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[swirly]

Shaman _shouldn't_ be tanking stuff.  I'm fine with the emergency clothie saver mode.  Earthshock will usually grab a mob and rockbaiter is enough to hold them if you are duoing with a mage, but the rest of it is not there - mitigation, itemization, AOE taunt.
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I don't really agree with this. They tank differently than other tank classes, but I would by no means say they shouldn't tank. Their mitigation is about the same as a warrior without a shield (little less without parry), which for the instances below UBRS is plenty. Half the time warriors will go two handed in those instances just because they don't need the extra mitigation and the added dps helps speed things up. Now if you are refering to things from UBRS and on to later raiding, then sure they probably shouldn't be tanking. In those situations though blizzard has been pretty clear that they expect all classes to be there and so one could say that only a warrior "should" tank. Not that other classes couldn't.

As to itemization, shamans don't get the +def gear or as much stamina as other classes. However, they do get enough stamina that even the hard hitting bosses in the < UBRS instances will not kill them in 1-2 hits. This means that they have enough stamina to stay alive and tank as long as they have a healer on them. Now you might say that they are using the healers mana faster then, but you also have to consider that the shaman can heal themselves as well with a 70% chance to not be interupted on their lesser healing wave (and if you are tanking as a shaman I feel you do need that talent). This means that they can help the healer and so in the end the healer uses about the same about of mana keeping the shaman up as they would keeping up a warrior.

As to an AOE taunt, its true that they don't have one. I also don't feel they need one though. I've held 3 mobs without a problem on my shaman. Basically you just have to change targets alot, making sure to earthshock the others some, but also making sure to shock the main target enough to keep it on you. This is no different than how warriors usually do it, making sure to sunder/revenge the other mobs. Its also the same in that its more likely that a crit or a class going full out on the main target will pull it off the tank more easily. I'm not argueing that a warrior can't do it better, but a shaman can do it. Now there is also the case of when a Mage/Warlock is AOEing. A warrior will try to hold the elite mobs off of the AOE class for as long as possible (or the whole fight if they are good). A shaman can do this as well with 1 or 2 elites just by spreading their shocks around. They will lose the mobs easier than the warrior, but they can generally do it well enough. They also have the added bonus that if they do lose the mobs, they can switch to helping keep the AOE up with their heals. Thus where in a group with a warrior tank the AOE could die if the warrior loses aggro on the elites in a group with a shaman tank its not always as bad because the shaman can help keep the AOE up in other ways (really, the warrior tanking the elites is just how they keep the AOE up anyway).

My point is that if you can get a good warrior, then by all means take the warrior for tanking. A shaman can fill the job fine if you can't get a good warrior though. Things may go slower because, depending on gear, the shaman may have to drink more after each fight, but they can get the job done. In truth, there have been many cases where my group has told me (on my shaman) to tank even when we have a warrior. There are a lot of bad warriors out there. There have been many times when we will be playing with a warrior tank in the group and mobs will be beating on the priest/mage/whatever. Then I will tell the warrior to go dps and I'll tank with my shaman and all of a sudden nobody else will be taking damage. I remember back when I used recap that it was interesting to watch the damage taken field. We would do places with a warrior tanking and when you look at the damage taken field you see that the other classes have taken more than they should. Then we would try it with my shaman tanking and the amount the other classes took would be much less.

In the end, it often comes down to the people playing the characters. With equal players a warrior is easily a better tank than a shaman. The choice isn't always between equals though and when you have a bad warrior then by all means have the shaman tank if he can do a better job. I guess you could say that the shaman "shouldn't" be tanking, the warrior "should" be doing a better job. I guess in a perfect world shaman "shouldn't" be tanking because you should always be able to find a good warrior to tank for you. Things sure aren't perfect though. : )

BTW, you may notice how much I meantion shaman healing in the same breath as shaman tanking. My personal belief is that a shaman tank should have points in restoration because a shaman tank should be healing theirselves when necessary. I also tend to tank with my +healing gear on. I've tried swapping it out for stat gear and I always find that it doesn't work as well. I have enough stamina in my +healing setup to survive and the added healing helps more than more stats do. I also believe that elemental/restoration is a better tanking build against non-nature immune bosses (immune to earth shock bosses are bad for shaman tanking). I've tried the enhancement tree and found that it just didn't work as well. Being able to shock things more often and for more damage from elemental helps me hold more mobs at once and restoration helps keep me up better and also helps if I need to heal an AOEer. Basically I feel that a shaman has enough mitigation without the enhancement talents and while the damage ones do help with rockbiter, I feel that improving earthshock is more beneficial. Many shamans will argue with me about this though so it may just be my playstyle. I've found that my shaman can tank anything < UBRS though I've not tried 5 man dead strat past the baroness (we did 4 man runs of her for the dreadmist sandles) or UBRS for that matter....maybe I could tank there too. Half the time UBRS is such a zerg with 15 anyway that it might be possible.

So having said all this I can kind of see why paladins are complaining. Here you have me saying how a shaman is an adequate tank (and I also feel they are adequate healers....I hate how much I hear them get ragged on for their healing. I've healed just as many things as I have tanked). Meanwhile you have the paladins saying that they can't tank things. So it does seem that there is an inbalance there. If shamans can be adequate tanks then so should paladins. Not that they should tank in the same way, but they should be able to do it better than it sounds like they currently can.