I have a 53 Guardian and a 48 Bruiser, so I've been on both sides of the fence and can post based on pure experience and not on perceptions.
Bruisers are very good tanks in AoE type situations, but verses ^^^ mobs, we really take hits hard and our avoidance isn't all that effective since the number is based off of an even con solo mob and not a ^^^ mob.
The problem is that Bruisers can't hold AoE aggro well at all, but if they do hold it, they are effective.
In your example, I'm not sure how the 54 Guardian couldn't get aggro right away by using Reinforcement and Tremor and pretty much lock it down by using MD (since it was an cleric, not a shaman healing). Reinforcement, if used correctly, adds like +1500 hate to a single target so I'm not sure how you lost aggro on your primary target, too, especially since the Bruiser should not have had his taunt stance up. When I play my Guardian, holding aggro is never a problem unless it's a raid situation where MD does next to nothing due to wards.
Also, if the mob was orange con or higher, the Bruiser's ability to hold aggro really goes down since the Bruiser has to hit the mob in order to hold aggro. On orange cons, I usually hit mobs at a 10-20% hit rate which is not enough to hold aggro.
If the fight lasted longer than a minute, I can see the Bruiser starting to take aggro if he was in offensive stance with his taunt stance up.
I've played both classes and for tanking, Brawlers are better at tanking multi-mobs than plate classes, but plate classes are still much better at tanking ^^^ mobs and ^^ mobs.
Breaking down the encounters in terms of tanking alone:
^^^ mob -> Guardian
2 ^^ mobs -> Guardian
3 ^ mobs -> Bruiser
4 even mobs -> Bruiser
Breaking down the encounters in terms of aggro alone:
^^^ mob -> Bruiser
2 ^^ mobs -> Bruiser
3 ^ mobs -> Guardian
4 even mobs -> Guardian
As far as being perfectly balanced, I think the Guardian class has a severe lack of DPS, a broken level 58 skill, and too many negative drawbacks on their buffs. I also wouldn't call Bruisers overpowered in tanking either because Monks tank even better than we do.
Message Edited by Danterus on 11-07-2005 11:38 AM