Vanifae's Semi-Rant/Essay on Paladin Stuff

I think your post is right on.

I actually have to change between characters depending on guild need. Paladin if we need another tank or are short a healer, Hunter if we are good with tanks and healers. I absorb a lot of loot and people get PO'ed about it. But my ability to hybrid my Paladin and become a raid puller/dps outweighs this to my guild leader.

One thing is that this makes things very expensive and very frustrating at times - I can't focus on optimizing one thing. I have to be flexible to maximize our chance on winning.

I have found a lot more friction between our MT Warriors (each of whom MT a separate Karazhan group) than between the Warriors and the Hybrids. The primary feral druid and I are used to playing our flex role, so we accept our role in what the encounter needs. We prove ourselves one encounter at a time, even though our raid leaders always doubt us.
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In strange aeons, even death may die.

I don't think many people here have a MT or bust attitude at all. Personally as long as I am tanking something I am happy

As for tank co-operation, I was previously in a guild where the warriors utterly loathed me for taking their jobs. The guild leader and officers kept giving me tanking assignments which made for a really bitter rivalry that was in no way instigated by me! I have since joined a new guild where the warriors are really happy for me to be there and what I can bring to a tanking team. If anyone finds themselves disliking the warriors for their snide comments and childish behaviour, just change guild. Being part of a tank team where nobody has a monopoly on the MT position or a big ego is sooo much more enjoyable.
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My guild has two retired well geared tanks, both are playing beta in Tabula Rasa. Countless others have gquit due to raid timing issues. I have been taking/off tanking for the guild since 5 months ago, and has collected reasonable tanking equipment from karazhan and heroics.

Now we are down to 1 warrior, 2 druids and myself (paladin) to tank, yet they are still constantly looking for more warrior tanks. I guess this is the reason why I am frustrated, the guild simply does not see paladin as a tank regardless of what I have done before.

I have tried tanking VR and if we wipe it was always my fault. And I would not be given a 2nd chance unlike the Warrior tanks. My point to them was that if I was never given and opportunity to tank, how will I learn to be a better one at 25 mans?
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I rolled this Paladin with the express intention of being a tank, having raided with my group as a Hunter for the previous 18 months. They were supportive as we were short on tanks, and after three months of solid grinding, I was in Kara the weekend after I hit 70.

In Kara, i'm one of the better-regarded tanks, and one of the few that's tanked the difficult bosses there. Anytime I think about speccing Holy folks tell me not to loudly.

In Gruul's Lair, I tend to tank Olm the Summoner then don my healing mace and sheild and spam a few heals as the DPS kills HKM. For Gruul himself, I'm MT (I was picked over a Warrior MT) with a Druid OT because I simply can't get past our rogues and DPS warriors unless I'm MTing.

In 25-mans, I'm happy with him, if he's not needed for a particular boss, well then I'll normally have my Hunter parked outside the instance who does pretty good DPS as a stand-in.
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Nicely written Vanifae. Pretty much spot on, imo
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I've been pretty lucky. Our warrior MT and I are both officers in the guild and have been good friends in game for about a year and a half now. I could tell he had some mixed feelings at first with the unknowns of how things would play out with druids and pallies as viable tanks. Once he got over that he seemed to have a genuine interest in seeing what I could do.

Of the two warriors below him, one is very level-headed and the other a bit more sensitive but surprisingly they've both been very open to me tanking. The second warrior seemed a little upset about my threat on Void Reaver. He thought if a warrior had aggro first they would be more competitive on threat since they'd have more rage. That's probably true to some degree but as I've proven, even with the warriors getting misdirects I'm still stealing aggro very quickly. My threat on that fight caused all of our prot warriors to take a good look at their threat output and all of them have improved as a result.

We didn't have any druid tanks prior to BC but have a couple we use now. They've kind of been getting the short end... 4th or 5th tank position depending on who is attending and they've been silent about it. I'd like to get them more involved since I know what it's like to be to the non-tanking tank. At least they can dps reasonably well, though.

Because we all get along so well and everyone is pretty open-minded, we have very little drama over who tanks what when.
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