I'm Ruined!

Ok so it's after midnight and technically this is a Friday post. Something I said I would never do, just consider it a bonus, or a slightly late additional Thursday post and be done with it. Just don't expect more.


I do a lot of tanking. I tank when I group with people and I tank when I PvP, but in secret, when nobody was looking I have been working on my PvE dps set.

Shuuush!

Not so loud, they might hear you.

I have garnered a whole bunch of off spec dps gear while tanking to replace some of my S1 (Welfare) PvP gear I was using for it. And I'm quite proud of my handy work. I'm hit capped, I have over 1700 unbuffed attack power, and just under 32% crit chance in Battle Stance.

It however came as a bit of a surprise that for the past two days I have been a very lucky warrior. I have gotten to play as dps WITH OTHER PEOPLE. Can you believe it? I was in a group and a raid and I wasn't a tank. Well sort of ... at least I wasn't meant to be ... and wasn't ... or not for very long at least.

Ok, I can see your going to need a more organized, and rational explanation than that. It's just that ... well ... it's a little embarrassing thats all.

Lets start at the beginning and all will soon become clear.

Day 1 - Karazhan.


I'm part of the newly formed Kara group 4 in my guild, and In the first week one of each of the other tanks couldn't make one of the two raid nights, so I ran as a tank. Nothing new there I've done it before. We did pretty well too, in the two days we got to prince with a newly formed group, and only failed to down him due to highly unlucky Infernal drops.

On to week two, raid day one.

Whats this?

Both of the other tanks can make it, and there's a free dps slot?

Whoohoo! /HappyWarriorDance

I run to the bank and blow the accumulated dust off my PvE dps set, run over to the Auction house and drop a bit of gold on the last two gems I need to be hit capped. I don't remember how much they cost, and at the time I couldn't care about the price. I was raiding as dps. Yeah Baby!

We down Attumen the Huntsman, with one embarrassing wipe, caused by a miscommunication between the tanks as to who was tanking what. Anyway we down him and move on to Moroes. I get to tank the add that needs killing, By hitting it with my big axe (I use a 33/28/0 spec). We have to reset due to adds resisting one to many frost traps and down him on the second go.

So your thinking "Ok Stunty whats the big deal. It's good to have a dps warrior on the Moroes adds.". Well yes it is, now be patient, I'm just setting the stage here. Enough with the interruptions damn it. The point is I've been doing a lot of tanking and I've just tanked something again, this can have a huge psychological effect on a warrior.

We work our way into the hallway leading to The Maidens room, and right off the bat we get a mistaken double pull. I hit a mob which then gets marked for shackles. Ok, no problem just stop hitting it. Well unfortunately when I hit it I scored a crit, which put a bleed effect on it.

Damn. I dotted the mob I'd better take the lumping it's wanting to dish out. So I call out on vent that I had dotted the mob and shackles goes onto a different one. Thanks to the stirling work of the two Shaman healers we had, I somehow manage to remain alive throughout the fight. Yet another mob tanked.

We work our way down to the maidens room. /wipe

Damn!

As we were setting up in our positions on of the hunter pets aggros The Maiden, the hunter quickly hits feign Death and is one of the lucky few not to die. I ask you is there any justice in the world? No? I thought not.

We get back, rebuff, and set up properly. Then it's go time. The pally Mt starts off tanking The Maiden then the Warrior OT exceeds his threat and ends up tanking her. not for very long as the change in tanks catches the healers flat footed and he goes down. So now the Pally is tanking her again. Alright! Lets keep on cooking, or that was the plan anyway. You see during the double tank change over I had steadily been generating threat, and when the big girl was back on the pally I had already accumulated more than 90% of his threat. This ment that Omen didn't make it's lovely "Boom" noise to warn me that I was about to pull aggro. Yes, yes, I know I should have been watching the threat meter and not relying on the boom, but what comes next just makes it even worse.

The Maiden turns around and starts to hit me, and I think nothing of it, this is the normal state of affairs for me, so I just kept right on with my attack rotation. Then I notice my health jumping up and down like a kangaroo on a pogo stick, and realize what I've just done. Reflectively I hit the push-to-talk button as I say "Oh S***" to myself more than anyone else, let out a strangled "Help!" and die. There was just no way the the healers could have possibly kept a warrior with 350 defense, no shield, and crappy avoidance alive under those conditions. So I spent the rest of the fight staring up at the ceiling, reflecting on what I'd just done. Not to mention keeping my mouth shut and pretending it was just another case of over aggroing.

The maiden goes down and thus ends my inadvertent tanking escapades ... or so I thought.

Day 2 - Heroic Slave Pens.

No Karazhan today, not enough people signed up, but those of us from Group 4 that were online decide to do the daily heroic. This happened to be Slave Pens. A nice easy heroic, what could go wrong?

Did you just hear thunder outside?

No?

Must have been my imagination then. Making comments like that could lead anyone to think they heard thunder and lightning heralding the fact that you just tempted fate.

Back on track. We get in and on only the second pull I intercept way out in front of the Pally tank and hit Whirlwind. I Realize my mistake immediately. The Ventrillo conversation that followed when like this.

(Stuntyone Intercepts and casts Whirlwind.)

Me ~Idiot~ : "Whoops".

(Stuntyone has Died, and rather rapidly I might add)

(The pull finishes without anymore deaths)

Captain Igloo ~Mage~ : "Stunty, what were you doing?" (In a rather exasperated voice)

(A short shame faced silence follows)

Me ~Still Idiot~ : "I thought I was the tank." (In a small voice that I'm sure conveyed my blush to all on vent)

(whole group, bar me, as I'm too busy blushing, laughs for a bit)

Captain Igloo : "Well now I know what that 'Whoops' was about." (you could hear the grin in her voice)



So the whole point of this post is that it appears I have been ruined for anything but tanking, although it's not going to stop me trying. :)

So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent warrior signing off.