Fury or Prot: that is the question...

Well friends, I'm in a conundrum.

As you know, my main is a 70 warrior. I levelled him from 1-55 as Arms and 56-70 as Fury. Never prot. I didn't tank once. Yeah, smart move, I know.

Consequently, I got to 70 and hadn't practiced tanking at all and was a complete noob at it. Despite this, I was happy not tanking. I had geared up through all of the Outlands instances to maximize my DPS and was happy to see those big numbers fly. I was effective. I was eager. I was always in LFG.

Unfortunately, my server, Emerald Dream, has a major tank shortage.I was stuck sitting in LFG for several hours at a pop at times. Needless to say, even though I was ready to run heroics, and had done several, as Fury, I didn't want to wait for hours on end to do it.

So, I specced Protection. It was rough going at first. There were wipes. And more wipes; but so it goes when you're learning a new skill set. After a bit of practice, and studying up, I got my rotations down and was able to hold my own for the most part. I still had issues but it was better than just starting out.

What I found though, is that tanking is stressful business! I had expected it to a degree; I mean, you're the front runner: the guy who takes the hits for the team, and if you go down, everyone else will likely follow. I wasn't sitting in LFG for hours though. I could run when I wanted mostly and I ran more often. And so, I discovered the horrors of PuG's I'd never seen before.

Arrogant raiders; hunters not following kill order; immature rogues; mages who won't CC in lieu of "burning them down" (seriously). In a way, it's worth it; in another, it's not. Trying to run Magisters' Terrace with a group who insists on killing X before Skull is a pain. Same thing with groups who won't let you gain aggro before going all out on DPS.

But I wasn't waiting in LFG anymore.

I thought of running with my guild, who I recently joined, but was a little ashamed at my noobishness with tanking. So I went it alone. I mean, they'd be cool but I just assumed learn with people I didn't know than those whose opinion may have a lasting impression.

Tonight, I was asked to DPS normal Mechanar for a group with a learning tank. Since I empathized with this person, a pally, I was happy to go along. I respecced Fury and honestly felt refreshed. Sure, we wiped about 4 times before downing the first boss but, hell, like I said, I empathized. Seeing the 1.4k bloodthirst crits and 2.4k executes was nice and I felt more in more element.

Now, I'm torn. Do I stay Fury or go back to Prot to gear up for Karazhan? Prot will get me the groups and experience; Fury will get me an easier ride doing what is, currently, more fun. I like tanking and I plan to do it full time eventually. I'd like to lead a normal group for the guild once I get it down. But shoot, for so many reasons, (grinding, questing, helping friends) Fury has definite appeal.

I'll have to decide tomorrow and, right now, I'm leaning towards Protection. I need a few more instance drops to finish my protection set and I don't want to wait forever to get a group going. We will surely see though.

Now to get questing for the money to respec.... so I have a choice.