How to Start Tanking Instances in Rift

So I finally hit 50 on my warrior tank. After running T2's as a healer and having seen tanks and DPS go splat due to undergearedness or stupidity and witnessing how unforgiving people can be of a new tank learning how to generate enough threat on everything so that the DPS who decides to burn a single target down doesn't die and how to properly execute pulls, I'd like to be properly specced and as geared as possible before tanking for people I don't know and don't trust to do their jobs.

That's a long sentence.

Anyway, So I took a peek at my stats and decided there's no way I could confidently tank even normal AP or CC. Most healers have no idea what a dispel is and the magic damage alone would be killer. I had 4300 health self-buffed in the spec that suits my playstyle. Zero toughness, minimal dodge or parry, but more block than i've seen stated as a good benchmark for T1's (woot!).

I went to every vendor and started searching online for recommended noob tank requirements. I'm still disappointed with the amount of user-generated information out here on the web :(

So here's the path I chose to gear up for tanking instances: Rifting. Aside from getting the items I could from the current holiday vendor (a descent, but hideous hat, and 2 planar essences (both lvl50 essences were upgrades), I waited for and participated in every invasion that popped in Stillmoor, Shimmersand, and IPP, which yielded about 20k Planarite over 2 days and spent it on the flawless planar focus, and on some toughness gear and essences from the "Rare Planar Goods" vendors in these three zones:

IPP - Whitefall (blue pants, purple gloves)
Stillmorr - Broken Vale (blue shoulders, purple hat)
Shimmersand - Fortune's Shore (blue chest, purple legs)
(these vendors sell the same pieces for every calling)

That's it - Theoretically T1-ready :)
Current stats after 2 days of rifting (self buffed):
Health: 8945
Armor: 7675
Block: 403
Parry: 290
Dodge: 160
Hit: 45
Toughness: 38
I could swap some gear for toughness (and will when I'm running something requiring it). These are just the numbers in my best gear, which is mostly green other than planar vendor and world event items.

I'd like to be a bit better geared before doing T1's, as I'm a bit behind the curve due to not playing as often as others, and the more geared the people I get in the queue are, the more likely they'll be dicks about my gear level even though I'm at-level and they're overgeared - people just expect equality because they either forgot what it is to play at-level or they're just stupid DPS for whom gear never has mattered as much as it does for tanks and healers and who are easier to carry if they're horrible.