Have been thinking about playing the zerker for tanking, I know they do well in group content, but can they main tank at all in raids. If so, does any one have a spec they would like to share? Thank you...
They can main tank, but not as well as SK's and monks. They are better suited to off tanking. Their AoE abilities scoop up pretty much everything within 25 meters and many tank classes cannot compete with their ability to manage so many adds. The zerkers biggest weakness is magic damage. That's why most guilds use crusaders and/or brawlers for the MT slot. That being said, let's look at ToT. Most of the damage headin down range in raid zones seems to be physical. In other words slashing, piercing and crushing. That means both zerkers and bruisers have become flavor of the month for ToT.
Pallies suffered in AoM. As a result many either betrayed or parked their toons for the xpac. I have not grouped or raided with a pally in ToT so I cannot comment. But with the gear changes and the option to squeeze out a lot more dps while tanking, I got a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more pallies returning in ToT.
From what you are seeing in ToT If I was to focus on high-end group content, in your opinion, what class would you recommend between pally, sk, zerker, guardian?
Yes, Zerkers are hands down the most versatile defensive tanks in game atm. No other tank can come close to stacking the large amount of DR that a Zerk can. Nor can any tank compete with such a solid defensive temp rotation. 30% DR and 10% heal 30sec duration, 60 sec recast - Resettable which means its up over 50% of the time during a fight 3 Personal death saves, 1 maintained Dragoons Reflexes 20sec immune to auto dmg Perfect Counter, 24 sec duration 3 trigger stoneskin w/ reflect dmg Wall of Force, 2 trigger SS Gut Roar 3sec Physical Immunity Adrenaline 36 sec, 50% of damage is instantly healed Several personal temp mit/avoid buffs This is incorrect information as demonstrated in the above post. SK is not even close defensively to the Warrior/Monk master race tanks atm. This part is spot on correct This is incorrect, DR, SS and Death Saves work just fine on magical based damage. 25% DR is all that is needed to soak up a Ancient Dev hit. Paladins have the worse defensive temp rotation out of all 6 tanks. They are fine for the first 60ish seconds of the fight; However, on the second rotation they have a significant gap that cannot be dealt without playing the RNG. Paladins only strength in raids is sustained aggro generation which is trivialized by transfers and AV from a Troub's. Paladins are fantastic top teir heroic tanks where they can actually take full advantage of their personal heals and utility. In raids however, their heals and utility are mostly of it is negated. SK's Defensive temp rotation is no where near as versatile nor complete as a Warrior's/Monk's. If you'd like me to explain why I've made several posts about this in the past. Just click my name and look up my previous posts. Now, ALL tanks can tank at a high teir of content currently, its just some will have significantly more trouble and will have to rely more on outside sources doing so. (Calling for defensive temps etc) This is where player quality steps in and allows for mitigation of class imbalances. Zerk or Pally if you're ONLY doing heroic content
I have played a guardian (heroic/raid), shadow knight (heroic/raid), paladin (heroic), and a berserker (just betrayed). Berserker and SK are AE tanks. They can spit out a TON of damage. I feel the Berserker has more going for it defensively than the SK, but this is my personal opinion. I had mitigation problems with my SK on the ToV VD zone, while other tank classes fared much better. Paladin are AE tanks as well, but put out much less damage than the prior two can. The interesting thing about the paladin is that you can throw out heals to you or the group. Yes, a healer should be handling that, but you can drop a secondary healer (keeping at least 1) for another dps and still handle rough conditions fairly well. Guardian are not AE tanks, they are the defensive tanks. They take on the big boss mob and absorb what he's dishing out. This is the classic sword and board meat shield class. Damage output is nearly all single target. You will cry comparing your guardian dps to a berserker/sk, but you'll probably still out parse a paladin as long as you're not including his healing output.
I am not sure I can 100% agree with you on this one. Paladin's have a great temp rotation IF incoming damage can be adequately absorbed by your HP and healed by your healers with Crusader's Faith. Paladins get a very solid rotation with Stonewall, Crusader's Faith, and the damage reduction on Devout Sacrament if left-side prestige specced. I usually do not run into issues unless the incoming damage is extremely spikey or very high and non-stop. Even then, most tanks will run into the same issues. Paladin's do have good agro-generation, but lack sufficient snaps for the requisite tank-swaps in some previous expacs. If you want to take a vote for worst temp-rotation by a tank I'd say bruiser. They have an obscene amount of down-time between very short temps AND have no persistent deathsave.
