This thing still on?
And more importantly, is anyone still reading this? Thank you all for your concerned e-mails, I did appreciate every single one of them.
What happened since the last posts in April? Severe tank burn-out, is what. I basically made a promise to myself when I started blogging that I would take a positive approach to WoW and my chosen class, because there’s already a ton of negativity out there in the so-called WoW community. But back then in April, when the other three guild tanks posted their takes on why they love tanking like a girl, I was not in the correct mindspace to tell you why I love being a warrior tank, because at the time I didn’t love it.
It’s now four months later, and I am back to doing what I love, tanking for my guild. Remember that series of tanking posts? Our druid disappeared into the nether, without so much as a word of goodbye, and thus our tank numbers were down to 3. Our paladin can often not make our raid times, so instead of chain-healing it up, I went back to tanking, and fell in love with it all over again.
I generally have a strong dislike of tanking LFD groups in full pugs, because I have been treated like crap from people who only care about speed and their e-peen. On the other hand, on my healer alts I have met so many arrogant tank douchebags that I can relate to some general contempt people have for tanks. Anything from tanks needing all greens as their ‘fee’ for tanking to guys who will insult their groups, feeling entitled from their 30 second queues. I probably have seen it all.
This only makes me appreciate the good tanks more. The calm tanks who will keep an eye on healer mana, especially lesser geared healers. The ones who will spare a friendly word to the rest of the group and just do their job. People like us, we’re still out there. And so I am back.
I am excited about Cataclysm. I hope that it will bring about some changes to the game, like the return of CC, a reduced pace, an end to the zerg rushes that are all everyone knows at this point in WoW. I am not going to dig into the prot changes yet, because things are so in flux, ever-changing. But I have a good feeling about Cataclysm.
Game-wise, I am now 11/12 in Icecrown Citadel-10. I just spent my first six hours wiping on LK phase 2. So far phase 2 has been the brick wall we throw ourselves against, but our work has only just started. I have tanked every fight in there on my warrior, and healed every fight on my shaman. I have six level 80s now, but I only actively play 3 of them at a time. At this moment it’s my warrior, my shaman and my latest 80, my druid.
I have to finish leveling my paladin to 80, she’s been at 78 for months now. When I was burnt out on tanking, I was also burnt out at the thought of doing the tank gear grind on a second character. But I will, eventually. Cataclysm is still far away, and WotLK’s greatest failure is that there is not enough to do, aside from ‘level to 80 and get the character geared’, over and over. I bet that the number of people with characters in endgame has never been higher than today. A common complaint is that there’s nothing to do aside from raiding, and when you have a guild with only six hours of raiding a week, at most, there’s not much reason to be on inbetween.
So here I am, ready to tell you more stuff about life as a prot warrior, ready to share my bucket list, my general view of tanking in WotLK and whatever else comes to mind. Feels good to be back. I hope a few of you will still be here to read it. 
Welcome back to the blogosphere!
I found your site just as you disappeared in April (around the time I started blogging myself) and have kept it in my feed reader since then in the hopes that you might return
I’m a warrior tank (girl) myself so I relate a lot to this blog I guess, even if mine isn’t focused on tanking.
I’m having my own tank burn out at the moment which is making me doubt if I want to do it in Cataclysm or go back to being a “simple” dps as I was before. What made you change your mind after your burn out and go back to tanking after all?
Saga´s last [type] ..The Reason I Hate Gnomes
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Kadomi Reply:
August 10th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Raid tanking for my guild made me change my mind. Inbetween losing a fourth of our tiny tanking corps, I was just needed, and then we progressed through bosses we never killed before. Suddenly it was fun again. We’re a close-knit 10-man, so that definitely brought back the fun.
For LFD, I got myself a shiny fury offspec that I actually have decent gear for now, so I definitely have the principle ‘tank for friends, DPS for strangers’ now. Works fine so far.
Crossing fingers you’ll get your tanking mojo back!
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Welcome back! We’ve missed you, even though I’ve seen you on Twitter. It’s good to see you posting again.
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Kadomi Reply:
August 10th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Thanks a ton. I am happy to see you are picking up and posting more often now too. The world needs more prot warrior blogs.
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Zellviren Reply:
August 11th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Yet nobody ever reads mine – must be a dud.
Oh, well; it’s really more of an online journal for what I’ve been thinking at any one time, anyway.
But it’s genuinely good to see you back, Kadomi. I don’t generally get amongst the conversation here, but I do enjoy the posts immensely and hope to see more activity from you when you get the time.
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I’m currently in love with my Warrior tanking
I’ve tanked with all the classes and my warrior is definitely my favorite right now.
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Kadomi Reply:
August 10th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Warrior tanking can be tons of fun, for sure.
After having tested the prot paladin waters, I can definitely say it’s a much better fit for me than being a paladin.
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I am glad to see the person that inspired my wife to try tanking has come back, about the same time you experienced tank burn out she started getting burnt out by the people in the RDF and told me she didn’t even want to try tanking for them. So her tank is still on hold, maybe now that I can refer her to your posts again she will try to pick it up.
Welcome back!
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Welcome back! There were so many times I almost un-bookmarked TLaG. Glad I held out.
I still love warrior tanking, but taking a long break from it. Will be back for Cataclysm, but most likely switch from 25s to 10s.
