After chatting with Miss Hydra for three or four hours about my financial woes (my own economic stimulus bootstrapping plan is now underway), it was time to go home and - yes - raid. Wait, what? Well, yes, a few of you may have noticed my DK’s unexpected name change from Rajaat to Ambassador (that’s Ambassador Ambassador to you) and server move to Khaz Modan, where he is in a 30-day trial run to join the team at Caffeine. Last night was my first step into Icecrown, where I began immediately sucking up the plate loot like a $30 hooker, good-naturedly picking on the raid leader for dying to a cleave (and trying to get me cleaved in the process), and – oh yeah – I also I died to Icecrown Frogger, because with two new two-handed weapons, a pair of plate boots, and an Ashen Verdict ring to tide me over until the Strength one, I couldn’t run out of the way of those pesky steam vents. Whoops! One well-steamed loot whore, coming right up.

In other words, it was a great experience. I did feel a little bad soaking up that much loot on day 1, but there was only one piece that anyone else even rolled on - Ramaladni’s Blade of Culling - and as a ret pally, he was kind enough to defer it to me so that I could gear up my … wait for it … tank set.

That’s right, yours truly is working on tanking. I’ve had a long history of DPSing. I originally intended to roll my death knight to tank all along, but once he hit 80, my first raiding guild found that they already had enough tanks (a pally, a warrior, another DK, and maybe even a bear?) and so I was shuffled into DPS. And thus my DPS set grew leaps and bounds ahead of my tank set, while I still soaked up pieces from 10-man Naxx as well as the stuff no one else wanted. In every other guild I joined, the story was the same: I was needed for my DPS, because there were sufficient tanks. And so it continued: my DPS set continued to get constant upgrades, while my tank set suffered for it. For a while I didn’t even like tanking, or so I told myself, but the random heroics have changed all that. They reminded me of the times in Naxx, in OS, even the few off-tanking opportunities I had in Ulduar. But the intention and the skill (and the learning from Gravity) don’t mean much if you don’t have the gear to support it…

…but hey, you can always buy, craft, or farm new gear. :)