As I said earlier it's gear and experience. I believe most groups (outside a leaf) should be at 2/3 summoners now.
Also this is how I am parsing people...by how many summoners in the trio @ Kugane you can kill.
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Lets just all go fishing. Lol
Don't forget that Direct Hit was added to the game, and it's entirely probable that in big pulls, tanks are still taking a fair few direct hits, compounding the damage.
At least as AST, I dont feel like keeping the tank alive is that much of an issue. It just requires a bit more CD rotation than before. So far in dungeons, stacking double regen with Largesse allows to heal only with oGCD. Drop Earthly star when the tank stops, pop it when he drops to half, then heal with ED, then with Lady. All the while keeping gravity up. Next pull if ES is not available, wait for the tank to loose 25%hp then Lucid dreaming+CO, you'll need it since you are spamming Gravity and the 5s stun allows for 2 ticks of stacked regen. If ES is back go for it, if not Synastry, then pop 1 cure 2 every 2 Gravities. Tons of dps, you stay above 50%mp and you can still play with cards and enjoy the scenery. Im not trying to teach anything or say that it's the best way to do it, just that it's been working for me even without tomestones gear.
RIP double post
I've been telling this to every tank I've come across and they just say things like "lol you're just bad".
Biggest one I snapped on was a tank in Bardam's Mettle. He died once. ONCE, for the entire dungeon to a double mob pull (6 mobs). Of those mobs were 3 birds that hit very VERY HARD. I absolutely could not keep him alive because he refused to use cooldowns, then he has the audacity to say "don't dps if you can't keep my alive". For one I wasn't dpsing, I know when I should be dpsing and that was not one of those moments with how fast his health was slingshotting back and forth. "Oh I'm a WHM and AST main, I know how to heal." Yes you know how to heal HW dungeons, not SB. SB damage is much more damaging AND you're undergeared. Don't give me that shit.
Keep in mind this is purely for LEVELING. When you're running "outdated" gear and I'm also running "outdated" gear, it adds up.