Aggro management is no problem on most map types for me, and I can take quite a lot of damage as well, just need SO's for my tank to be self-sufficient.
The reason people say you can't keep aggro is that they are inexperienced/bad tankers or play in bad teams. I witnessed today Phil keeping 99% of aggro for an entire TF without taunt below level 20 (synapse TF). If he can do it at that level then so can anyone else. I have known for ages that at high levels you can easy keep aggro (because of my 50) but I have little real experience of tanking below 20, now I have seen that aggro can be held at all levels, just using simple tactics (such as corner pulling) and cooperation.
The moment you are able get an aura or a taunt (in the invulns case) tanking should really begin. Status protection asap i strongly advise afterwards.
On all but my invuln i have tanked from lvl 2 or 4 so it is doable plus no debt anyway, (invuln lvl 10). An icetanker should be able to most certainly completely tank frostfire at lvl 6 (other types may need a break free or 2).
As bigboy says it is about simple tactics and cooperation. Teams that just run in and mash dont always help (poorly timed rain of fire, freezing rain, knockbacks into next groups, impatient attacking during herding process, defenders that build a blaster to begin with, caltrops thrown at your feet for a few examples). To be able to tank in your best way to your best often requires cooperation from the rest of the team.
I know i am alot happier, more relaxed and less likely to feel rushed playing with people i am more familiar with as is the case with most people I'd expect.
As you are someone with the other 4 main ATs of good level Kaya you should know alot about their needs of a tanker plus your needs as a tanker to make a good tanker. The many tankers out there with no real aggro managing ability maybe new to the game and/or quite young, lack confidence (possibly with the teams they find to keep them alive in each mob at low level) or couldnt care less (so some excuse).
The only difference in keeping aggro in i6 to previous issues is the fact you cant taunt as many or survive as many as before add to that many people complain about the aggro gaining ability of the stonetankers (especially in granite) they have teamed with but thats down to the stonetankers build and intentions.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
I have to say my fave Archtype is indeed Blaster, but I've developed a new respect for the Tanker type.
After struggling to hit that all important lvl 14 for fly with Mastermeld, I made a tanker because I also wanted something different to play with.
I was a lil wary at first, but now I <3 my tanker and his bald head lol. I get a load of aggro, but he's able to withstand all of it, plus it doesn't help having a trust worthy healer backing me up. (shout out to Arken)
I never realized how much fun they are, and now contemplating making a similar brute as a villain.
He's currently lvl 6 atm 
My only prob with him thus far though is he tends to miss, not as much as he use to but still does which is annoying.
Any tips? His attacks have End Red, Acc and Damage at 5++ and his defence is damage resist at 5++
i cant give you tips as all i can see is tanker/science but whilst you are missing with your attacks there is no gauntlet effect so its hard to gain and keep the appropriate share of the aggro that suits you. I dont see how having a healer doesnt help you though i would of thought every little bit helps.
Its probably worth looking into the guides section on this forum.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
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I was a lil wary at first, but now I <3 my tanker and his bald head lol. I get a load of aggro, but he's able to withstand all of it, plus it doesn't help having a trust worthy healer backing me up. (shout out to Arken)
....
My only prob with him thus far though is he tends to miss, not as much as he use to but still does which is annoying.
Any tips? His attacks have End Red, Acc and Damage at 5++ and his defence is damage resist at 5++
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My advice for tanker slotting is
Levels 1-11
Slot toggles with end reds and attacks with accs and end reds. Damage resistance and Defence enhancements make almost no difference at this level.
Make sure you have the basic armours and the self-heal. The self-heal is pretty important and I would aim to six slot it by the mid teens. Make sure you pick up the taunt Aura, Chilling Embrace ( Ice ), Blazing Aura ( Fire ) or Mud Pots ( Stone ). The last 2 are very endurance heavy but can be relied on to do most of your AoE damage later on and so extra slots in them are worthwhile. Don't get too many attacks from your secondary, I usually get only the basic attack, the 3rd tier attack and taunt.
