History Main / StoneWall

Distinguished from the MightyGlacier in that the StoneWall is even tougher to hurt, and not necessarily slow, clumsy, lacking in range, or whatever. The Mighty Glacier is much more balanced in his offense and defense. The Stone Wall only hits as hard as the FragileSpeedster, or perhaps weaker. Contrast the LightningBruiser, who can attack as well as he can tank, but still move fast.

** Also worth noting that when his defenses were pierced the second time, i.e. containing the combined power of Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate, the area around them only took relatively minor damage, or at least minor enough to be played as comedic. This is after taking the full power of someone who would later beat [[spoiler: a CrystalDragonJesus]], ''the'' fastest mage in the series, and a mage who's power output is said to be nearly equivalent to a ''tactical nuke.''

* Yakumo of ''[[ThreeByThreeEyes 3x3 Eyes]]'' is a berserker type meat shield (emphasis on the 'meat'), as all he has is the amazing power to not die. His job is to stand in front of attacks and be dismembered. He later learns how to fight effectively.

* {{Vandread}} Jura, a crab-like mech with astronomically powerful DeflectorShields. It can shield ''an entire planet'' against a far bigger and more powerful warship.

* The Dwarven Defender prestige class in ''DungeonsAndDragons'', especially many DnD based video games. A line of Dwarven Defenders is described as tougher than a 10ft thick stone wall, and much more deadly. They strongly favor the Turtling variety of this trope, because while in defense mode they are rooted to one position, and can only attack enemies that come within reach.

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** However in the sequel he is now a full stop tank, having skills that increase defense gained from armor equips, the mentioned aura that decreases enemy attack power from the first game is back, a shield skill that increases the defense gained from shield equips and provides the PCs a chance to block a physical attack - decreasing the damage taken to 1, the resistance skills from the first game have been combined into one talent in this one - meaning the dragonute will have the highest base resist of all the characters, and a skill that makes the character counter attacks do hit him with a fiery breath wave with great knockback, allowing breathing space for potion use.

*** ''[[PokemonBlackAndWhite]]'' introduces the (ironic) metal plant Nuttre. Besides having high defence, high special defence, as well as multiple resistances, its ability "Steel Thorns" damages opponents using a contact attack on it. Nuttre can learn many set-up moves such as Spikes and [[GameBreaker Stealth Rock]] to hurt incoming opponents and Leech Seed to recover lost health. It also packs pretty decent attack power and can do damage with Power Whip, and its Gyro Ball is the strongest in the game thanks to its abyssmal speed.

** Bronzong is also a nice candidate. High HP nice Defensive stats, moves that boost its defenses, stop the enemy from retreating when it has a good matchup, a typing that only gives it two weaknessess, and a choice of two Abilities, each of which eliminate (or at least surpress) one of the aforementioned weaknessess.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LabyrinthWallDB1-EN-C-UE.jpg]]

** A bizarre case which is actually a ''penguin'': Empoleon, a Water/Steel type with one of the longest Resistances lists in the game (11 resistances, 1 immunity, and only 3 weaknesses). The only one that trumps it is Magnezone (12 resistances, 1 immunity, and 3 weaknesses, though one is an easily-exploitable Ground weakness.)

** In terms of raw stats, Lugia and Cresselia qualify. They have astronomical defenses (106/130/154 for Lugia, 120/120/130 for Cresselia), but their offenses leave a bit to be desired.

** The basic playstyle no matter the powersets for Tankers (and some Brutes) is the 'Shielding' variant of this. Since Tankers can take darn near anything thrown at them, their abilities are geared towards getting the attention while the SquishyWizard and GlassCannon shoot from behind. Scrappers (and all the other Brutes) don't care.

** OGS also gives us the Fairlion twins piloted by Latooni Subota and Princess Shine Hausen, who are probably the {{Most Triumphant Example}}s (in SuperRobotWars at least) of the FragileSpeedster variety of this trope. The Fairlions by themselves are very dodgy real robots with decent evasion stats and the "[[DopplegangerSpin Double Image]]" ability, but sticking Latooni and Shine in them makes them virtually untouchable, especially once Shine hits 130 Will and her Prophecy ability activates. Arm them with some long-range weapons and keep them near each other so they can use their CombinationAttack, and they can slaughter entire ''waves'' of mooks and emerge unscathed.

** Then there's Red's Snolax...Sleep while getting pummeled to death, only to wake up and go back to sleep to fully heal HP. He can sit there forever........

** Then there's Red's Snolax...Sleep while getting pummeled to death, wake and and go back to sleep to fully heal HP and can sit there forever........

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*** How does the fourth generation, with the physical-special split, more powerful Fighting and Rock moves, and physical attackers hitting harder in general, affect the steel bird? Well, it's... not ''quite'' as effective as before. However, it is still in the top 20, and can still stop many physical attackers cold. Plus, it now has Roost, which not only heals 1/2 of its HP, but also, if it does so before the opponent attacks, removes its Flying-type for that turn, which means Electric attacks are now neutral and it actually resists Ice and Rock. (It has to watch out for Fighting and Ground moves, though.) Not only that, but it now has Brave Bird to inflict pretty solid damage while it's walling (in exchange for some recoil damage, which it can heal with Roost or Leftovers). It may not be the menace it once was, but it's still an exemplary physical wall.

** Most robots of any type can serve as this in a pinch. Because most enemies will attack the first player unit that comes into their range, a common tactic in virtually every game is to arm a "sacrificial lamb" with a defense or evasion-boosting Seishin command and then send it into a swarm of enemies. Assuming it's done right (don't expect your supers to dodge or your reals to be damage sponges!), this results in enemy mooks attacking en masse and either missing entirely or doing minimal damage while the target unit counterattacks and -- ideally -- deals massive damage to the swarm.

**In non-OG, anytime {{Daitarn 3}} appears, it's one of the toughest units in the game, if not the toughest EVEN SURPASSING THE BATTLESHIPS. Add on it also usally surpasses most everyone in damage, it's always top tier. Also the Mazingers to an extent, but Kaiser is a true tank. In fact,most of the older super robots are fairly good tanks, sratch Getter, which is a glass cannon. GP-03 is also fairly tough for a Gundam.

* Team Taiyo's overall strategy, to stall for ten turns to fulfill the summoning requirements for their ultimate monster.