I know that this has been written about before by other people. I got to experience it first hand this weekend.
My main, of course, is a rogue. He lives a very carefree existence, standing behind things and stabbing them. I have fun playing him 100% of the time. If there was enough to do to keep him busy, I would never play any alts. Running instances on a rogue is an absolutely great time. I am almost completely in control of my own fate and performance.
- If I don’t pull aggro I won’t die, unless there is a full wipe.
- If I do mess up and die, there are still two other people doing dps so we probably won’t wipe.
- VANISH!
- There are no instances that I cannot run. Yes, if I am undergeared then I will not do enough dps to pull my own weight. However, if there are other dps classes there they can pick up my slack and I can still do the run. I could walk into Hyjal today in my Kara gear and 2-piece T4 and, while I won’t be even close to top dps, I also won’t doom the raid to failure just by being there.
This weekend I ran Old Hillsbrad on my tankadin alt, who had just dinged 67. We did complete the instance with a few bumps along the way. However, it was not nearly as much carefree fun tanking as it is doing dps.
- As a tank, on any given pull if I make an error it can result in a wipe. The pressure is significant to do everything right all of the time.
- If I mess up and die, its almost certainly a wipe unless there is an off-tank who can step in. (That did happen to us on the last boss. Feral druids ftw!)
- I am not always in control of my own success. I can pull perfectly, but if the healer messes up I die, or if the dps doesn’t take the mobs down fast enough I can die. Or if the CC is broken I can die. My performance as a tank is intricately tied to the performance of everyone else in the group. That’s sometimes frustrating.
- There are instances that I simply cannot run. If I don’t have the gear to take the hits, then I cannot tank and I cannot do the run.
On my rogue, there have been times when I have done three instance runs back-to-back-to-back. This weekend, after finishing Old Hillsbrad on the tankadin I was asked to tank another instance. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. After one run I needed a break.
I am so close to level 70 on this toon… but I have been hesitant of late. With the ever-present tank shortage, I fear that once I have a 70 tank character it will become more valued than my rogue. I wonder how often I will be politely asked if I could switch from my rogue to my paladin to tank an instance. I also wonder how much of a jerk I will seem if I refuse.
