The Cranky Old Gnome

I tanked something today for the first time since that horrifying heroic ToC run a few months back.  I was mulling about Dalaran, feeling sorry for myself, wishing I had something to do when I got a tell from someone asking me if I wanted to tank heroic Halls of Lightning.  I receive a lot of tells from people asking if I can tank something, but that naturally comes with the territory of being a tank.  In the past little while I have turned them all down.  Partly because many of the requests are for raids I’m not geared for, but most of the time it’s because I didn’t want to be knocked around like I had been in the ToC run.  So my default lately has been to just say, “I’m not geared for it” and go back to working on the Loremaster.

However, now that I’m done with that, I find myself with nothing to do.  Nothing to do, no one to talk to…sorry, didn’t mean to go down the sad road from my last post again…anyway…while most of the time I would have brushed it off, this time I replied, “sure”.

I’m really glad I did.  There wasn’t anything particularly spectacular about the run.  We got in, moved through the instance, down the bosses, had a few wipes on the boss due to a new and still learning healer, and then we were done.  But it felt so natural.  It felt right.  I thought I would struggle to get the run finished and that I would be fighting for aggro against better geared players.  But I managed it will.  Yes, the first few pulls were a little sloppy, and there were a couple pulls where the mobs got away from me.  Mostly though, I tanked it like I had any other instance.

What I’m getting at is I realized how much I missed it.  I love tanking.  I love the challenge.  I love leading the groups through an instance, picking and choosing the path we take, deciding who to take down, setting the pace of things–I really love it.  Despite all the crap I’ve experienced around it I still have this burning passion inside me.  This fire in my belly that nearly burned out.  Like the episode of Doctor Who where they get pulled into an alternate dimension and it looks like the TARDIS has died but they find a tiny little bit of it still alive.  Ok…wow…that was  super nerd moment.  Nevertheless, I stand behind the analogy.

I’m hoping it’s a sign of things to come.  That things are going to start looking up again and that I’ll be excited to “let the dragon smash me in the face while you stab it in the ass.”  The next step I suppose is to find a new core group of friends.  People like Oz, and Wally, and Trin, and even Adelpha.  And find a new guild, one where I can have the happy social experience without having to be the man in charge.

It’s nice to feel like happy things are possible again.

‘[Insert clever sign off phrase here]”

~Fizz