Levels 12-21
Stock up on DO enhancements. Slot with end reds and damage/def in toggles. Put Accs, Damage and end reds in attacks.
You will be mainly getting travel powers and the fitness pool in these levels. Invulnerabilty tanks will need to pick up Invincibility at level 18 too as it is their taunt aura.
Levels 22-
Stock up on SOs. Put in your final slotting and then fill out your build with the powers you missed.
Level 32.
Really consider getting the final power. I made the mistake of not getting Unstoppable on my Inv until 44 and left Hibernate on my Ice tank until 35. Both are really good powers if used in the right circumstances.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
As usual for such issues, there's more than one aspect to it.
1. Aggro auras.
Some builds have an easier time than others due to their auras. For example Ice has two auras that aggro everyone around, so it's the ultimate aggro magnet. Stone and Fire aren't bad either with their damage auras, though less so than Ice. Invuln tanks, on the other hand, have the weakest aggro aura of them all, presumably because of the lack of Gauntlet effect, _and_ only get it at level 18.
So basically it depends on the type of tank who was posting. If an Invuln says they have trouble keeping aggro at Atta, I can believe them very easily, because they just don't have an aggro aura at all yet. _All_ they have there is a 5-target taunt, if they even took that, and you don't even know which 5 it'll hit.
(E.g., Atta's layout is easy, but it's happened to me in other missions that it only hit 1 person in the group I was trying to taunt... but 4 from a room upstairs we didn't plan to aggro yet. AOE's don't hit in a circle, but in a sphere.)
2. Gauntlet.
Maybe it's just me, but I rank it as barely more than nothing. Keyword: barely. It's a very short lived taunt and a very short range one. You can see that the enemies right next to the punch one turn towards you... then turn back and shoot the blaster.
So basically a tanker with two attacks in their low levels, and none of those an AOE (the exception being the Fire Melee set with Combustion) isn't going to keep a lot of aggro with Gauntlet. Maybe someone who already has a full attack chain _and_ some accuracy SOs or Rage/Build-Up is gonna do OK with just Gauntlet, but a lowbie isn't.
Yet, sad to say, that's just what a lot think they're going to do when they create their character. ("Who needs Taunt? Punching does the same and does damage too!" Quoted from memory from yet another such post, repeating the same falsehood, on the US forums.)
3. Surviving the aggro.
That's really the trickiest part at low levels. Atta is easy because it's smash and lethal damage. Surviving Outcasts is already a slightly trickier proposition. Doubly so when being asked to tank Frostfire on Invincible, because someone cares only about XP. (Bonus points if they didn't invite a defender either.)
Again, it depends on the tank type. Stone can have _some_ defense (not much, but still) to more attacks, because they're smash+something or lethal+something, and defending against one component defends against the whole attack. Add _some_ regeneration from Rooted, and you might survive an extra attack. On the other hand, something like Fire or Invuln can have a lot of damage types they don't mitigate much or at all yet.
That's really one of the major reasons for the recent negative press about the AT. The resistances and defense these days are a _lot_ lower than in I4. And while some ways to compensate in the long run do exist (e.g., Tough and Weave), someone trying to get a travel power at 14 and Stamina at 20, is going to have to postpone even most of their primaries on the way there. In the shorter run, tanks _are_ squishier than before. Gaining a lot of aggro only to faceplant a second later isn't particularly motivating, and doesn't really help the team much either.
4. Solo vs team-only meatshield builds.
I still say that a lot of problems a lot of tanks have is basically being built like a scrapper. I've seen people in the 20's who had Resist Physical Damage as their _only_ primary, but a lot of attacks and/or pool powers. No, seriously. I'm not making this up.
The problem is basically that until the 30's (at the very least) there are only so many slots and powers, and a lot of them are as good as pre-selected. You need at least 5 powers and a lot of slots for travel powers and Stamina alone. For a Stone tank, 3-slotting Swift is pretty much a pre-requisite. Etc. Which leaves only so many powers and slots available for both defenses and attacks. Every attack is one less resistance power, and viceversa. Every slot in an attack is one less slot in a resistance power, and viceversa.
