Aera_Sparkling

Perhaps a better solution would be to create an inherent power (preferably without a stamina requirement) that causes the AoE effect via your attacks. That way you would have a semblence of control over how it effects the enemies.

I.E. You're about to begin a fight with a large group of enemies, so to keep them off your allies or to attract them to yourself, you switch on the inherent power called something like 'Fists of Agression'. The FoA causes any attack you use, ANY attack, to bring agression to you within an AoE distance (around you or from where your fists are, that's not the issue at the moment). Suddenly you notice that, say for instance, an ArchVillain is incredibly close to the group you're beating to a pulp, and you no longer wish to taunt anything nearby. Then you shut off FoA, the taunt effect disappears, and you have your control.

I would say this is the best course of action for those early levels. If nothing else, it gives you that slight control that you would feel you need, while giving everyone else what they want.

While I can see your concern about uncontrollable amounts of enemies hording over your tanker, I have a feeling that if this sort of thing became common enough, that the developers would either discontinue the new tanker advancements, or they would consider a way to fix the problem to an extent you would find satisfactory.

And while the punches would have an AoE taunt area, you have to still remember that with the taunt, you're also hopefully going to get a bit more power behind your attacks to balance that. Your force of destruction AND your taunting should assist you to a point where your attacks can do decent enough damage that maybe you won't get too bogged down as long as your taunt range isn't super distant.