If you are having trouble tanking properly at low level try sticking to smaller teams - 2 to 4 players. You should have no trouble gathering up the mobs for your team the deal with. Also I never raise my difficulty before getting dual origin enhances at least.
The fastest leveling duo I have ever been in was my Fire/Fire balster and a friends Ice/Ice tank. Tank gathers mobs, balster runs in and destroys them, works like a charm.
My lvl 18 (now 19 ) inv/ss tanker was last night, for the first time ever, taking damage properly and tanking properly! i'd just used a vet respec to follow a guide build because it looked like what i wanted more.... i had a magnificent team with great support! today, i had [censored] support, but was still scraping by. i'm so pleased. i think i might finally take a char to 50! :S
I created a Stone/Stone tank and at levels 1-10 I found it hard to take down 3-4 blues.
Well, I hadn't slotted any Enhancements, so I did. It only did a bit better and I still wasn't going well. Soon I deleted my toon.
Now, I think, that it's the enemies themselves who are a problem, not the Tanker.
Mainly problems are with Vahizlok. Tankers usually don't put on Sprint so they can save End and use their useful powers over and over. But yet, with groups such as Vahizlok, Tankers must put on Sprint to run away because even with IO's and SO's, because the enemies are going too hard on them.
It's the enemies that need a change - not the Tankers themselves, because all Tankers are efficent.
no comment
Could the problem perhaps be you?
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.
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My lvl 18 (now 19 ) inv/ss tanker was last night, for the first time ever, taking damage properly and tanking properly! i'd just used a vet respec to follow a guide build because it looked like what i wanted more.... i had a magnificent team with great support! today, i had [censored] support, but was still scraping by. i'm so pleased. i think i might finally take a char to 50! :S
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The hardest part of tanking with an Invuln is while mobs arent tight around you, remember that, I have gone down to 5 hp or somit silly with having to pull one group away from another and then have someone herd messing causing additional herd time and therefore additional fight duration upon myself but once I had the group tight my healthbar stood still, its an extreme example and in a way a lucky one, but 10, in melee can matter alot. If you have to herd whats really dangerous, do it fast but with a team that can stay back, taunt pulls to a blocked point can bring mobs straight into melee with no worries and no alpha.
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.
^ yeah, i noticed that while the mobs weren't all packed around me it became more difficult. i had a problem with another member of a team i was on yesterday (f/f blaster...) pulling, and making them all run around like crazy so it was difficult to herd them together..
20 now :d stamina should make things that little bit easier!
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teamwork and the sharing of insps, give certain insps to certain people and let them do their job its all fairly good to go.
In an ideal team with the builds you can currently have you could be completing lvl 10 missions on Invincible with barely a hitch but this isnt an ideal world cos ya just cant get the people with their powerchoices that would gel to that level of performance.
In short overall team experience counts for what any one player in a team can or cant do. My achievements arent even close to being the result of myself, they are of everyone around me. .
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I feel the same way. I enjoy Tanks very much and cant wait to get my level 45 Stoner to 50 !!
I Solo'ed a lot during my first 10 - 15 levels and it was hard...but vey doable. Once I was getting invited to teams regularly things moved along swiftly. Sometimes I was really pi**ed off 
coz of the poor teaming, I was on that team so I have to blame myself aswell. Other times I was amazed at what I was doing coz blues were flying at me from all angles 
I came back to this game from a 9 month break and I love it even more now, for me its all about the working at it. Some ideas work some dont.
Not much help to this discussion no doubt but my 2 Pennies worth !!
I am not the best tank ever by far, but heres my 2 pences worth.
love playing a TEAM tank (ie 5 and above)
so far have a 50 stone/fire (Heatshock), a 26 fire/ice (Burns Knight) and just started a 12 ice/ice (Cold Cut).
must admit - as a team orientated player - i find tanking really difficult at pre-stam, pre-SO level.
Like ur comments on "how u herd" shannon - but unfortunately; most peeps dont like advice (well meaning or otherwise). Think a thread like this is prob best way to "educate peeps"; and may even consider sticky-ing some of experienced tankers post eg shannons, golden golem, Blazing Inf etc.
The main thing however, is that peeps will play how they want to play. As will I. I just learn to adapt to wot happens on a team.
I guess - it also matters wot ur tanker is thinking. My fundamental philosophy abt tanking revolves around protecting squishies wot ever the cost (the only one I dont protect is the offending teammate(s) - u know the, the blaster who rusn in to take alpha, the scrapper who splits ur nicely formed tight mob etc). BUt for some - this may not apply; and therefore, they shouldnt be labelled "bad tanks" either
If i find a team that doesnt like a herder; i then spend the majority of my time running around trying to pick up stragglers with my aura whilst (like shannon) targeting a team mate to taunt.
