LONG BLOG
Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone: Tanking in WoW
I've played World of Warcraft on and off for its fourteen year existence. When I logged on for the first time, I envisioned being an orc warrior, clad in armor, protecting my fellow members of The Horde. Something just didn't gel with me, and I ended up falling in love with the Warlock class (despite being completely against it from a role playing perspective, go figure.)
In The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, I spent my time as a Night Elf Druid for the Alliance after friends of mine started playing the game. I bounced back to my fel ways in cataclysm as a warlock, before landing in the healing role, playing a Restoration Shaman in Mists of Pandaria. I really took to healing, and took a break from WoW to play Final Fantasy XIV as a White Mage. I missed Warlords of Draenor (which I'm told is a good thing), and spent the beginning of Legion in a progression raiding guiild focused on seeing all the old content. I again went on hiatus from the game.
To be fair, it was a lot of fun playing as this guy. He was the first character I ever raided on.
Over the years I had always considered being a tank, but it always felt very daunting, as they are expected to be the leaders and are typically blamed if things go wrong. I typically love being in a supporting role and enabling others to do their best in their roles.
Now here I am with the arrival of Battle for Azeroth. A friend of mine I've known since 3rd grade felt like getting back into the game, and was tired of the tank role he always had played in the past. I decided it was time to finally live my original dream, and rolled a Mag'har Orc Warrior. I found myself having a blast learning the role as my Rogue buddy and I leveled together through the world and the old dungeons.
We attained level 120 several weeks ago, and I've been working to improve my skills ever since. We joined a small guild, and I've been assisting the other members gear up by having someone that can reliably tank and avoid 45+ minute queue times for dungeon content. It feels good helping some fellow guild mates try out some content that they were otherwise reluctant to try due to having to deal with random strangers. I've gotten a bunch of Mythic + dungeons under my belt at this point, and am enjoying the challenge.
I've come a long way from my humble beginnings 14 years ago.
This weekend my friend and I are organizing the first outing of our guild into the Uldir raid. We undoubtedly will need to fill a lot of spaces with random PuGs, but I'm excited as hell. I never imagined that I'd go from trepidation even playing a tank, to trying to better myself at it on a daily basis and loving every minute of it. I mentioned before that I liked to support everyone, but it turns out I'm doing just that.
If you play the game and ever need a tank, look me up! I'm Gildark on the Sen'jin server, or find me by my battle tag absolutfreak#11414.
LOOK WHO CAME:
