Having played the game for nearly 4 years now, I've garnered my fair share of 50s. But over half of them are tanks. Why? Because I love the "in-the-thick-of-it" feel of tanking. I like taking a beating and dishing it back out.
Set Combos I've Used:
Ice/EM - My proudest, most fun, tanking achievement. And my first. Great durability, fast paced, and great boss killer. And that was before IOing him out.
Stone/SS - Insane durability and not too slow when Hasten and Rage are up.
Ice/DM - Def with To-Hit debuffs. Capped Def for S/L/E/N with IOs. Two heals, two end-recovery powers, and Hibernate. Nuff said.
Shield/DM - My AV killer, in training. IO'd to cap'd positional def, 200 damage bonus when fully saturated AAO and Soul Drain, and plenty of recharge. Great for boss killing or AoE.
DA/Ice - Contranker Extradonaire. Insane amounts of control tools to go on top of hi resistance and the best heal in the game. Though, currently respecing to have more defense.
Fire/Fire - AoEasy.
Inv/Axe - Of all the tanks I have, this one's worked my patience the most. It's not really the survival so much as the lack of "fun tools." That's strictly my opinion, and not fact.
Shield/Mace - Smashtastic!
WP/SS - Highly durable and hard to slow down.
ElA/Stone - My planned tank for i16. It should prove to be very fun.
And despite what the vocal minority may lead people to think, I've never had issues of damage output with my tanks. Only the DM/Ice, and that's becuase I chose a control route.
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
Makes perfect sense
Anyone would struggle in that scenario I'm sure. Excellent player or no.
FWIW I'll get Tough tonight when I hit 44.