From what I hear, warriors are ok soloing up to maybe level 40 and then things just get a lot worse. Dunno if that's true or not, but it seems like the class also needs to be twinked out with a lot of good weapons and decent armor to be any good. I still really don't think they had to be nerfed as badly as they were from late beta... they weren't even close to rogue dps, but were definitely superior to paladins, had less problems generating rage than now and for the most part, had some useful abilities to spend that rage on for damage. If they'd just left their skills at the same power they were at but changed tanking altogether the class would have been perfection imo. There's also the problem of a lack of outstanding weapons up until about level 55. And then they just start dropping like crazy in BRD and all the instances after.
Well, it really depends on your build honestly. A warrior fully specced in Battle can solo mobs at its own level or maybe 1-2 levels above it up to about level 45. After that though, the majority of quests you come across are elite quests and we warriors lack the ability to solo just about any elites unless they are 3-4 levels below our current level. We just lack the DPS and the speed necessary to put an enemy down fast enough before we die, despite the enormous amounts of plate armor.
This brings up another point -- Warriors are one of, if not the most, expensive class in the game to play. Players will be CONSTANTLY upgrading their equipment be it weapons, armor, shields, useable items -- you name it. You'll have to buy more of it. A warrior can never be satisfyingly fully outfitted. There's always SOMETHING that could use some improvement. We have to carry multiple weapon sets, having a weapon set switching utility for different stances certainly helps out a bunch, and of course the number of slots in our bags to carry all this crap. I've even heard of some warriors carrying entire sets of different armor (Thorium for example) just to buff their magic defense when fighting mages or doing pvp. I think that last bit is overblown, but hey, if it helps, it helps.
You're absolutely right about the weapon drops though. The Sword of Omen is the warriors best friend for almost 10 whole levels if they're into swords.The Thrash Blade after that is a nice one hander as well just from quest rewards. If you have the means, earning the items for the Phantom Blade and making it as a weaponsmith certainly helps out a lot around level 42 or so. In fact, a lot of the smithed one handed swords are pretty solid. Can't say I'm fond of the two handed swords though as they're pretty skimpy with the exception of truesilver which is pretty nice. I don't really look into axes or maces or polearms honestly.
Warriors are really important on the Horde side. I don't know about Alliance as I'm sure a Paladin is a far better tank (better benefits then just simply being a meat shield) as the current warrior build with holding aggro is simply put, really weak. The AoE taunt has the stupidest recharge time I've ever seen on a move. 10 minutes? Why? It's not like it's worth anything in pvp. In fact, it's totaly useless outside of pve instances and yet the recharge time is 10 minutes. There's always sunder armor, but that doesn't hold aggro for long at all, a regular one man taunt that has a low hold and a fairly slow recharge rate, mocking blow which is decent, but only effective for one single stance, and hamstring, which, again, is only useful for one stance.
For some fixes, I think all the missing we tend to do is fairly lame. I know stuff 3 or 4 levels above us shouldn't be this out of reach as it is, but those enemies really are. I think that AoE taunt deserves a 2-3 minutes refresh timer at most. Once per battle is perfectly fine, but once every 5-10 instanced battles is ridiculous. Taunt should be more effective and hold an enemies aggro much longer and should be resisted far less. Building rage should not be compared to Rogues and their meters, I agree with the Blizzard team on that one, but the speed at which warriors effectively build rage is just unaccpetable right now. Plus we lose it all stance-dancing, which is what we're supposed to do heavily in the higher level instances. It just doesn't make any sense.
Still, despite those very necessary fixes, we are excellent to have inside higher level instances and an asset to the whole party. So long as warriors taunt, play their class, use defensive stance, stay well stocked with equipment, and just flat out make friends with priests or Shamans they can trust, all is well. I was bummed out about our faults around 40 or so, but once you get into zul'farrak or maraudon, your usefulness is apparent from one group of mobs to the next. I can't wait to get into BRS and BRD with my guild. It should be a load of fun.