From what we know so far, there is no real changes made in Cataclysm that will make tanks less important. Their role as main damage receiving character in any group or raid remains as it always has been.
1. Threat. The way the game is now, tanks have little to no problems building threat. Blizzard’s development team seems to plan to tweak this a tiny bit, so a tank would have to fight for threat a bit more in the future.
2. Block rating. The developers want this particular stat to scale a bit better with rest of the gear. As it is now, warrior or paladin tank can take little to no damage thanks to high block rating, while a Death Knight tank still takes much more damage. Additionally, some of the best in game trinkets at the moment do not share cool down, and this practice will remain the same, so a tank would be able to successfully block very large amounts of damage with proper use of their trinkets.
3. Parry and Stamina. When it comes to parry, it will become a bit more important stat than it is now. Stamina will still be very important, however having only a very large health pool will not cut it. It does not work too well right now either, but with the next expansion, tanks should see improved benefits from having higher parry rating in addition to block and stamina.
I personally believe when it comes to the stat changes, the developers are trying to make tanks’ statistics easier to understand, as well as to appreciate the benefits of having them. Itemization will be easier to understand for new players, which will make the overall gaming experience for new players and veteran players much more enjoyable.
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