I got both my tanks to 40 & 41 It means I am getting lots of tanking practise, or more how it’s become. Twice the fun.
Zahrana @ Level 41 = 75 man dungeons entered. She was in dungeons as soon as she was level 15
Brynhild @ Level 40 = 63 5 man dungeons entered. But was only in dungeons from about level 20 i think.
I was in a Ulduar run with Zahrana and these really sweet blue boots dropped off the trogg with the 1st part of the key thingy. I paused to check them against mine, and went yep. Massive upgrade. Need.
” Why did you roll need? You have boa stuff?”
” I need to wear shoes too” I say. “Would you like me to go barefoot?”
I then had enough time to type an offer to “strip down to all my boa gear”
“Oh I thought they were shoulders Chill Zah.. I’ve just had a lot of ninja’s in my groups” they explain.”
“think before you speak” I retorted. Majorly annoyed.
I pulled the next group and went on tanking. Later on, I said something, like ‘come this way’ and from the same person, got ” Wow, Arrogance abounds in Azeroth.”
“If someone accused you of being a ninja on the 3rd pull in a run wouldn’t you be pee’d off?”
“point taken.. ”
I like the LFG system – each group is full of new and exciting experience, and interactions with people – no matter the role, and I’m doing them now as Dps, Tank, and healer cross my toons, but I can go from boring to heal, to a bad tank – in a matter of 2 instances, because I can’t control the DPS in my own team.
The mobs are easy. The People are the hard part, but they are also the fun part. Especially the healer I got last night in a run, who on discovering I wasn’t taking too much damage spent the entire run philosophising about life in party chat, and replacing his s’s with z’s ” Iz a man really happy when he iz doing what he wantz” “Are we all zlaves to our own dreamz”
Maybe it is I that brings the weird out in people, and no I don’t make this stuff up.
I’m getting cocky – yes – arrogant, not quite. Hey I still admit when I get really lost, but I will tell you in capital letters DO NOT USE FEAR -as I see the wave of mobs running towards the party baying for our blood. I try and interject some wisdom I have learned on pulls too. Hug the wall. Watch the runner on this pull.
I do get sarcastic ” I didn’t realise rogues use spell power” “What level do mages get decurse? Hint hint” ” Do you only have one spell on your bars?” ( to the mage Arcane blasting all of RFK -that stuff is irritating blowing up in your face the whole time.)
I’ve refused run offers to level quicker on Zahrana, but I want to do this on my own. I know the game changes, and end game raiding, and even heroics is different then the lobie tanking I am doing, but this feels like the right way to get comfortable in tanking shoes. I mean everything that anyone can do to cause a wipe I’m seeing. I’m also paying more attention to what other tanks are doing in raids/lfg’s – cause I want at least one of these tanks to 80 before cata.
Provided by 
Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
In before your troll!
I am doing the lowbie tanking thing again on a druid and finding that yes, even with BoA gear, people are still stupid/lame.
I think the best tanks I have been with when I wasn’t tanking was those who knew their limits. If they were lost, they said it. If they didn’t know a pull, they said it.
I believe the strength in a good tank though is knowing a class. Last night I was in RS and depleted in numbers/options. We went in anyway. Having cleared 25s, I knew there was a mob that needed to be CC’d.
We reviewed, and found that we could sap, then the hunter could chain ice trap the mob. It took a few shots but we did it. Knowing things like this helps your tanking – especially when it comes to BC dungeons and you kind of need CC again.
I say kind of because you can still AoE a lot of it now…
Two things, one I wish I could run a lowbie instance with you. They’re so much fun and I think we’d have a blast (also, you typo’d Ulduman).
Second, the thing that kind of irks me about LFD… if they aren’t from your server you can’t friend them and pickup running another day. Pre-LFD, I’d find the healers, dpsers or tanks I’d like to roll with and the people who were good with playstyle. I’d usually make 2-3 healer buddies while leveling a tank or 2-3 tank buddies while leveling a healer or something. And with the current LFD… it’s just lost. It’s a lot more mechanical and a lot less social. It makes me sad.
I remember recruiting a priest to join my guild, fresh in greens/blues even though at the time my guild was #2 and doing Black Temple. This girl put up with my amazing bullshit while leveling my warrior. We eventually recruited her husband and best friend too. Priest being my main, I knew she was amazing even in greens and worth gearing up with epics.
I may not be too much fun. I have an automated snark button now –
“Why did you pull that mob?” I ask the mage on the other side of the room
“I felt like it”
“Lets hope the healer feels like healing you”
It’s nice to be remembered ( for good things – and I see the occasional person from a previous run, and we are like.. hey.. good to see you again.)
rolling a level one on their server and chatting to someone you met in lfg would be a little creepy maybe, but beyond that – really no way of keeping up communication if you work well together
At least he was alliterative…
it is quite catchy..
You might have been able to leave out the “think before you speak” part. I doubt that helped group cohesion.
I was righteously pee’d off. Group cohesion was lost the moment he accused someone of being a ninja – he set the tone for loot drops. Great way to start an instance – I may not have helped but if he had thought about it – or paid more attention to the the drop rather then who rolled what – especially considering he didn’t even roll on it.
Ninjas happen and I don’t think it’s okay to just ignore them. However someone should be sure before calling ninja, which in this case they clearly weren’t.
Lol you said everything I’ve been thinking of saying while running as a lowbie priest. People can do some stupid things in lowbie instances. I’ve found that it’s apparently no longer the done thing to give the healer time to buff and mana up at the start, which means you need to do it on the fly (at least get stam up on the tank). And also that every time you need mana you need to SAY IT REALLY LOUD IN CAPITALS in party chat or the tank will run off without noticing you have about 200 mana left. But I’m sure you don’t do that Zahrah… 😉
It’s a catch 22 . Pause too long and the dps thinks your a slow tank, go to fast and no one gets buffs. I usually say Hi. Make sure everyone is in the instance. Keep one eye on the healers health bar, and another eye on the rogue thats stealthing to the 1st mob, or the hunters pet thats running straight at it. Finding I’m having to tell the party ” don’t pull – healer needs mana” though, and then they usually are well behaved
Druid tank means I’m the one having to buff (when I have a druid healing me I’m usually faster than they are to buff).
I had one group just completely lose it over the fact that I have a tanking macro that I click when I first zone in. It has some common sense things in it like “I’m the tank, don’t pull stuff” and “if you accidentally aggro it’s easier if you bring it to me” “if you are a pain I’ll leave” etc. They decided that I was being a prima donna tank, so I left (if the healer had been on my side, I’d have stayed, but they were leading the whining).
Wtf.