[ QUOTE ][*]Turn off the shields during travel. if you keep them on while youre doing an endurance draining travel power, you'll travel half the distance and most probably land in the middle of a mob where you could be one shotted due to the fall damage you get.
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Uhmm....
I would rather say to KEEP your shields up, ALWAYS!
Because if you travel in an higher level zone you'll decrease tha chance of getting mezzed by higher mob, one shotted by snipers or generally pummeled by foes.
It is also useful because you never know why those lvl 53 Nemeses are in King's Row or near Steel Canyon's station 
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7. I think I see a Stalker!: this is were all the tips pay off in my last few pointers. when you courageously venture into a PVP zone, you are in grave danger of being assansinated. You can't resist them and you never know when they're comming, but Stalkers are the bane of all tankers, especially me. so, to survive them you have two options:
[*]stand against them and fully test those enhancements you just got. the chance you'll kick their butt is quite high if your enchancement count is high.
or
[*]run like hell. no tanker has a duty to stand around like a cow by the slaughter house door. if you have anypower, like blazing aura, that helps you know where they are (blazing aura will keep saying miss if a stalker stands next to you) then leg it when they are near you!
however, there is an alternative. if a stalker is hit when they are invisible, they'll become visible again. so use attacks that have never been know to miss. burn doesn't, no matter what level, it can never miss.
so there we go, from my experience in the world of paragon city, I have learnt these leasons which have helped me survive. 
(oh, and if you're wondering, I'm not lvl 50 yet, I'm just posting what i have learnt so far )
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Looks like some good tips but I would agree with J, keep your armours on, even if it's only the status ones.
One little plug for ice tankers, Glacial Armour has a very nice +perc on it, so I normally see all stalkers coming at me (slight warning to stalkers before you try it on with the ice tanks )
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so use attacks that have never been know to miss. burn doesn't, no matter what level, it can never miss.
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Not true, burn does miss. It just doesnt give a `miss` message.
Octavian Vanguard
@ohmsEU and @ohms 2
Badging character: Bimble on the Union server, Badgehunter.com and City Info Tracker.
[ QUOTE ][*]Turn off the shields during travel. if you keep them on while youre doing an endurance draining travel power, you'll travel half the distance and most probably land in the middle of a mob where you could be one shotted due to the fall damage you get.
[/ QUOTE ]
lol firstly never let your endurance get "that" low, do that your okay
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
A nice, user-friendly post covering basic details re: tankers.
Also there has been a thread where the validity of using shields for different mobs has been discussed, with Bridger (correct me if i'm wrong - it may well have been in reference to scrappers) would utilize shields depending on the enemy, thereby saving endurance. I think that sort of play requires a bit of experience knowing what type of mob does what type of damage - but its always there as another option to save end..
In other words - know your enemy - do you really need a fire resistance shield for this mob? if not save endurance switch it off!! 
Taunt around corners and use objects to hide behind rather than rush into a big mob taking all the damage and only part of the aggro..
Taunt AOEing mobs (nemesis come to mind) so they face away from the squishier members of the team ..
Know your tanking limit and don't take on more than you know you can handle..
Look after your tank and feed it the best your influence can buy - don't let your shield enhancements go red!!
Utilize resepc missions to modify power choices that are in need of changing due to your gathered experience of what you now want your tanker to be able to do..
Finally.. to get a decent costume for your tanker - after all you are the star! Dress for the occasion! 
Edited for... unless your a Stone tanker and use Granite Armour... go naked, pebble head! 
over my course as a defence focused fire tanker, I have seen many inexperienced or experienced but lucky players try and tank without their shields on, which ever they are.
)
so this thread has been posted so that inexperienced players can read and learn and experienced players can post any other tanker tips they have that have helped them get from lvls 1-50 in one piece.
my first few tips are:
1. put up those shields!: most players don't put up their shields, and are missing the big picture. I bet that if you put two stone tankers in the same sized, same lvled mob and one of them only puts one shield up, the one with the shield will survive the longest (unless of course, the non shield one is lucky enough to not get hit). I got an excuse from an anonymous tanker a while ago and they said that their reason for not putting their shield up was because it drained too much of their end for their attacks to be effective. so heres the thing. the two main enhancements you absolutley need for your shields are damage resistance and endurance cost reduction. that way, you'll have plenty of endurance to spare for your attacks.
