure a good enough baseline dps.)

As a PLD you have the luxury to be able to heal yourself and bring amazing utility to the raid such as AoE shield and Immunity allowing you to skip some mechanics.
As a SAM you... bring selfish dps meaning that if you don't excel at it, you're rather useless (imagine an astrologian not shooting cards), unlike MCH, BRD or NIN who can bring great raid buffs and utility, you only bring dps. Meaning that if it's not there, you're not fullfilling your role, and so far most SAM I've encountered in pf fail at being first dps (second in case there's SMN or BLM for OS1 2)

As a PLD you have what we can call "tank privilege" during boss battle. Meaning that if a healer has to choose between you or a SAM for the emergency heal in extremis for the next AoE damage, you'll have it. No healer will let you die over a dps unless you're offtanking and the raid is about to hit enrage in a few secs.
The fact that you are a tank allow you to survive mechanics much much more easily. you went at the wrong place and are about to be smooshed by an aoe, as a PLD you have plenty of option to survive, as a SAM you just die become anether dps the healer has to rez while sighing behind his desktop being happy you're not a healer

So in other words, from my own experience at least, it is easier to be a good tank.
Your dps rotation is simplier,you're less vulnerable to raid wide mechanics, you don't have to adapt to tank not placing the boss properly (positional and stuff)

I main healer and go dps or tank for fun in OS1 2 and Shin, and trust me, pulling good dps as BLM was much harder than pulling fine tanking as a DRK. (mostly on shin)
At least for me, every second i'm not dpsing (while I could), i know i'm failing as a dps since it is the only reason why i'm here
On the other hand, having the boss on me makes it easier to keep a good uptime, 20% dps loss on a DRK isn't the same as 20% dps loss on a BLM., so basically as long I pop CD when needed , place the boss properly (which isn't hard in most fight) and spamming 123, i'm fine overall.

So, go PLD, for real (if you're equally unsure about SAM v sPAL and you enjoy them both equally)
As a side note, if you're really into min maxing dps, don't worry, there's at least over 9000 page on "how to max your dps as a PAL" on the internet and most people will be rather happy to have a tank trying to dish the last bit of dps he can.