Tanks, please use strength gear.. :(

[TouchandFeel]

So basically, we're DPS who just happen to have taunts.

yes? that's the mentality I should play with?

Not exactly, you are first and foremost a tank and should behave as such.

Basically for me Tank priorities are as follows (not including encounter specific mechanics).

1) Aggro control and mob positioning/placement.
2) Mitigating damage, dodging stuff, not dying.
3) DPS.

After becoming familiar with tanking and the content, 1 and 2 sort of become second nature and you just start doing it without really thinking too much about it, which leaves you more room to focus on improving your DPS.