As the Shield Turns

Last I posted about my Baby Pally I was running amok through Scholomance. And my oh my, how time has flown. I'm no longer a delicate Blood Elf flower screaming Thalassian insults at Banshees and undead Constructs....

No, now I'm a large delicate Tauren flower screaming Taurahe insults at Valkrie and undead Constructs.

Anyone who knows how many tauren I have really wouldn't be surprised at this. I have had people betting on whether or not Jabberjack would become a tauren. Jabbers is very much so a blood elf and I don't think I could. Male Blood elves look much better in plate, than their female counter parts in my mind. A female blood elf in plate ends up a little too much dress up barbie for my tastes. So really it was only a matter of time before Jackaline became a cow. Especially since she was rolled in late November/early December and I couldn't make her a Tauren.

But It's still amazing to me to look back and realize, holy cowbells I'm level 79, and by the end of the week I will be 85. I haven't leveled this fast ever, and what's more important I'm Having Fun doing so. This alone makes me value this toon far more than any other toon. Fun is what games are supposed to be about. Leveling this toon has been the breath of fresh Air I've been craving in this game.

And I'm still learning.

Some of the things I learned when I first started tanking still apply at this level.

Go at your own pace! The more you run a place the better you will know it, and the faster you can go. Odds are still good that your DPS is chomping at the bit to and I quote, "GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO". I've found that picking a mob and charging in works really well. If you're marking mobs, aim for the casters first.

Confidence is the best Buff. If you know your rotation and are buoyed by your confidence you can tank anything. If you've had a group shake you up, grab a buddy and go for another. You are the tank, you own those mobs. Don't become the entitled asshole tank with this. There will ALWAYS be a bigger fish out there that is better than you, but the main thing here is to feel good about yourself and your abilities. You are a stud. Now go tank that Bastard you sexy beast you.

/ignore is Amazing No really it is. If you run into a bad player, or an abusive player that makes you want to punch the screen just ignore them. There is currently a bug so in pugs if you need to ignore someone click on their name and ignore them that way.  I ran into a case where I was farting about on my worgen druid and i ended up healing a run that was so awful. The tank was abusive the rogue was even more so. I dropped group because I didn't want to deal with them. If I'd been on top of things I would have ignored them. Five minutes later when I decided to try again, the random dungeon finder tossed me back into that group.  I wanted to bang my head on the desk and just coped by being obnoxious back (while still healing even if i was spamming moonfire and wrath).

And Tanking is still getting a little bit harder, but I relish the challenge. I'm almost into Cata content. My familiarity with Wrath content meant that I rofled my way through it. It really helped that I picked up a pocket Healer and a pocket boomchicken/healer. If you're tanking get yourself a pocket buddy. Pocket dps count for this too, because having backup makes life SO MUCH EASIER.

By the end of the week I hope to hit 85 on Jackaline, and then the race to gear up for heroics and raids begins anew.

Walk with the Earth Mother.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So my awesome baby guild on Ysera is kind of dead in the water, or rather it's gone tits up. The Gm? Total WoW burn out, our tankadin is afk, and well it just sucks and makes me sad. So after talking to the GM I got his blessing to go looking for  a guild.

Monday I joined a new guild, and last night was the first night of raiding. First off, I like it, there's a lot of active players I ask in guild if anyone wants a heroic and BAM full group. It *FEELS* low key and relaxed, and as someone who really, really doesn't want drama in a guild it's awesome.

But yeah first night of raiding with them. There some jokes in vent during trash, but boss time was serious time. It reminded me a bit of my wrath/ICC 25m guild on Hao. I did have flasks but in my nervous dancing chicken way forgot my buff foods. I had looked up 2 of the fights in Bastion of Twilight and a few of the fights in Blackwing Decent. The bad news is we were in BoT, and what I had looked up was helpful, but I felt like such a huge blithering idiot. Especially when we hit  the Asendant Council and I died on the trash before it and hadn't looked up that fight.  /idiot.

My dancing chicken of nervousness self combined with not knowing enough and forgetting my buff food all combined to make me feel woefully inadequate, as well as near worthless. And then add on that my last raiding experiences were during August as my Guild was working on 25m Hard Modes in ICC. And that I was a hunter, not a holy pally.

Performance anxiety, I has it. But we 1 shot Halfus, got Valiona and Theralion down and had one super awesome attempt on the council (2% or less). That's probably not as good as they usually do and by the Earthmother I will be better prepared.

I like this guild and their 2.5 hrs a night 2 nights a week (with a float day on Sunday) Schedule. I want to be the best damn player I can be for them. It's like they say, if it's worth doing, It's worth doing right.

Raiding, I wanna do it right.