The Life of Orthien

This post has been sitting at the back of the shelf ever since Richard requested it quite a while ago, and now that Honorshammer has done his post on why he choose his Paladin I feel alittle more inclined to get round to finishing mine.

As I mentioned in my first couple posts, when I first started playing WoW I had absolutely no clue what I was doing and my first character was a Tauren Shaman because a cow that could throw lightning sounded awesome. When my friend started playing he rolled Dwarf, so to play with him I made a Night Elf Warrior but immediately hated not being able to heal. Having just brought the game I tryed the free Burning Crusade trial to see what these big blue guys were like. I rolled a Paladin because I had tryed Shaman and even though I liked it wanted to try something new but I also wanted something that could still heal. Before that I had always picked middle range damage dealers with high survivability in games because often I would be terrible at them and living longer and healing if I could really let me have fun, to me Paladin sounded just that class.

So Orthien was born and away went this little Newb, swinging his mace and buying white gear from vendors. Once I hit level 10 and could use Talent Points I somehow decided that Protection was good because I could live longer still and 2 Handers were far to slow anyway. That's really how my gameplay went for the longest time, I didn't group, I didn't run instances this was really a solo game until I got to the late 40's. I reached a point where Prot wasn't cutting it all these caster mobs were killing my really easy and I started reading online for a way to make it easier. I eventually became a Shockadin and leveled as such well into Hellfire, along the way doing my first instance runs for my Charger and grinding out a Black War Elekk. It was in Scholomance that I saw my first skilled tank and he happened to be a Paladin to he was a higher level by quite a bit and wow he was impressive. I think he played a part in me wanting to become a tank, but somehow the idea of it was just there and I sadly can't remember when it started but by 60 I knew I was going to be a tank and had started reading on it.
That was when I found Gestalts Tankadin 101 guide and the Maintankadin community. Thanks to that guide and the helpful posters at Maintankadin I was tanking in Manatombs 3 levels later and have been ever since.
While I don't remember when it was that I decided I was a tank I do remember that that feeling burned inside me and that this was where my place would always be in MMORPG's, the closest I can come to describing the feeling is Love at First Sight for the role, just one of those things you know from the start.

Really everything I am in gaming today has been from a series of random events and I wouldn't have it any other way, I really can't imagine how much different this game would have been if my friend had stayed on his Tauren Hunter or If I hadn't grouped with that Prot Pally. Most of all I know I wouldn't be half the tank I am today If it wasn't for everyone at the Maintankadin forums, thank you all for really being the best forums I have ever seen.

Later I plan to talk about how I have come to end up where I am in the guild and how it to has helped shape me as a player.