I might make an alt. Sometime.

What's the easiest tank to gear up from scratch to be good enough to:

A) Handle the daily heroic easily?

B) Handle ICC 10, normal mode?

i feel that feral druids are the easiest to level bc we are not bound by Defense stats. There is alot of leather and the t9 is really good for feral tanks. Alot of the badge gear is good for them and if you have the money a lot of the crafted gear is good for them. Ferals also level really fast. Feral tanking is really like pally tanking.

In order of ease to level, and ability to handle content (focusing on 5 man heroics):

1) Paladin - Rotation bound, easy to learn, perfect for 5 mans because of block + hammer
2) Bear - Simple threat generation, quick geared (since you don't have to worry about defense gear)
3) DK - Starts at 55 so quickest to level, takes a bit more damage in 5 mans without a block, higher game IQ to play effectively
4) Warrior - Slowest to level, most tools to use while tanking, hardest to master effectively in the AoE threat game

I'd say Bear is a good bet. Bears have consistently been #2 on the totem pole. Gear/gemming is easy, just more stamina the better.

QFT. Warrior AOE threat is near impossible to generate unless you've been playing and practicing warrior tanking for a hell of a long time.

And even then you'll get carpal tunnel playing.

Ya bear would probably be your best bet although I do love my paladin as far as tanking goes, and Nishi complains about his fingers hurting all the time when he tanks lol.

I haven't played my warrior in a while, but I had fun on her back at 60/70. Lately, though, my DK has been an absolute blast. There are multiple viable tanking specs, and while it's harder to gear up a DK than a bear, you have the advantage of tanking with a dps 2-hander. On top of that, they're easier to level than a warlock. Really, you'll rarely come close to dying even if you pull too much.

I'm not sure I would say that tanking with a dps 2-hander is an advantage, but I will say that it's a hell of a lot of fun, easy and fun to level, but more difficult to gear up once 80.

My vote is for a bear too. Kitties are easy and fun to level, and you can tank instances as you level up for practice!

Tanking on Faun was a fun experience and like what was said, quick to gear up. I've been leveling a pally up as prot and it's been a lot of fun as well. Hamma is just op with aoe threat gen. I'd have to say my worst experience in 5 mans so far are hunters who like to keep growl on their pets -_-

I have a tank of all specs and classes.

Feral/pally rotation is boring.

DK's are Dk's and should only be dot whores.

Warrior , IMO , is the absolutely top end of any class in game to play.
Great for pve/pvp and over all fun.

Dillema being is that your faced with 80 lvls to grind. if thats not an issue, I'd suggest playin a more intricate class like a warrior. If you want to faceroll and drool on ur keyboard like most feral droods i know, then become a statistic and roll a Night elf

Go Eng too , Charge. Intervene. R-R-Rocket boots !

Just my experienced two cents.

Well, he did say that he wants something easy to level, but now that you've made everyone else feel bad for not playing something more "intricate"...

And what does "DK's are Dk's and should only be dot whores" even mean?

Advantage Feral Druid: Tammi is your Yoda.

I would say druid as well, because you might one day turn around and find that you love healing.

Thad let me know when you are leveling your alt -- I have a couple around 30-50 and I will pick one up with you! (druid, priest and shammy so I could pretend to heal).

Yeah, it's nice to have 3 other options in case you don't like tanking at all.

Four, if you divide it into Melee and Caster dps

I did. :P

I personally would choose a paladin or a death knight, because I'm impatient and if I don't have crusader aura or on a pale horse/unholy aura I feel like I'm wasting my time.

Whether this is still pertinent or not still (I'm too bored at work not to post), I'd have to say between the 4 choices, gearing won't be too much of an issue given the easy of obtaining at least T9 equip gear with emblems, and then of course the ICC5 instances, whether it on normal or heroic. So to compare that way, they should all be fairly easy to gear these days.

Ease of play at max level, well, considering im a Prot Pally, I'm partial, especially since I've been tanking since BC when buffing a seal was apart of my rotation *sigh*. But for the situation of wanting to tank for heroics and the occasional ICC10, I'd say Paladin, Druid, or even a Warrior (Warr more so for the ICC10 than anything else.)

Of course, the time it takes to level can be a bitch, and if that's the issue, only once choice is logical, the DK. Auto start at 55, and 45mins of play and you are hitting Outland already. A couple of random dungeon queues as a tank, even in a DPS spec (it's what I've done so far with my DK) and you should be close to 60 before starting to do quests in HFP. But if you have to choose one of the others to level from one, then it's back to Paladin (faceroll leveling), or Druid (I haven't been feral since my druid was like 40 back in Vanilla, but I can't wait for Cataclysm to make a Worgen druid to be feral once more.)

All in all, I'd go Paladin or Druid, as, in the end, they are more versatile than the other two with a choice between all 3 roles (tank, dps, heals) if you ever decide that tanking just isn't fun anymore. But seriously, what kind of n00b would you be to ever say such a thing?!

Go Pally Thad! O.o