Echo So'Kar's guide to Tanking

Tanking
An insider's guide by Echo So'Kar

>>Introduction
The Tools
The Primaries
Echo's Guide To Tanking
Self-Rez

Greetings.

I am a tank.
I protect my team.
I am the first in, and the last out.
I will lay down my life in the defense of my team.
When I say run, you will run. I will not be following.
For I am a tank.

This is your mantra as an effective tank.
If your team members are dying, then you are not doing your job as effectively as you can.
That being said, a tank is not a meat shield.
A tank is not someone who simply stands in the way and takes the damage.
Tanking is an art, a profession. Not a hobby.

There are three tools that a tank has at their disposal:

Introduction
>>The Tools
The Primaries
Echo's Guide To Tanking
Self-Rez

1) Taunt Auras
2) Gauntlet
3) Taunt

More detail on those to follow.

Tankers, like all ATs, have a primary and a secondary.
Certain primaries are 'better' at certain tasks than others; that being said, all tankers, when done correctly, can do all things.
As well, even the 'best' tanker sets, when played inefficiently, can be absolute garbage.
I have seen Stone tanks, in Granite, fall. Sometimes even quickly.
Yet I have seen Dar Armour, the 'worst tanker set evar!' tank the seemingly impossible.
It all depends on how well you can use the tools you have available.

1) Taunt Auras
All primaries have at least one. Some are more effective than others.
A taunt Aura is a toggle power that constantly affects targets around you; be that doing damage, reducing damage or toHit, or slowing them. This, in turn, causes them to nreally not like you, and voila! You have aggro.

2) Gauntlet
The Tanker Inherent power. Every time you punch an enemy in the face, they, for obvious reasons, won't like you anymore. Neither will their buddies. It's essentially a mini-taunt, every time you attack.

3) Taunt
The oft-argued power that every tanker secondary gets. Is it needed? Some say yes, others, no.
I do not think it is 'needed', but it is certainly useful. See Aett_Thorn's guide to Taunt Myths for your easy-to-follow guide to taunt.
I have it, but only because Willpower's taunt aura does not do the job as effectively as I'd like it to.

Introduction
The Tools
>>The Primaries
Echo's Guide To Tanking
Self-Rez

->Dark Armour
->Ice Armour
->Invulnerability
->Fiery Aura
->Stone Armour
->Willpower
->Electric Armour
->Shield Defense

Here they are: The primaries, and what they do.
Keep in mind, what I state here is if the primary in question is done right; done wrong, everything can be pretty darn bad.

Dark Armour
Very good resistances all round. Near-capped negative reisistance, pretty swell Smashing/Lethal resist.
Best damn self-heal in the game
Has a self-rez
Taunt Aura: Death Shroud. Pretty good. Standard damaging aura, does negative damage.
Echo's Issues: takes a lot of endurance to run everything you want to. No immob or KB resistance.
Good secondaries: Fire, for that extra bit of "Ha ha, now you're dead!"; can be really bad for end use
Dark, for the synergy, as well as the amazing end-recovery power
Stone, for the stacking stuns
Electric, for the extra end-stealing that can sometimes occur

Ice Armour
Solid defenses
Typed defense, not situational (smash/lethal, fire, as opposed to Melee/ranged/AoE)
Has a self-heal
Has a wicked regen/end-recovery power; can be abused; I personally don't like it
Past level 26, never worry about end again.
Taunt Aura: Has two, actually. Chilling Embrace, I would say, is one of the best hate-magnets in the game. Icicles is not bad, little end-heavy, and does lethal damage.
Echo's Issues: I don't have any, really. Pretty solid set.
Good secondaries: Ice, for the typed damage synergy
Stone, for the benefits of the end-recovery in Energy Absorption
Energy, for the same reasons as Stone
Super Strength, because now you can use HandClap!

Invulnerability
Can easily cap Smashing/Lethal resistances
Has a pretty darn good self-heal; can almost be permanent
Taunt Aura: Decent in what it does; reduces opponent's accuracy, increased your own defense. Sadly, you don't get it til 18, which means that you'll have to rely on other methods to effectively tank at the lower levels
Echo's Issues: Again, I have no qualms with this set, aside from a sad amount (recently improved) of defense debuff resistance.
Good secondaries: All secondaries go well with invulnerability.

Fiery Aura
Easily capped fire/cold resistance
Amazing Self-heal
Good end-recovery power in Consume
Has a self-rez
Taunt Aura: Blazing Aura. Does fire damage, pulses slowly. Not bad, as Auras go.
Echo's Issues: No KB or immob resistance, and that makes me a sad panda.
Good Secondaries: Fire, for the disgusting amounts of fire damage that can be produced with this combination
Stone, for the Burn/Fault combination. Very nasty
Ice, for Burn/Ice Patch

Stone Armour
Typed defense
Basic armours are a bit lack-luster
One of few tank sets with built-in psi defense
Granite is a beast, but neuters your offensive abilities
Rooted slows you down, but otherwise is phenominal
Taunt Aura: Mudpots. Fire damage, slows enemies. takes a butt-load of end to use.
Echo's Issues: Stone shines with Granite, but Granite Armour does nothing else but make you practically indestructible.
Good Secondaries: Fire/Super Strength/Energy, to make up for your lack of damage potential
Dark, to provide a bit of extra end recovery

Willpower
My personal favorite set
A bit harder to cap smashing/lethal resistance
Wicked psi resistance
Gets Fast Healing and Quick Recovery
Has a self-rez
taunt Aura: Rise to the Challenge is beastly in regards to the amount of regen that is plausible, but otherwise isn't nice in terms of aggro holding. Taunt is very useful here.
Echo's Issues: Aggro management is key.
Good secondaries: Everything is good, but Stone, energy, and fire shine when paired with Quick Recovery and Stamina.

