24K HP does seem a bit low, especially for a DK. I don't know what you need to do upgrade-wise without looking at your armory, but yeah, I'd be reluctant to let you tank.

Farm ToC Normal Mode. My Blood Tank is sitting at 29k unbuffed Health after sucking that well dry. Works fine for most Heroics.

@gari.rogers

No offense, but I find it hard to believe that you're at 29k unbuffed from just normal ToC gear. My Tauren (health bonus?) DK in Frost Presence, with all the tank gear from normal ToC has 26-27k health. There's no way that's all you have, unless you have every single stam enchant out there as well as stamina gems out the wazzoo.

But yes, all new tanks should definitely farm reg ToC. I'm just saying don't expect to hit 29k from it.

My tank, as of 12/07/2009. Notice the health: http://www.wow-heroes.com/index.php?zone=us&server=Arthas&name=kathar

You hit on a point that frustrates me to no end with the general PuG. I don't know if it's true of your gear or not as I can't see it, but HP's are not everything. There is still plenty of room for avoidance tanks but the general non tank players out there have this idea that a tanks worth is directly related to their HP's. It's just something you have to learn to deal with, and at 24k health you are obviously 'new' so people may not want to risk it. Though it pains me to say this, if you are going to pug, gem STA, or be ready to explain the intricacies of avoidance tanking to every group you join.

If I recall correctly entry level Heroics tanking was def soft 'cap' (535) and 24k health, so you should be perfectly fine. That said, you are not ready for raids at that health, even avoidance geared. There are plenty of 'beginning tank gear item' sites out there to help out though, just google it.

Being a fairly new heroic 5-man tank, I can agree with Mork. I would do two things for starting out. Get as much def rating as possible (540 cap) and get as much Stam as possible.

Mork, I think the reason Stamina is looked at so highly is because there is no RNG involved; if you have 28k health, you have 28k health. Period. It's a much more reliable number. Of course, if someone isn't def capped, or at least close, that won't matter too much.

Duplicating my reply in the right spot...

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Thunderhorn&n=beanolith

Couple of notes:
* he's far from def cap because i logged off with pvp legs, belt, & ring that I don't use for tanking
* I just messed up the gemming on the legs so the head's meta no longer applies, it'll be fixed
* I'm desperate to replace the Crusader's Locket with Seal of the Pantheon from HoL, but haven't been able to get a group for it, I'm always the only one in LFG (can't WAIT For 3.3!), and I'm too cheap to replace it with darkmoon greatness.

I've been going off http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f97/40966-polars-easy-pre-naxx-tank-gear-list.html but I've picked up almost everything on the list...