"no reason to really tank in this game since everything is insanely easy."

You're hilarious.

Currently, Spiral Knights' gameplay focuses around dodging and eating up short bursts of damage while killing things in a variety of ways using different things. It doesn't have archetypes like 'tank' or 'healer'; it's all about maximum offense and dodging, sorta like a strange mutation of a shoot-em-up game (though much easier...).

The closest you can get to tanking in this game is by blocking projectiles for other players, and the Omega Shell and Ancient Plate Shield are the best shields for absorbing raw damage overall.

Don't get hit?

Glacies, I agree with you, this game is too easy. I'd post a wall of text as to why you're right and anyone who thinks otherwise is a potato, but I think everybody already knows what I'm going to say since it's been said over and over.

What Zeddy said. Use your shield if you want to tank.

I tank for life. I generally use a Ancient Plate Shield, since I'm always being hammered in melee (and being a 東方Project player means turrets aren't an issue)
The biggest point of usefulness of a tank in a party is threat. If you can get every monster aggroed to yourself, your teammates won't take damage whatsoever. Two things generate threat effectively: High damage numbers, and multiple strikes. Charge attacks are good for the former, Haze bombs are good for the latter, since they hit with a chance to inflict status (which may or may not cause damage) twice per second. You can very quickly attract the attention of an entire room just by dropping a haze bomb, even a non-damaging one like Swagger or Veiler. In fact, these two bombs are the best for a tank since they make the monsters a lot less dangerous for your teammates.

Remember that you can draw a monsters aggro just by hitting it, even if you're not doing damage. A Trojan standing in a mist haze will aggro to you even if the Trojan is facing the centre of the blast (and is therefore not being afflicted with status). Keep the Trojan on you, and "feed" your shield to the Trojan's slam attacks. If you sit too far away, the Trojan will dash, making it difficult for your teammates to land a hit. By letting him hit you, you're rooting the Trojan in place. (not to mention using a Trojan to slam on your shield can knock you out of some dangerous situations, and even across traps without taking damage)

In a swarm of gremlins or slags, by attracting full attention of everything, you're allowing your teammates easy access to healers, turrets, mortafires, and other annoying support monsters. Something you really have to understand is how much damage you can take, specifically the Last Stand mechanic, and what monster attacks will ignore it. Remember that the Last Stand's reliability is inversely proportionate to your max health, so think again before swapping out that 6 vita for a 12 vita. Unfortunately this means that Ancient Plate Mail, by mechanics, is broken when it comes to defensive abilities.

dont need junk trinkets, dont need junk armors, dont need junk shield

get ur preferred equipments and 1 junk weapon

hex mentioned it venom veiler

buuut, its better to adjust to the kind of lvl ur playing, especially as tank
vv wont do anything against status defects or those candlelight ghosts

adjusting to lvls STILL doesnt mean u have to get the crappiest equipment possible
better stay away from move decrease and attack decrease

and wait for the awesome pets bwahahahahahahaha!

ya know....
technically the volcanic plate shield is an ancient plate shield, only with fire resistance, and ironmight is the same thing only with pierce and stun. (god knows why vps doesnt match its set, though)
plus vps can actually take vanaduke's mace.
just sayin'.

also, in some awkward way heavy weapons/armor (the normal tank's outfit) in sk have severe drawbacks that you dont see in many other sets. a full heavy player would be ill-suited for attack because he would take too long to land a hit that would be, if compared to a normal speed sword ,the same in damage. worse of all, stack that to the fact that his defense aint that good, so he can take like another couple of hits and thats all.
srsly, if you try a calibur and a troika combo youll find out it takes the same number of combos to make a kill (one and a half).
so, yeah, in here its all about dodging and making lightning-quick attacks while enveloped in light (preferably furry) gear to excel.
its cool, but still gives heavy players a hard life ¬¬

technically the volcanic plate shield is an ancient plate shield, only with fire resistance, and ironmight is the same thing only with pierce and stun. (god knows why vps doesnt match its set, though)

Ancient Plate Shield has greater normal defense, and I have a sneaking suspicion it has a higher stun resist too. If VPS had elemental defense as well, it would be overpowered. Simple as that. It essentially be a superior heater shield.

EDIT: Sorry, my mistake made that sentence confusing