Radbod

No problem. I understand that situations change. Best of luck on your continuing progression.

Ashin, Would you and Hip be free to talk either before or after your Tuesday raid?

No worries, If not tonight we can find another time to chat.

A buddy popped into town last min. Ill be on closer to 11 today. Sorry for the delayed notice.

Actually your a.m. is better for me on the weekend since its my evening. I am not sure which timezone you are in personally but I can easily make the time to talk post 9am EST till around 1 EST.

I'd be happy to. If you see me in game we can talk otherwise we can set a scheduled time. My weekend is a bit busy but if I know when to be on I can make the time.

Dear Hip, I appreciate your insight and thanks for taking the time to provide feedback. I can understand your philosophy concerning roller coaster DK tanking. In fact in some ways you are on point with the use of cool downs, especially in evening out damage taken. I will look back over the logs as well to get an idea where this philosophy can be utilized. As a tank my bags are never empty. I have several T15 and heroic T14 trinkets at the ready in my bags ready to swap if I find the need. The way I use DRW as an offensive cooldown also works out as an initial damage smoother and my recent brief skim of my logs shows that I rarely take damage spikes at the beginning of fights due to this. I also can see what you mean about if the raid is relying only on the tank it has failed. However, I find that to be a bit too much of rose-colored-glasses outlook on raiding. I believe it is important to have a back up that can be executed in order to preserve an attempt. This can range from a kill against all odds (ala buying time after a tank has died) or even a way to let people continue to practice mechanics on a new hardmode. In addition, I find that certain mechanics of the game create these situations even if you play them perfectly. Blizzard has made blue posts saying that some fatal RNG elements have purposely been added to the game in order to avoid monotony. Often times these mechanics can lead to a wipe. It is perfectly possible that I have a far too pessimistic use of "OH SHIT" cooldowns. Most likely there is a balance between us that I should seek. As far as DPS goes, you are right in saying that my kills are not necessarily in danger of pushing enrage timers. On the other hand there is also no reason to hold back DPS if doing so does not negatively impact survivability. I won't get myself killed HSing to pad meters but I also feel that the current iteration WoW has made it so tanks should be maximizing every ounce of DPS when possible. Small things like rolling diseases off of Tortos to bats and turtles isn't necessary but it should be done any way. Everyone who contributes a little bit more increases the success of the kill. With a 9 hour raid schedule every second faster counts. =D And frankly it's just fun to do big numbers. I see that the guild is discussing how to handle bats on heroic Tortos. The highest tank dps parse for that fight is a Blood DK single tanking. This is something I thought was possible on normal and wanted to try. It solves two problems for the guild (enrage timers and bats). Just a thought. I have played this game for a long time and feel I have a solid foundation for each role. Although I'll never turn down an opportunity to theorycraft and better myself. Keep the suggestions coming. Rad

