Hi 
was directed to this forum by someone on the newcomer chat.
I started playing a few days ago and tonight I’m going to attempt to tank my first dungeon.
I’ve watched some videos (was a bit confused re: mythic plus guides/normal) but wondered if there were any general tips from seasoned veterans that might help.
Bit nervous as I have been warned it can get quite ‘heated’.
You’re playing prot paladin so just spam everything you have on your action bar. Nah but for real just keep your armour buff up as much as you can and have consecration under your feet at all times. Remember you can heal yourself or your allies when needed. Expect toxicity from people leveling their 20th character and getting annoyed you don’t know optimal route. In that case, just say at the beginning that you don’t know the route and ask if someone can help you navigate through the whole thing.
Either say “new to tanking” or something at the start so you might get lucky and people help out or go with fake it till you make it and just pretend you know. Just don’t get overconfident and set the pace youre comfortable with, don’t let others rush you.
No matter what happens, don’t allow others to discourage you. Good luck!
Just do your thing but try to be as adaptive as possible, if the rest of the group is skittish and start pulling ahead of you then see if you can match their pace. If you can’t then inform the group and cross your fingers they’re not that type.
If your healer is always full mana then you can probably pull bigger, if things are melting then you can probably also pull bigger.
I used to watch clips on Youtube. Sounds noobish but it helped a lot
Trust me, I’m not too overconfident 
It will be a normal dungeon (necrotic wake?)?but should I follow the same sort of route that the mythic dungeon guides show?
Ok, so I will try to keep pace and a thick skin 
Your two most important Talents are:
You may even need to use this one on occassion:
/ignore
Hi, I assume you are already level 52, which doesn’t help if you want easily to get into tanking, Why? Well all the basics are learned while your character is still level 7+, when the most basic dungeons are presented to you.
But ok, you are where you are. First character, Level52, so you are probably in Bastion story part, and can only queue for Necrotic wake. I would suggest to try it once as a dps, just to see how other person tanks it (where he goes, what he pulls, etc.).
Here is some very general tips, no matter what you tank:
You CAN always write in chat at the start that you are new, there will be kind people who will be patient and also guide you. Any toxic ones will leave by themselves.
My last advice would be - when you feel the time is right - make an alt, and tank low level dungoens from older expansions - this will teach you a lot of good things about tanking 
Thank you, I quested through the first two zones (tirisgard sound and drustvar) and then I got the quest to start shadowlands.
Someone else said to just learn the shadowlands dungeons as the earlier ones aren’t the same sort of thing?
don’t watch guides. most of the time you get an overwhelming amount of informations. keep it simple.
check your map, and see what direction you gotta go. see the mobs in front of you. try to go from point A to point B while pulling the least amount of mobs as possible.
pull pack after pack, don’t try to pull more than one at once. you’ll learn later on which packs you can handle with ease to multipull, and how to chain pull.
keep your defensives, use them when you notice certain mobs doing a lot of damage. dont randomly press them.
make sure you check your healer mana before pulling. you can always right click the healer character icon, and have the healer as your focus, will make it easier.
as a paladin, you actually have extra things to do due to your poison dispelling, sacrific, blessing of protection and off heal but don’t bother about that for now.
remember that your divine shield and blessing of protection when dealing with physical attacks will make you immune: you will instantly loose aggro and mobs will hit your party. therefore pick the right talents and dont use blessing of protection on yourself.
i suggest : https://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/paladin/protection/mIIc
General tips:
If you’ve read up about m+ routes then yes, you can follow these for normals and heroics.
Obviously, try to lead the group in pace. As another said of healer mana is always good and things seem smooth, pull bigger because that indicates you can.
Be mindful of positioning. Always try to face mobs away from group because frontal cones are never fun. It’s up to DPS to follow your lead here and stand behind.
Don’t hang onto your big cooldowns, they’ll be up for bosses too. Use them to weather a big pull for example. Cooldowns best used at pull start always due to higher damage.
Towards end of pull, start moving to next pack to pick up momentum. Only exception is if healer mana is low.
Never hurts to taunt on pull start as it’s then dPS frequently burst. Helps build bonus threat.
Always have eye on surroundings to pick up adds if they come near. Some will tell you “they pull it they tank it” but a good tank will pick up such and ensure the group goes smoothly rather than letting their group members wipe. If the pulling is purposeful and uncomfortable for you, say such after the pull.
Keep at it. Tanks get a lot of flak because they’re the assumed leader and “know it all” so people can be unforgiving for new tanks. Just know that it’s worth sticking at as good players recognise promising tanks, will add them to their friends and then you’ll get cool regulars to play with. Stick it out. PuGland is temporary for a vast majority of tanks.
Good luck!
He sums it mostly up. I don’t know how much you know other classes, but if they have defensives, you can play around those as well - but since you’ll likely start out with a low key, it’s mostly tank and spank.
Care with CC’s, sometimes it’s a bad idea to stun. (Namely a caster sitting in a sanguine pool.) You may want to try kiting as well, in case your healer gets gibbed suddenly. It happens, and in that case, the only thing stopping you from dying is a) avoidance, and b) distance. Trust me, it’s always better to bite the dust with you as the last man standing over a wipe. 
Oh, and you have a no CD self heal in Word of Glory. Try to bank some holy power for it so you can use it if your dmg intake is spiky, and for magic-heavy fights, it’s way better than the armor buff.
Hope this could help 
ABC = Always Blame C’Healer
in fairness for normal dungeons the hardest part is having to deal with other players.
If you have friends ingame try grouping with them for your first runs, just to get a bit comfortable with the mechanics/routes in a chill enviroment, before having to deal with randoms.
have you done it already?
if you are interested i can come for moral support, just lemme know. 
Brave soul! I salute you!
More like… well… toxic and a thankless job
You need to know everything, manage the pulls, be on your toes all the time, even when the Helar is slacking and the DPs want to op the chart…
I humbly suggest, first gather a team of friends, guildies and run a few dozen dungeons with them before jumps in to the PuG life
Otherwise you need to grow a very (and I mean VERY) thick skin, be a rhino or an elephant, preapre yourself mentally and emotionally for the hate, toxicity and negativity
Tanking could be a very very very negative experience that could scare away you the roll for a life and another
Not gonna sugarcoat it and tell you everything will be fine and you will enjoy it… It probably won’t and you won’t.
But be brave, take up your shiled and your sword and be their protector
May the Light have mercy on you and I pray to have a good time!
Thank you all, great tips!
Found myself on an impromptu night out but will be jumping in tomorrow (think I’ve managed to memorise the way through ‘necrotic wake’ and just hoping I don’t panic when I step foot in there 
)!
Bad gnome.
Tell them you’re new - expect to make mistakes - don’t get flustered when you do!
https://www.tanknotes.com/
All you need is there.