Paladin Concern Summary

[Kevin]

I think GG was giving the edge to the paladin because he thinks as an offtank they are superior.  I'm not sure I agree--as a healer saver or add handler the shaman is definitely superior due to snap aggro.  But on fights where you know from the start a mob needs to be offtanked I don't think you can beat the paladin.  Not sure exactly how the 1.9 changes will affect it, but Concentration Aura, BoW + JoW mean a paladin can solo a dangerous mob for a very long time without burdening the healer at all.
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That is only if they spec into holy. Concentration aura alone will not save you from stutter. If a shaman specs into restoration they are not much worse at it than a paladin. A paladin the protection specs generally doesn't go into holy, and in 1.9 the interrupt prevention talents are the same depth. Most protection spec paladins will go down retribution (and I see this even more so in 1.9) to try and help hold aggro via higher DPS. But yeah the mana regen a paladin can do off tanking is very nice.

Of course there are not a lot of situations where you know you are going to off tank mobs from the beginning, and yes I do give the paladin the edge there and in main tanking when you know they are going to main tank as well. Though in a raid (I've tanked UBRS with my retribution/holy paladin) I can't be expected to hold more than one or two mobs because if you stop hitting the focus fire mob, it's gone, my warrior can do it relatively easily though as long as there aren't too many crits behind me. But with additional DPS tanking isn't as important. Shaman can either get back or slow down a mob that gets away from them. Paladins lose a mob and it's a fight to get it back before it does too much harm to the group.

So I still put them as pretty even when the group is working with them, but I put the shaman ahead becuase of the situations where you are more likely expecting someone to grab a lose mob if you don't have a druid or warrior that can do it.