Why do you tank?

for me, its the sense of satisfaction and general feelgood when someone says "whoa thats a lot of threat, i can actually go all-out!" or "holy shit that must of been about 8 mobs and you didnt lose aggro??"

ive always enjoyed playing the "unpopular" offspecs, so for me the entire game is a challenge of trying to push each class to its limits; showing and seeing just what it is capable of. for example im currently levelling a shaman tank.
and then when i actually prove my point to the doubters - that paladins CAN tank (in this case), and they can tank well - it always brings a little smile to my face. there are still people in the guild that mock me for being a tankadin sometimes, but even they know that ive proven myself and my spec, time and time again.
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(if the figures are terrible, im in my loldps gear, obviously)

I do it because it's fun. I play three characters these days, a Paladin, a Priest and a Rogue. I find each of those three classes incredibly fun when I'm doing what they do best. =D
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I am an invincible spellcaster who gets to spam AoE nonstop, does not have to worry about pulling aggro, and looks pretty while doing it. What's not to love?
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Came to tanking entirely by accident- rolled a paladin for no particular reason when I started WoW (I normally start any new game with a melee class, and move on to clothies later on, when I understand the game better), was ret until 36, read about AoE tanking while on a forced break, and decided to give that a go. Still doing it, 34 levels later.

I think it appeals to me because a) I'm a control freak, and b) I'm possessed of an unhealthy need to be The Man regardless of what I'm doing. Plus I'm a soldier IRL, so (for better or worse) I'm familiar with "I have to do my job perfectly or everyone around me dies" situations.

Also, JoL/SoW keeping you alive forever while soloing = win.

Hmm I played 3 paladins in total.
Ret/Holy/Prot (current)

I always thought of paladins as something inspiring. A defender that lends aid to the people in dark times with their indomitable spirit, conviction and faith.

Never really saw holy as a paladin, if anything its more like a cleric...
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My 2 favorite quotes are the reason I tank.

1. Paladin alt
2. Shortage of tanks on PST in guild
3. Casual guild that does a lot of Heroics/Karazhan (
Paladin tank playgrounds IMO)

I play a DPS caster as my main and for most PvP, but I've always liked Paladins. Gearing and speccing to tank was a decision based in part on frustration with cloth armor, and an interest in exploring the potential of tanking plate+shield. PvP as a prot pally is generally frustrating, but every once in a while I manage to convince some meleers I'm a healer. Full blocks on MS/Execute make the warlock in me giggle.
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http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Medivh&n=Minn

The reasons im a prot pally:
1. I didnt make my pally to be a heal bot
2. No-one respected Ret pallies
3. Could only get a raid spot being prot
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Cause I leveled as prot from 35 and I tanked from level 20

But seriously are any of us sane? who likes to get spanked OVER and over again is not a normal person
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Fortunately for us, sanity is not a prerequisite for tanking... anybody who charges into a pack of mobs determined to break all forms of crowd control has probably lost a couple marbles.
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I tank mostly because I always wanted to play a tank class and never wanted to finish out leveling a warrior; Warrior pre-40 is an awful class. They have no dps, no survivability, have to eat after every fight. Sure, they get mortal strike or bloodthirst once they hit 40, and their dps goes way way up, but the trek to that point? It's hours and hours of nonstop pain. I played Shaman a lot pre-bc, I had two shaman I leveld to 60, one of them resto (which burnt me out thoroughly on healing) and one of them enhancement (Rocking spinal reaper and pulling about 350-400 dps in ZG. Also, dying every third pull.) who I actually did a decent amount of tanking on - it actually became pretty typical for us to be sitting around at 2 am and my friend litany (now my fiance) asking 'Hey Broad, wanna tank BRD?' and I'd throw on my force of will and defense/stam gear, put on my immovable object and run BRD. I did a great job of it and enjoyed the hell out of it, but after BC came out shaman tanking pretty much died altogether (and it was already a dead horse as it was) and I gave up on the idea. I tried rolling a couple of paladin characters, but ended up quitting wow due to some drama going on at the time (partially over the aforementioned fiance) and gave up on the whole thing.

I ended up moving out to Oklahoma to be with my lady and we started playing wow again as something to do during our off time, and ended up duoing all the way to 70 with me as prot and her as a balance druid, and had a hell of a fun time. Playing prot has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my wow life - As DPS I had virtually 0 power over our survivability as a raid or party, even with the occasional off-heal. As a healer, I had some power over it, but generally all the tanks I played with were either undergeared or awful at the game; I'm talking tanks who would threaten to gquit for not getting kara invites as 'mt' with 10k hp raid buffed. I was so overgeared from normal mode instances at 70 that they offered nothing to me and I couldn't do heroics. The game had become a chore at the time. But now, I was the tank, I could really, finally control whether or not we would see success or failure. I've always seen the tank as the most important role in the party. You're not just the defacto leader of the group, in heroics you are the fine line between survival and death. One hit from a lot of those enemies will tear your healer in half. Being good with taunt, knowing how to generate threat, and getting compliments for your gear and skill as a tank, running heroics and normal mode instances with 0 wipes or 0 deaths or noone but the tank ever getting hit by any avoidable attack. The biggest complaint I always had playing any other class was that when it came to the most important role in the party, in my mind, the tank, if they were bad you were doomed to failure. There was nothing you could do. Good CC might help, but it dosen't mean a thing if the second the tank gets a big heal for 3 or 4k the mob he's tanking runs off and one-shots them. (true story; respecced shaman resto to help us through kara, EVERY TIME on maiden I got agg and died - from healing at maximum safe range.) Now as a tank I'm seeing good, solid groups every time I run. I love it. It's made the game play entirely different from me. I don't know if I'll ever seriously go back to dps or healing.
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I came to tanking by necessity.
I was holy pre-BC and very happy with my role in raids. When BC came around there wasn't a tank in the guild available who put enough time in the game to keep up with the fastest leveling group of players. So I tanked - still holy skilled. At some point I decided I might as well do it right and respecced to prot and found I really enjoyed it.
I still really like healing and if our raid setup needs another healer and can afford to lose a tank I always enjoy going holy for a day or so.

So my answer to the question "why do you tank?" is "because it's the best for my raid" - I'm a team player before everything else and if you can afford to have someone who could heal in a different role a prot pally is incredibly useful in a raid.
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L70 Paladin Dun Morogh

DPS is boring; I prefer to be on the receiving end of the big numbers.
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i tank because healing was and is easy as fook and because i like it.
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Tanked: Midnight + Attunman, Maiden, Big Bad Wolf, Prince, Illhoof