Tanking In Hit Gear

Tanking is hit gear refers is the process of tanking in mixed hit and tank, or full hit gear. It's not hard to see how this process starts; when someone is looking at Hero Tank Gear, they'll notice that the LeMans Family Seal only offer's around and upto -35 ac (like with a b12-whatever thing going on), while a good shard can be 10/10 -15, so a trade is definately in order... other pieces of gear can be rated this way, but what is most commonly seen is full hit gear with the carb, the shogun, and shroud; and occasionally the Teardrop Helm

Note that some eq locations multiply the base ac of items, namely 'on body', 'offhand', and, to a lesser degree, 'about body'. With Armor Optimization those three are a little better and six other spots get minor boosts, as you can see on the Armor Class page.

A charged shield with shield block can sometimes be a good trade off for an offhand weapon.

Of course, you should be wearing Fatewalkers and Chained Steel Collar, since they're both the best hero hit, and the best hero tank.

Some items give both an ac bonus and a hr/dr bonus. List particularly useful items of this type here.

40s:

Crown Of Laurel Leaves

Hero:

Necklace Of Teeth
Templar Ring
Spiked Sleeves
Silver Breast Plate (4hr/4dr/-10ac) or Darklinscale Lamellar (3hr/3dr/-50ac/10hp)
Teardrop Helm / Smoldering Crown Of Dying Fire

also some Manifest Gear such as: Mega's Spark In A Bottle, Dizzy's Black Leather Skirt

and some new items in Eragora, for example Mauve Mollusc Mukluks and Orkenfyr Signet Ring.

Notes

In terms of trades, the best are, in descending order:
Talisman for Shard/Orb
Single Archer's Gauntlet for Killing Gloves
Steel Bracers of Heroic Dragonscale Sleeves
Orosca's Wristguards for Tattoos/Symbol of Darkness
Everything else give -40 or better ac, so it's a bigger trade, and necks/rings, but that's really up to you.