No, but then neither is LFR required to unlock normal raid missions. When they explained a bit the raid missions, it seemed like you would need to do some LFR, but apparently not. First raid popped the day after my followers started hitting 645.
Best or second best behind Warriors, if played well. Quite a bit harder than the other tanks. Would be best, but all HM leather has haste on it which is a useless stat for BrM.
That's just first-tier, intentionally shitty itemization (unless you're a warrior who wants crit). By the end of BRF you can have a full set of gear focused almost entirely on mastery and multistrike, a little bit of haste and versatility, and basically no crit at all.
My Monk puts up 600k Guards at full resolve, how much do DK tanks heal themselves for? Monks in HM Mythic gear also have 60% Stagger and Serenity provides enough Chi for you to purify every single melee hit if you want, making it a full 60% damage reduction. Then on top of that there's a the 45% dodge active mitigation cooldown which puts the active mitigation of every other class to shame. On Butcher, I'm below the melee DPS in damage taken, no kidding. If I'm co-tanking with a Paladin or Druid my damage taken will be 40% of theirs if we're the same ilvl. Warriors compete mainly on EHP and the fact that Heroic Leap is retardedly good in Highmaul. EHP has been king for every expansion prior to this and a lot of healers simply prefer healing the flat, non-spiky, big bag o' hitpoints even if they do take quite a bit more damage overall.
They are a huge amount of fun to play and Ive quit playing other classes twice to come back to Monk. Just keep in mind that it seems like developers want the DPS monks strength to come from Storm, Earth and Fire combined with Spinning Crane Kick. Thats all fine and dandy, but gear checks and bosses in general often come in the form of single target dps races or other anti-AoE mechanics. I could let SEF go nuts during Ko'ragh or Imperator for example, and I would be number 1 dps every time but I'll also wipe the raid in about 5 seconds too. Tectus is about the only fight you can really let loose on, but as a melee you're dodging shit left and right. Being able to Touch of Death for 300,000+ damage single target at the end of a fight seems to be their remedy to buffing single target damage. Classes that excel at single target - mobile ranged dps, like always, will continue to be one step ahead of everyone else.
Here's an example of DK healing/shielding on Butcher:
I've been healing with my Resto sham since WOTLK and DK's aren't nearly as spikey as they were compared to other tanks. I think personally that the way most mechanics are these days most tanks are spikey. Even Wars/pallies. The only tank I hate healing this xpac are Druids. The rest i'm completely fine with. Which is honestly a huge improvement.
