What did I do wrong?

I'm a level 24 Paladin who, at the moment is specced towards Retribution, but wants to become a Tankadin. Earlier, I was inSFK with a group consisting of:

1 Rogue
1 Priest
1 Druid

Before we went in, I asked if they'd like me to tank (they were already formed and grouped, so I figured it was polite rather than barge in shouting "I've got 'em! Kill what I hit, and heal me!"). I've never tanked before so was looking forward to it. It's not too difficult a zone (I've soloed deep into it before), so I figured if I made a few mistakes it'd not cost us.

We went in and almost immediately I noticed I couldn't keep aggro. I had RF up, and I was using RD to get the mobs off the druid and Priest, but I just kept losing aggro to all my fellow party members. I tried everything. I ditched SoC from my action bar and replaced it with SoR because SoR hits more frequent, I used Consecration but only a few times did I manage to get the mobs hitting me. When they did, the whole thing worked like a dream. They hit me, the druid and rogue did the DPS and the Priest healed me.

The pull worked like this:

One baddie would be marked, the Shaman or Priest would cast a spell to pull them, and I would use RD. Should I have then used Consecration as they turned to engage me? Each fight left me really low on mana because I was using it all trying to get the mobs back onto me.

Another problem is up on the walls I kept getting silenced. When that happened, it happened right at the start and left me useless.

I should point out that the group were perfectly nice people and the Priest is now on my friends list, though they were a bit gungho at times and did engage before I had a chance to establish any aggro, but they didn't do it all the time, and even then I was using RD. We made it through alive (and we weren't really in danger of dying tbh) but I did feel a little annoyed by my inability to tank effectively.

I'll have to pay 5g to respecc again. I only changed away from prot because I couldn't find a group so decided I needed to solo.

Sorry, I meant SoR. I was using SoR, not SoJ.

I am a new guy with a low level pally, but from my readings the thing that was wrong is you weren't the one doing the inital pull. So the base threat is all going to someone else. that starts the pull with you behind, and you just never catch up again. My suggestion would be to start the pulls yourself with a judgement on something.
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Cyrrix lvl 14 and rising Pally on Dunemaul

The reason I let the Priest pull (and this isn't an excuse, just stating my thinking) was that I figured if I walked in, I'd aggro too much. Obviously I don't have a ranged taunt so was a little unsure how to approach. I figured if the Priest hit them with a low level spell, I could then use RD to get the mobs on to me and then SoR/Consecration. Obviously, it didn't work.

I was a little too passive, but I wanted to get in there and they'd just booted someone out of the group for aggroing too many mobs so was worried I'd suffer the same fate. I'll speak up next time. I should've took control.

Yeah its hard to pull with no AS. I understand what you were thinking.

And if you were in a situation where even the 10yd judgment was too risky and you HAD to have a caster pull, you need to make them aware and even be slightly assertive that they MUST give you a few seconds of threat before dpsing.

Best of luck in the future mate.

Righteous Defense has a 40 yards range.
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Quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur (Anything said in Latin seems deep)
.'>';

I have to hold my hands up, I didn't know it could be cast directly on mobs. I did some reading just now. I knew about the range, but that seems to make it a little simpiler that I don't have to flap around trying to target the player who is having the shit kicked out of them. I was going to install the macro later.

Learning spatial awareness is going to be one of the bigger keys to your success. Spend lots of time learning how to walk backwards and strafe as well as mastering the camera controls.

Its important to learn what various mob's do as well, many of them have abilities that they can use on other members of your group while they're still nominally attacking you, so you don't want to blow your RD cooldown when you didn't really lose the mob.

Get the BoProtection Macro as well, but be careful of the above so you don't accidently BoP yourself.
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"Tanks need many stats, including No-blink crotch staring resistance" - Snake-Aes

Plus, SFK is filled with undeads, http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=879 [lvl 20 spell] comes to mind, at least on pulls with 1+ undead.