Tanked Heroic Culling of Stratholme last night for the second time, and I was scratching my head in amazement.  I had a Priest healing me, very geared and a good guy whom I’ve raided with personally for the past year…but he honestly was having trouble healing me.  I’m in mostly ToC ilevel 200-219 gear, and the only blues on me are the Essence of Goss, the Wyrmrest faction chest piece, and the shoulders from the quest in Halls of Stone. (Thankfully, the chest is being replaced by Tier 8.5 tonight, and the shoulders…well, if Heroic ToC ever drops them, they’re pretty much mine )

But more importantly, I’ve realized something and I honestly can’t believe it’s taken me this long.

Tanking is so much more of a responsibility than just holding mobs together on you….it’s about the full survival of your group.  And not just it’s survival even; it’s also relative to the enjoyment of the other four (or nine, or twenty four) people in your group.  I realized, finally, that as a (main) tank you’re responsible for a lot of stuff that can go wrong.  That many people can blame you for things that even may not be necessarily your fault.

And honestly, I love it.  Sure, it’s a little scary, but that’s what makes it fun!

I offtanked my first 10-man finally in the same night; regular ol’ Naxxramas 10man, and got a nice ring out of it off Anub’Rhekan, and even a nice 2handed mace off Heigan.  As soon as a I figure out how to link items in this damned blog, I’ll be sure to start doing that as opposed to saying “that mace” or “That chest.”  Everything’s still in progress.

The one thing I’m interested in:

General
The Brood Mother Returns
After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns to commemorate World of Warcraft’s five-year anniversary.

• Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players and is now available for testing in 10- and 25- player modes.
• Adjustments have been made to the encounter to keep it fit for modern raiding, but the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother will remain, as will the horror of the Deep Breaths!
• Some classic items Onyxia offered level 60 players will have their stats adjusted appropriately for level 80 players.
• Brood of Onyxia, a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers.

Also, there’s something about DK Ghouls having Gnaw’s cooldown dropped down a bit.

Oh, and Paladins getting 10% taken off Righteous Fury and Touched By the Light now scales off Strength (60% maximum talented) instead of Stamina (30% maximum talented).  Overall, seems like things got balanced a bit.  Of course, everybody on the forums is still whining about Ardent Defender. Oh well.

Tanked a couple heroics for some guild members last night, was a blast.  I’m sitting pretty at 543 Defense now with decent avoidance considering I’m almost purely stamina stacking x_x.  I’ll try to get a couple heroic Trial of the Champion runs in this weekend so I can see if the shoulders, helm and 2hander drop.  I’m also considering going frost as my other Dual Spec when I eventually purchase the option.

But that’s neither here nor there right now.

I’m Lomaine, a Troll Death Knight on the realm Rivendare-US (PVP), and officer of the raiding guild <Fusion>.

This blog is and shall continue to be, a work in progress. By no means am I a person who fully understands Death Knight mechanics, or tanking mechanics.  I’m actually pretty new to the practices of said categories, but have researched them prior to trying.  I hope to do one thing I feel I can do well: Share.  Here I’ll share a lot with you: thoughts, musings, advice, even some guides if I ever write any or am allowed to post them here by their original owners.  But I also want this to be entertaining, and that it shall be.

Also, I’ll be honest; most of my friends couldn’t give a rats ass about World of Warcraft stuff, so why not put it in a blog they can safely ignore, and only have people it matters to read it?
More to come in the next days as I submerge my feet deeper and deeper into the waters of tanking.