Diary of a n00b Prot Paladin: Entry 1

I've always played a DPS class in World of Warcraft. More specifically, I've primarily played the Hunter class. I've a level 82 dwarf hunter (haven't played him much since Cata; new characters have my attention at the moment), and my two other highest characters were a mage and a rogue. DPS has always been my thing. I never really believed I had the awareness to heal or the knowledge to tank.

And then came Farthic the Protection Paladin.

I leveled him up to level 23 in the Retribution spec. Then one day, one of my friends got a hold of me:

"Hey Gilfree, our PuG needs a tank. Bring your pally in."

"Uhmmmm... I'm Ret spec, yo. Can't help you. Sorry."

"Lrn2tnk n00b and get in here."

So I hopped on the Gryphon from Loch Modan to Ironforge, found the Paladin trainer, and respecced to Prot. Lucky for me, I had a BoA one-hand mace and a quest reward shield on hand that I was able to swap to on the fly. I hadn't been gearing for tanking, but honestly, at level 23, there's not enough variety in the gear stats that I had to worry about it. So, BoA mace in one hand and shield in the other, with my Avenger's Shield and Hand of Reckoning on my primary hotbar, and Righteous Fury up, I entered the Blackfathom Deeps.

Let me tell you, I was shaking in my (not Prot specced) booties.

Our group picked up the quests at the entrance, and I moved up to the first mob.

The first mob I would ever tank.

I slammed my ring finger on the "1" key, chucked my Avenger's Shield, and ran in mace a-flailin'.

POW, Judgement! POW, Crusader Strike! Auto Attack, Auto Attack, Auto Attack! Exorcism! POW, JUDGEMENT!

I was having the time of my life! The party followed my lead, our healer kept us topped off, and we didn't wipe... until the friend that talked me into tanking lit all the fires in the shrine room, causing all the wee beasties to come crawling out of the walls and attack us.

No problem, right? Perfect time to pop Consecrate, right?

What? I forgot to pick up Consecrate? Oh shi--

The healer went down, followed by our mage and one of our two hunters. Then I hit the ground, and my friend, the hunter who started all this, Feigned Death and lived... AND LIVED! My first ever wipe as a tank... I wanted to cry. At the very least, I could keep reminding myself that it wasn't really my fault... right?

But if I had just had Consecrate... if I had been prepared, I could've saved us and been that epic tank hero that everyone loves to play with. But I didn't, and it made me sad. No one complained, no one nerd raged, and no one blamed me. Still, I felt horrible.

We regrouped and finished downing the last boss. Everyone left the group happy, and despite the wipe, I was pretty excited about my first tanking experience! I daresay I may have even found my new calling. After patch 4.0, I felt my hunter prowess drain as the class changed, be it ever so slightly. But this tanking stuff...

I think I could get used to this.