No problem Hip, life catches up with us all and I am glad you took the time to look over the logs. The reason for the gemming roulette was an experiment in balancing survivability and DPS. I have a theory that I've been testing regarding the purpose of mastery. Mastery for a DK only affects the biproducts of your deathstrike. Meaning that you have to deathstrike to be effective. This creates three vulnerabilities, the ability to kite, running dry on runes at an inopportune time, and the necessity to deathstrike while tanking when a boss is not actually hitting you hard. With a lower health pool it is necessary (and kind to healers) to deathstrike all the time. However, with a very large healthpool it is possible to heartstrike over deathstrike, under normal melee damage, more often without jepordizing your survivability. When kiting with low health you need to hope that the group of adds doesn't smash you before you get a deathstrike off, as opposed to having the healthpool to take that extra 1-2 hits. Kiting is very useful this teir ALA Bats on Tortos and Sand-adds on Council. Finally, it shouldn't happen often but sometimes you just rune out of runes either with attempting to deal with a mechanic (Sha of Fear triple backhand to the face) or unlucky T5 talent streaks. Also, the reason I don't switch my trinkets is I think the T15 trinkets are garbage. They both have very large mastery allotments but the on use are severally lackluster. I am looking forward to 5.3 because I will immediately upgrade my current trinkets, which I should have done in the first place. With stam trinkets I can have more health all the time rather than a 3rd last stand (Council trinket). The valor dodge trinket can be combine with DRW for a big cooldown but it's again a situational problem that can be solved simply by timing big cooldowns better. Also, I have my current trinkets macro'd into deathstrike. Since they share a separate cooldown this means I have 30 seconds of every minute filled by a mastery buff. Also, because they are macro'd I don't waste the trinket. An illustration of this logic using the T15 patchwork Magaera: Here is an older log of a Magaera kill when I was gemmed mastery + stam trinkets (143% mastery): http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-s5zuquzmxr96721u/details/32/?s=15126&e=15700 Here is an equivalent log of a DK with mastery gemming and mastery trinkets (200%+ mastery): http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-aswxf3wqr41bht1j/details/93/?s=15303&e=15719 *His armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/tichondrius/Synial/advanced If you look under the healing done tab, you will find my average bloodshields and heals are significantly larger despite our difference. This is because of my trinkets and their interaction with my macro. Additionally, I have a 50k larger base health pool. The reason I switched back to gemming mastery is I didn't like the balance of a huge health pool to potential heals. My average deathstrike didn't seem to put me where I wanted in terms of controlling my own health percentages without healer help. So this week I went back. As far as the new T15 DK bonuses. I am not pleased with them at all. I will keep a T14 2-set as long as I can because it's amazing. The T15 2-set is eh at best but two of the set pieces have good stat allocations so I will end up with it just as a biproduct of maxmizing gear. The 4-piece is terrible. It is terrible because of AMS interaction. It is important as a DK to spend Runic power inorder to regain runes. So it would seem that potentially free runic power would be good. However, there is a way in every single fight to use AMS to gain runic power on a pretty consistent basis. So giving us extra runic power this way that we really can't spend is like throwing a billionaire a couple of grand and thinking you're helping them out. Outside of some extreme circumstances, the gear you would have to give up for a underwhelming 4-piece is not worth the time. As far as glyphs and talent choices I switch them based on fights and raid needs. The most common talents I switch are my T6 talent. Mostly I will switch between a stun and AoE grip depending on the fight. For example, Gorefiends is amazing for the Council fight when grabbing the sand adds. However, I find the stun far more useful on Horridon and Tortos due to the abundance of casters being inturrupted or need to distance myself from adds. Also, I will pick up Chillbains for add kiting (bats and sand adds). As far as glyphs go I typically just switch between the Deathcoil shield to help a fellow tank, or IBF for consistant buff stacking bosses or stun avoidance (Jin'rok, Ji'Kin, Tortos, and Duru). I will occasionally use the Vampiric Blood glyph for certain gimics like Duru's DoT but this is less common. As far as my uptime for bloodshield, I do not actively deathstrike if I am not tanking. Ensuring I spend all my runes for even regeneration dictates that I must deathstrike occasionally (which helps healers during AoE damage anyway) but typically I prioritize heartstrike while not tanking. In addition, if I know that I am only taking light melee damage I will game runes to better help with both DPS and the ability to go deathstrike crazy during heavy damage phases. I don't believe consistancy in deathstriking is a sign of a good tank. It means the tank is just following the WotLK rune method and mashing abilities in a set order rather than understanding mechanics and watching the fight. If in fact I am dying due to a lack of building shields at the right time I will better game runes to fix the problem. As far as my CD usage goes, I take a similar approach. I plan CD usage based on boss abilities. Otherwise I have a priority list for CDs, starting with VB, Symbiosis, Ghoul Sac, Rune reset, and then IBF. Unless needed otherwise for a timeable mechanic IBF is my last mechanic. I have seen from other recruit threads that some people disagree with this. However, as a tank, our death typically means a raid wipe. However, I due to sitting on IBF last I have saved a lot of wipes because IBF coupled with one other cooldown allows me to eat a lot of damage for a very long time while a second tank is res'd and buffed. If this cooldown is not available, eating additional stacks of a tank swapping debuff typically ends in a wipe very quickly. Plus, a 40 second Vampiric Blood (1+ million raid buffed health) will deal with a lot a lot of stuff so I don't think activily using IBF without a planned purpose is useful. I don't have a T15 2-set so I don't have a free rune tap. Once I do I will likely add a Need to Know indicator. I don't use raise dead as an offensive cooldown unless I know I won't need death pact for more than a minute (ghoul downtime). I find deathpact as a very useful defensive cooldown and use it if I go below 40% unexpectedly or I know I will take a big hit. On average my DP heal is more than 300k. I have a macro for raise dead and deathpact so it is instant gratification on press. I have a separate button on my side bar to raise dead by itself. I believe I have answered all the questions and I am willing to answer any follow ups you may have. Sorry for the long winded answers but I want to be clear. I am also happy to chat in game or on mumble if you want as well. Thanks, Rad

