I actually think that the repair bills for tanks in dungeons aren't quite as severe as they once were, i.e. in the early TR days when repair costs were not yet adjusted and you'd be liable to break a set of armor in two runs.
That said, there's a number of factors here at work that makes tanks frustrated:
1) Tank classes generally are much poorer at farming than DPS classes, so their main form of income usually must be via dungeons or other group play(World Bosses are a decent source of weekly income if done cleanly, and 6melee DPS Templar builds can actually farm quite effectively, but suffer in dungeon survivability). While it is possible to make straight profit on dungeon runs(no deaths, get lucky with 1-2 drops), it's equally possible to lose significant money as well on dungeon runs(1 death or more, no won rolls on drops = 20-30g net loss). This brings me to point number two.
2) The new 45 dungeons take quite a bit longer to complete than other dungeons. This means that, for the same amount of time, effort, and gold spent, players get considerably less loot. This will be partially alleviated as players develop faster tactics for dungeon running and get better gear, but ultimately this will hamper newer and less geared players significantly, especially tanks. Also, some of the healing mechanics in Rumble's Grotto and Shadowcaster's Lair compound this problem, making fights unnecessarily longer, but not more challenging. I strongly believe that this is a mechanic that should be removed, as it unfairly punishes lower DPS groups who are already punished for running through dungeons slower.
Now, with those points being made, I've been breaking even on dungeon runs so far as a tank, although I expect that to actually get worse as my gear improves(better gear equals higher repair costs!). I knew the difficulties of being a tank beforehand, so I saved up a good amount of gold to get my dungeon runs in.
How about solutions to this problem? Certainly, one would be the reduction of repair costs, although that will lead to considerable gold inflation, as repair costs are one of the few major gold sinks in the game(Repair Kits notwithstanding, which have traditionally been one of the most powerful EP purchases in all of Eldevin, but that's a story for another time). I think that adjusting repair costs to tank-specific gear like shields could certainly help in this regard, though.
The irony of this situation is that currently in Eldevin, there is an abundance of tanks at max level, not a shortage. So, while there are certainly upkeep issues with tanks in dungeons, it's not stopping players from rerolling to tank!
To make a final comment about the issue, I still think it's viable for tank classes to be self-sustaining in terms of income versus repairs. That said, it's certainly more challenging for tanks to make gold as opposed to other classes.
Edited by huhbum, 20 April 2014 - 11:33.