I've been enjoying reading the replies to this topic and watching both sides. I have experience with both sides of this coin as well. For the record I first tanked LI successfully in a mix of Columni and Battlemaster about 3 months ago. Up until that first completion LI had been a pain in my backside. After running it all the way through and learning the mechanics of each fight it got substantially easier. Now me and 2-3 guildies run this just about every day and we average 20-30 minute runs. Our healer chain pulls the trash. We vastly over gear it. About two weeks ago I ran this FP with two people that are not comfortable with the mechanics, in mostly Rakata. We bombed terribly. They could not come to grasp with some mechanics on LR-5 and Sav-Rak (even after the simplification.) I honestly believe that the flashpoint doles out gear appropriate to the difficulty, with one caveat, If you want an easy way to get the Rakata chest and Columni MH then you are going to have to put some effort into the mechanics of the fights instead of hoping that 7 other people carry you through an operation. LI-HM is a FP that demands that each participant be willing and able to deal with the mechanics involved in each boss fight. If you feel that it is too hard, by all means stick to operations where there is a possibility that you can be carried though content. I love LI - I hope they release more 4-man mini-operations. my $.02

As a Tanksin I will share what my guild does for HM EC on the tanks. I hope that it helps. I tank Firebrand - we put the other tank we've picked up on Stormcaller. We do this because as a Tanksin I can solo tank Firebrand w/o help from the other tank. No taunt needed. This in turn allows the Stormcaller tank to focus fully on his tank using all his taunts a what not to hold agro. By rotating CD's I can handle Firebrand quite easily. For the first Incinerate Armour I will Force Cloak, this cancels Firebrands cast and it will start recasting on a DPS. As the cast bar is going I will taunt and take back agro. About 1 minute later we see another Incinerate Armor. For this one I pop Deflection + Armor Adrenal along w/ Dark ward. I have never died at most I will take 1 hit during this phase. Force Cloak will be up by the next incinerate armor. As a bonus if you have very good DPS this method works even better because soon after incinerate armor, if enough damage is done, you will be pushed into a Defensive Systems phase with taking no more then 1,2 hits from Firebrand. Best of luck w/ progressing... I have talked to some people and this method does not work with their group composition but as I said - this works very well for us.