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Tankers manage aggro better than any other Archetype. They also have the highest combination of hit points and defenses in the game.
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Well, honestly, Statesman, that's incorrect.
I can surpass any tank's available defense with a few Luck inspirations. Cheap, readily available, even free most of the time.
And rapid-fire healing is equivilant to nearly unlimited hit points, which is possible for any Defender with a self-heal, or anyone who takes and slots Aid Self with 3 recharges, actually.
The tank's only saving grace at this point, since they don't do more damage than defenders, is their higher base hit points, which allows them to take harder hits.
Aggro management? Controllers can lock down most or all of a spawn. No aggro, so that's good management. Debuffs, slows, holds, pets, any number of means exist to "manage" aggro, for most of the ATs. People can even take the Presence pool and slot heavily if they want, and tank well enough as long as they can stay alive.
Oh, and since tanks can't keep aggro off the heavier damage dealers, they aren't able to manage aggro sufficiently.
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Their role is to take the brunt of a spawn's aggro just long enough in order for the rest of the team to be able to eliminate the mobs.
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So what point is there in playing a tank if you only have one purpose? I'll stick with my defenders and Kheldians, who can do many things, most of them just as well as a tank.
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Should a skilled Tanker be able to corral EVERY mob? With a lot of skill, it should be possible - but it's certainly not required to be a good Tank. As long as the Tanker can hold onto aggro so that his teammates are facing less than they'd normally face (i.e. 3 minions), then the team has an advantage. Namely, each teammate can quickly eliminate his opposition...and then come to the Tanker's aid at the end.
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That theory fails to account for the ATs without sufficient damage output to "quickly eliminate" enemies, which is a very stark reality in this game. These ATs are inherantly slower at defeating enemies, and as such, cannot meet the requirement you set for the team (quick elimination of 2-3 minions). You also don't account for aggro lost to the ATs with higher damage output, which increases their risk and requires them to concentrate less on helping their defender/controller teammates and more on staying alive. Then the defender/controller has to switch focus from those 2-3 minions that you're expecting them to handle and try to keep the blasters (and possibly scrappers) alive. The advantage quickly turns to the enemies favor, it seems.
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End result? Well, no one was that familiar with their builds.
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Was that an excuse for allowing the controller and Kheldian to be defeated, or were you pointing out that this is what you expect on a typical team of new players or players trying out alts with powers new to them?
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The Controller was defeated by getting too close to another spawn.
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It happens, not a big deal. However, a few months ago, when it did happen, you really got a chance to see some great heroes in action (click my sig). Now, you just lie there and wait to see if everyone else goes down or survives the next few minutes and has a rez available, sadly.
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The Peacebringer carelessly tossed off attacks and ended up aggroing too much.
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Now, let's be sure you're clear on this.
The Kheldian filled his/her function in the group, that being dealing damage, and was defeated when you lost aggro and therefore were not filling your function in the group, and this is perfectly acceptable? Working as intended? Perhaps you feel that Kheldians should perform a different function in the group, and if so, would you care to enlighten the readers as to what that would be?
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After those two defeats, we settled down and functioned fine.
Admittedly, my own health dropped down to a 1/3 several times. I'd get a little concerned, but usually I had Dull Pain ready.
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If the combat went on long enough for you to have to use DP "several times", you need to take a long, hard look at something in the game, because even with 3 recharge reduction SOs, it takes a good while for it to come up on my Invuln/SS tank, and that implies that you and your team were either performing very poorly overall, or the game has been slowed down to a veritible crawl when teaming, in which case, you can expect even less teaming overall when people get tired of simple missions taking far longer than they have to dedicate to them and task forces/trials requiring multiple days to complete.
Oh, and Statesman, if you ever do find yourself roaming around Pinnacle, please DO NOT offer to team with me. I'd rather avoid the debt.
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I disagree with one point here...stating that you can imitate defense levels with insp's isnt very valid. A tank can pop insp's too. To increase damage output as well as increase defenses.