So one can basically create something that soloes really well (the groups of 2-3 minions when soloing don't really need much damage mitigation if you can hit them hard), or something that's the ultimate meatshield but can't solo at all, or something in between that's mediocre at both.
So basically my take is that it isn't a problem with the AT as such, but with people who don't build their tanker as something that's gonna, well, tank for a group. Something built to solo awesomely isn't going to really be much of a use to a group until well into its 30's. Gauntlet is _not_ going to keep an awesome lot of aggro. It'll generate some, but again, short range and extremely short lived, and close to none at all when they get their accuracy debuffed and can't actually hit. (Good luck generating aggro with Gauntlet when you're in overlapping Tsoo whirlwinds.) And a scrapper build isn't going to mitigate the damage resulting from that aggro.
It's not a new problem as such, but I5 and I6 made it worse. The reduction in resistances mean that a tank built like a scrapper can tank even worse now than he did before. And while before they at least took taunt because of the mirage of being able to herd whole maps later, nowadays even that has disappeared from most builds.
I think we forget a big point.. lvl of the mobs versus you. From most missions i do, red/purple are the basic colors. Luckely edentrial went up max to red (+2 lt), but nearly all groups were even lvl min/lt/bosses.
The difference of aggro keeping is massive, nearly always hit for gaunlet, taunt last way longer and incomming damage is way lower. Yes, i am a Granite, i dont worry much about incomming damage and have sufficient attacks to keep gauntlet running since i notice i hardly do any taunting. Downside is the hasten-drop, often i let people know, just like whenever i pop Rage my downtime is comming.
'in my days' teams were often 4-5 people, having 6-7 in a team nowadays seems totaly normal, prefered against +2 mobs. Specialy at low lvl the tankability of a tanker is close to 0 if you face mobs like Vahz or any non-s/l based mobs. Sure a Atta or any hellion/skull/trolls based mission can work pretty ok, but even such as clockwork can be already a serious problem for tankers (most dont have mez-protection at low lvl).
My little lvl16 inv/axe tanker goes alone most of the time, evading the stress of people blaming the tanker for doing a lousy job. My resist is lousy, my defence is lousy, i will shine once i am SO-slotted with most armors running.
So first it were defenders doing a lousy job (hello offenders), then it was too many scrankers, recently the blappers and aoe-fire boys, now its tank-o-tankers time?
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Aggro management is certainly possible.
My thoughts on your post.
1. Aggro Aura.
These are the bread and butter of tanking, not taunt. Unfortunately Inv gets shortchanged here as it is their level 18 power. Ice's Chilling Embrace is the best as it debuffs and so makes them REALLY angry. Inv used to be amazing an aggro generation too because of it's high tick rate however I think it is about the some as the others. Fire has the disadvantage than it's aura isn't Auto-hit.
2. Gauntlet.
I tested this and in the mid twenties Gauntlet was not enough to keep aggro against a -2-3 AV from the aggro generated by a single blaster. Don't rely on it. However it does help keep aggro of enemies between Aura ticks ( 2 seconds generally ) and so keeps them in your Aura.
3. Surviving the aggro.
This is the real issue. A good tank will know his/her limits. This should be done by choosing the correct difficulty levels, being generally careful and using powers/inspirations wisely. The I5 changes also mean there are less ways to build a tank to be able to do this, see below.
4. Solo vs team-only meatshield builds.
This is the real killer, a solo build ( heavy on attacks in the pre 20s ) is not going to be that great at keeping a team safe.
IMO the only way to make a tank workable is to only get 2 attacks pre 20, these are the one you get at level 1 and the 2nd or 3rd attack ( level 2 and the one that used to be at level 10 and is now at level 4 ). This means you have pain in the mid to late teens but can deal with the 20s.
