Ever since I started to apply for my new guild I've been trying to find ways to improve my amazing skills as a tank/warrior. Because of the new content of Northrend, I've been manic in my playing, finding new enthusiasm into the stale quest grind of Outlands. That is due to my explorer nature: seeing new things and experiencing new events just thrills me like nothing. I've explored Outlands almost completely, and I feel there is nothing to see anymore, except the instances I've overlevelled.
Then the depressive part hits, like yesterday. I was reading WoWwiki, and for the first time I was reading the instance descriptions and strategies for Utgarde Keep. First of all, the boss drops -which I have never earlier checked before entering an instance- are a huge disappointment for a protection warrior: all plate in the normal instances up to lv80 have +INT in them. So no help from that part. But the strategies part struck the soft part in my soul.
I am not prepared.
The game hasn't been able to prepare me for the movement on boss fights, nor for the intricate finesses of even the earliest bosses, because I have been forced to skip a lot of content. The highest instance I have ever visited has been in Auchindoun, in which the bosses were more or less tank and spank ones. And I have never experienced a heroic with more challenge.Which is another point leading to my conclusion.
If I hadn't been playing with this certain tanking mentality which Veneretion mentions in his blogcast , I wouldn't be here and trying to find ways to make myself better. Veneretio says -quite bluntly, which I like- that he doesn't want to be mediocre tank, he wants to be amazing.
I don't want to be a mediocre tank. I want to be at least a great one.
I'll leave the amazing part to the ones who need the self-induced ego-boost.
I feel at the moment, that the learning curve has suddenly turned into a more steep incline than the Northrend questing content has suggested.
If I think of the situation from the viewpoint of a total newcomer to the game, I'm even more puzzled. Just think about it: you breeze through the content, dinging every now and then and hit the levelling brick wall in Northrend. Up till then your levelling speed is such that you don't have to worry about the gear bonuses and definitely not about maxing anything: you are changing your gear faster than your real life socks. Hopefully.
All of a sudden you are plunged into this new minigame, where you are given a new piece of gear at the end of each quest chain. With almost identical stats, with only changes in the bonuses. Where as you have been this far getting only the bonuses mentioned as being your character's classes basic stats, now you are faced with bonuses which are somewhere inbetween and require serious understanding of the theorycrafting (in which I suck, big time).
How does that make a newcomer, first time leveller or a returning player?
I haven't tried the Deathknight 'tutorial game', but it's been said to be excellent start for a new high class toon, but I doubt it doesn't have a bonus tutorial either.
But my conclusion is easily this: As I have passed the instances in the Old World and Outlands (besides the lower level ones in both), I have also passed the boot camp in instance running. This means also, that I have passed effectively the training in raiding, which has been the prominent end game pass time of the current raiding community. The newcomers will find this even harder as they will boost themselves through the levelling game to this point, find no groups willing to take them and hear snickering about their faulty gear.
I'm not going to take it.
I don't want to be a mediocre tank. I want to learn and be a great one.
But where is the training area? I've passed the tutorial already...
