I am a tanking veteren and nothing else. I got into this game in the beta and played some heavy for a couple weeks. The first time my sp was reset in the beta I skilled into tanks. I have done NOTHING but tank since I decided to start tanking in the beta. When I mean I did nothing else, I mean that in the most extreme terms. I was able to make a profit in tanking early on in my career and deployed my best tank in every single battle.

Eventually, when price changes and updates made proto tanking risky I was fully funded by teamplayers and allowed to drop proto (or my strongest tank in times before proto). I have about 50,000 kills in dust514. 50k is not much compared to some of the top players but nearly all of these kills were in tanking. I haven't had a proto suit just up until a month or two ago (I have 40 mil sp). I never did anything but screw around with infantry skills.

While I was tanking (blaster) I maintained a 9 point kdr and was apart of hundreds of PC matches in teamplayers. I played some really great teams while they were in their prime and was top of the scoreboard in a blaster tank. My qualifications for opinions on tanking are very deep.

Opinion (Tanks vs AV): Tanks in general are a waste of time. They are not profitable and they are nothing more then something to grab some easy kills with here and there against noobs. However overall the tanks surviability is weak! The reason the tank is so weak is because of the low health. With a well set up tank performance against decent AV is lacking. AV is simply too potent against even the most well fitted tanks. I believe the hardners and the Repping units available are not too bad for tankers, however the amount of health available to a tank is too low.

Increasing the base health to the tank would still make tanks very easy targets for AV when the hardners are cooling down. It would also allow multiple units of AV to destroy a tank while hardened or atleast send it running. Doing this does not make the tank able to withstand more AV only withstand it longer. By increasing the health of the tank you allow skill to become a more important factor. With increased health tanks while hardened would not get insta popped by a suprise of AV! I believe a well formulated suprise with great AV should kill unhardened tanks but simply send the hardened ones retreating!

Opinion (Rail VS Blaster): Blaster damage needs to be increased tank vs tank! Currently a rail tank can just roll up to a blaster tank, engage in a close combat fight, and win! The blaster tanks damage VS a rail fitting is so weak that even if the blaster tank gets the jump the rail can still come out on top (in close combat).

Blaster damage vs tanks needs to be increased so that strategical flanking is rewarded! This will also make the rail tank have to surprise the enemy OR use distance to its advantage.

This is what makes tank vs tank FUN! Flanking and activation of modules becomes more important with the ability of blasters to kill or be a threat up close to rails! OF COURSE this only is relevant when AV is not so destructive.

Opinion (proto vs advanced): if you get tanking skill to a high enough level you will see that you hardly benefit running proto. The difference between my advanced and my proto is an additional proto scanner and 20 health per rep !!! The price of proto is ridiculous and the benefits are so small. This needs to be changed...

Opinion (shield tanking): It hasn't been relavent in forever not even worth my time discussing...

Opinion (missle turrets): they are fine

Overall conclusion: increase base health of all tanks by 1000-2000, Increase blaster damage vs tanks, improve benefits of proto, reduce price of tanking or weaken all AV vs tanks in general