Thanks for keeping me in the loop. =D Edit: A more recent log. http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-fh7v4ejvqbsw8ql8/

I used to watch a fair amount of anime in the past but haven't kept up with it. In the past I watched the Dragonball/Z series, Rurouni Kenshin, and Bleach. Technically I watch One Piece once a week because it's always on TV at the place I eat on Mondays. However, I am not super sure what is going on since the Chinese subtitles are flying by (can't read that fast) and they are speaking in Japanese.

I totally understand. If anyone wants to discuss the logs let me know and I'll happily take part in either a forum or mumble discussion. For now I'll use the temporary access to get to know the guild better.

For Ashin, As far as rebuilding TEO, it didn't see appropriate. We were not successful because we had the best possible group or raid comp, it was because we had played together from vanilla/TBC through Cata. Of the 12 people we rotated for raids, only 2 are still active in MoP. Rebuilding would have just kept the name of the guild intact but it would not have been the same experience. I have had a personal rapport with TEO members and know them inside and out both in game and out. That group of people still chat and interact (guild Vegas trip this summer) but many of them decided 8 years was enough of one game. My wording may be unclear concerning tank experience. I did not mean to give the impression that I don't have tank experience or a deep understanding of the class. In fact it is quite the opposite. My point was that I did not main raid as a DK tank until MoP. As a DK tank I starting back in WotLK and cleared all of the raids as an Unholy tank including mount achievements. I tanked on my warrior (Radesque) starting in TBC and tanked everything short of Illidan and Archimonde. The Cata kills you'll find on my Pally (Radisque) are as a tank. These are all experiences I've had while the content involved was relevant. I tanked these for alt runs, GDKP runs or other similar type activities. I just don't list them as main raiding toons but I have done it all with all classes. As far as just MoP goes I think looking at my logs and rankings should give you a good impression of how well I understand this class. Also, I have cleared all challenge modes with a gold rating running a 4 dps / 1 tank comp. I am very capable of reading a rough situation and acting accordingly to survive or do DPS as a tank. To address time zone / latency issues. I have lived in Taiwan for more than 5 years so these factors are not new to me nor am I still trying adjust to them. I raid 12 hours a head of US Eastern Standard Time. So while you are all coming home from work and logging on, I am getting out of bed. I am an English teacher for adults and business professionals, which means I work in the evening when other people get off work here. This will continue to be the way my schedule works as I have built a very successful personal business this way. I raid at about 200ms at all times. This means I will always be the first out of the fire because I have to be. If you browse my logs you will not find an excessive amount of time standing in damaging boss mechanics. I have a server second Undying title that was achieved preUlduar. If I join your ranks you'll have a new standard for raiders to hit. "If the guy raiding across the world didn't die to the slime pool, why the hell did you?" The reason I ask about summer/winter vacation schedules my two previous guilds found that people do a lot of traveling (family or personal) around July and December. So if we are not in the middle of a progression tier these two months are usually taken off from 25 man raiding. I am just curious how your guild handles situations like this. For Midri, Unfortunately I have never taken up fencing so your jokes would be lost on me. I am glad to see there is another series reader. I read the whole series after watching the first season. I was not too impressed by the second season as they seemed to have changed a lot of details unnecessarily. It wasn't to fit time constraints or other issues. They just changed stuff to change stuff. For Negido, I answered 3 and 5 in my app above. I was ready for you. Otherwise... 1. Blue 2. No particular favorite band, I tend to have genre mood swings and listen to artists based on those. 4. I was an all american long jumper (long ago but most people don't know this) and after living in Taiwan I am conversationally fluent in Mandarin Chinese (US people don't know about). 6. I would say a 6. I enjoying being social on weekends but I need my alone time during the week to work.