If team understands herds - then all well and good.
to help clarify matters - i often see how the team works, or i just blatantly ask how they wanna play it. Alot of internal "aggro" has arisen in past PUGs cos every else thought that every else was goign play their AT in a particular style.
Think bad tanking has possibly arisen out of Brutes AT on V (the same way i initially played brutes too much like a tanker) - and although they may look similiar; both ATs actaully play quite differently.
Further to that - there seem to be more solo-orientated players around nowadays; and the game is comepletely diff solo vs team tanker IMHO
so my 2 tips for tanker school
(1) adapt to how ur team plays - instead of alwasy insisting on ur way (irrevelant if its the right way or not!).
(2) ask how ur team wants to play to avoid confusion
Chicken its long public knowledge that moving mobs 3 feet makes you a herder to me or the fact that you have taunted some makes you a herder to me. I go with the Dictionary on the word.
If there is no point me playing a Tanker because I am not playing her with the sense of RP I like to then I have a stupid amount of toons to choose from. Tankerless teams arent exactly doomed. If i give a herdpoint knowing another group can be pulled from above if I didnt and people dont listen then I still take to my herdpoint. I said I was going there amd so I do, if I like the people a bit I might lie and go to a further herdpoint to prevent what it was I was trying to.
At the end of the day its like this: When I make a Defender I wish to play like a Defender and not a Blaster (except hitting for 50% less). If I debuff groups, and +3s come and flatten me in an instant then I know its not safe to debuff and whats left is blasting, bugger that I have a Blaster for that but I'd prefer to debuff and be alive to add another debuff and play like a Blaster.
Was on Positron TF today with a nice Icetanker, I was an energy energy blaster on Zukunft. No moans, No groans and No omg lots of debt, no ghosting, it was all fight throughs and my healthbar barely moved (I was gutted 
). The Tanker with good team support cleaned up the lot, it was demolished, great team, no one had to advise anyone about a thing. Walls for my knockbacks were offered and I used them so as to be without lowering other peoples dps, which slows things down and means more damage time is upon the Tanker. Keything there was the Tanker never lost aggro and was given ample opportunity to gain it without gaining too much.
Better than;
People get team wiped because the only defender got smacked up or couldnt help everyone at once, and more groups than necessary were pulled that in case of anything else had no endurance for, well anyway after 3 team wipes in the 1st mission everyone called it a day.
When talking about Tanking its important to not simply consider what is done at 50 or what is done in most missions with certain people of certain ATs and powersets. Not every concept character would equally perform/pull weight in a Superteam.
However, aboutm what most people want. I can only take a viewpoint from what I see most people not wanting. Largely I the first group and ask "Alright for everyone?"..."Yes"..*carries on*.
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.
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If there is no point me playing a Tanker because I am not playing her with the sense of RP I like to then I have a stupid amount of toons to choose from. Tankerless teams arent exactly doomed. If i give a herdpoint knowing another group can be pulled from above if I didnt and people dont listen then I still take to my herdpoint. I said I was going there amd so I do, if I like the people a bit I might lie and go to a further herdpoint to prevent what it was I was trying to.
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I better translate that part:
If there is no point me playing a Tanker because I am not playing her with the sense of RP that I like to, then I have a stupid amount of other toons to choose from. Tankerless teams arent exactly doomed. If i give a herdpoint, knowing another group can be pulled from above if I didnt, and people didnt listen then I still take to my herdpoint. I said I was going there and so that is what I do. If I like the people a bit, I might lie and go to a further herdpoint to still prevent what it was I was trying to, just so I give more range from enemy perception to the team.
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.
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Tanks can solo, if you are more into getting the attacks over the primaries you will solo okay at probably half to 3/4 speed of a scrapper. Team tanks tend to be a bit shielded up to take on greater mobs better. However you said "gather a team" which is better than "enter a team", this is because teams made arent necessarily balanced in your ATs favour as in, "dont expect assistance" and missions set arent necessarily well balanced for the average level of the team. Then ofc there are players that spread in a mission as though each one of them is capable of being "point".
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Soloing as a team tanker is usually dreadful between levels 12 and 30ish because you're taking defensive and pool powers to shore up your Tanking capability. Scrankers don't have this problem, of course, as they'll take their attacks much earlier.
That said, once you're past 30, you should be perfectly capable of soloing at a reasonable rate - even before that most well-built tankers should be able to cope on Unyielding+ post SOs.
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