Tanks

I'm realizing now rolling EM was a huge mistake

Shield/MA is an extremely good combo. You will be a little limited with your aoe, but load up on leviathan and that's taken care of really well. 3 cones/tpboom/if anything is left dragons tail/clean up any bosses left over.

I see lots of people talking about brutes damage being so much better than tanks. It's true enough, but the damage you can do with a well slotted tank is good enough for a vast majority of the game.
Even such a char as a Shield/Ice can pile up a lot of damage if you want to make him a damage dealer. It would involve taking Leviathan and planing for damage, but you can apply 1500+ damage to a group with plenty in the gas in your tank to keep on going.

The builds are what you make of them.

Until and unless the Tank AT's aggro capabilities are strong enough to counter the damage output of blasters and the squishies that need them (trollers, Corr's, Dom's...anyone with holds doesn't really need a Tanks protection), there is little reason to level a Tank. A brute or scrapper brings more to the team damage wise and damage trumps a non-effective Taunt and aggro-holding capabilities, which are meant to be the hallmark of the Tank AT. If they can't perform that role (not their fault....its a programming mechanic) then there is little reason to play a Tank other than just for the higher numbers. And having leveled dozens of brutes since that AT's introduction....survivability for a Brute is already fantastic. Needing "more" of that just begs the question of whether or not the user is familiar with IO's.

The job of a Tank is far more than just surviving...its supposed to be a meatshield to help the squishies survive. I peel aggro off of current Tanks (fully IO'd out Tanks no less) faster than anything.

Consolidating mobs with Tankers isn't a case of Tankers simply being in the line of perception so an early open of a massive aoe immob is only going to make the Tankers job harder and also some aoe debuffs do not get their maximum targeting potential. Generally to beat the early pullers mobs should be left early before all is dead if possible to quickly set up the next tight group for damage and debuff aoes.

Fireballs as Tankers almost get there do not always help, you draw mobs forward. It's not bad in terms of aggro management if the Tanker has the front mobs on taunt, and runs through into the bulk of them and unleashes a goodsized gauntlet aoe in time but mobs maybe still spread enough so that aoe debuffs do not get their maximum target potential.

I do not understand some Tank Brute team work. Why is the Brute doing all the herding and no damage whilst the Tank is doing the fighting? At most the Brute can take the alpha when needed for a buff to fury and then do all the damage and let the tank do the herding no? I know why the Tank is resorting to fighting, it's because someone has to keep the mobs in a debuff zone. Usually more than 3 pulls a mish is generally excessive and beyond ideal in a pug looking at potential ambush zones. Congalining is good where possible flow reasonable because when a Tanker is aggro capped it's generally not a good idea for a brute to come running in with a 10th of a health bar left with another 17 for the Tanker to deal with. Often the Brute gets stripped off aggro and the rest of the team have to deal with them whilst the Tank still has his 17.

Some Brutes think they can replace all Tankers, until they die ofc. Then it never happened. Tankers are best when other types of support are minimalist in general. Brutes might feel great about themselves despite the two doms, 4 corrupters and 1 MM in team (remembers the earliest LRSFs) . Sometimes a Brute will be best suited versus a certain enemy group as point than the Tank, depends on shields. It's no good bragging about being better than someones Tank after that one time at bandcamp.