Thank you for the replies. I am interested in tanking well and not being just another guy in armour. I'm willing to take the slower levelling if it means more experience in tanking flashpoints and grouping in heroics. So far it's been a blast.
When I look at popular endgame PT builds they have points in the dps trees. My only quandary is when I actually put those points in the dps trees; after I've maxxed the shield tree or somewhere in between? So far I'm going to follow up the shield tree and see how it goes. If I see a serous lack of dps I'll think about putting points in Iron Fist(which looks great), Prototype or Puncture.
~K
