This is a general treatise on tanking in realm vs realm combat. It will apply to all tanks equally, and I will give suggestions to meet some of the ideas presented within for each class.

The main point of this discussion is that the obvious role of certain tanks is not so obvious: In general, greatweapon equipped tanks (henceforth called 2 handers) are better at a Guardian role, while Shield bearing tanks (henceforth called SnB) are better at Linebreaking.

What do you mean by Guardian and Linebreaking

Guardian:

Your job in any given conflict is to protect your side's healers and casters( Sorcs and Bright Wizards). Other Ranged DPS are less of your concern because they have lower target priority in the eyes of the enemy, have more survivability, and frankly, are less important to the overall battle outcome

In most large fights, invariably, some Melee DPS classes (hencforth called MDPSers) and Tanks from the enemy will charge your lines and attempt to get at your healers and casters. Your job as a Guardian is to help prevent their death. 2handers are better at this- you still posess all of your usual tank damage mitigation for allies abilities (guard, crowd control, et al), and you do more damage. You are also not going to targeted. If the attacker does target you, then you've won, and they know that, so they will target fixate on the healer/caster. So you do not need the shield for your personal damage mitigation. And, thanks to your increased damage, you will do better in the "kill the attacker before they kill my healer/caster friend" race. That is what being a Guardian is about- winning that race.

Linebreaker

Your job in this role is to throw yourself at the enemy's line, alongside a MDPSer. You want to protect that MDPSer as long as possible, so they can do their insane amounts of damage. That means throwing guard on that MDPSer and using your crowd control and other abilities to disrupt the enemy as much as possible, while the MDPSer wails on the enemy's casters and healers. It is similar to the Guardian, except you are within the enemy's line, and you will be targeted. So a shield helps greatly. Remember, it is not your job to do the damage- yes you can help, but you want to stay alive as long as possible to keep the real damage dealer alive as long as possible.

Now the tendency is to want to equip that 2 hander and do as much damage as possible alongside the MDPSer

Resist that urge.

The survivability you gain using a shield is much greater than the damage you gain with a 2 hander. I'll admit, it's close, but in the longer run, keeping yourself alive longer to keep the MDPSer alive longer will result in more damage than a 2hander + MDPSer that get killed in a shorter amount of time. You can still do damage to the MDPSer's target, and in fact, you should be doing so. Throw every crazy tank debuff and DoT/knockdown you have on the target, but don't neglect the survival aspect.

In almost every case, the 3rd "Support" tree of the Tanks is better suited to this role

But this seems so backwards and contrary to normal thinking

Perhaps it is, but in my, albeit meager (only a month in Closed Beta to now), these roles have played out in such a manner time and time again. I'm not just talking from the perspective of playing a Tank (which I did alot of), but playing a healer (which I also did alot of). And it makes sense if you sit down and think about it

Who are you to tell me how to play

I'm nobody, and I'm not telling you how to play. I'm suggesting you try and bend the paradigm a bit, and discover the new modus operandi for tanks in this game. Certainly SnB tanks can full fill the Guardian role, and 2handers can do the Linebreaker role, but their counterparts do those roles better

PvP in this game is too chaotic for this to apply

True, for now. But when the pool of players matures- level, equipment, and gameplay wise- you'll find more and more of these large fights were these roles become very apparent

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