patch 2.0.10 notes on the PTR

[Taelas]

Think very carefully what you're calling a "load of wash". An arms/fury warrior can out dps a protection paladin true but cannot cleanse, cannot throw out even meager heals, nor can we throw lay of hands on a target either. We're close but depending on gearing can be out dps'd by cat druids while not being able to throw on another set of gear and heal, buff, innervate or AOE heal even if its a weak mode of healing. Given all of that why would you take an arms/fury or fury/arms warrior on a raid if they couldn't offtank as well as the other hybrid tanks? For our awesome mortal strike debuff? I can't think of a single encounter that you HAVE to have mortal strike for. Battleshout for the rogues? Bring another paladin for blessing of might AND have an offtank/cleanser/healer possibility.

And prior to TBC I had tanked every boss in the game up to Naxx with my Arms/Fury build but no where in my post did I state that any of the tanks should be relegated to offtank only. Small minds will put hybrids into small roles.

To be perfectly honest, I think I have given this issue quite a bit more thought than you.

-Druids cannot tank unless specced Feral.
-Paladins cannot tank unless specced Protection.
-Warriors can tank regardless of spec, though they are superior to all other classes when specced Protection.

As soon as you require more than 3 tanks, the Arms/Fury warriors are there to step in. Might I remind you that Naxxramas required no less than 8 warriors?

No, it doesn't happen often. Why on earth should it? The Arms/Fury warriors specced DPS, and they do it well. Feral druids specced melee, and they do it well, be it DPS or tanking. Let me reiterate: I specced to tank. Why should they bring me if I only do sporadious tanking and DPS and a bit of support healing? In your world, an Arms/Fury warrior can replace me in every aspect but healing, and so I'd be more useful as a Restoration druid.

We have a new raiding scene: 25 mans. That is on average three per class.

Here's an example raid composition,
-3 Warriors. 1 is Protection, and is main tank. 2 are Arms/Fury. Depending on encounters, the Arms/Fury warriors does DPS or tanks.
-3 Paladins. 1 is Protection, and is main tank 2. 2 are Holy. Depending on encounters, the Protection paladin heals or tanks.
-2 Rogues. Does almost nothing but DPS.
-2 Mages. Does almost nothing but DPS.
-3 Druids. 1 is Feral, and is main tank 3. 1 is Restoration, 1 is Balance. Depending on encounters, the Feral druid does DPS, tanks or heals and the Balance druid does DPS or heals.
-3 Priests. 1 is Shadow, 2 are Holy. Depending on encounters, the Shadow priest does DPS or heals.
-3 Warlocks. Does almost nothing but DPS.
-3 Shamans. 1 is Restoration, 1 is Enhancement, 1 is Elemental. Depending on encounters, the Enhancement shaman does DPS or heals, and the Elemental shaman does DPS or heals.
-3 Hunters. Does almost nothing but DPS.

So on encounters that require more than 3 tanks, the Arms/Fury warriors step in. On encounters that require only 1 tank, the druid does DPS and the paladin heals, unless more healing is required, in which case the druid also heals. On encounters that require more than 1 tank, but also requires more healing, the druid and the paladin heals and the Arms/Fury warriors tank.

If Arms/Fury warriors are equal tanks to druids and paladins who specced to tank, you can scrap them entirely and respec them to healers--or maybe even remove one and replace it with a DPS class (as it can easily be argued that one of them specced healing would replace both of them).