As mentioned in the previous post, here is my article on my current thoughts on my World of Warcraft warrior, complete with positive preface. :) I am currently playing three different characters in WoW regularly. I love leveling my mage. Not just because of the inherent joy of leveling, but because the mage feels powerful in comparison to my other characters. I can attack mobs of my level at maximum range and often kill them before they even reach me. I did my first Outland dungeon groups, in ramparts and blood furnace, and not only was I fully able to fulfill my role in that group, but also I didn't need to respec to do it. It played differently than soloing, more crowd control, less damage dealing, but not so differently that I would have wished I had spec'd differently. I haven't tried PvP yet with my mage, I'll wait until I hit level 70 with that, but again I don't foresee any conflicts between a PvP role and a soloing role.
I also love playing my holy/disc priest. This is the character I'm raiding with. I've been raiding with that priest all the way through Molten Core, AQ20, Zul'Gurub, and BWL up to Nefarian before TBC, and through Karazhan and Gruul's Lair afterwards. I might not be the best raider ever, but I'm competent enough as a healer to be an asset and not a burden to a raid group. By raiding I got a bunch of epic gear, and due to recent changes that make one third of my healing bonus apply to spell damage as well, I'm actually not all that bad at soloing. I also can usually find easily a spot in a 5-man guild group, for example for heroics. Everyone loves a healer.
It is my third character, my warrior, actually the first character I hit a level cap with in any game, with whom I am not totally happy. He has a role, as tank in 5-man dungeons, normal and heroic. But that role is rather limited, and I find it hard to broaden his horizon. Tanking isn't an optimal strategy for soloing. It also has limited possibilities in PvP. But I'm reluctant to change to a dps spec in which I would be a better soloer and PvPer, because it would compromise my role as a tank. I can't respec every time I want to switch from one mode of gameplay to another, Blizzard made that too expensive. Furthermore if I redefined myself as a dps warrior, the next problem would be just around the corner: the advent of a huge number of deathknights competing for the same role and gear in WotLK as a dps warrior. So I think dps warrior is not the way to go. The only thing I could imagine would be playing a dps warrior for long enough to get lets say some PvP done, suspending my tank role, and then get back to it in time for WotLK. But I don't enjoy PvP as much as I enjoy 5-man grouping, and most of the possible PvP rewards are more suited for a dps warrior than for a tank.
If I stick with a tanking role, I need to leave my comfort zone to evolve. I already tried, I signed up for an "alt raid" to Karazhan last night, but we couldn't get enough people together. And I wouldn't have felt comfortable being "main tank" on my first Karazhan raid with the warrior. Raid tanking is still a good step up from 5-man tanking, and I have neither the experience nor the gear. I can learn, but that probably involves a lot of wiping, and there are 9 other people that wipe if the main tank of a raid makes a mistake. I think the best would be to do more tanking in heroic dungeons, to improve my tanking experience and gear, although that still leaves me short of raiding experience. With my priest I am more of a casual raider. I don't think there is such a thing a casual raider main tank. And I'm not quite sure how useful I would be as a casual raider off tank.
The other possibility is relegating the warrior to "alt" status, and playing him a lot less. He does some useful stuff like alchemy and fishing, or farming money with daily quests. Maybe the deathknights of WotLK will tank "good enough" for 5-man groups, which would pretty much eliminate my need for playing a warrior at all. It is predictable that a group full of deathknights will rather invite a healer, who does the one thing deathknights absolutely can't do, and doesn't roll on plate loot. But we don't know yet when exactly WotLK will come out, and how exactly the deathknight will play, so retiring my warrior already is a bit premature. So right now he is a bit in limbo, ready to tank if my guild needs a tank, but uncertain how to evolve until the expansion and even more so after it.
If you play a warrior, how do you see his future? For the most dedicated tank players there will most likely be a role as main tank in raids for the foreseeable future. For the more casual players, and the dps warriors, the future is less certain.
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