When you group in the World of Warcraft there are three sets of characters: Tanks, Healers, and DPS.  They are listed in that order, as that is the order of importance in any group.  Without a Tank, you can’t realistically group.  Without a Healer, you may as well not have a Tank.  DPS, while important is a very distance third in importance to your main party members.  So when forming a group, you know you need to get a tank, but which one?  Which of the four possible tank classes are best?  Should you pick the AOE based Paladin or Death Knight, or should you pick the more single target based Warrior or Druid?  

Paladin – This class was initially not that great of a tanking class.  While they could tank, they had some serious issues pre-BC.  Even when the Burning Crusade was released they still were not that great, but then patch 2.3 hit and Paladin tanks took over. In their current state Paladin tanks have good health, mitigation, and avoidance.  In addition Paladins can supply some amazing buffs to the rest of the group and have some very solid cool downs.  Lastly Paladins have the best threat generation for AOE groups and very solid threat on single targets as well.

Byron “Messiah” Mudry looks at the various options for tanks that exist and their current viability in the World of Warcraft in his editorial Which World of Warcraft Class makes the best Tank?