Questions about Shield/SS tanking

I've never really liked tanking, but sometimes it would be nice to have the option to switch to a tank to help out the team. I love shield charge on my BS/Shield scrapper. I'm thinking that a tank with both Footstomp and Shield Charge and that great Knockbout Blow power could be fun.

Questions:

Is this a strong tank, including for high level task forces?

What does it look like when Hurl is used with a shield? I know the power is marginal but I love the idea of hurling big rocks.

What happens when Rage wears off? I lose a big chunk of defense, don't I? Is this a big problem?

What else do I need to know about attempting this?

P.S. I'd probably make a brute instead except that I hate managing Fury.

Thanks for any advice!

The -def part of the Rage crash can be negated by re-casting Rage. Three recharge SOs in Rage, and it will be back up in the middle of the crash. One or two small recharge set bonuses, like those in Crushing Impact, and you can recast it just before the crash, completely avoiding the -def part of the crash. Nothing you can do will negate the -Damage or -end part of the crash.

Even if you do let Rage crash, you have fairly good resists. When I decide to ride out the crash, I rarely lose any significant amount of Health.

Be careful against Psi foes. You get no Psi resist, and some Psi attacks have no positional component, meaning that they can hurt pretty bad. Judicious use of your Knockdown powers to stop them from attacking usuallywill render them useless though.

I love my Shield/SS and yes, he's strong...good for TFs, teams and all-purpose tanking. However, I will include the caveat that you need to get set bonuses for soft-capping to be as tough and effective as a Tank should be.

With Shield, Hurl is a one-handed attack. It looks pretty cool. Still the same animation and activation time. The tank takes a large chunk of rock out of the ground and throws it.

If you properly slot rage (also, with Hasten and set bonuses for +rech) you should be able to stack Rage before the first one runs out. If you have rage stacked, you can avoid the -Def penalty and all you'll have to deal with is the Endurance loss and -Damage penalty. You can still use veteran attacks (sands of mu and nemesis staff etc.) at full damage since they can't be modified. Of those, I find the Endurance loss to be the most annoying...since Tanks are pretty end-heavy and losing End from both Rage and Hasten crashes is a bit of a pain to manage (and my Tank runs with Stamina and both +recovery uniques).

Other tips...um...this is a very offensive and fun tank to play. Once you get to the higher levels, you can get Pyre mastery and add another AoE in Fireball. With Rage and AAO, you can run into groups, let AAO pulse for full +dam buff action and then unleash. I will typically hit Footstomp, Fireball then Shield Charge. Anything left standing gets Footstomp again because it's back up pretty quickly. Like you said, KO Blow is a big-hitter that you can use against tougher targets along with a couple of other decent attacks from SS. With this defensive based set, you need to be careful with any groups that can debuff (or buff their to hit). I'd recommend getting one with shield (the tier 9). Yeah, it's not a 'god mode' per se, but it'll buff your resistances, add HP's and endurance recovery. It has a decent sized crash of endurance...but not a total crash.

Thanks for the information and advice folks!