Adventures in and Reflections on Lowish Level Tanking

EDIT: I need to put a disclaimer on this. This post was written well over a year ago, before specialization. While tanking in retribution spec at low levels *may* be possible (after all, the instances are designed to be rather idiot-proof) in Cataclysm, I haven’t tried it myself and therefore can’t comment on it.

I love getting post requests. Not that it happens often, but when it does, it’s great. I don’t have to go through the stress of “what kind of topic should I work on, what haven’t I done too recently but that readers will still enjoy and that I’ll still have fun writing“. Plus, I know that regardless of the topic, at least someone will appreciate it. As long as I don’t screw it up too bad.

So when @amypage on Twitter asked if I would write some about tanking, I jumped up and down. Then I asked what exactly about tanking. We chatted for a bit and I found out that her retribution paladin was leveling through BC content and this was her first character. It’s always fun to give tips to people who are newer to the game because, unlike those leveling their 7th+ alt, they never write back with that “omg I totally already knew that” look.

We talked a bit about tanking in a retribution spec. Valkyrierisen chimed in, testifying that tanking in a retribution spec is indeed a lot of fun, at least until the 60s where things start to smack you a little harder.

I have to admit, I was rather clueless in that department. I tanked the early Wrath instances in my leveling retribution spec, but that was the extend of my experience. And between you (all of you) and me, when you’re going through Nexus/Utgarde Keep/AN in tier 5 tanking gear, you don’t really need any talents at all.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, I dusted off Ophelie-Eredar, level 53 retribution paladin extraordinaire.

This armor totally doesn't cover my love handles

While all of you were chitchatting with Single Abstract Noun peeps (yes, I will join EVENTUALLY but there are not enough hours in the day dammit!), I was taking care of SRS BZN. And by taking care of SRS BZN, I mean farming BRD (because APPARENTLY there are no other level 50-60 instances) and telling other leveling paladins what to do. (A former guildie of mine once gave me dating advice. He said I should wait until at least the third date before correcting everything a guy says. I answer that it was too much to ask.)

Alls fair in love and war(craft)

My prices aren't even that low!

I got my first auction house hate! I’m so excited! I must be doing it really well if I managed to piss someone off. Every week, I laugh reading Greedy Goblin’s Morons of Week posts. “People aren’t really like that, are they? I thought. No one on my server must get upset at others over silly AH stuff.” I get the impression that Gelvon‘s readers are mostly poking fun at suboptimal money making strategies, but what I find hilarious is seeing people get so worked up over auction house prices that they’re ready to pick a verbal fight over it. Horrible spelling and grammar is an added bonus. Nothing makes a verbal fight more entertaining than when the challenger has no actual verbal skills to fight with.

The frustration over pvp stuff – be it horde vs alliance killing or the more, um, sophisticated?, competition on the AH – puzzles me. In either situation, I will be choosing actions that will 1) make me win and 2) make others loose. I may cruelly MC and fear others with my shadow priest in the BGs as well. And, of course, I expect my rivals to do the same and I’m fine with that. Why? Because that’s the game.

There are rewards for winning: honor points, arena points, gold. There are penalties for losing, but they’re minor. A couple of lost gold pieces and delayed rewards, but that’s pretty much it. On a pvp server, there is the added frustration of being slowed in your questing while you’re getting ganked, but as I see it, the whole point of choosing a pvp server over a pve server is the extra thrill of being subjected to the whims of your enemy and they to yours. (Pvp server people must be kinky.) As a result, I don’t feel any remorse for using all the tools at my disposal in any forms of pvp and I don’t feel any resent when my opponents use theirs. We’re all after the rewards, we have little to lose and regardless of the ultimate outcome, we’re having fun along the way.

As for my little auction house provocation, I have to admit that I was pretty surprised about getting some hate. I don’t play the auction house seriously. My goals are really just to cover my raiding and goofing off expenses with minimal effort. I know many AH players claim to make 1-2k net profit a day. I don’t make nearly that much but I don’t really try either. I picked the glyph market because it’s fun. There are so many different styles of glyph sellers on Moonrunner that the market changes constantly. Glyphs that go for 1g one day will be priced at over 40g the next and vice versa. I’m no specialist on the mechanics of it all so I’m not even going to guess at whats going on, all I know is that the gambling side of it is terribly amusing, far, far more amusing than doing dailies. And even my nonchalant, half assed attempt at playing the AH is more than enough to support my raiding, my multispeccing and my army of alts. But I didn’t expect my nonchalant, half assed attempts to be enough to frustrate the other glyph sellers.

What stuck out is that the first whisper she (no, no I’m not being sexist, I’m familiar with the toon in question and I’m pretty positive the player is a woman. She’s fairly active on our server which is why I blocked out the name, I want to discuss an aspect of player interactions, not ruin someone’s reputation) sent me is “what did I do to annoy you”. Well, it wasn’t exactly what she said, but I’m assuming she was just really mad and couldn’t type properly. Why on earth would anyone assume that deeply undercutting was a personal attack? I deeply undercut because 40+g glyphs won’t sell before some farmer comes along and floods that market. It has nothing to do with her. It’s a game, like chess, she made her move, I made mine. Maybe I’ll win and she’ll lose, maybe we’ll both lose and some third person will win. Most likely, we’ll all win a little and we’ll all be able to afford a few more weeks a raiding and another epic mount.

To me, PVP is part of the game, part of the fun. There’s nothing personal about it. I don’t care if you teased me and made me cry back in first grade or if you’re my best friend in real life. If you’re on the opposing faction and I feel like killing your toon, I’ll do it. If you’re selling stuff on the AH and I want to make money, I’ll undercut you in a way to make the most profit. And I hope you do the same to me. For me, being forced to think and adjust my strategy is the ultimate reward in pvp. Don’t disappoint me.