High AC on A Rogue?

[Snaggles]

To tank you need levels, defensive skills, hps, ac. Pretty much in that order. Aggro is more of a fluid concept in terms of weighting compared to the main "getting hit" part but obviously more is always better if you want to efficiently tank.

The issue is most rogues dont optimize for hps and AC. If they have a bunch of BIS, sure it comes with the territory. Rogues tank take hits just fine at this point on blue, their defensive skill points (not "defense" which is an AC modifier) are higher than rangers which are higher than bards. They actually have higher Defense Skill than knights, much higher dodge, lower parry, and no riposte skill.

A rogue will generally have less hps and less aggro than a knight, on par hps with more AC than a ranger but with less aggro. They also do a huge amount of damage from the back so even if you have a shaman in the group with torp it's almost always better for the sham to slow/torp and tank the thing to get it killed quicker than let the rogue tank it while putting out 120 damage minimum backstabs from the front.

In short, yea a lot of rogues and rangers have huge hp and ac pools. These are geared at the top of the current expansion. A rogue is basically a warrior compared to a ranger which is a knight in that situation. Comparing either to a warrior or knight with a ton of EC gear isn't fair. Their "apples to apples" comparison is far outclassing them in that same area for good reason (tanking is their job, both in DNA and gear optimization).