Namour 509 Hunter

[Namour]

Greetings SOH-

I am writing to introduce myself and ask that your consider adding me to your ranks so that we might work together in killing internet dragon and forming a swarthy band of heroes. First my WoW story, then some discussion about myself as a hunter. (note: learned of SOH from an ingame mail KEP sent me earlier today; my response time is an indication of my real interest)

WoW Story

I am a 46 year old educator, currently teaching physical science at a progressive all-girls middle school in California. I am a husband and father of a 14 year old (who recently graduated from said school). I began playing a hunter in December 2007; long a fan of ranger/hunter classes in other fantasy games, the choice of playing hunter was an easy one for me. I leveled slowly as I immersed myself in this incredible world that Blizz has created for us to play in. A long time game enthusiast, this was my first foray into an MMO, and I fell head over heels immediately. As the Burning Crusade happened around me, my WoW awareness gradually increased. An historic night for me early on was an invitation to go to Karazan and play with a small guild group that was the best group I had ever played with at the time. The night climaxed with a kill of the prince, and they gave me the incredible bow that he dropped. And that is how I found raiding...

Once Woltk was released, after dabbling with some friends, I decided to join a "real raiding guild". I was taken in by a guild on Muradin called Ultio Mea Est who was working on Ulduar at the time. I was encouraged and supported, and kept getting better and more sure of my toolset as a hunter. When the guild fractured shortly after I joined, I went with the raid leader who formed a dynamic 10 man group called Phase Four. We had an absolutely great time playing together, and were very successful in our little Muradin pond (server 2nd algalon kill on our first night on the fight - 58th minute was our first real highlight). We got server first 10 man tribute and decided to go 25 man for ICC. The rigors of real life and raid leading wore out the GM/RL who had to step away and the group fell apart. Hungry for raiding, I joined another 25 man on the server that got to 11/12 heroic. The dynamic of that group, however, was pretty rough and despite the reasonable level of progression, I didn't feel the kinship and sense of teamwork I had previously experienced with P4.

So, when Cata was released and the RL of P4 came back to the game, I quickly decided to join them for casual raiding in T11. We did ok on our 2 night or so schedule, had fun playing together, getting 3/16 heroic or something like that on 10 man. Once Firelands came out, things got sluggish and I decided I was ready as a player to take the next step. I started looking and found a 25 man guild on Llane called Monolith that had a long and very stable history. (Their guild philosopy and approach appears to share several common themes with SOH). They had a need for a hunter, and brought me in when they were 150 pulls into Heroic Rags, working on P2 transition. I got a trial by fire (literally; had a couple real early challenges with world in flames), was able to get myself up to speed on the fight and earn my spot on the progression team that achieved a server first kill (US 93 25 man on Nov 7).

We worked our way as a group through DS, again earning a server first kill on Heroic DW and winding up US 119th 25-man. The leadership seriously considered closing shop at that point, with an accumulation of turnover and hard work recruiting and integrating new folks taking its toll. They decided to keep going through MoP, but the writing was on the fall. After reaching 3/16 heroic with a good deal of angst and less rapid progression, the struggle between the harder core progressionists and the guild leadership wanting to preserve loyalty and previous devotion as counting for something finally broke the spirit of the RL and GL, who decided to close down the Monolith raiding team. It was a sad night indeed given the long history of success and friendships that had been forged, but ulimately the effort of sustaining 25 man raiding on a dead server side was too much.

A group of 11-12 of us who wanted to keep playing together decided to make a stab at 10 man raiding on Llane. We formed Fully Torqued and had a fun if brief run together, reaching 12/16 H before the loss of a couple of people and inablity to recruit on Llane horde side led to the decision to give up. Another sad night...really fun group. That night, I came across a post on MMO about a 10 man guild on Area 52 that needed a hunter and that was identically progressed. Seemed very fortituous at the time. They chatted me up on vent, looked at a couple of logs, and invited me that night. I transferred over and on our 2nd night together helped them kill H Grand Sheeker (http://www.worldoflo.../?s=5810&e=6675). I raided with the group for about 3 lockouts, and we reached 15/16 H. The chemistry was mixed, though. I felt like it was just early getting used to new people, but they decided to remake 3 spots on the raid team for 5.2 and brought in another hunter to replace me. I was told I was a solid player with areas to improve on (certainly true for all of us), a really nice guy, but just not a good fit of the group. I have been offered a place on one of the other 10 man groups in the guild, but after a couple of nights playing with them, I don't think their level of progression will compensate for the fact I feel zero connection to anyone in the group. So, I am looking (again) for that most elusive of things: a stable and mature place to play, to build in game friendships again, and challenge myself as a player.

