You may recall a while back when I mentioned that I had respecced Prot to tank for the guild. Almost anyone who talked to me at least once in-game will also recall me saying how much I hated it. There was much rejoicing on my part when I gave up and switched back.
Yeah, we’ll need a real tank eventually, but right now we have some pretty awesome healers so I can pretty much healadin-tank my way through Utgarde Keep.
Speccing Protection for a while was a decent learning experience though. I reccomend that all healers should try tanking specs if they can for at least a while, and vice-versa, just to see how it is on the other end of the spectrum. One of my strengths as a tank is I’m very much aware of what’s going on with the healers, and as a healer I’m now more aware of the mechanics that the tanks have to use when the DPS or healer screws up. Some of those mechanics are pally-specific, but not all.
And that leads to the main topic of this post: I really, really like playing a hunter.
Wait, what?
Hunters are more than just DPS, they’re a party in and of themselves. The pet tanks, the hunter heals the pet and does DPS. That’s all 3 roles right there. Would it be better with living, breathing people filling those roles for you? Yes, but warm bodies aren’t always availible.
I have a paladin and a hunter in both guilds, and while hunter leveling is coming along smoothly for the hunters – McSplat (Alli, NE) is level 32 and Kerrsplat (Horde, BE) is quickly catching up. Meanwhile my Horde pally is stuck as a severely non-twinked 19 bank alt.
I’ve even discovered something – I love to tank when it’s not me taking the hits.
Kerrsplat tamed himself a bear and specced Beast Mastery because we really didn’t have any characters who were ready to be tanks and the other hunters were speccing Marksman. As a result Sherman the bear can hold aggro and hold it well without taking a dirt nap. My experience as a healer has me keeping one eye on Omen and the health bars of everyone to see if I need to help anyone out, and my experience as a tank has me knowing how to do that.
And it rocks.
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