"mana" == "hold up a sec"

I've become something of a connoisseur of tanks over the last few weeks.

I try my hardest to give them the benefit of working with them the best I can so that they can become better tanks.  Remember, it wasn't too many weeks ago I was the new healer.  New tanks are the most unpredictable.  I think somewhere they've seen people they consider to be good tanks, charging through instances at a breakneck pace.  They therefore decide that in order to be considered a good tank, they too must charge ahead as fast as they can.

I would like current and future tanks to take heed.  When your healer says "mana", that means "hold up a second."  Some like to say "OOM", I generally don't, as that implies you're truly out of mana, and should be used only as an announcement of dire things getting ready to happen in a boss fight gone bad.  I do have Innervate, but have learned through experience that as soon as I pop Innervate just to "top off", I'll need it one minute later to survive a boss fight.  I therefore keep an ample supply of drinks handy.  I'm quite happy burning through 10 secs of a 30 second drink break in order to do a quick mana top off.

I remember one jaw dropping experience I had in Sethekk Halls.  I had a new DK tank with us that day.  He had that "charge in" personality.  We'd just finished up a difficult pull, as I'd had to liberally pour heals all over the group as he wasn't holding aggro very well.  One of the bosses was just around the corner and I felt sure I'd have to burn my cooldowns in there so I announced a quick "mana" and popped one of my drinks for my druid.  What followed was my own experience of a Leroy Jenkins moment.  The tank replied "Nope, don't need any", and charged through the door without us.  The rest of us took off after him, catching up to him just in time to drop a few heals before he fell over dead.  The fight was close, needing both my major cooldowns of a mana potion and my Innervate to make it to the end.  I tried to be as nice as I could when I let him know that "mana" was not a question as to any one else's need.