<mod hat on>
Some of you need to settle down a little and get less personal. A couple of you are pretty bitter over the druid changes *still*, and that was what, a month ago? One person's singing the praises of druids in end-game raids, and a couple others won't let go of 'omg we got nerfed'. If that's all we can accomplish here, I can lock the thread. Discussion, not bitterness, please.
<mod hat off>
Ok, as far as the comment of "I don't care about heroics or 5-mans". Fine, but, remember, a very small fraction of WoW players will ever see Gruul/SSC and beyond. Blizzard doesn't balance classes *solely* for the raid game. There's much more to WoW than raiding (don't take offense, Skan, I'm not putting you down at all), and that affects balance choices, too. The fact is, druid and paladin tanks *are* viable MTs in everything not 25-man, if geared well enough. As was pointed out, Kara has been MTed, Prince and all, by a druid already. I'm sure a pally with enough Kara gear could do it, if needed. Now, that's 'equally viable' in a huge chunk of content.
I have a feeling we'll laugh at this discussion in 6 months, when druids have tanked all of SSC/The Eye as MTs, as gear goes up. Pallies? Pallies right now can't quite get the hp for the really big-hitter fights. I'm not sure Blizz intends to fix that hitpoint gap, either. Sad, maybe, but, in the name of balance it will probably remain, leaving paladins out of the hardest-hitting encounters, at least till they're on farm. However, pallies are freaking awesome in other areas than 25-mans. Once again, 25-mans are not the whole game.
Here's the other side of the prot warrior vs druids/pallies in 25-man raids.
A protection warrior can 1) tank 2) do mediocre DPS (depending on gear, 300-500, probably, if they have the DPS-boosting talents deep in prot)
A feral druid can 1) tank 2) go cat and DPS a ton better than the protection warrior, *even in tank gear* 3) toss an extra heal or two, or do good work in heal gear, if known before the fight starts. 4) innervate a healer. 5) combat res 2, 3, 4, and 5 are limited if tanking.
A prot pally can 1) tank 2) buff 3) heal 4) cleanse.
Here's where I think balance comes into play. Blizzard, IMO, looks at this, and figures that if druids or paladins can tank *everything* as well as a protection warrior, rather than all of the game outside 25-mans, and all but a few fights inside them, as it is now, then very few raidleaders in high-end raid guilds would ever bring a protection warrior to a raid. For the record, I have a feral druid *and* a protection warrior, so I can see both sides of the discussion.
EDIT: I would be in favor of removing the current crushing-blow mechanic. That would level the playing field a lot between the 3 classes in raid content. That would make the classes more 'different but equal' than it is right now.
Some of you need to settle down a little and get less personal. A couple of you are pretty bitter over the druid changes *still*, and that was what, a month ago? One person's singing the praises of druids in end-game raids, and a couple others won't let go of 'omg we got nerfed'. If that's all we can accomplish here, I can lock the thread. Discussion, not bitterness, please.
<mod hat off>
Ok, as far as the comment of "I don't care about heroics or 5-mans". Fine, but, remember, a very small fraction of WoW players will ever see Gruul/SSC and beyond. Blizzard doesn't balance classes *solely* for the raid game. There's much more to WoW than raiding (don't take offense, Skan, I'm not putting you down at all), and that affects balance choices, too. The fact is, druid and paladin tanks *are* viable MTs in everything not 25-man, if geared well enough. As was pointed out, Kara has been MTed, Prince and all, by a druid already. I'm sure a pally with enough Kara gear could do it, if needed. Now, that's 'equally viable' in a huge chunk of content.
I have a feeling we'll laugh at this discussion in 6 months, when druids have tanked all of SSC/The Eye as MTs, as gear goes up. Pallies? Pallies right now can't quite get the hp for the really big-hitter fights. I'm not sure Blizz intends to fix that hitpoint gap, either. Sad, maybe, but, in the name of balance it will probably remain, leaving paladins out of the hardest-hitting encounters, at least till they're on farm. However, pallies are freaking awesome in other areas than 25-mans. Once again, 25-mans are not the whole game.
Here's the other side of the prot warrior vs druids/pallies in 25-man raids.
A protection warrior can 1) tank 2) do mediocre DPS (depending on gear, 300-500, probably, if they have the DPS-boosting talents deep in prot)
A feral druid can 1) tank 2) go cat and DPS a ton better than the protection warrior, *even in tank gear* 3) toss an extra heal or two, or do good work in heal gear, if known before the fight starts. 4) innervate a healer. 5) combat res 2, 3, 4, and 5 are limited if tanking.
A prot pally can 1) tank 2) buff 3) heal 4) cleanse.
Here's where I think balance comes into play. Blizzard, IMO, looks at this, and figures that if druids or paladins can tank *everything* as well as a protection warrior, rather than all of the game outside 25-mans, and all but a few fights inside them, as it is now, then very few raidleaders in high-end raid guilds would ever bring a protection warrior to a raid. For the record, I have a feral druid *and* a protection warrior, so I can see both sides of the discussion.
EDIT: I would be in favor of removing the current crushing-blow mechanic. That would level the playing field a lot between the 3 classes in raid content. That would make the classes more 'different but equal' than it is right now.
--Mav