Manje

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Currently the Weight Classes are as such:

Strawweight-(Level 1 to 4)
Flyweight-(5 to 9)
Bantamweight-(10 to 14)
Featherweight-(15 to 19)
Lightweight-(20 to 24)
Welterweight-(25 to 29)
Middleweight-(30 to 34)
Cruiserweight-(35 to 39)
Heavyweight-(40 to 44)
Super Heavyweight-(45 to 50)

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Call meh crazy but I think this might be a little better spread although a new weight class would have to be invented:

1-5 = Strawweight
(Newbie Cup, I imagine this title will be like the contaminated badge meaning everyone can and will win this class but with scrappers and blasters having a stronger showing. Also fun to watch)
6-9 = Flyweight
(starts at 6 since you have access to power pools)
10-13 = Bantamweight
(pre-travel power class)
14-17 = Featherweight
(does anyone else think this class should start at 14 since we get travel powers then?)
18-21 = ?????weight
(a new weight class would have to be created for the pre-SO division)
22-25 = Lightweight
(SO division)
26-29 = Welterweight
(the minors)
30-34 = Middleweight
(the big leagues and the slots start pouring in)
35-39 = Cruiserweight
(we see how a pure built AT performs against another in this division and witness how Rock/Paper/Scissors the ATs truly are)
40-44 = Heavyweight
(epic powers begin to narrow the field)
45-50 = Super Heavyweight
(SUPERBRAWL XXVIII = maxxed out Hammi enhancers will rule us all!!!)

So (with the exception of the Strawweight class) we have a nice 4 level spread among the beginning classes until middleweight when it becomes 5 levels per class. We don't really have to worry about anyone having too great an advantage except for maybe the 10-13 Bantamweight class when level 12 & 13s get DOs but getting from 10 to 12 is much faster than getting from 20 to 22 so if a 10 is having problems he could just do mishies and street hunt till he gets to 12.

How about damage at the cost defense? What if tankers recieved a damage buff, putting them on par with scrapper damage(minus critical hits) while they had no defensive toggles running? Turning on any defensive toggle would then cut into this damage buff bringing it back down to normal tanker levels. Let's take Invulnerability as an example:

No toggles running = Full Damage Buff
TI or US running = 40% buff reduction
Invincibility = 60% buff reduction
Unstoppable = Complete Buff Reduction

Inherent powers wouldn't negatively affect your damage. Power pool defenses like Tough and Weave would affect your damage but not as much as your primaries. Also the damage reduction would be "capped" at the normal tanker level so with all your defenses up you'd basically be doing the same damage we see on live today. I hope this would accomplish two things:

1.) Gives folks more versatility in playing their tanker. In a group setting turn on your defenses and jump into a huge swarm of baddies to grab aggro and let the blasters/scrappers do their thing. Or shut down defenses when a controller has the mob held or a defender has debuffed them into uselessness and go to town with higher damaging attacks. Or wait till the blasters/scrappers have taken out the majority of the most dangerous baddies then shut down toggles and go to town during clean up.

2.) Avoids the problem of trivializing conflicts with high damaging alpha strikes since tankers tend to want to have their defenses running when drawing aggro thus they'll be less inclinded to start a conflict with the heavy hitting attacks.

Just my 2 cents