Aluminum Armor and Heirloom Expectations

I think I’m going about my baby tanking warrior in the wrong way.

How can it be wrong?

I mean, I haven’t logged on to him for a bit now, not since I replaced all his gear after the holiday-induced leveling spurt.

And that’s what is wrong.

I look at him on the character selection screen.

He looks back at me.

And I wuss out.

…

What started as a “just need to get my glyph bitch up to the next level for his herbalism” project turned into a rather enjoyable experience. I wanted to run around solo, not bother anyone with my complete failness of ret pally.

But questing in Outland really hasn’t changed much since it was released so the dungeons made a nice break to the drudgery.

I have no heirloom gear on him. Hell, I headed out with a leather helm. On a ret pally. Yeah, it was that bad.

So I queued up.

And didn’t do too bad. Sometimes I even did well.

To boot, I wasn’t even nervous about it.

I look at him on the character selection screen.

He looks back at me.

And I don’t flinch.

…

I have a secret project at the moment. I’m running a new DK on a new server. There are few who know of my identity and they have been sworn to secrecy.

Again, leveling in BC zones just doesn’t sound that appealing. I want to fly around, pick flowers, beat on rocks, and kill things every 10-20 minutes when the queue pops for a DPS.

Being on a new server, and too cheap to mule crap over, I’m in the DK starter blues with a couple upgrades I’ve managed to snag from repeated runs of Ramps or Slave Pens.

Even with a completely fucked up rotation (more of that on another day), I’m doing well. Not always the top of the meters, but never the bottom. I’m even getting the hang of that melee thing, something I might be able to transfer to my paladin.

I look at him on the character selection screen.

He looks back at me.

And I jump right in.

…

So I was thinking about this, why I feel so nervous on my tanking warrior and feel no issue on my DPS toons?

I mean, yeah, it’s a new role for me, but I’m decked in full heirlooms! I’ve got a shield without intellect on it! I should be rocking the joint!

Memories of leveling Selwyn well up; of being terrified that I would fail – fully decked out in heirlooms, with the best enchants, the best gems. Leveling Selwyn was almost painful for me. Zone in to a group. Four strangers. Which one would die? Would it be my fault? What if they were too stupid and I couldn’t save them?

Selwyn was eventually saved by have a group of supportive friends band together to be my pocket group. (Most people look for a pocket healer, I needed a whole freaking group).

But I don’t want to do that with my tanking. When I healed my friends, I could yell at them to quit doing stupid things and they would usually stop standing in fire. When I started healing random people again, there was no yelling (other than at the computer screen) and they continued to stand in fire. Those are the types of people I’m going to end up tanking for, I want to be prepared.

I should be prepared, in my shiny heirlooms, with their pretty stats. I mean, I walk in to a dungeon and people see the telltale gear and go, “Hey, this guy’s in heirlooms! That means he knows what the fuck he’s doing!”

But I don’t. (I’m not a guy either, but I can understand the assumption.)

And I think that’s where the root of my problem is.

With the heirlooms comes the expectation that the player has a clue. That they know where to go in a dungeon they haven’t seen in 2+ years and certainly not since Cata “simplified” it. That they have 3 other tanks in progression raiding and know what to do when the mage goes off and pulls one pack while the hunter has tab targeted to a different group and the rogue has gone afk and the healer has no mana… *flail*.

With my other characters, in their quest greens and occasional boss blue, there are no expectations. The rest of the party looks at me and assumes that I’m a complete and utter noob. They might be pleasantly surprised to see me not be a total jackass or they might not even notice I’m there.

I’m wondering if it would actually be easier on me to tank by stripping off the heirlooms … what do you guys think? Am I crazy?