I do not find team-only meatshield tanks that fun, I have only made one when testing I5 defence reductions. Instead I go for the middlish ground, soloable team-builds. So I plan to take most if not all of the Primary and/or pool powers to replace them. This makes for a very tight build and that means one important thing, beginners are going to need build advise.
5. Tactics.
Thes have been mentioned countless times but you need to know the enemy AI in order to tank and use tactics accordingly. Most tanks don't.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Ah, well, when you have Granite things change a lot, and having a full attack chain is a whole other class of Gauntlet too. But we were talking Atta at teen levels. I did say "until the 30's" in a couple of places.
As for who's to blame, I don't think it's as much a changing situation, nor that there's ever really was one archetype to blame for everything. There are people who do a great job, and there are people who do a bad job, and a lot of people somewhere in the middle. Including defenders, tankers, scrappers, blasters, kheldians, you name it.
It's been like that since I1 (I started on the US servers), and I don't think the clue quota really went up or down by much for any given archetype ever since. There still are defenders who don't either heal or buff/debuff, there still are suicidal blasters, etc. And God knows the Tanker with only Resist Physical Damage syndrome isn't new either, since I distinctly remember grouping with one in I4.
In most cases it's the same people anyway. Most people have more than one character, and chances are it won't all be the same archetype.
And then, yes, there are people who expect the physically impossible and pass the blame around when that doesn't happen. Nothing really new there either.
And again, it's not concentrated to one archetype. For example, for every unreasonable expectation from a Tanker, somewhere there's an unreasonable expectation _by_ a Tanker. Ditto for all other archetypes. There's some kind of cosmic balance, I figure.
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My little lvl16 inv/axe tanker goes alone most of the time, evading the stress of people blaming the tanker for doing a lousy job. My resist is lousy, my defence is lousy, i will shine once i am SO-slotted with most armors running.
So first it were defenders doing a lousy job (hello offenders), then it was too many scrankers, recently the blappers and aoe-fire boys, now its tank-o-tankers time?
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i am pretty cut-throat, people complain about tankers not holding aggro, i complain about people not helping me to consolidate it, its always a "team effort" to get the right balance.
I refuse to waste my time with people who dont make an effort to help eachother. As an invuln the best you can do at lvl 16 is taunt. The fact you cant get invincible until 18 perhaps means that tankers arent on paper really expected to tank until then really.
There are too many "i must look after myself" builds "cos no one else will" that are about in PuGs and it just persuades other people to take the same route. Teams can so easily be made up of people with no means to help or save eachother efficiently leaving someone bound to hit the deck.
There are many people that may say its you that sucks as a tanker, without looking at your level, your build, how you need to be playing or how anyother of the members of the team thats meant to or could be adequately supporting you.
One of my tankers has died because someone in their "wisdom" killed one anchor first and knocked the other anchor out of my herd facing levels where i cant afford to see that happen (it was tight to survive as it is) and yet its my tanker thats squishie and my fault i died and lost aggro.
I dont expect in the name of equality to not rely on the team for some cooperation and support and i even advise people how to play their toons for the sake of smoother mission running. People who dont like it can find another tanker. Its a good idea to know about other powersets and look at other peoples builds and level and get an idea of what is going wrong or what could go wrong as other people maybe oblivious to what they are causing to happen to the team.
Theres alot of people who dont like to be told how to play their toon who dont know how to play their toon although they think they might. I sometimes get over these people by saying "ok on this group but dont use that power",(*do the group with less problems*)"see the difference?"
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
A few days ago I decided I was going to create a tank as my latest serious character but was somewhat worried about all the negativity that seems to surround this AT of late. I decided on Stone/Axe purely because I liked the look of both sets and Gaia Rebirth was born.
Judging by a lot of people I was expecting an insanely hard slog yet found myself pleasently surprised. I'm currently at level 15 and plan to take this character to 50, it's just so much fun.
There are those who say that aggro management is impossible now. I say that If I can keep aggro of 95% or more of the mobs throughout a 7 person Atta mission at level 15 then you have no excuse