I have a coworker who invited me over to his guild on another server, but alas I am cheap– so instead of a level 90 cat they’re got a level 1 bear-to-be.

Thankfully they have no problem with that and leveling’s been quick and tidy. Now that I’m up at 22, it’s time to trade in my DPS ways and learn some actual tanking.

Icy Veins guides are always a great place to start! So I hopped on over to Guardian Druid Tank Guide (WoW MoP 5.4)

Then I ambled over to The Inconspicuous Bear (since that was the expert listed in the guide) and settled down to read. …and read …and read.

Last, but not least, I hopped back over to the Big Bear Butt Blogger, because lo, I read that blog for fun anyways– might as well learn something too! 😉

Was this overkill for a level 22 baby-bear with all of six buttons? Oh heck yes.

So what did I actually use for my very first dungeon run?

Shadowfang Keep

I ran this once as a cat to make sure I knew in general what happens and then hopped into bearform and queued for it specifically. (I think I’m going to keep up the habit of one random cat and then again in bear).

It was a LOT easier than expected!

With a bunch of Swipe‘ing, Mangle‘ing, and careful Growling I was able to hold things together for the most of the run. I didn’t manage to keep Savage Defense up, save for a few boss fights. I used Bear Hug maybe twice, if that, and rarely used Maul.

I can see why my friend was joking about it being a one-button tank… at least in spots.

Revenge of the PUG Hunters

I warned people at the start I was new and then paid close attention to everything they said. Other than forgetting to do the horses (my group reminded me), it was smooth sailing up until we had two disconnects and we had to pick up a new healer and DPS.

And what a DPS he was… it’s never a good sign when the Hunter has more health than the tank. *sighs*

After that it was a mad dash to keep up with the Hunter as he powered through the last chunk of the dungeon, dragging us all in his wake.

• His pet’s growl was on, and seemed to be more powerful than mine.
• His hunter was heirloom’d (and bankrolled!) to the gills.
• In short, there wasn’t much I could do except keep up.

We ended up running the dungeon twice (I really should have clicked ‘no’) and lost the second and third healers because they were so annoyed with him.

But I got to learn how the Threat Plates worked for warning when I was loosing (or had lost) aggro. And I got to learn how to steal back aggro (at least for a few seconds) when something else taunts it. And I got to pay a lot more attention to the adds while he slaughter everything else.

So it wasn’t a complete loss… just enough of one that it annoys me a bit.

The last healer died because I couldn’t keep track of their health in the chaos, which is 100% my fault. I think I’m going to install Healbot just so I have a better view (and then macro something to target what’s targeting my healer *ponders*).

All in all it was fun, I got my ‘miles walked on the treadmill’ goal done for the day and I’m ready to do it all again tomorrow! 🙂