There is a line of quests you can do that will reward you with a full set of Heroic augs for all your toons. They aren't the best, but it is a fast way to get started. Highly recommended. Also get your J5 mercs. If you get your SK's epic, I don't think you should have any trouble tanking 2-3 mobs in heroic gear, at least not while the epic is running. This all assumes that you are still level 85 and heroic. As you level up, you'll definitely need to upgrade your gear to stay competitive. Expect to upgrade all of your gear constantly as a tank. If you are doing an HA at level 89 in your heroic gear, it will be much more difficult. If your druid and bard can't get 2-3 mobs killed while your epic is up, you'll need to address them also. Most likely, spell/ability use is a bigger problem for them (than gear). Your druid has some pretty solid nukes, and will easily be out-dps'ing a wizzy merc once he's up to speed. He also has emergency heals, buffs (keep your reptile skin on your SK all the time), and Remote healing nukes that will help a ton.
On the Archtype tab, Weapon Stances AA. Train the rank that costs something, and then the rank that costs 0 to Activate it. When you equip a Shield, you'll be automatically put in Defensive Proficiency. This is the mode for when you don't have any type of weapon damage leeching active. You should have some type of weapon damage leeching active most of the time. Epic 2.0 when you start pulling, and for gaps when you haven't procced Mortal Coil with kill shots. When you equip a 2h, you'll be automatically put in Two-handed Proficiency. This amplifies your damage, so amplifies the healing you get from your weapon leeching. Good times.
Just to give an update on what I did that helped for those newer SKs. First of all I trained the Weapon Stance AA. This was a HUGE game changer when using 1H and shield. I then upgraded to T2 CotF gear since I was grinding out 105 in DH HAs this didnt take too long. This still only took me to 9.6k AC. Yesterday I bit the bullet and dropped about 1mill pp on remnants of tranquility and bought all TBM T1 gear and augs for lvl 105(including non-visible armor and jewelry). This actually bumped me up to 11.6k AC. So not exactly the cheapest solution (I bought a krono and sold it to fund this) it made a big difference. I have yet to hunt anything with my new gear but hoping I'll be able to tank TBM named now but we shall see.
