Your Classes and what you do.

[Griss]

To Forge a legitimate old school dungeons and dragons style tank. A build that can absorb a lot of damage and dish it right back to the enemy.

the modern mmo trope of a tank being only able to absorb damage and do bugger all in the damage department really burns my biscuits.

[Cycloptichorn]

Agreed.

I play a Tank; that doesn't just mean that I soak up damage, though. In reality you spend a lot of time managing the fight, knowing when to pop skills and when to hold off a bit and wait for the right moment to spike your hate. Knowing which mobs shed hate periodically and which blink out, so you can be right on top of getting hate back. Using Cover and other targeted skills to save the squishies in the back when the sh*t hits the fan. Keeping calm when your pt aggros another two mobs, grabbing their hate real quick with an AOE.

The tank also drives the speed of the entire party. If you're a tank who is on top of their game, you're pushing for a new mob as fast as possible when the old one is dead, or already running to the next section of the leve or quest. You can't be the last one to show up to the next mob, ever, or hate control goes out the window. It takes a combination of strategic smarts, active battle management, foresight, and teamwork to play an effective tank.

That's my class and that's what I do.

[SirThesd]

To Forge a legitimate old school dungeons and dragons style tank. A build that can absorb a lot of damage and dish it right back to the enemy.

the modern mmo trope of a tank being only able to absorb damage and do bugger all in the damage department really burns my biscuits.

Yeah, a Tank that can't speed up the death of the target isn't much use IMHO.
After all the quicker a mob dies the faster XP rolls in!

Agreed.

I play a Tank; that doesn't just mean that I soak up damage, though. In reality you spend a lot of time managing the fight, knowing when to pop skills and when to hold off a bit and wait for the right moment to spike your hate. Knowing which mobs shed hate periodically and which blink out, so you can be right on top of getting hate back. Using Cover and other targeted skills to save the squishies in the back when the sh*t hits the fan. Keeping calm when your pt aggros another two mobs, grabbing their hate real quick with an AOE.

The tank also drives the speed of the entire party. If you're a tank who is on top of their game, you're pushing for a new mob as fast as possible when the old one is dead, or already running to the next section of the leve or quest. You can't be the last one to show up to the next mob, ever, or hate control goes out the window. It takes a combination of strategic smarts, active battle management, foresight, and teamwork to play an effective tank.

That's my class and that's what I do.

Backup EVA Tank myself, better at it when it comes to NM's though... length of the fight determines how much of what I can do.
I like how you think, alot :P