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.