The Spacey Tank

(this is a little old, posting it anyway)

my protection paladin occasionally off tanks my team's 10 man raids. wee! why am i tanking? well, i have concluded that pve dps is just not my style. handling dps aggro frustrates me and i would rather use my kill skills to kill other players with no apologies or accidental deaths (all of my deaths from pissed off horde are pretty much intentional, i suppose). i have spent most of my raiding career as a raid healer and i decided to try something different. i have maintained two raid worthy healers for so long i was getting weary of confusing myself (who to bring? holy paladin? holy priest? am i crazy?) SO! i was feeling adventurous and realized tanking was the only raid/group role i have never tried.

so there i was tonight, off tanking Halazzi's Lynx and all of Malacrass's adds. i really enjoyed off tanking Halazzi. as a tank i LOVE grabbing aggro so when the Lynx appears, it's all mine! "wait for it, wait for it, GET HIM!" it's a brief moment of success, but it's a gratifying one as an off tank. /flex

however, despite my ego boost from Halazzi, the initial Malacrass attempt humbled me by reminding me that, well, tanks should really pay attention to the kill order. some background: i have healed my 10 man group for months and months - that was all i did. when the raid leader/main tank declared a kill order i usually....didn't listen too closely. what i DID listen to was anything that followed, "now, healers...." usually, all that followed was, "heal everyone" or "heal X" my instructions were not complicated and they rarely varied.

off tanks do not have the luxury of not listening, i learned tonight. for some reason, during the kill order instructions, i think my mind was in la-la land. i can't even remember what i was daydreaming about but i certainly was not dreaming about a triangle, square, circle and diamond. oooh no. i think i may have been blanking out completely? i was definitely spacing out and after my triangle target was dead (i snapped back to reality to hear that instruction, at least) i ran around without any idea what to hit next. someone must have told me after everyone realized i was clueless but by then i think it was too late. doh. whoops. eek. will do better next time!

old habits die hard, apparently, since i still find myself standing at the back of the raid. i am still not used to being one of the two first into combat and having everyone else follow. i think i hit "yes" on a ready check without making sure i was really ready. fortunately, all a paladin tank has to do is run forward, but still, i wasn't quite as ready as i should have been. usually, as a healer, you have at least one or two seconds after combat begins to position and just watch the initial pull. the tanks don't get those two seconds because they are the ones kicking off the fight. i'm still not used to people expecting that of me. especially when i'm off tanking - i don't want to rush in before the main tank but i HAVE to be right there with him for the pull. i really enjoy coordinating with our main tank and experiencing a very new perspective on familiar fights, so i'm having tons of fun. however, the more difficult task, surprisingly, has been adjusting to my new role in the raid and breaking old habits. like spacing out before the pull. /shake head