No, I haven’t seen Dark Knight yet, though I’m itching to. Ledger just looks great as the Joker, much more frightening than the Jack Nicholson version from 1989.
Anyhow…
I don’t know about your server, but over on Whisperwind we seem to be having a bit of a tank crisis. Take a gander at the LFG channel, and chances are you’ll see multiple groups just looking for one last piece to start a run – a tank.
Let’s face it, good tanks are hard to come by. It’s a tough enough job running with people you know, it much be semi-nightmaric to try to tank a PUG run. I don’t even want to get into what a Warrior’s repair bill looks like after a heroic PUG. Ugh.
Also, in my guild one of our main tanks took a vacation for about 2 weeks and we were short a very important piece. (Zhen, you’ve got some nerve!) One of our other main tanks has been suffering from on again off again burnout, which doesn’t help. Because of all that it’s been difficult to get even guild runs off the ground.
Well, I’ve been considering the unthinkable. Respecing. If you’ve read my blog for awhile, you’ll know that I leveled feral all the way, and spent a good 3-4 months when I hit 70 as a feral druid. Well, I was a little afraid of trying to lead runs at the time, so I was always vying for DPS spots in instances. That proved to be quite difficult, and my guild was also running a little low on healers. So it was that Pummra was reborn as a resto druid.
I took to healing like a fish to water (more on that later) and haven’t looked back. I enjoy my role as a healer, and I’ve come a long way in terms of gear and skill. In my good healer gear, I’m sitting at about 1900 +heal – not a huge number, but more than adequate for T5 and everything below that. Since I’ve raided SSC, Kara and Heroics so much, I’ve also slowly been amassing tanking and DPS gear.
I didn’t know how far I had come in that respect until the other night. I knew I was close to a really good tanking set, but I didn’t know how close. When I put everything on, I was at 10.2k health, 18k+ armor and 418 defense. And that’s resto spec’d. I had kicked around the idea of trying to tank again before, but I just got a couple more recent upgrades to push me over that magical 415 defense number. I have some fantastic pieces, like the Wildfury Greatstaff from SSC.
So should I take the plunge? I very well might, and even offered to OT Kara Friday night if necessary. I don’t like the idea of paying for respecs all the time, as I still plan to raid as a healer, but I’ll live with it. I’m no longer intimidated by leading or marking on runs, so expect to see Pummra’s Big Bear Butt soon!
Tags: Druid, Gear, Instances
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Oh noes! you’d have to redo your banner!
In seriousness, tanking is a blast. I’ve healed and been DPS, but I’ve never had as much fun then as I do as a tank.
How easy or difficult most instances are is very much dependant on the tank, how you pull, what your pace is, and how well you can organize it all.
Once you’ve become acustomed to it you can have runs as smooth as butter every time. IMO there’s nothin better! =)
Our server seems to suffer more from lack of healers than tanks – I see “need healer and DPS then G2G” almost as often as “need healer and tank.”
Our guild in particular is suffering an abundance of tanks – we’re having to shuffle to get the newer ones enough experience. But even after I abandoned my hunter to level my tree, and one of the warriors rolled a shammy, we are still woefully short of healers. That does mean though, that I always have in invite if I’d like it.
Respeccing for the guild doesn’t suit everybody, but if it does suit you, (in a good guild) you will be getting help and support as you learn or re-learn your new role. And then you’re having fun with friends again.
And you may love it – I’d never have learned how much I love to heal if the guld hadn’t been hurting for healers. I’d still be pewpewing with my crossbow!
Kriyet of Bladefist
I love tanking ! But i hardly ever pug now. I laugh at wimpy hunters in LFG asking for tanks, and I say to myself “500g or no effing way!”
Tanking is so much fun because, rather like healing, you have to be on all the time. You cant be lazy and snooze your way through, and if you thrive on that, its awesome. And sooner or later every tank realizes this, and they WILL NOT carry snoozers on their shoulders. Why should we? Thats why we won’t hang in LFG unless we’re desperate
IM(not so)HO you can easily get by as a mediocre dps player. There’s no such thing as a mediocre tank – either you’re great, or you create suck for your whole party.
OK rant over! Occassionally I respec to resto for a couple of days, and I love that to. Its a whole different vibe. I recommend respeccing sometimes, my friend. Your stats will still be on the low side for now, but yes, you have the premier tanking weapon in your bank already. You owe it to ppl like me (who dont) to use it.
what i noticed about servers with tanking shortages (i’m on one myself, US arygos) is that people who realize that there is a shortage on tanks tend to roll tanks themselves on alts. thus when you’re levelling up an alt, there’s a larger number of tanks lfg’ing the lower level instances. i have a feral druid myself, and i have been in more than my fair share of runs where our group has an extra tank (i.e. me) to pick up adds or to OT the second boss character (i.e. the whitemane fight in scarlet monastery cathedral).
it’s funny, because it tends to lead to threat fights, where two tanks try to outthreat each other, only to lose to the mage who critted a pyro right of the initial pull.
- Bashertin, US Arygos