Shield Tanker and Aggro?

Quick question really - how good is Shield at holding aggro without Taunt and is Taunt needed.

Coming from Ice/ and Fire/ the Taunt aura doesn't appear to be as affective.

Thanks

Your basically not relying on the taunt aura alone with Ice and Fire as CE debuffs and if you have icicles does damage and Blazing Aura does damage. They contribute to threat. You should rely on those auras alone.

Taunt adds flexibility, that is essentially what it does. The game favours tankers with taunt for what I can't believe is anything other than the most obvious reasons but one massive reason seems to of flown right over some peoples heads and all the way to 0z. You are theoretically well on your way to tanking any part of the normal PvE content for most any team with that power. I like to have it early at level 10 just because, some people wait until mid 20s and some 40s. Mid 20s is a good middle of the road area as earlier or later you may have powers you prefer first or need to slot well.

AoO is a perfectly fine taunt aura these days. Initially, it was weak like RttC, but has since been buffed to the same level as Invincibility. Briefly, while most taunt auras have a 13.5 second duration at level 50, Invincibility and AoO have a 16.875 second duration (25% longer and therefore also 25% stronger). That is perfectly sufficient to hold aggro over everybody who don't have a strong taunt aura of their own (such as Shield/Invulnerability scrappers or non-Energy Aura/Willpower brutes). Against players with strong aggro auras, the issue is generally not that you need a better aggro aura, but that you need to add damage to the mix (the strength of your aggro is proportional to damage caused times the remaining taunt duration on your targets). Shield Charge or your secondary can provide that.

As to whether you "need" Taunt, that is really not a question that can be answered. You rarely "need" anything in CoH. Powers tend to be layered: when you don't have one, another can function as a backup. Having more powers of the same type gives you additional failsafes, whether it's for aggro, buffing, debuffing, damage, or healing. That doesn't mean that any single one of them is "needed".

For example, my Sonic/MM blaster has both Shockwave and Siren's Song for soloing, and in most cases really only needs one or the other. Neither is needed, but it's still useful to have Shockwave for sleep-immune mobs such as robots and Siren's Song for those situations where knockback is ineffective as a mitigation tool (or to drop toggles). Neither one is needed, since in the worst case I could even do without either at the cost of being more careful (and on teams both powers can go untouched for entire missions), but by having both I have multiple layers of defense.

Similarly, Taunt gives you another layer of aggro management. It provides you with more reliable aggro against archvillains (against whom it is auto-hit, unlike taunt auras and Gauntlet), allows you to manage aggro at range (useful for range-tanking when staying in melee is dangerous or when you are snared), an additional aggro boost if you are dealing with scrappers with strong taunt auras, and for certain powersets (Fiery Aura and Dark Armor) an auto-hit aggro tool. Whether these matter to you more than the benefits of other power choices is entirely a judgement call, and different people will make different decisions.

Taunt only works on 5 mobs.
Your shield Charge will work on more than 5 mobs.
Plus you have AoE attacks that will will work on more than 5 mobs.
My first tank had taunt. It was very helpful for me as a noob tank to just spam spam spam tuant all over to help manage aggro. But, now none of my tanks have taunt. I find I am a better tank without taunt. I use my complete line of powersets to manage aggro AND now I am actually contributing damgage. Most importantly, I am enjoying playing tank more.
Spamming taunt was getting boring, and I could never go back to that ever again.
Taunt is a crutch and can lead to your team mates acting stupidly. But, if you feel you need it go for it.