Paladin talent choices

[Shriek]

Thats actually one area I'm kind of curious about...how much spell damage is needed. As a healer, the biggest difference I've noticed between paladin and warrior tanks has been the stamina difference. As a rogue I've not really noticed aggro issues with either. So this makes me think that my priorities should follow the order of:

Stamina
Block Rating (since blocking does soooo many things for a pally)
Defence (though still wanting enough to be crit immune even though I don't have it as top priority)
Block Value (figure that since blocking is so good, blocking for more should be good too)
Spell Damage

As the others have been saying, how much +dmg you need is dependant on your DPSers. If they're well geared or unskilled, you have to be a lot more careful of your threat.

The rule-of-thumb for pally tanks seems to be to disregard +dmg everywhere but your weapon. Grab a caster weapon and put +40 dmg on it, then gear for def, stam, & avoidance. The Greatsword of Horrors or the Continuum Blade are good choices; the Crystalforged Sword is the best you can get this side of Gruul or Arenas. Not to say a little extra +dmg from other pieces isn't nice, just that you will probably want to focus on being able to take the hits first.

If you're taking the def / avoidance quest rewards as you level, you should have very little difficulty hitting 490 defense, iirc I hit 490 the same day I dinged 70, and the only thing I bought was the Felsteel Gloves.

You'll find several gear slots that have very few options that really fit the bill. Shoulders, wrists, and boots especially have pretty slim pickin's--Artega's picked out most of the really popular tankin' stuff. The odd thing is that there's very little of any use from Heroics. I only run them for badges and heal gear.

Most completely ignore socket bonuses and use nothing but +stam gems.

I found gearing up to be more interesting on my Pally tank than on my previous chars--instead of simply, "I need more AP" or "I need more +Heal", there are actual accomplishable objectives, and it feels good to get there. Hit 490 def. Earn the 15 badges for your libram. Hit 102.4% avoidance. Well, those and the ever-present "More HP".

Hang on to the gear you find with particularly good avoidance, HP, etc. If you start raiding you'll have a balancing act to maximise your HP while maintaining uncrushable, and it'll change depending on your latest upgrade, or even what buffs you have on.