didnt check armory but read her blogpost. bravo for opting to go solo! it's a given that you cant depend on your buddies all the time. you gotta mix it up with others, good, bad or just plain ugly!

while you can tank better with perfect gear, etc, you can also tank in less ideal gear, which is usually the case. i have taken my L80 warrior tank into LFG while still having lots of pre-cata gear (the alt never did cata quests. just kept idle until i found/made enuf cata tanking plate gear to get to the minimum required gear level in order to queue for cata LFG)

however, it is the tank's responsibility to ensure his self buff is the best for tanking. hence, dev should be cast by the tank even if another pally is in the group. dont depend on others, make sure you have the right self buffs on.

the reason the dungeon run was so bad was cos the party just didnt run together as a group. which is really REALLY rare. even if someone enters a dungeon for the first time, they wouldnt just go off on their own, they would stick around and follow whoever moves first. so i would just chalk that off as a fire and forget event. most dungeon runs will be ok even if there are a couple of wipes here and there (for example, tank or healer dc).