In the meantime having some fun leveling some other classes. Currently on a shadow priest.
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Welcome back!
I’ve gone off tanking for strangers this expansion also. Not even PUG raids. I had to do it, so that I could keep liking my warrior.
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It’s wonderful to see a new post, and to see that you have more waiting in the wings.
As I’ve said before, my tank(s) (DK and a baby Pally that I’m leveling with a friend) aren’t Warriors, but I love reading your stuff.
Following you on Twitter made going without a new post a bit more bearable this time.
Heck, you’re one of the reasons I got into it in the first place. I follow a bunch of people now, but in the beginning, it was you, Pikestaff, and just a couple others that I wanted to follow on the thing. I haven’t regretted it, and I hope to earn a follow from you myself one day. 
I look forward, as always, to your future posts. Take care, and have a great day.
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Welcome Back, i was sure we lost you.
Good to see i was wrong
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Welcome back to it m’aam. Glad to have you back again and enjoying it.
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Aye kadomi I share your hatred for pugs, for some reason people think they have a right to treat tanks like crap, especially in heroics. I also dislike douchebag tanks but honestly the way tanks get mistreated all the time I can see where the negative attitude comes from, glad to have you back anyways your posts are interesting.
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Kadomi, when I found your website, I was getting tired of tanking on my warrior and healing on my resto druid. DPS was “ok” but very boring for me. You inspired me to work on my DK (who has never been touched since they came out).
My DK now is tanking 10m ICC along with my warrior. Your articles here have inspired me to relearn my class and to love it again.
I look forward to your next post when you get around to it.
Thank you
Pargus
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Heh,I know your pain for pugs,theyre a real pain to tank. I usually get bad pugs,ive gotten real sick of it,so i did same thing and started dpsing pugs as fury.
Ive got a pretty decent prot/fury set but i recently changed from fury to Arms pvp,so i dont dps pugs much. The thing i hate about WotLK is how you have to do these heroic dailys,that can burn you out on tanking in a heartbeat.
But…I still LOVE tanking on my warrior,he’s my first 80,i didnt even bother grabbing another alt forever,i jus recently got my second 80,a DK mainspec Frostdps. Its cool i guess..
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Accidently submitted lol,wasnt finished
Anyways,11/12 on ICC,i wished i could say that. Ive been dealing with being in an out of guilds looking for a good one,so far theyve all been crap. Ive only been 6/12 and have hardly even TOUCHED PP. Every week i usually jus have to get a pug going,and if by chance we get past 4/12,the first mistake and wipe usually ends it,i really hate the incompetence of the pugging idiots,wipe once and leave.
But eh,do what u gotta do i guess lol
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Very nice blog! I read it a couple months ago and was wondering if you were coming back!
I’m currently in my own stage of Tank Burnout. I just back from a 2 week vacation in the Carribean on Sat. and havnt even logged on yet. In fact I’v been replaying Diablo II for kicks lol.
Sometimes you just got to take a break, regardless of everything else.
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Is welcomes back!
Ratshag´s last [type] ..You Buggers Missed One
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Welcome back! We’ve missed you.
Although my main tank is not nearly as progressed as you, I have succumbed to tank burn out as well and am working on my 2nd lvl 80 healer and loving it… so, I can totally relate. I doubt I will take up tanking again until Cata, but I am looking forward to it.
We all need a break here and there… it’s so good to see you come back from yours.
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Hooray! I also just found your blog right before your hiatus… so good to see you come back! I can understand the woes of tanking the LFD system – it’s my primary means of gearing my new warrior these days, and it’s a royal pain most of the time. People pulling ahead of me with AoE and then screaming that I can’t hold aggro; it’s ridiculous. But there are some decent groups few and far between.
Anyhow, since I’m sure a few of us are still new to this and getting geared up, would you mind throwing out a few posts on your opinions of the best tank enchants? There seems like a bit of argument in the community, depending on what the tank is aiming to do. It would be super awesome if you could also highlight enchants that are more geared toward 5-mans too – since that’s where some of us are gearing!
Great to have you back!
RAWR
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Kadomi Reply:
August 14th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Alright, a post on enchants for heroics will come up, maybe already next week. As I have this big soft spot for people who are gearing up or running more casual content, I am always happy to help.
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Very awesome!
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I am squee that you are back! I’m glad I saw your name on windsoar’s blogroll and went to re-add you to mine.
New wordpress theme? Cause I love it.
zelmaru´s last [type] ..My addons
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Kadomi Reply:
August 28th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Hey thanks! I love your blog, so I am happy to see you come here too.
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WB! Its great to see you back and I’ll always be here to read your blog!
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Oh, wow. Welcome back, Kadomi! I had long since lost the bookmark, and never replaced it. In fact, it was only because I checked the shopping list for a friend that I realized you had started updating again!
I just want to say that you are an inspiration. When I got back into WoW, your blog served as a handbook for catching up on and relearning warrior. I like to think I’ve come a long way since then, but I’ve always used what I learned here as a foundation. When friends decided they wanted to try out warrior, I’d direct them to the list of ten things all protection warriors should know, even if they wanted to be arms or fury. Even in your burnout, you were still teaching people with what you had posted.
It’s good to have you back.
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Kadomi Reply:
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:22 pm
That is a very inspiring comment. I shall strive to be as informative come Cataclysm.
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