Tanking Trials and Tribulations...

One day it will happen.

One day I will be a good tank.

That day is not today.

A push from the Paladin over the weekend took him to 110 and on to the gearing treadmill.  It's an absolute god-send that world quests are open immediately so you can crack on with those while finishing off the zones and doing Suramar at leisure.


As per the latest incarnation of the alt plan, I am not doing any of the class order hall quests until 110, when I can do them pretty much in one go for a more cohesive storyline.


So I picked up where I had left off after opening up Light's Hope Chapel to follow the storyline. 
I picked up a dungeon quest for Violet Hold but still had other quests so decided to do those first.
A few quests down the line... I began to wonder why there were so many references to Varian Wrynn and Ashbringer.


Isn't Ashbringer the Ret artefact weapon?


Yes, it is.  I was on the Ret artefact quest line!


It's fortunate that Wowhead exists or I would probably not have found out until someone actually handed me the Ashbringer!


Despite the temptation to just carry on with nice, comfortable questing I was left with the dungeon quest in Violet Hold.


No way around it so I queued up.


I wondered if my gear would be good enough but it is a levelling dungeon so I figured I would be fine at any ilvl... how wrong I was!


First portal and my health bar is spiking up and down ridiculously, I'm blowing all cooldowns just to (barely) stay alive.  As soon as I ran out of CDs, I was done for.
I ran back in quickly, picked up the mobs and died again.


Two others died before I could get back in again and now we were just on a loop of... Res, run in, die.


Every fear I had was coming true.


After a few death loops, and some rather fruity language, one of the dps left which was swiftly followed by everyone else leaving.


First attempt at tanking... disaster.


I checked my ilvl, it was only 747 so I figured (hoped) that the dungeon didn't scale like it does from 100-109 and was tuned for a specific ilvl at 110.
I feel like there should be some ilvl restriction on queueing though if that is the case, just like there is for heroic or lfr.


Regardless, I logged off for the night determined to attack it the next day.


I had no idea how long it would take me to bridge the gap by world quests alone so decided to hit the auction house!
So what piece do I need the most?
Helm... 810ilvl... fine there
Neck... 765ilvl... get the JC to make one
Shoulders... 800ilvl... fine
Chest... 810ilvl... hmmm.
Cloak... 790
Wrists... 795???
Gloves... 810???
Belt... 810???
Legs... 800???
Rings... 750/810
Trinkets... 765/765
How the hell was I only 747ilvl??


It was then that I noticed my weapon slot was blank...
It is supposed to automatically appear with the artefact shield so I can only assume that it bugged out when I started those Ret quests.


I took off the shield and equipped it again... 799ilvl.


The dungeon was a breeze :-s