Last night was my first attempt at the only aspect of WoW that I have ever ever delved into before. Tanking. I created a night elf warrior and happily made my way to level 15 which is when you can start to queue for dungeons. I wanted some experience under my belt. I know you can easily make your way through game having not ever grouped with another person but in order to learn how to tank properly I actually have to group. Goal number one. The first instance I entered was Deadmines – and I should have known better and attempted the zones on my paladin as dps first because they’ve been revamped in layout and design and I haven’t been to the beginner dungeons in a very long time.
I don’t like to say that all of a particular class plays poorly, but dang if I didn’t have not one, but TWO really horrid hunters in group that would randomly pull whatever they wanted from where ever they wanted. Needless to say they died. A lot. I was also level 15 with a level 21 mage in group which made things difficult (ie: aggro control) BUT some how we made it all the way to the end of the instance. I died twice, and I reached level 19.
A word about these levels. I have been playing with a friend who has recruit-a-friend tied to my account for two more weeks. This grants us 300% experience to both quests and kills and the experience is FAR TOO MUCH for beginner players on a new server. Why? Because we fly through content too quickly to gather appropriate gear, or coin in order to afford skills. There’s no time to learn anything because every time we blink, we level. On our veteran characters and server this wouldn’t be a big deal because at least we could outfit ourselves and we’d have coin but coming to a new server and a new faction on new characters? It’s been incredibly annoying. I really wish we could turn this feature off some how, other wise I’m simply reluctant to group with my friend.
I found tanking stressful and not in the good exhilarated type of way but in the O M G we’re all going to DIE type of way. After Deadmines I went back to the paladin, thinking that perhaps tanking is just not for me. I did Shadowfang Keep (which has also changed a fair amount) and for some odd reason when the zone was completed I decided I would give tanking another try.
This time I ended up in Wailing Caverns, with a group who had just lost their tank. We were still near the entrance, and they informed me that the previous tank had been kicked because he was dps spec’d and geared. No problem there, as a typical healer I know how difficult it is to keep up tanks that think they’re dps. The group went surprisingly well. I told everyone from the start that even if it hadn’t been revamped I would probably get incredibly lost in WC because it’s just one of those zones I’ve never been able to memorize the layout to and the maps are confusing. There was one point where we all had to jump across two little gaps and I fell down. Twice. I joked that the third time was the charm and that I was never very good at Mario games. Everyone was very calm and even though WC is an incredibly LONG zone, we finished it, without deaths. I don’t think I did that bad of a job tanking, either. I find WC hard because almost everything casts, and likes to stand as far away from you as possible while they do so.
I dinged level 22 on the paladin, and 20 on the warrior. I was quite pleased that I’d managed to tank without too many issues. While I’m quite used to playing the healer and do so eagerly, tanking has always been a fear of mine. In WoW double as much fear because everything seems to rely on the tank. If I had a steady group of people to play with I know I would enjoy tanking 100% more then I do while attempting random PUGS but since that is not in the plans for me, I’ll just have to make due.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!