I haven't tanked since ICC, but you know what? This bear sleeping bag just might inspire me to do so.
Created by Eiko Ishizawa, I am so amused by this bear sleeping bag!
This new LFG feature has been getting me a bunch of triumph badges, which I've been using to upgrade my tanking gear. My tanking gear is pretty darned decent now and I recently had the experience of tanking all of TOC! I know, I know... TOC like its that hard anymore. But when I first realized that with the raid composition of a large number of people's alts that I would have to tank, I was pretty scared. I was nervous about switching off on Gormok and then positioning the worms.
I get a little scared every time I have to tank something, just because I don't do it that often. But then I do it, and we have a run like we did where we just one shot everything and I'm like "Oh, this tanking stuff isn't that bad!" Though then again, I was in some very capable healing hands. I think a big difference for me when I'm tanking vs healing is just the spatial awareness/point of view. Its hard to see everything that's going on when there is a big boss all up in your face. We'll see how far I go with tanking.
So why is it again that the druid bear form is the only one that will hold with rockets on the Gunship battle? Why can't we have rocket tree? I mean, I know its graphically possible:
Is there some fear that rockets + tree bark = danger or something?
We were running a bunch of alts through Naxx the other day for the first time in a long long time. I figured hey, I will alt too, and this tree will go rawr! Yes, my friends, I tanked two wings of Naxx. I think I was most concerned about tanking Heigan, but I did it!
Here's a cute pic of two of the alts we were taking through Naxx, Beastling our new bebeh tree and Felishia our new Moonkin whose flabby ass I can't stop pinching. We were doing a quick druid pow-wow aka dancing. So cute, so cute.
So what have I learned so far? Well lets recall that when Jess is tanking and I am healing, and Jess dies, it is Jess' fault. However when I am tanking and Jess is healing me and I die, it is Jess' fault. Hahaha... sigh. But still sorta true.
I've toyed with the idea of tanking for a long long time. I think I might have mentioned it on the blog a while back. Why? Well, I'm intrigued by the fact that its not as common to see girls tanking. It ignites the part of me that went through a phase where I was smoking cigars and shooting pool with the boys all the time (Macanudos and Montecristos FTW). Anyways, I know girls tank, but I for one have personally never really run with a female tank. Also I figured that I should better understand tanking so that I can more knowledgeably give our tanks crap when I'm healing them. :p
So I wondered, could I do it? Could I tank? I've always been quite intimidated and scared about tanking and never been able to get myself to do it... until this weekend. Yes, my tree-y friends, this tree went rawr. Fortunately I had a pretty damn good tanking set collected from all the runs where something dropped that no one else could use or DE so I figured that could buffer me from my noobishness.
I should probably do a separate post sometime on the very very basics of druid bear tanking including stats, gems, enchants, and mechanics. I had to go to a number of sources to gather everything and I don't know if it may be helpful for someone else to have it all in one place. Now I'm talking very very basics here... starting as a noob druid tank, not any complicated stat/theory-crafting. I came across some great info from my fellow feral druid bloggers out there but there was a lot of stuff that I had no clue what in the world they were talking about.
So my very first tanking experience was heroic Utgarde Keep with some guildies who I think were prepared for an amusing run. I think they came with popcorn. It actually went just fine, except for one wipe where I rushed into some mobs and also pulled the boss as well. Oops. Since that went so well, I then tanked heroic TOC! ZOMG! Though in all honesty, I don't think that the success was as much me as it was the awesome healing by Nicolause. I also tanked a bunch of normal TOC runs with some brand new 80 alts in the guild and look I am a real tank now! I haz The Black Heart!
All in all, some thoughts about my tanking weekend. I love the fact that on my druid, who has always been my main and the first character I ever ever created, I can spec a different way and feel like I'm playing a completely new toon. Its like having another alt! It was fun playing a different way.
Secondly, healing for me is pretty precise. I choose to push certain buttons because I want to cast a specific spell for a specific purpose. Tanking for me was a bit more... uh, lets just say facerolling. OMG the first heroic UK keep was total facerolling! It got better as I got more practice and figured out what I was doing and where to best place my keybindings. But whoa, tanking is a whole lot of button mashing. I recalled when Jess would talk about getting sore fingers after a tough raiding night, which I now totally understand.
Now I am still a healer at heart and while I will probably tank more for fun, no this blog will not turn into a tanking blog. But let me just say this. Yes, good tanking requires skill, but great tanking requires an awesome healer behind you (heehee... see there's my healing core!). I don't think there is any way I could have tanked heroic TOC if Nico wasn't healing me. But I found it interesting that in our run folks mentioned how I did really well tanking (and I think they were quite surprised... heh), but never gave props to the healer. I'm sure it wasn't easy for Nico to heal me. Anyways, this is an entirely separate subject though that I will rant about in a post soon.
Finally, if you've ever thought of trying to tank, trust me if I can do it, you can do it.
During one of our last Ulduar runs, this tree had a revelation. I can't remember exactly which boss we were working on, but a comment was made to the effect of "this is a healer fight". I paused for a second, held up a branchy arm, and posed my question over vent, the gist of which is:
Why is it that you hear from time to time the phrase "its a dps check" or "its a healer fight" but you rarely or hardly ever hear "its a tank fight"? Was it a tank that came up with these two phrases so that tanks aren't ever "blamed" for a wipe? If dps and healers can be blamed, I think its only fair, don't you? Amirite or Amirite?
Everyone laughed and agreed. There was more laughter on a subsequent night when we wiped on some boss and I declared, "Sigh, this is so obviously a tank fight". I definitely recognize when certain fights are dps checks and others are very much reliant on the healers. I wouldn't have a problem with that if certain fights placed the crux of the responsibility on the tanks. Or is it that there really is no such thing as a "tank fight"?