Electric Armour
Near-capped energy resistance at level 6
You get Energize, which is a nice heal power, Lightning Reflexes, which is Quickness in a nutshell, and Power Sink. All in one set.
Imperfect KB and immob resistance
Power Surge has a nice EMPulse effect when it wears off
Taunt Aura: Lightning Field. Does energy damage.
Echo's Issues: I have none.
Good Secondaries: Anything works, but I find that the high-end secondaries (fire/stone/energy) shine again. Besides, having Seismic Smash on an 8-second recharge is beastly.

Shield Defense
Situational defense
Grant Cover is nice; has a nice def debuff resistance, as well as defense for your group
Shield Charge is freaking awesome. Not gonna lie.
Taunt Aura: Against All Odds. Gives you a +damage based on the number of enemies around you. Always a plus
Echo's Issues: I've found that this set can be very hard to get good defenses. Best I've every been able to do, even with planning software like Mids, is around 22-25% defense.
Good Secondaries: Everything goes; can't use Dual Blades, for obvious reasons. Ice also gets a good plus, from the +damage of AaO.

Introduction
The Tools
The Primaries
>>Echo's Guide To Tanking
Self-Rez

So you want to be a Tanker, do you?
Well, it's not just your average dog-and-pony show.
Take Blasters. What do they do?
They kill stuff.
They have to set up their AoE's, but there isn't much more to it than that.
Apologies to actual Blasters out there.
Tanks, on the other hand... we work hard.
If even one team mate dies, even once, during a mission, I consider the mission a failure, because I wasn't doing my job.

How to tank:
First, you need your defenses. If you can't stand up to what's coming your way, how can your team? This is your number one priority.
Beef up your defenses, be that resistance or defense, depending. IO's have come down in prices lately, at least from what I've seen. Aegis for resistance and Luck of the Gambler for defense are very good.
Second, you need to look at your ability to hold aggro.
How do you do it?
Well, you need to look at your primary. If your taunt Aura isn't very good at holding it on its own, then you need to invest in beefing up your taunting in your powers (all tanker secondary powers can be slotted for taunt duration), of pick up that dreaded power, Taunt.
If you want more information about Taunt, Cuirceus NA has a very good guide here/ You may want to peruse it.
Third, and this is your lowest priority, you need to look at your damage. If you are the only major damage dealer in your group, then you need to step up and do some damage. What happens when you solo? You going to spend an hour wailing away at a Malta Operative, simply because you have two Training Enhancements in Knockout Blow? No. You aren't. So crank that damage up, and kill stuff.
Because the best taunted enemy is a dead taunted enemy.
Tanking is an active process. It's not just standing in one place and spamming Taunt. You go to a group, herd them somewhere, maybe get another group, take them somewhere else. If possible, make sure that the enemies, especially the ones with cone attacks, are facing away from the rest of your team. That way, only you take the damage, and not them. trust me. The squishy controllers and defenders and blasters will thank you.
Remember. If you're standing in one place, you may be missing something.

Introduction
The Tools
The Primaries
Echo's Guide To Tanking
>>Self-Rez

Some primaries (Fire, Dark, and Willpower) have a self-revive power that can be used, should you fall in battle. I personally don't like these. I don't plan on dying often enough to use them. For those rare occasions that it happens, I have either temporary powers to do it, or I use inspirations. It's what they're for.
That being said, I have seen Fire tanks absolutely devastate an entire spawn of enemies when they hit Rise of the Phoenix and blast the entire group with fire damage.
I just say 'That was cool. Let's see you do it again.'
Dark is kinda nifty; you need to hit something in order to use Soul transfer, and depending on how many you hit will then give you back health and end.
Willpower has Resurgence; it increases your damage and toHit for 90 seconds, then drops both for 45 seconds afterward.
Again, I don't like them or use them...
But if you want to, I suggest you do some research on it first to see if it's right for you.

As always, this has been my long-winded guide.
If you have any questions on tanking, whether that be my credentials or experience, or just general questions, drop me a line here on the forums, in-game (@Echo So'Kar), or the like.
Thanks for reading.
If you have any guide feedback, just let me know, and I'll do my best to edit.

Decent guide, few things worth noting though:

Invincibility doesn't debuff enemy tohit, RttC does. Invinc also grants + def and +tohit for each foe. You've not mentioned the -damage in AAO and Chilling Embrace. Nothing overwhelming but does work as functional resistance.

You might also want to add sections for each Primary for what kind of IO bonuses to go for. For example, positional defenses/recharge/recovery for FA and DA, typed defense for Invulns and Ice, +hp and typed defense for WP, positional defenses and recharge for Elec and SD and rerolling for Stone Armor (ohhhhhh snap).

There's not very much information on Gauntlet, which is a key factor in tanking imo. Might want to add something about attacking with AoEs to aggro the whole spawn and punching the boss to ensure you get their aggro, using Taunt/APP ranged/ranged AoEs to grab stuff out of melee range.

Another thing about attacking (especially with AoEs) is that minions die quickly, so killing minions fast means you're more likely to have the aggro of the lts and bosses. Punch boss, smash minions with AoEs, profit.

Another thing to note is that Taunt has -range, so even if something is aggroed on you already but pewpewing from range, you can hit it with Taunt to coax them into melee.

Lastly, I'd include some information about the esoteric protections/resists available in each set. While it's nothing major, it is important to know which sets have debuff resistance, which have end drain protection, which have fear/confuse/etc protection.

Edit: oh and the aggro cap. While you're not gonna get anywhere counting heads in a spawn, it's very worthwhile to get a rough sense of how many dudes you have aggroed on you. That way you know whether or not you can aggro/herd additional stuff.