a) As a Protection Paladin, you will want Mastery everywhere until such time as you are capped or are in heroic raid content. Fine Ember Topaz is the ideal cut for a red socket as it is the only combo gem that has both Mastery and another tanking stat.
b) You are expected to be able to hold threat against those of comparable gear. As a 333 tank, you'd expect to be able to hold threat against a 333 DPS. If your DPS outgears the context, i.e. a 359 DPS, then you aren't expected to be able to hold threat off of them. You will have to be more specific with your question if you feel it is actually a problem you face.
However, given your current state I would say you wouldn't even be able to hold aggro off of an equivalently geared DPS. You have no enchants, no reforging, no gems, and no glyphs. Since you haven't made any investment in what you have, your performance will be considerably less than that of your average 333 player who has made such investments. Not saying you have to go for broke and get best of everything, but you should have something invested, especially in those pieces of gear which are higher in item level than your current context (i.e. your 346 and 353 pieces should definately be enchanted). You also aren't receiving the benefit of your professions as they aren't high enough in level to be granting their Cataclysm bonuses.
c) No comment as I don't play a paladin myself.
d) There is one "tank-unfriendly" encounter in heroic dungeons. Cookie. That fight requires no tanks. Everything else requires a tank therefore is a tank friendly encounter. The term unfriendly when refering to a role, like "melee-unfriendly" means there are mechanics which favor having ranged players instead of melee. There is never a case though where you would choose to not have a tank. In terms of actual difficulty though it will vary depending on your own skills. What one person considers hard, another considers easy. Some will consider execution based context to be hard. Others may consider them easy because once you execute them properly it is easy to have repeat success. Others will say things like throughput tests are hard simply because if you lack the necessary throughput you can't succeed regardless of your technique. Others will say those are easier because once you have the necessary throughput there is considerably less you are required to learn to deal with. Difficulty is often a matter of perspective.
Also, this topic should be in the HALP forums as it pretains more to your character. It has relatively little to do with dungeons.
Last edited by Quinafoi; 06-20-2011 at 12:02 PM.
"In anything, if you want to go from just a beginner to a pro, you need a montage." /w TankSpot WTB Montage for Raiders.
Much thanks in advance. 
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