Tyrant - faster, light armor, more flexible.
Gladiator - slow, heavy armor, high damage.
Both fill similar roles in PvE situations. Both can duo with an SE just fine. Both will kill just about as fast as one another. Both are good in groups. Tyrants use more SS because of their higher attack speed, but they are otherwise pretty equal.
In PvP, generally the gladiator fares better against other melee, the tyrant fares better against ranged attackers. For me, the tyrant is the fastest toon in the game, and therefore, the best at running away. Which is what I do a lot. That's why I play an EE (PR 2) and a tyrant (gogo rabbit).
Besides focus sonic they arnt really similar at all. Two completly different classes really, except imo Gladiator has the most play style options, where as Tyrant has masteries for only fist weapons and only light armour. To compensate how ever tyrants get the totems, which are very nice, but come with a downside.
Where as Gladiators get heavy/light armour mastiers sword/blunt and dual sword masteries, allowing them to use any sword 1h and 2h any blunt 1h or 2h and the dual swords.
Also note gladiators get TSS, tyrant hasnt got a move which can match the strength of this.
As for stats, Gladiators and tyrant got roughly the same attack power but perhaps the gladiator do have a bit more.
Tyrants have all the speed where as the gladiator is pretty clunky and slow unless you choose a speed build (tallum hvy, dual kesh, dex dyes) Gladiators have better p def and alot more CP, where as the tyrant have a huge amount of HP.
Both are fine choices, but i would ask you to go tyrant, because there arnt so many around, adds some diversity to the game. :p
While glads do have more proficiencies, the overwhelming majority wield duals and heavy armor. Tyrants do not have the proficiencies to weild a variety of equipment, but their totems give them great variety in playstyle. SPS plays a glad, he's pretty clearly biased in their favor.
To set one thing straight:
Gladiator: TSS lvl 74, power 4262
Tyrant: PoD lvl 72, power 9132
Just so you know, PoD doesnt hurt more then TSS. Also it stuns you, what a great skill, its a last finishing move to use.
I am biased towards gladiators, yes, but i also play a level 69 tyrant when i have the chance and had a lvl 78 on the PTS, i know exactly what they can do and what they cannot do.
From my view point I like my Tyrant better then a Glad. For a couple reasons for me.. I think Glads are the C3 Flavor.. Everyone and there mother wsa or Subbed Glad because of there increased CP over most other Classes. Sure there TSS does alot of dmg to Robe/Light armor Masteries.. But relying on Self buffs alone I will kill a Glad over 6 - 9 levels higher then me if we are in the same Grade equipment. I'll give you a quick rundown of what Totems I have and what they do from what I can remember I'm at work right now..
Ogre - Increases Pdef Max HP (gives around 800 - 1100 HP somehwere in there also) Decreases run speed and Evasion.. *Basicly this one is for to semi Tank or solo with a buffer
Bear - Increase P def (less then Orge) Increase P att while decrease Run Speed and Evasion. (More Dmg)
Wolf - Increase Run Speed no side Effects
Rabbit - Increase Run Speed dramaticly and decrease P Att to under 100 just about. (Catch up to archers or mages and Stun/Cripple them.)
Puma - Decrease Pdef and increase Attack Speed
Bison - Increase Crit Rate (only usable when under 60% HP)
To me the Tyrant is more versitile because I can Fill In tank with Orgea dn get HP back every 1min 15 secs around. I can Hit harder with bear, or attack fast as hell with Puma stacked wtih Fist of Fury etc.. Glad just know how to TSS and thats about it. Sure they have a Stun but what Glad in there right mind would use a 1h or 2h sword? Tyrants can use a Bow with Bison and have a High High crit rate and put on Fist of Fury and Haste/Zerg I have a nice attack speed of 700+ and have a super high crit rate. What can Glads to TSS charge TSS charge TSS?
We can TSS, TS, 2x stone DSS then 2x stone and some charges. Gladiators have an extremly powerful 3 hit skill combo which will drop most mages. We also have our powerful ranged move which we can use to make it into a 4 hit smooth combo, by the end of the 4th hit, TS is ready again so we launch straight into that for a 5 hit combo, by now all mages and the odd light armour class will be dead. At the end of the 5 hits our DSS and TSS have recharged, so all we need do is hit up some more focus then its game over. However, this is reliant on the target not moving away.
Gladiators dont use 1h swords, we use 1h blunts, so we can chain stun with our 2 stun attacks, aswell as use fatal strike and power smash. Not including crappy power strike, gladiators can launch out 8 different attack spells, 9 if you include our AoE nuke, and 10 if you were to include power strike which does no more damage then a regular hit anyway. Gladiators are all about the skills, where as tyrant is all about the totems, its all about play style.