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Confession time, I moonlight as a tank. That’s right, when i get bored of communing with Demonic Spirits and defending my choice of apparel (it’s not a skirt, it’s a robe!), I blow the dust off my Death Knight Tank. My tank is a well kept secret because…well, I’m not the best tank and I have a reputation to uphold (don’t judge, I’m sure all of you have secret characters as well). I’m sure I’d be better with more practice but the majority of my time is spent on my Warlock (raiding, questing and instances, the lock always gets priority).

Succumbing to Toon Neglect Syndrome (a disorder that has yet to be identified by the American Psychological Society), I gave my caster a well deserved breather and decided that I was going to have a Tankathon of a weekend. I read a couple threads on Elitist Jerks to re-familiarize myself with rotations and cooldowns and went of the plunge.

My first groups of the day were a rousing success. I managed to pick up a handful of upgrades from regular TOC; namely, the Black Heart and a spiffy new pair of boots. All things considered, I had held aggro pretty well, my survivability wasn’t an issue (Indestructible Potions were invaluable) and my DPS wasn’t too shabby. Time for some heroics.

This was a bit of a game changer. DPS was incredibly high and I felt that I was constantly taking aggro back from casters in my group. Mobs were hitting for a lot more damage and I was sweating for my Oh Shit Buttons to come off cooldown. We finished the instance with a handful of deaths, no wipes and a hankering feeling that maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a tank.

And then my buddy Adam logged onto his priest. Adam’s a good-natured Southern boy that can heal a clothie through a panicky multi-group AOE face pull with ease. The clouds opened up and my prospects improved significantly. We stepped into Heroic Gundrak and cleared the place in about 15 minutes. My fingers were constantly jamming Death Grip and Taunt but Adam kept me topped off for the entire instance.

Between Power Word Shields and criting Flash Heals, realization dawned on me. You can be as inexperienced as you want and still find success tanking…if you have a competent healer with you.  So this post is a thanks to Adam and all healers who have saved the lives of countless undergeared tanks in innumerable raids and instances. Not only do you save the lives of inexperienced tanks, you make us look good doing so!