Jedi Shadow Tank and I wear the exemplar gear from the basic commendation vendor (and yes, it's willpower gear since I'm a consular). When I queue up for group finder, I only check off tank. While I am new at tanking, and I'm still learning, I feel I get the gist of it and I do it well enough. However, that doesn't even come in to play because people bounce out of the game before the see how well/poorly I play my role.

Group finder says recommended gear is ratings of 148 for HM FPs. My bracers, belt and shield are 148s, and the rest of my gear is 156s. But every time I join a team, everyone tells me I'm under geared. What gives? The game says my gear is high enough, but 99% of the people I'm in teams with get mad that I'm under geared and leave the game. This is becoming increasingly frustrating because I try to ask questions and people just ignore me and leave the game. If I have a team, I can hold my own, but people don't even give me a chance.