Liquid,
I had confirmed my suspicions on the subject when I was playing a defender and we could not find a tanker that could hold the attention of an AV we were fighting in a L33+ team. I then made my own tanker and went and fought a few AVs Dr. V being the one I had my suspicions confirmed on. I found that nothing I did would give me the aggro of the AV other than Taunt. The taunt auras and everything are still exceptionally useful for managing spawns, but having taunt is 100% necessary to hold AV/GM aggro.
I know it's upsetting that taking a no damage/defense power is a requirement for a Tank to actually tank. I can't agree more with the Tanker community that, this is a borked way of doing things. I do enjoy playing my Tanker however, so I hope there are some changes some day that make tanking more than just mashing a single button.
