How can I bear to be out of my comfort zone?

As my witless wording suggests, I have been venturing around in bear form as my offspec and it does it's job.  Like in early Pandaria, it helped me with my questing because I didn't die, though killing things wasn't as fast as cat form, but I could pull a few mobs and just whittle them down with a lot of self healing.

I also go bear form for Garrison invasions, but that's another post all together.  I like invasions by the way, they are fun and though I have never gotten anything cool out of the bags except for Apexis crystals, gold and Garrison resources, I still think they are fun.

A few weeks ago I did my first PuG as tank.  It wasn't a full PuG, I was with 2 guildies, but I had to show my tanking skills in front of others - or should I say, lack of tanking skills.  We went to queue for heroics when I realised I hadn't done silver tank so I had to do that first which I had to do a couple of times before I got it - boy does it make the sweat bead when you realise people are waiting for you to do your Proving Grounds before you can queue.

So what dungeon did I get first? It was Bloodmaul Slag mines (for some reason I have great difficulty saying that.  I often say Bloodslag Maul or Bloodmines Maul or Slagmaul... and yes, I did go look it up just now to make sure I got it right).  I don't know about you but I find that dungeon a little hard - my main difficulty is this section where there are 2 ovens on the side and fire adds pour out of it in intervals, and there are some ogres fighting fire mobs in the corridor just beyond those fire adds.  I had a guildie, Siness, healing me and he valiantly kept me alive during the dungeon but we had a woeful time on the last boss because the other 2 PuGs weren't killing the adds and I was running around like a crazy bear.  I hadn't been game to step foot into a dungeon as a tank since then.

However, good gear emboldens even the most timid of bears and with these lovely dual spec items I was looking a lot better than I was the last time I tanked.  We have been low on a healer variety, with 6 healers on our raid roster, 3 of them druids and the other 3 priests (2 disc, one holy). I asked Cptsars if he could do a healer offspec for me and he had been working on it and late one night, I asked him how it was going.  He said he was almost fully geared up, just missing some trinkets. I said I still had a green neck and my heirloom Garrosh weapon, and wouldn't it be a great idea if we did a dungeon and I tanked and he healed?  He jumped at that idea, and off we went to do a heroic dungeon.  Cptsars had selected a few of the dungeons that dropped things that we needed and we ended up with Iron Docks.  I opened up straight away by saying I had never tanked this dungeon before, just so they knew I was a noob tank.  Cptsars being the proud testosterone man that he is kept silent, confident in his leet healing skills, which were yet untested.

I like Iron Docks, but as a healer who always hangs back healing things, I never really pay attention to which way to go.  So I may have had a few moments of going the wrong way as the DPS raced ahead, so I decided after that to just stand still and wait for them to lead the way.

Fortunately the group I went with was very patient.  I made lots of mistakes - for example with the trio of Grimrail Enforcers the hunter told me I should be interrupting something - there was something to interrupt? Was it that red blood bubble thing?  So that fight took an exorbitantly long time.  Cptsars valiantly healed me as the fight stretched out but eventually we got it.

We also wiped on the Oshir leopard dude fight.  He opened the cages and I didn't realise I didn't see the rylak spitting green goo everywhere - I did wonder where the hell is all this green stuff coming from?  Then I saw the rylak and went to attack it but by then the next lots of adds were out and everyone was dying and splat! Dead.  Cptsars reassured me that it wasn't 100% my fault as the DPS should also switch to adds and the next go it was much better.

Then came Skulloc, that last Gronn boss who does that knockback and then starts firing missiles at you.  WELL. I THOUGHT I knew what I was supposed to do - knockback, hide behind the boxes, then when he pauses get the hell into melee and hit him to make him stop shooting.  So the first time I tried it I couldn't run fast enough and I died.  Cptsars laughed and we tried again and I did the same thing again.  I looked at what the others were doing - OH THAT'S RIGHT, hide behind the SECOND lot of boxes a little bit closer and THEN run out.  GOTCHA.

"Did you know any damage interrupts it?  Faerie fire too?" said Sars, amusedly.

I did not know that.  Though the range on Faerie Fire is about the same as charge I think so either option was ok to me, I thought.  So on the final attempt, I did it right, I hid behind the first box, then the second box and then charged my way in with no more firing from Skulloc and I was so pleased with myself.  Our PuGs were actually very kind - they thanked us for the run at the end of that heroic, even though I thought it was rather abyssmal.  Sars said he had fun - though what else is he going to say about the guild leader's tanking, really - and I was rewarded with a weapon to replace my Garrosh heirloom.

Now I don't know if I would be game to venture out as tank again in a full group of PuGs, but... at least I tried!  I'll just need someone to point me in the right direction.