2. be inspired!: I'm not sure if you all don't do his but some tankers don't use most of their insperations because (if they do use their shields) they are over confident they'll survive, right? WRONG! If you are comming up to a big mob, don't worry about using your insperations. it wont effect your pride, it wont slow you down. those little squares are life savers. use luck and sturdy to live longer and insight and rage to get more attacks in. And dont be afraid to use all of them against the Arch-villain you hate so much.
3. Tired yet?: as said in pointer number one, most tankers are worried about their endurance falling so low they lose what was keeping them alive. this is what has some tankers running scared. the solution can be found in several ways
[*]CoB isn't the only endurance saving inspertion. Rage upward and Insight upward save endurance by making you hit the target harder and more often. with less hits on an enemy, this saves endurance used.
[*]Teams help too, the more you have in a team, the less amount of enemies you have to take care of. and plus, your friends may have CoB or recovery aura which can save your life
[*]if you have the ability to drain endurance or reduce the endurance cost, USE IT! don't rely on a slower attack rate plan you made up to save your life. this system also works with flying tankers. if your flying through a low level zone and are running low on end, find a small group of villains, 3 at the least, and drain them. you'll feel refreshed and ready to fly again (if you're wondering how that works, it doesn't matter about the lvl, just the amount of enemies)
[*]Turn off the shields during travel. if you keep them on while youre doing an endurance draining travel power, you'll travel half the distance and most probably land in the middle of a mob where you could be one shotted due to the fall damage you get.
[*]unless you're fly gambling, flying high is not a good idea. by flying higher, you increase your damage from fall, and increase the distance you have to travel. so fly low and fast.
4. most powers have more than one use!: some powers have a hidden ability to help you that isn't described when you hover your mouse over it and read the stats. for example, I found out a week ago that burn wasn't just an effective area attack. if your immoblised by something like ring of fire but still have your arms free and can still attack, then use burn to set you free. look for these hidden atributes while you level and you can come out on top
5. do you have a tavel power?: this is kind of a 'no duh' thing. of course you have a travel power! but when you get the one that makes you go from A to B in a mili-second, you often forget the one that you got first. for example, a random tanker gets hover at level six. He's so overwhelmed that he can defy gravity, he forgets hover's second ability, and then at lvl 14 he gets fly and never uses hover again. this proves he doesn't know much about this ability. Hover can save endurance. by using it when you want to just sit there in the air, your end will gradually increase to it's full. using it for defense is a brilliant idea. it may only be marginal, but you'll survive a little longer with it on along with all your other shields. Hasten is good too, it'll will allow you to get attacks in faster.
6. enhance it!: enhancements may not look like they do anything at first, but they do alot more than you know. Training enhancements don't do much, i have to admit, but as soon as you get DOs (dual origins for those who don't know) you'll notice a change. And finally, you get to the SOs (wanna guess? yep, single origins) these are every players salvation. they dramatically increase the powers efficiencey and are needed at level 20 onward.
7. I think I see a Stalker!: this is were all the tips pay off in my last few pointers. when you courageously venture into a PVP zone, you are in grave danger of being assansinated. You can't resist them and you never know when they're comming, but Stalkers are the bane of all tankers, especially me. so, to survive them you have two options:
[*]stand against them and fully test those enhancements you just got. the chance you'll kick their butt is quite high if your enchancement count is high.
or
[*]run like hell. no tanker has a duty to stand around like a cow by the slaughter house door. if you have anypower, like blazing aura, that helps you know where they are (blazing aura will keep saying miss if a stalker stands next to you) then leg it when they are near you!
however, there is an alternative. if a stalker is hit when they are invisible, they'll become visible again. so use attacks that have never been know to miss. burn doesn't, no matter what level, it can never miss.
so there we go, from my experience in the world of paragon city, I have learnt these leasons which have helped me survive.
(oh, and if you're wondering, I'm not lvl 50 yet, I'm just posting what i have learnt so far