The Tank is in the House

Razorfen Downs, to be precise.

I took the plunge, grabbed 750G from the Guild Bank (I'm in a small guild with my sister, her husband, and an old college buddy), and bought the dual-spec thingy you can get at 40. I punched in my Prot build, then gritted my teeth and installed the 50g Mithril Shield Spike I'd just bought on the Green Shield I'd also just bought.

I switched to Action Bar 2 and populated it with the Spells/Abilities I thought I'd need as a Tank. I'm familiar with (or at least have read) the 969 Pally rotation, but that's for 80 Pallies; I'm 42. At this level my rotation turned out to be pull with HoR, cast Holy Shield, Consecrate, HS, Con, HS, Con, etc. with the occasional Judgement of Justice or HoR to stop/kill Runners.

It's only a few Spells, nothing like a Hunter's rotation. It can't be too hard, right?

I brought up the new LFG Interface and looked at it. I've got the Gear, I've set up my Action Bar, I'm a Tank now, right?

So what was I waiting for?

I felt I needed to put some "Tank-time" in first. I needed to be familiar with playing this way before I tried to actually be a Tank. Especially when other people were going to be relying on me.

I hadn't done SFK yet, not the whole thing. In my 20s I'd hit the courtyard for the Mats for my Pally Mace Quest but I hadn't completed the Instance. Being 20 levels higher than the Trash meant Soloing RFK should be a piece of cake, and it was. I think I only came close to dying once when I grabbed two rooms full of Mobs, including a Boss. (Or maybe that was the night before when I Solo'd Gnomer as Ret ;)

After killing Arugal and completing SFK I figured it was time, and I hearthed, sold all the crap I'd picked up, made sure I had plenty to drink (and boy! Would I need it!), then opened up the LFG window again.

No, I don't want to do a Random Dungeon, thank you very much. I've been reading up on RFD so...Specific Instance, select RFD. Check off "I'm prepared to Tank" and...I don't even think I had the option to "Join queue". I think as soon as I volunteered to Tank the only options were "Close Window" & "Enter Dungeon", because as soon as I hit the 'Accept' button the Ready Check popped up, and seconds later I found myself inside RFD.

Buffs? Pally Buffs. Blessings? There was a Warrior. I think I gave him Kings, or was it Might? I forget. Priest? Wisdom of course. Mage? The same. Shaman? Er...Wisdom as well? What if he's a Melee Shaman? Fuggit! He has a Mana bar, he's getting Wisdom, too!

"Who's Tanking?" someone asked.

"That would be me," I said, from my position on the floor (as if Dwarfs aren't short enough already. At least I was still as tall as the Gnome Warrior :P), where I was drinking my first of many Sweet Nectar pots.

I hadn't selected to Lead the Group (via the LFG window), just Tank, but the Tank still sort of leads, right? I looked around. Everyone looked ready. Mana bars are full? Check.

I typed, "Ready?" as someone yelled "GO! GO! GO!"

I took that as a Yes.

HoR to pull. Holy Shield. Consecrate, and the first 2-Mob pull died very quickly. I paused for a second as...the Gnome Warrior Charged into the next group with the other three players hot on his heels. Oh, okay. HoR again. HS again. Consecrate...again. It was chaos, but I seemed to have Aggro on all the Mobs. HS is up...Hit It again! And the second group died.

I rushed the third group. HoR. HS. Consecreate. Repeat (with HoR on the Runner) and...Low on Mana.

"Drinking," I said, as I guzzled another Sweet Nectar.

"You can pull more than that," someone said, and I probably could have, but I was a Newby Tank and Newby Tanks are nervous; we don't like to get in over our heads until we know how to swim.

We were almost halfway in when we grabbed several groups at once (I think someone got impatient and did that deliberately) and the AoE exploded. Fortunately almost all the Mobs in RFD are Melee (which is why I'd deliberately chosen it over SM for my Tanking debut) so it was easy to gather them up and AoE them down.

A few Mobs broke from the pack, but they weren't Casters, and in RFD the only Runners are Casters, so I selected a Mob and yes, he was targeting someone who wasn't me. I hit HoR and he ran back into the killing fields. I spun, trying to keep all the Mobs in front of me (can't Block from behind), while laying down Consecrate and popping HS as soon as it was up. More runners. HoR's not up! So hit Righteous Defense! And back they came. The AoE was filling the screen and then...it was over.

"I actually had to heal then," said our Priest.

I guess I really was taking things a little slow for him. Still, a wipe-free run is better than a fast, messy run with repair costs, at least in my opinion, but I'm a little conservative like that (as I am with most things in my life). This run was perhaps a little on the slow side, but it was also smooth (for the most part), and free of Wipes.

We hit Mordresh, the metal-loving Skeleton Boss, but before I could HoR him the Warrior body pulled a bunch of skeletons. More AoE ensued. Mordresh came down off his pile of bones. I hit him with an HoR while the skeletons around us exploded. Nothing could survive the AoE circle of death. I forget what Mordresh dropped but it was nothing I Needed.

We moved on and found Glutton, who dropped his Axe. The Shaman and I both Need rolled. He won. It was only a moderate upgrade to my current weapon so no big deal. I congratulated him and we moved on, fighting our way up the Ramp to Amnennar who dropped my Plate Helm. A horrible looking sky-blue Helm that resembles a Motocross Helmet more than anything else, but it was an Upgrade so I Need rolled. I think the Warrior passed. He was probably in his 30s and couldn't use it yet anyway.

I thanked everyone for the Run, and only now did I let them know it was my first time Tanking. There were general Thanks all around as the Priest offered me some words of advice.

"Remember you're a Paladin," he said. "Pull big! You're made for that."

"See ya," everyone said, and we all dropped Group and Ghetto Hearthed out.

I hit Stormwind and turned in the quest, "Bring the Light", which netted me the wicked looking Vanquisher's Sword. At 30DPS it's a significant upgrade over my Axe, better than Glutton's Cleaver, and is even a debatable upgrade over RFK's 2H Axe, Corpsemaker.

I Alt-Tabbed out to email my brother-in-law about my Tanking exploits but while I was tabbing back & forth (fact checking, I'm anal like that) I noticed he'd just logged on so I updated him in person (at least virtually ;)

I wanted a Fiery Enchant for my new sword but there were no Small Radiant Shards on the AH so that wasn't happening.

"How about Crusader?" the BIL asked, linking the recipe.

Large Brilliant Shards were a dime a dozen, but the Righteous Orbs were 45g each.

"Dude! That's 90g for an enchant on a mid-level weapon!"

"I'll do it for free," he said. "Where are you?"

As I typed "SW Bank" I began running from the AH to the Bank, and bumped into him coming the other way. "Well I was about to be," I said, laughing.

He hooked me up with Crusader then, wanting to complete the Quest "In the Name of the Light", we took off for Tirisfal Glades and the Scarlet Monastery, where I discovered when Crusader proc'd my DPS jumped from 75 to 95. Nice!

Shaun's 80 Pally obliterated SM Armory and Cathedral, and the two Instances provided me with a couple of upgrades, including a new Shield, a better-looking DPS Helm (off Herod) and a 2H Axe (for completing the Quest). I'm now in much better shape to Tank SM but first I want to farm RFD's Spider Boss for the Plate Chest piece he drops. With my new gear and the Crusader Enchant, if Shaun is not on tonight (19-hour time difference between us) I reckon I can Solo-farm him. And if I can't, I can always Tank it again :)