Let's get the formalities out of the way before I dim the lights and seduce the thunderforged pants off you. Stage 1: Allow myself to introduce...myself Player Information Name: Nick Age: 29 Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan Occupations: Teacher, Husband, Cat's personal slave Character information Character: Raduo Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/eonar/Raduo/advanced *take the gemming with a grain of salt, doing some personal theorycrafting/log parsing stuff **I will socket the weapon when I return to my main computer tomorrow Obligatory "Hey everyone, come see how good I look" pages: http://www.wow-heroes.com/character/us/eonar/Raduo/ http://raidbots.com/epeenbot/us/eonar/raduo/ Most recent T14 logs. http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-deluglktmv46x1em/ http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-04ee80671ob8gksr/ ToT logs http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-hwiyxoqgl7us888n/ Week 1 Day 1 http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-ct2lbsiy7v74u2x9/ Week 1 Day 2 http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-s5zuquzmxr96721u/ Week 2 Day 1 Guild History / Reasons for Leaving The Eternal Order – US-Eonar – (Classic – Cata) Officer/Raid Leader TEO was the first guild I joined upon hitting level 60 and have been with them ever since. Starting in TBC I served as the raid leader. TEO raided six hours a week and cleared Heroic DS at 20%. We converted to a 10 man in ICC. The core members stopped playing after we cleared DS and will not raid in MoP. Addicted – US-Eonar – (WotLK – Present) I joined Addicted during Ulduar since it’s raid schedule did not interfere with TEO and I wanted a more progressive environment. Addicted was a very successful 2 night a week guild through Wrath and most of Cata. However, toward the end of Cata and now during Wrath Addicted has struggled very hard to maintain a full roster and has been holding onto very weak players which has caused a good deal of the more dedicated raiders to leave or quit the game. Stage 2: Conversation is heating up and you want more information. Also, your beverage of choice is starting to kick in. My Life in WoW I have played WoW since classic. I started just prior to MC being released and have not taken any extended breaks from the game aside from summer lulls between expansions. I have tried very hard to keep a balanced but effective schedule between real life commitments and the game. While in the game I strive to stay at the top of my ability and maintain an in-depth knowledge on several classes at any given time. I have always been the flexible raid member and switched classes based on guild/progress need. I will add a chart at the end to illustrate this. I tanked progression oriented alt runs on my DK and several other tank classes prior to MoP, but beginning with this expansion I have taken on DK tanking full time for my current guild. Although running a DK as my main began in MoP, it should not be an indicator as to my ability or understanding of the class. I spend a good deal of time looking through my own parses as well as DKs who I find to be out performing me. I try to make adjustments and continually better myself (hence the playing with gemming). Guides/forums are great for general information but it is important for a player to execute their class in a way that compliments their play style. I am happy to converse in vent/mumble with anyone regarding how I play my character. Since I began WoW I have only been active in two guilds. Many of these players have become real life friends. When I return to the States this summer I will be going on a Las Vegas trip with large number of my former guildies from TEO. I do not guild hop around for the sake of progression. I am interested in a guild that plays for both progression and because those 10 to 25 personalities on vent are people you want to hang out with. My life outside of WoW I am currently residing in Taiwan and have for the last five years. I originally moved here with the intention of staying for one year and doing something different with my life. Five years later I have found that I enjoy life on this side of the world and the experiences I can have living in a very different culture. I just recently married a wonderful Taiwanese woman and will remain here for the foreseeable future. In the world of sunlightcraft I enjoy hiking, biking, and frequenting coffee shops located by the ocean. I have recently starting working out again since my previous all-american long jumper body thought it would be fun to consume a bowling ball and place it in my mid-region. Stage 3: You are full immersed in my come-hither gaze. However, you compose yourself long enough to notice that I am really listening to what you say. Some reoccurring questions throughout your apps What does a DK tank bring over other tank classes / where does it suffer? I find that a DK is the jack-of-all trades-master-of-none class. I am capable of sustaining large amounts of both physical (blood shield) and magical damage (AMS) without having to make a choice between the two. For example a fight like heroic Elegon I can mitigate constant melee damage and special abilities (breath) simultaneously. AMS also allows us to bend some of the raiding rules. Jin'rohk's debuff or Ji-Kun's feed young pools are two examples where AMS can provide amazing benefits to a raid. Additionally our self healing is insane under the right circumstances. Heroic Wind-Lord was a fight that showed what a DK can do by leading both healing and DPS. However, the curse and blessing of a DK are also one. The change in tanking paradigm for other classes have left them with two energy dumps to counteract either sustained melee damage or magic damage. DKs do not have this option. If we run through AMS or AMZ (very weak in it's current form) we are left with only self-healing. Druids are somewhat left open to this as well but Blizz has built in some passives. When a boss has mixed abilities that come on timers a DK can shine. Yet, when a boss decides to ignore absorbs (Gara'jal) or have constant multiple hit mechanics (Sha of Fear) that out pace rune regeneration a DK falls behind other classes. Also, a DK is always taking full melee hits. Leather tanks can invoke dodge strings, shield tanks can start large mitigation strings with blocking. While DKs are not 100% devoid of these, our tanking mechanic involves absorbing damage. If a boss has a large hard hitting ability DK mechanics are not counting on reducing the damage or avoiding it all together. Our job is to make sure we can build a shield that is capable of eating the whole thing. There are exceptions and caveats to this but in general this is our blessing and burden. Why SoH? I don't guild hop. I am looking for a guild that is mature (18+), hungry for progression, and has built a family atmosphere. I am interested in the long term. From a brief look a the interaction in the forums your guild seems to have these things. Also, I have no interest in raiding more than 9 hours a week. Currently I raid 9 hours within two days a week. Since I raid 12 hours ahead of EST, currently I get out of bed at 7a.m. to raid. This does not please the wife as it precludes me from starting my day with her (breakfast etc). Your current raid schedule allows me to stick with a minimal and effective raid schedule, but also frees me up to spend my mornings with her before she heads to work. What is your favorite Disney movie? Sword and the Stone. I have been a fan of mythology and legends since I was a child. I majored in History in college and did a semester abroad in Ireland. So the simple basis of this movie appeals to me. Additionally, Disney used to just put the life lessons right out there. No hidden moral or slow revelation. Merlin straight up told Wart, shit happens and life's tough but keeping your mind sharp can help you deal with anything that comes your way. Plus, wizards' duel...need I say more? Do you drink and if so what? Yes, White Russians. I don't know when I started drinking them or why but it's my go to drink. However, I prefer Whiskey over Vodka in all other forms. Stage 4: You're now head-over-heels for me but I'm a gentleman. The first night of bliss ends with a simple but deeply meaningful conversation only. I walk you to your car and ask you a few small questions while your eyes slowly hungrily wander over all I have to offer wondering what untold treasures lie beneath. Some questions I have for the guild: Outside of logs, how do you evaluate recruits/current members? How do you determine who raids when more than 25 raiders are logged on? How do you handle longer holiday seasons? (summer/winter holidays) What is your favorite G rated joke? Did you read A Song of Ice and Fire before or after watching the HBO series? Appendix A: WoW that guy plays too many classes Dungeons Completed: Raid Experience Classic: Full Clear – MC, BWL, AQ20, ZG, Ony Partial – AQ40 (Twin Emps) *I raided on my Warlock for Classic TBC: Full Clear – Kara, Grull, ZA, Mag, SSC, TK Partial Clear – BT (all but Illidan) Hyjal (all but Arch) *I swapped between Warlock, Fury Warr, and Resto Sham during TBC WotLK: Full Clear – Naxx, EoE, OS, Uld (1-light), Heroic ToC Partial – Heroic ICC (all but heroic LK) *I raided on Resto Sham, Hunter, Holy Priest for WotLK Cata: Full Clear – BoT, BWD, ToFW, FL, DS, Heroic DS Partial – Heroic BoT (2/4), Heroic BWD (4/6), Heroic ToFW (1/2), Heroic FL (6/7) *I raided on Hunter, Resto Sham, Resto Druid, and Mage for Cata MoP: Full Clear – MSV, HoF, TES Partial Clear – Heroic MSV (4/6) Heroic HoF (2/6) ToT – 8/12 **I am only counting kills while content was relevant. I am not counting any kills after large nerfs (classic/TBC) or new raid patches (WotLK+).