Why not just make everyone a DPS?

[Phoenicia]

Aggro used to be of real concern to tanks in WoW. During Wrath of the Lich King, they put something like a 2000x enmity modifier on all tank abilities so they didn't have to worry about it anymore, though. It was also a pretty big deal in FFXI (though it wasn't programmed well and eventually the entire system broke). Not sure of others as I haven't tanked in other MMOs.

Yeah, aggro was bad specially for warriors in pre-Wrath WoW. Any good rogue or warlock letting loose would steal aggro. All 4 tanks I played (warrior, pally, DK, druid) had rotations (and reactionals) they followed for max threat, which in turn were also max dps.

In Aion, Templars (the only tank class) used to flood the forums with how Gladiators (Heavy melee class) generated MORE aggro than them. And it was a tug of war between Templar and Assassin. Successful Templars ended up joining the DPS race and gave Gladiators a run for it in terms of DPS to keep their aggro high. Healers generated aggro like crazy as well. So much actually that cleric (main healer) tanks were a thing!

In TERA aggro is always a thing, a Berserker critting for a million or a slayer throwing in back-to-back crits will definitely make the lancer drop their shield trying everything to regain attention. Tanks actually lost aggro if they got hit (without blocking/dodging) and the healing from that damage made bosses turn to healers. Tanks would use boss animation locks and downtime between attacks to lower their guard and dish out as much damage and aggro moves as they could before they have to guard again.

FFXI was a tug of war whenever someone was doing a weaponskill and BLMs just plain-and-simple beat tanks' aggro. BLMs spent the half the fight sitting on their arses with full MP waiting for tanks to build aggro or for skill chains. Healers aggro was a nightmare. Ninjas used to put on full damage gear to boost their weaponskills and they spammed ninjutsu for additional aggro. Heck, I used to dress my PLD in WAR gear to pull double the damage on weaponskills compared to other PLDs to increase my aggro.

I haven't tanked in Wildstar because I gave up before I got my war to 20, but I healed and tanks were following a tanking rotation. But again, healers followed a healing rotation, so w/e. lol

Anyways, this is literally the first MMO I played where aggro is absolutely NOT an issue. It's easy as heck to generate, If I stay in a tank stance, I'd be triple or quadruple the threat of the top DPS. Healers aggro is hardly a threat in this game. They generate half their healing spells' amount in aggro, and that aggro is split on the number of enemies engaged. Healing abilities do not generate aggro except for the base 240 enmity.