When did you start tanking?

[praysolace]

I started tanking right off the bat, as my first class in this game (which is my first MMO). I wanted to play either a Marauder or a Lancer, and in hindsight, given how much I hate Lancer, I'm glad I picked Marauder. I only chose Marauder over Lancer because I wanted to play with a friend who was gonna start a new toon as an Arcanist.

That said, I did know what I was getting myself into, and read up about tanking like crazy so as to minimize the learning curve as much as possible. It was pretty rough at times and I felt like quitting after some runs... but really, the only time I wouldn't recommend tanking to somebody is if they don't know what they're getting themselves into. Not even if people have confidence issues (I had BIG confidence issues). As long as you're not going in unawares, you can do it.

TC, you should have no problems.

[Nico_Of_Awesome]

I've been tanking since EQ1 first as a Warrior then as a Shadow Knight, and have tanked every MMO (except FFXI where my main was a Dark Knight/Thief; though I did eventually do some DRK/NIN tanking too.) since then. It's the job I enjoy the most.

[Meleoffs]

I tanked in WoW for like a dungeon before the anxiety got to me. Then I mained PLD in 2.0, and realized tanking is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Just hit your CDs when you need to hit them and you're okay.

[Werhusky]

I started to level marauder because I had a load of axes from dungeons and found it cool
I mostly FATE grinded to level 50 but tanked each dungeon till 50 at least once some twice when helping FC members. Imho I felt crap and it was the very first Titan HM I fully survived through when I tanked lol. My first "real" tanking experiences were when I tanked the weekly Labyrinth of the Ancients in FC runs (we were short on tanks so someone had to do it). I got to a OK level of aggro management... Seems people were even happy enough with my skills because a FC static suddenly asked me to tank for them (T1-4 progression) and I never had done Coil before.
Ended up maining warrior for a good while but now I am back to scholar which is my class I really live but that is just due to our static needing a healer and people that applied had issues to manage MP, couldnt use Skills, didnt take advice...
Warrior was along with scholar also my first level 60 just now just to tank the blind dungeon runs that I do with 3 (4) certain friends and they dont tank.

[The_NPC]

well since the "Tank role has exsisted since the dawn of the "trinity" (solo or mutiplayer games) I've been 1 in Solo games for a long, damn ass long time do to untrustworthy NPC's that can't hold hate worth a damn. As for Muliplyer games, that would be WKC2 as a Spear-Tank (or sword had points in both) I've always like the "sword & Shield" combo... thou would be completly perma-happy if I ever get a "Gunsword & Shield" class.

[SlothGod]

I first started as a monk in WoW. I loved the way it worked and all the stuff you had to manage to be a decent tank.

In this game however, I didn't start tanking till Heavensward released and I got my hands on DRK. I don't think I could main a tank in this game, but I do enjoy tanking on occasion.

[Claire_Pendragon]

I always wanted to play MMOs, when my friends played Ultima.
They told me about how healers were desired, and that made me want to heal... if I could still use a sword and some armor...

FFXI was about to come out, so I got a PC, and started up as a RDM.
My friends told me RDM was useless, and seeing how MP and potency of heals was being an issue, I rerolled a WHM.

Eventually I saw PLDs, and wanted to be a PLD/WHM melee, who would help the healer out with occasional light heals. (I also pulled a LOT of hate from heals, and WAR tanks could never keep me alive. Never really played with PLD tanks)
Due to limited playing time, it took me almost a year to reach Lv30.
So I tried WAR/WHM, thinking I could be a mini PLD.

After deleveling constantly (couldnt get to Lv11 no matter how hard I tried.), I said I would NEVER tank.
Unlocked PLD, went to dunes, and everyone was ticked I wasnt /WAR for voke.
Eventually a desperate group added me, and a DRK/WAR, who argued he could never tank. (I said I'd help heal him, so they tried it)

Within seconds I was pulling hate, and then self healing to keep my butt alive, and suddenly, a TANK was born.
Switched to PLD/WAR, and fell in love with PLD tanking.

I still liked Healing as RDM, supporting as BRD, and eventually liked to DPS as BLU.

It wasnt until my 3rd attempt at WoW, did I start to like tanking more than any other role.

A game with 4 different tanks, with 4 different play styles.
I didnt like every play style, but the idea started to cross my mind, id like to see more playstyles for tanking.

I started 1.0 up as an ARM, with the goal of LNC in mind. GLA was horrible at tanking, and unfun.
I secretly wanted to make MRD a tank, despite ppl suggesting it wasnt possible.

After some F2P MMOs, I came back to 1.18 or 1.19, i forget, and tanked as MRD (loved it.) and as LNC (not because I wanted to, but because no tank could hold threat over me, and I found a way to mass pull enemies, w/o dieing, so I just took up the role of LNC tank)

For 2.0 I really wanted to try the new WAR tanking style, but since I was a 50 MRD, I took up my GLA instead, to go through the main story. Sadly, they changed WARs playstyle, to what looked like a less fun style, before I really got a chance to mess with it.
Anyways, I'm back, and looking forward to DRK. (I'll take up every tank to max if I can in an MMO. Usually the main draw is if the MMO has at LEAST 3 different playing tanks)

[Drtoxicmedica]

I sated tanking after I got my Lancer to 30 and had to lever marauder. Once 15 I figured I might as well run sastasha and instantly fell in love with the roll and class. Was always a joy to have run through a dungeon and get three player commendations and once I started tanking level 50 content such as coils I knew tanking was gonna be my main.

[Borascythe]

I believe it was during WoW: The Burning Crusade. I was playing an Orc Warrior at the time. I started off playing the class for PvP purposes. I soon figured out I was horrible at PvP. Luckily, I had plenty of tanking experience levelling. I applied this to a raiding environment and soon found myself as my guild's MT and raid leader. To this day, I still have nightmares about tanking Shattered Halls as a warrior tank.

I've been tanking off and on since then. I started off FFXIV as a healer, but I soon found that my skills were best suited to tanking. Why be a healer when your naturally better at tanking? Been tanking now for about a year or so.

[rjspencer4]

The very first day I started playing, and it's the only thing I've done since as PLD and DRK are the the only combat jobs I have above lv.30