Do tanks need a dps buff to keep up with the current state of dps?

In my guild, I main tank as a Guardian. In full 180 min-maxed gear, I do just north of 1100 dps in a typical boss fight (Nefra, for example). All of my dps members are doing north of 3000 dps, and some are pushing over 3500 dps. My healers can sustain over 4000 hps, and at times 5000 hps.

Next I know that as a tank, I get 2 pts of threat for every dps, and at least 1 attack I have will generate 3 pts of threat for every dps. Thus my 1100 dps is generating around 2500 threat per second. This threat goes up against a dps that's doing 3000+ dps, and approximately the same from my healers (who generate ~2 pts of threat for 3 pts of heal).

Obviously, without taunting by myself, or aggro dropping by all of the rest of the raid, I am in a losing aggro battle. There simply is no way for me to keep up. The math is pretty simple here for anyone to see.

Now, before anyone misunderstands me, I personally have zero aggro control problems. I know how to get aggro and how to keep aggro. My dps all understand the consequences of uncontrolled aggro (attacking an untanked mob). This post is absolutely not about me whining that I cannot play my class successfully.

What it is about, is to discuss whether the AVERAGE tank even knows the data I posted above? Does the AVERAGE tank know which attacks generate the most aggro? Do they know EXACTLY what a taunt will accomplish? Do they know how to watch a single target taunt fall off and immediately hit an AOE taunt (double taunting) to get a huge threat lead? Does the AVERAGE tank even have taunt on a keybind?

My belief is that NO, the AVERAGE tank does not understand these things very well. I think the AVERAGE tank expects all they should need to do to maintain aggro, is follow their dps rotation. In my experience, the AVERAGE tank understands that taunt will gain them aggro if they don't have it (particularly when taunt swapping between tanks), but they really don't understand the math behind taunt, and they certainly don't understand why they lose aggro mid-fight to a dps.

All of my experience as a PUG DPS in SM operations tells me this is true, as even in what I consider to be under-geared DPS classes I will constantly pull off of the AVERAGE tank, as they don't have a successful strategy for gaining and maintaining a threat lead.

I believe that at the core of why aggro is an issue, is because tanks are putting out too little DPS to be able to rely on their rotation to maintain threat. If my Guardian were able to generate 3000+ threat per second, only using it's dps rotation, needing to double taunt and taunt swap would be far less necessary than the current state of the game requires.

BW has done an amazing job of placating all of the whining DPS with higher numbers. Essentially every class in the game has now been buffed a couple hundred dps (except my beloved gunslinger, which has now been nerfed into the bottom of the dps barrel, but I digress). Which makes tanking a harder task to perform. And thus creates fewer players who want to be tanks. This increases queue times, which then causes BW to create boring tactical flashpoints that don't need tanks.

Instead, what I wish BW would do is make sure tanking is a little easier to do for the AVERAGE player, by ensuring our threat generation is on par with AVERAGE player dps. That could mean either buffing our DPS -or- buffing the threat per dps that we get.

IMHO, not really.

Part of the challenge is to be able to retain threat, just like it's the healer's challenge to keep everyone modestly healed or the DPS to pull aggro, provided he's dealing loads of damage.

In other words, currently working as intended.

The next step from being a AVERAGE DPS to a GREAT DPS (who rips aggro off average tanks) is to actively learn more about their rotation and how to make the best and most timely use of their abilities. They check out parse logs, their class's forums, and ask more knowledgable players for help.

The next step from being an AVERAGE TANK to a tank that holds threat against great DPS is exactly the same. They need to actively want to be better and ask questions and find information. The only barriers I see there is the player themselves, and the community.

Well-written post, I just don't think the answer is increasing tank DPS if good (which is technically higher than average) tanks don't have aggro issues.

Making changes because some people don't know something is a very slippery slope that I don't want to see Bioware go down.
We have seen games (WoW) go down the path of over simplifying a game and removing things because people didn't bother to do some reading.

There are plenty of tips and tricks that tanks can do to keep agro. Especially in raids when have a second tank to work off of.

WoW actually came to mind when I was reading this. For the most part every reply thus far has been spot on. Bioware could do some fun stuff with guard, maybe add in a proximity threat reduction to nearby targets.

Maybe even add a conversion talent that converts a % of either a defensive stat or other stat into accuracy to reduce miss / resist rate.

But an overall dps increase isn't really the way to go. It's far better to have everyone in your raid use their threat reduction abilities as needed and employ other abilities such as rescue and guardian leap when needed.

Interesting to see this. This is the first I've ever heard of the actual numbers behind threat. It's just been this abstract concept as far as I've known since the game itself does not quantify it in any way.

(But I couldn't give a **** about parses or nightmare raids or whatever else so that's probably why I haven't seen any of this explained. Also note that while I create and play characters of ALL classes, I do personally feel more comfortable with my DPS and healers for heroics / flashpoints and have stuck closer to solo-only play with my tanks.)

If the average tank hasn't figured out which abilities will help keep the mobs facing the tank and not chewing on the DPS, then increasing that tank's DPS isn't going to help. We already have the abilities to shift aggro and the mitigation to survive it, knowing how to use them is what separates an average tank from a great tank.

The solution already exists for how to become a better tank. If they don't use the knowledge, that is not something the game can or should fix.

I am not against them shifting things around.

But to make changes just for the sake of making things easier is not the way to go.

It doesn't hurt for dps to put their aggro dump into their rotations, either, though. Especially once they're in 180s and up.

I get that entirely and believe me. Giving guarded target a 3m 10% threat reduction radius with a 4 person cap is about is powerful as I'd suggest for changes. Even that is pushing it. Small smart changes are still the way to go.