Warrior:
You will do more damage than knights. You will be far more gear dependent, thus this is the most expensive tank to equip up to a functional level. With great twinkage you can solo, but even a paladin will do this better outside of fungi at low level. Comparably geared knights will generally always solo better from a survivability standpoint. The warrior may kill faster over blocks of time but vs tougher content or when shit hits the fan you're left with the options of just laying over dead or skittering to a zone like. Knights have spells that allow for a greater margin of safety with self heals, FD, snare, root etc. Defensively you're the best but knights will allow for more efficient use of healer mana as there won't be aggro bounce. Vs raid targets and brutal melee content, from 52 onwards no other class comes close. Even with the best gear aggro management requires your group to at least not be idiots - though being competent is ideal. You never know when that first proc will happen, but generally after that first proc is in you should be ok if you chose your weapons wisely and your group is capable.
SK:
You will do less damage than warrior but more than paladin. You can self heal but it's kinda weak and mana inefficient. Aggro is trivial, you will shine here. With FD and invis you are the most mobile. Fear kiting makes solo easy in many places but you won't kill anything fast. Did I mention FD? Biggest perk by far of the SK class. Groups will want you around - you make a good tank with solid aggro. Raids will be boring.
Paladin:
Depending on how you measure power, this class undeniably brings the most power to the table. Your personal dps is the lowest of the 3. Your survivability vs tough content is far beneath warrior from 52 onward but superior to SK (assuming the SK doesn't just fd and let everyone else die). Though the least offensive and not the most defensive, it's in the factoring in of everything else where total paladin power is best demonstrated. You have on demand root. You have capable heals - enough so that you could pretend to be a priest and situationally fill that role. You have stuns. You can lull. You eventually get Rez. You get a fairly good heal over time. You get meaningful buffs to self and others. LoH can save the day. Soloing is slow due to low dps but you can heal yourself, root the mob, and recover to keep fighting. Smart groups will want you and smart groups will prefer you over SK given the choice (and equal gear). On raids you shouldn't be expecting to tank big stuff if a warrior is around, but you will always have an important job of healing when the clerics are occupied with the cheal chain.
That's my take in a nutshell.
Race?
Pick what you want. Ultimately race choice is a lot less important than some feel it to be but certain races have an obvious advantage.
Minmax for warrior is Ogre/iksar
Minmax for paladin is dwarf by a long shot.
Minmax for SK is Ogre.
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