Thanes are alot more useful since the last few patches however the reason people would still rather have a warrior over a thane are here. Number one being DPS, as a thane in melee is still on hybrid weapon tables and have a lower weapon skill, where as a warrior can put out a ton of of damage in comparison. Also lower hit points causing the healers to work harder to keep you alive on top of better overall realm abilities. Thanes, in the past, have also cause alot of trouble from noobs that want to AOE hammer everything upseeting the mezzers. Warriors also have a few really nice group abilities now and can, in some instances, unmezz an entire group. That in itself is hard to compete with when you are making a choice between a thane and warrior of group rvr.
In HIGH level PvE a warrior excels over a thane. Being able to spec full shield and full weapon, plus taunting shout, higher HP and over all better defense give the warrior a huge step above a thane in end game Pve.
In all truth Thanes are a class that people have for fun. If you are serious and you want to fully imerse yourself in the game and see all aspecs of it I would focus on the shaman. You'll always be needed some where and its an important part in any Midgard group for any reason.
Edited, Jun 19th 2006 at 12:15am EDT by dougherty