Casavel, my paladin tank

"My comrades are my weapons, and I am their shield.
While I draw breath, they shall not perish.
So long as they live, our enemies will fall.
I am defender, protector, guardian.
I am a Paladin." - Cathela the Seeker

This sums up so well what I feel when I pull on the plate and pick up a shield. I may only be a lowly level 70 tankadin at the moment, but she's coming along, slowly, but sure in her path.

So far I've only done a few guilded runs, the first of which was tanking for a 65, 70, 72 group. Yes, we four manned a few things like Underbog and Mana Tombs with only four people. I must say my level 65 healer rocked. I only freaked out once... and that was because I was tanking a nexus terror right next to a four pull. We somehow didn't pick up the four pull and the fear sent me in the opposite direction, Anti-Shadow buffs non-withstanding. Cleared both = happy, bit more confidant paladin tank.

Yes, those were my first attempts tanking. And the 65 priesty (welcome back Sol!!) was 66 by the time we were done, and rocked my socks off. The group was willing to risk getting severely mauled by a complete and utter rookie tank. I'd never actually tanked an instance prior to attempting those two.

Then last night? We did Nexus and Azjol-Nerub (AN). I did die twice, through no fault of our tree druid. The first time? I wasn't familiar with the patrols, and had a second patrol right into me. Single group pull turned into a massive two group pull, and I went down HARD. It basically was 60%, 40%, Dead.

Zharve (the Tree): "Wtf Cas' health? OMG MOBS!" :Dead Tree:

The second time? First time handling Keri in Nexus. Forgot about the tail swipe thingie, turned her just wrong, dead plant life, so dead paladin, and the 80 hunter kills her after everyone else is dead... go go Niqo!

AN went flawless as far as I'm concerned. Though, The paladin retadin/holyadin (Vel)and our Tree did comment at one point that it got close... I didn't notice, was too busy trying to keep all the mobs in ONE SPOT. I didn't have time to glance up at health bars, my eyes were trained on the mobs being hit by consecrate. They stayed put. ^_^

As I said to them, "If nobody died, it was a good pull." I admit as a tank, I put my trust in the healer and just dive in. I'll do my job to the best of my ability, just keep me alive. That's all I ask. Especially while learning the ropes of how to be a paladin tank.

Thank You Bloodriver. Thank you for being willing to let me practice on guild mates before attempting a PuG of any instance. Being able to survive two healers tells me I might actually be able to carry off this crazy idea of being a tankadin for our guild at 80. I'm also humbled by the fact you are even willing to let me try, when everyone knows I'm a hunter first. Thank you.