how is that different from anybody else??? everyone who raids endgame drops a ton of money on top of the line gems, enchants, pots, reagents, etc, or their guild does it for them. i guess you can say you DIE more as a tank or take more damage and that fact, combined with plate armor, makes it more expensive overall but honestly, what actual endgame guild doesn't supply basically all gems and enchants, and a lot of pots to their members, and cover repairs for at least the main tank, if not everyone? in fact, as the mt, you're in the unique position of being one of the few people who should be GUARANTEED to get gems, pots, enchants, and repair money automatically and for free. you're probably better off than anyone else, as far as money you need to spend on raid-related shit.
Starting out is expensive however.
Looking at our bank right now we have like THREE void crystals, a few Large Brilliants, maybe 10 primals (all donated thanx guyzzzzz) and like 60 gold.
We've only been in kara for two weeks and starting gruul's on sunday, however I have gotten.... the panda min/max disease. I was pretty much obsessed with getting the most mileage out of the shitty blues I had at the time (over 13k unbuffed health in blues highfive) now that i've been slowly picking up good epics, I have had to replace the gems/enchants myself since the bank is not at the point where we can just say HERE'S SOME SOLID STARS COLESLAW

:.
But panda is right, as a guild gets bigger and their bank gets.... more voluptuous...... it can afford to pretty much gem/enchant out its players. Once you get into BT your gems come from the instance itself anyway so WHATEV (drop... more spinels damn blizzard f$%^& you).
But yeah 8/10 kara going into gruul's this sunday come transfer guys recruiting holy pallies, locks, and probably a resto shaman or something (CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH BLOODLUST)