How many Defenders Tank?

I definitely think storms, rads, and darks can tank by any terms using their debuff AoEs to debuff and lock down large groups of foes.

Ya.

This be the same guy who can get perm hasten only using SOs.....

With regards to what's tanking and what isn't, Fire spelled out what he was talking about in his original post reallly clearly:

"How many of you can step up and Alpha a team without a Tanker leading the way?"

Holding aggro is often a bit irrelevant on a Defender because of the other things we're bringing to the table.
On my FF/Sonic with the godly defences I would often be initiating fights and have teammates complain that they wanted the tank to tank because they would hold aggro. I even had one teammate recommend I get Provoke if I wanted to do that.

I had to repeatedly point out that everyone else was also sitting at capped Defences, and holding aggro wasn't really that important.

The same would apply to a Dark Defender for sure, herdicaning Stromies, Cold Defenders and many others. Shifting mindsets out in the field can be hard

The happy coincidences are when the tank can take a group to a wall or corner where the storm defender can push and debuff, say a group of Crey including a purple Paragon Protector, and thus stack the positioning skills of the defender on top of the damage soaking ability of the tank while the tornado chews his autohit damage through the debuffed PP.

::raises hand::

When we go up against mother mayhem's minions, I usually have to tank using mind over body and a whole lot of knockback.

I tanked the avs on an all corr/fender moitf once since i have challenge

My defenders do what I ever I want them to do.

I merely tank mage, often with a Tanker in the team it's just before they can intercept the aggro. This is particularly with Tankers who don't rush off early and sometimes notably better for them.

I notice that with some people if they're on a tanker they don't like anyone else herding and then if they're on a defender they like to tank mage and don't like anyone else herding. Should they be on a Controller then they AoE immob room so that npcs can't be tightened yet would complain about it if they were the tanker and some controller was doing that.. Either way it looks like those type of people are forever with their heads up their own butts.

Experiment with other people a little.

Not completely on topic, but if you really can run +3X8 against most enemy groups with a fiery aura tanker then I now how extreme self confidence issues.

It's been covered several times, but it ain't Tanking if you can't hold aggro. It also ain't Tanking if you're solo; who the hell else are the mobs going to hit? Sure, my Dark/Sonic can handle an alpha strike, but once the rest of the team kicks in with their AoEs, whatever I'm "tanking" pretty much stops paying attention to me, and turns its attention to whoever's got the highest Threat Level.

That said, any Defender who dips into the Presence Pool could Tank if they wanted to Tank.

<qr>

There's a reason that Fire Minded disabled his rep. (And it wasnt because the green bar was getting to long)

I will admit in most MMO's Tanking refers to the meatshield that takes the alpha. But in COH tanking is reserved for some one to take the alpha AND keeps the aggro. Any one can 'tank' in the sense of taking the agro by just eating 10 oranges and 10 purples in this game. The Petless Master Mind with only Poison powers can 'Tank' in this regard.

(Laughs at the mention of Rularuu) yea, they can be tough on tanks.

"Alright guys, I'm going in" (runs in to mob, but is phase shifted moments before reaching it) .... (team follows shortly after seeing enemies attack...).