Superior to what?

2h frost tanking is getting a buff as well. In addition the 25 defense skill to two handers probably outweighs any defense benefit you might get from DWing. Of course the counter to this argument is that with two weapons you can put 2% parry on each and still have the defense bonus.

So really it comes down to:

Total tanking stats (stam, dodge, parry, defense, hit, expertise) of DW vs. 2H
Threat generation of DW vs 2H
Damage difference due to parry between DW and 2H

Yes... for DPS. Warriors can dual-wield, but they don't dual-wield tank, not even for threat-sensitive fights.

Sadly people seem to either forget this, concentrate on current math, or just plainly wish it wasnt true. Its not going to change anytime soon.

Blizzards *basic design* of weapon swing-timers favors dual-wielding in PVE, 2h in pvp. In every class that can do it (where the option is 2h or DW, for the purposes of warrior/paladin tanking, the shield is a weapon) Its built in from the very bottom.

Lower damage on swing but higher swing speed favors extended fighting where there are no surprises. (And there are no 'surprises' in raiding) The consistency of non-2h builds revolves around their predictable output. And raiding is all about reducing anything resembling randomness. Higher damage on swing, but slower swing speed is always going to be more favorable the shorter the combat takes. Which is why 2h builds are much more effective in small groups than raids.

The problem is, without fiddling around with all the extra attacks, there is no possible way *currently* to make 2h damage/threat to the level of a dual-wielder over extended periods of time. Because everything that makes it match it, also increases its effectiveness in the shorter time periods, which then makes it vastly preferable to DW. And thats when the PVP whine starts up. Bumping up the threat but not the damage is a bad idea for obvious reasons.

When they DO fiddle around with the extras trying to balance 2h with DWers, you end up with Ret paladins who bounce up and down the DPS charts everytime they are patched. But the playerbase goes along with it because at least Blizzard *appear* to be doing something, despite knowing perfectly well without a major overhaul of the basic weapon mechanics its not going to solve anything.

And this is what is going to happen to the DK-2h's for the indefinite future. DW'ers will get to a static point sometime soon where they are considered balanced PVE-wise. Especially for the purposes of tanking. They are practically there now. However once the PVP nerfs (and they are coming) start hitting the 2h-builds, the same ping-ponging of effectiveness will carry on.

If I'm not mistaken, Rune Strike works whenever either 1) Your attacks are parried or dodged, or 2) If you parry // dodge an attack or 2) Both

It states "Whenever an attack is parried or dodged."

If this point is true, then the higher your avoidance, the more often you'll be able to use Rune Strike.

If this point is false, then Rune Strike will begin to taper off in effectiveness depending on how close you are to the Hit and Expertise Caps.

And this will dramatically change how we perceive Rune Strike as a valid TPS builder, or DPS enhancer, or neither.

This might bring up another point though... if it is indeed a decent TPS builder, having high enough Avoidance would proc Runic Strike more often (and since it's "Next melee strike" it'll happen more often as a DW), which would make up the difference in Threat lost due to the less amount of damage output from a single Rune Strike from a 2h build.

Then you add in the procs from Rune Strike given from the actual parries and dodges from the fact that as DW Tank, we'll not be hitting the Hit or Expertise cap anytime soon, we'll have to test if the Rune Strike Threat generated from the near constant string of Rune Strikes would overtake any other threat generated from any other RP dumps.

Just my 2cp