Tanks and Tankery

[Treesh]

Unlikely, Rinnhart.  Protection specced means you expect people to be hitting you - if you're the proverbial brick #$%&house, they're going to ignore you and kill your friends first.  Sure, you may have the guards following you around like you're some kind of minor god(dess) to them, but the guards will still kick your ass if you don't have a priest healing you constantly.

Warriors = Arms.  It's really that simple.
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And in a raid you will actually have healers keeping you alive. And if the people know what they're doing, the defensive warriors can keep aggro and protect the squishy people. It's really not as useless of a branch as you seem to think. It may not fit your playstyle, it may not be your chosen way to play, but it is not useless.