i teamed with a 3 slot hover fire tank a little while ago, my impression was while good it was approx 1.5 slots too slow on hover (it looked ace though 
).
certainly when you could 6 slot it i had my primary tank as a hover tank, however at later levels the mobility it provided was negated because of orenbegan maps where you couldnt hover over the mobs correctly, and the pesky -fly powers in malta attacks
its funny actually, i have my level 20 fire tank sitting pondering the same question
@ExtraGonk
My scrapper has a 3-slotted Hover. He uses it with Teleport so he can cover big distances very quickly and very safely but still have decent mobility in combat situations.
It's a little slow for typical running about between groups of enemies. Only a little slow, but you will fall behind the group a bit over moderate distances. In combat, it seems to be fine. I think if you're a tanker who draws enemies to you you'd be better off than a tanker who prefers to shift his physical presence to the place it'll do the most good.
If you play in teams who like you to lead the way and pick which group to attack next, then the slight slowness could be a problem.
Personally I'd stick with the leaping.
Hover alone is good for positional and moving between enemies, Hover+TP works for moving between groups.
I wont say its slow because you could tell the team to stand back and wait for you to tap "f7" for ready, flyby taunt so you taunt whilst you are hidden, click hover, have everything build up on you without you taking any alphas at all, consolidate aggro and heal without major knockdown time because you spin fast and then say "ready!"
Plus a firetanker being able to fly is so phoenix like. Flight is faster and you spin there too. The problem is when you are hit with -fly attacks in which case i'd still have acrobatics later on. If anything its a good pre-first respec power to have atleast on a firetanker.
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.
I've tried the respec, with 3 slotted hover on DOs, it is a little slow but not excruciating. I think the secret to this flying fire tank build is switching between fly and hover and turning off Blazing Aura when not required.
I'll see what it is like with SOs...
PS Hero builder lists 3 slotted hover flight as 24 fps, faster than base movemenet ( 21 fps ). For DOs this is only 14 fps.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
All missions have something to run behind you can taunt, run off and hide in wait in hover mode. If your properly tanking say the cavern trial then hover and fly are a great help.
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.
I have a level 20 fire/fire tank ( my first character ever ) sitting on defiant with an Issue 6 freespec to burn.
I was wondering if anyone had tried 3 slotted hover as an alternative to acrobatics, is it fast enough?
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.