While this may work for Guardians, it doesn't for Juggernauts. Part of the reason being, a Mercenary will open up with Death From Above as soon as you're halfway through your jump. Even if a Commando does the same thing with Mortar Volley, you've still got a 2 second cushion, due to the delayed damage from MV vs DFA; 2 seconds vs. ~.5 seconds. I see the problem overall as being twofold. One, as someone said earlier, WoW and other games have taught DPS that they do not ever need to wait to unload on something. Games since WoW have started off with a threat mechanic system that requires dps to wait at least a couple seconds before they unload, but they've reversed that because it's virtually impossible anymore to get dps to wait. Back in Vanilla/BC WoW, where threat was an issue, we didn't have raid markers, but we always used a Main Assist. That person was the one responsible for knowing the priority kill order, and dps were responsible for assisting that person to make sure they were attacking the correct target. We don't have that here. Everyone just tab targets to something and starts dpsing it. Instead of the tank needing to focus on keeping 1 mob off dps, and the rest just off the healers, there's multiple mobs being dpsd at the same time, even on non-aoe pulls, or pulls that shouldn't be considered aoe (2 elites, 3 strongs, 3-4 normals). The second problem is the positioning and ability usage of mobs. There are far too many ranged mobs, that stand just out of tank aoe range, and tanks (for the most part) don't have a way to control them. I'm not sure about assassins because I haven't played one, but I do play a 50 Jugg and a 50 Powertech. If there's 3 mobs at range, there's no good way to deal with all 3 of them, even on the Powertech. Jugg can throw at one, charge to the other, and the third is out of range of everything. Powertech can charge to one, grapple the second, and the third is still loose. Tank aoe damage has a very small range, in addition to the fact it will not do damage if you're moving when you use it (we've tested this multiple times), Smash and Sweep from the Jugg and Flame Sweep from the Powertech. I am of the school of thought that likes tanking to be a challenge, that threat is as much the tank's responsibility as the dpsers. Hitting 3 buttons and going afk as a tank, or mashing buttons as fast as you can as dps, to me, just isn't fun. At the same time, we lack the tools to be able to do that right now. I also don't think that the threat mechanic playing a major role in gaming is something that will ever come back. I think too many people will complain if it does, and it'll get nerfed into WotLK era again, because there's too many players who just want to see big numbers and, (currently perceived) "top dps", and to do that, dps has to be able to unload instantly and not worry about dying from pulling agro.

Not entirely true. You referenced Rift, where at least 1 class/spec, a single macro would give you the optimal rotation and highest damage output. Again, not entirely true. The reason a lot of people dislike Rift's macro system is because you don't have to think about anything. Range is not a factor, macros are set up so if you are a melee class with some ranged abilities, if you are in range of your target, you use your melee ability, and if you aren't in melee range, hitting that same button will use your ranged attack. The same is true of the "target under 25% health" abilities. The way Rift's macro system is set up, if you list the abilities in the correct order, that ability will always fire off if it can. It takes all the decision making about which ability to use, out of the equation, and the macro decides it for you.