Upon Acquiring the Defenses Required to be the Defender for a Raid

Getting def capped is quite the slog! I've heard that a tank is the hardest role to gear in preparation for raids, but, of course, I'd never done it before. We've all heard the truism before: DPS can squeak by and be carried with mediocre (or bad) gear, healers can get by on pure skill if they're good enough and their tanks are geared enough...but a tank has a hard number she has to reach. 540 defense. Wow. "Ooo, new defense upgrade! That's like forty defense over what I'm wearing now! ...oh, that brought me up two points. 'Awesome.'" Getting up to the defense cap required a fair number of lucky gear drops, a lot of runs through Trial of the Champions (and incidentally stealing the pieces from the two or three other brand-new paladins in the guild), some creative and slightly expensive enchanting (defense to rings rather than stamina would be awesome), and a couple of emblem purchases. But reach the cap I did.

I found something interesting, too. Once you get over the psychological aspects of "Oh my god it's hitting me in the face!" and "Oh my god, everyone's waiting for me and depending on me..." Once you get over those...tanking is actually really easy. Particularly in raids. I'm not sure if this is an aspect of paladin tanking or tanking in general, but once you've grabbed the mob and have a head of threat (I find that a well placed early Hand of Sanctuary helps immensely in making sure your head is well above the mage or ret paladin [thank you Divine Guardian for the suggestion])...it's easy. Sure, some bosses you have to move. No problem, really, just walk in a circle. Some bosses you have to switch with the other tank. Meh, I have two real taunts, then some messy taunts. Most bosses you just stand there and do your rotation. On Loetheb, I saw my threat as about 10 times that of the next nearest (due to well-timed Salvation)...so I sent the mage buddy a tell along the lines of, "Gonna go make a samich, brb. =)" I *probably* could have, too. Paks would keep standing there and putting her shield in the way whether I tell her to or not. Well, not as well or as much, but she would.

It's also still odd to not be playing the role I'm accustomed to. In the Sapph fight in particular, I was constantly reaching for abilities (particularly group heals) that simply weren't there. I feel like there's more I should be doing than watching the aggro meter, watching my health for a bounce that's a bit too low, and throwing around Hands. But there's not. If I'm doing my job right...it's easy.

And you know what? I think I like it.

On Trying a Role That is Completely New

Paks has recently hit 80. That was probably the quickest level grind I have ever done. I did, however, find myself going "Ugh, this quest again?" through most of Northrend. I think I'm going to lay off leveling another alt as my next project. Which is good timing, as the patch has hit, and it's time to go farm heroics for those tasty Emblems of Conquest. (On a separate note, it sure would be nice to trade all those Emblems of Heroism I have *up*. Ah, well.) I think that, other than doing heroics again, I'll also start doing some PVP. That might prove fun with a refocus on battlegrounds (the only time my arena teams have seen 1500 is when they started).

What I intend with Paks is tanking. I already have two to three ranged dps, a dedicated healer, and a melee dps. So, tankadin, ho! It's been quite the experience. My roommate recently got her warrior up to 80 and did some tanking. She's been telling me about the differences in roles and perceptions. So, between what she's told me and WoW Wandering's posts about tanking, I've had some good recent information about switching roles to being the tank.

Wow. It really is different. There's nothing really different in the physical mechanics of how you do it. "Target mob, cast spell." No, this is all psychological. The group is depending on *you* to go get that mob. They're waiting for you to finish up and go get the next mob. They're depending on you to keep that mob off of them. They're depending on you to know where to put that pack. They're depending on you to know to turn that a-bomb around. And to line of sight that caster. And to not get out of line of sight of the healer. And to pull it off the mage. And...And this is just five mans. I haven't even gotten def capped yet, let alone tanked a raid.

I feel that my guild has blessed me with amazing healers, which is what has allowed me to be as successful as I have so far in tanking. (Xiriia, Korth, Bung...free enchants for life, you guys. Wow. I can't believe how you keep a nub like me alive.) I've done several heroics now, and haven't had *too* much difficulty on any of them. Most of the wiping and failing is coming from me mis-pulling, honestly. I know the instances pretty well...but I'm starting to feel like I've only really watched the action and thrown in once it started. Now I am in the center of it all, getting punched in the face.

And you know what's really remarkable about my relative success so far? ...I still have no idea what I'm doing. Here's what I do to tank:

• Mark what I think might have to go down in what order? Geez, I never really payed attention...I just shoot the skull...oh, good, the healer made a suggestion on alternate marking...
• Throw Avenger's Shield and hope it doesn't miss the caster
• Freak out about Avenger's Shield missing the caster, forget about Hammer of Justice, run up to the caster, get hit in the back a few times by the rest of the pack
• Retarget the skull
• Lay down a consecrate
• 969 on the skull, trusting to a paladin's built-in AOE tanking to keep the mobs on me and off the Flamestrike-happy mage
• Pray
• Get crit from not being def capped
• Note mana is low
• Note Divine Plea is on cooldown
• Consider letting Holy Shield drop off to get more heals
• Realize that the mobs have started eating the healer's face
• Try to gather them back up, this time with no mana
• ...?
• Profit!
• Apologize to the group for sucking and the healer for not being def capped
  

(I'm fully convinced that the "...?" there is actually filled with the awesome of healers.)

I've commented in blogs before that I think tanking is easily the most difficult of all the roles. I've done them all in the past (I was forced to be a druid tank in TBC...which is why I quit that guild and rolled horde), and I've done them all much more extensively in Wrath. I would say that (good) DPS is the most activity intensive, healing is the most concentration and focus intensive...but tank is the most pressure. As noted above, they're all waiting for you and depending on you. The positioning, the pacing, the order...it's all your job. I think it is easily the least passive role in the game.

Now that I've gotten some experience simply doing it under my belt, I can put some polish on my technique. Fortunately, I walked in with some really good information from Honor's Code on the 969 rotation. I can't even begin to tell you how much easier it made my life to *begin* tanking knowing that and with the rotation lined right up on my toolbar. And I recently gleaned some great information from Righteous Defense on what's coming in the new patch and how that's going to affect me.

Now I just need to figure out how to get def capped and a better way to pull mobs off people. (Right now, I'm using a click-to-cast healer addon keyed to Righteous Defense to keep aggro on me. This is usually because I have *no idea* where or what mob moved off me if it's not a boss. I really need to get some more situational awareness.)