Playing a Hunter

Namour (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/area-52/Namour/advanced) was my original toon and has been my only main. It is telling that my next 2 highest level toons are a hunter (86) and shaman (58). I love playing a hunter. For solo play and leveling, I can't imagine not having a pet to work with along with the incredible bag of tricks that hunters have for controlling and killing large numbers of mobs quickly and efficiently.

As a raider, I use a full range of resources in game and out to make sure I can keep getting better as a player and adapting as the class charactistics evolve. Primary addons I rely on are shadowed unit frames (only unit frame addon I have found that has moveable boss frames), dbm and weak auras to amplify raid awareness, buff/debuff/range/ tracking tools configured for hunter specific info (My ui: http://i49.tinypic.com/14y7gy.jpg), reforgelite to optimize new equipment, auctioneer to help with making gold so support my toon.

Out of game, I am daily reader of MMO forums (there has been a very interested discussion by Clojure regarding a mathematical analysis of the RPPM details in understanding the relative values of the new trinkets). I use icy veins written descriptiona and a range of videos (fatboss often) to familiarize myself and start planning spec/talent/glyph/macros for upcoming fights. I use WoL and comparebots to analyze performance and seek ways to improve myself as a player.

As a player, I would describe myself as a good and focused player who is reasonably consistent night to night. I learn from my mistakes and get better with practice. There are mechanics that from time to time take me longer to master than I like (engulfing flames, see above), but I have always been able to get things down and usually stay alive on kills. I am solid on both single target movement (here is heroic vizor: http://www.worldoflo.../?s=8260&e=8732) and aoe fights (here is parse on Horridon from last night: http://www.worldoflo.../?s=1920&e=2505). I am not a world class player, and would never put myself out as one. I will rank from time to time, generally in the 90%, do have occassion dumbshit moments, and am always open to suggestions that will make me a better player.

Other Important Details

As part of my role as a dad and husband, I do have a need to pick up my daughter from dance class. She has class Tues-Thurs; my wife works a random selection of 3 out of every 7 days (nurse), so on those nights that my daughter is at class and my wife works, I have to pick her up. Class is 15 min away, so results in a 30 min afk. Typically happens about once per week, sometimes zero, occasionally 2, never 3.

Also, I received a tremendous honor and have been invited to give a talk to the physics majors at the college from which I graduated, so I will be offline the week of april 8th and would miss that entire raid week.

At this point, I have proabably told you enough to get the question process started. Thank you for your considering of my interest in joining South of Heaven.

With enthusiasm,

Namour

[Alaska]

Great app, best of luck

[Twelvesoft]

What time is this dance class at/when would your AFK's be happening?

[Ashin]

Hi and thanks for the app.

I only have time to skim right now but right away I'm concerned about random 30 minute AFK's during raid. I'm not sure how that would work for us or how it has worked for the other guilds you have raided with. When does dance class end?

[Namour]

Times are approx to within a few minutes each night listed below; I leave 15 before the time, return 15 after the time. As I mentioned, this is 1x per week typically, sometimes zero sometimes 2, never 3.

Tues 6:30 pm pst (8:30 server)

Wed 7:30 pm pst (9:30 server)

Thurs 6:30 pm pst (8:30 server)

I always know the times well in advance and will always post in advance. In past guilds, rosters of 28-30 had no problem working with this. If you guys run 25 lean, it would be a problem, absolutely.

[Noesis]

Twelve and Ashin took my question.

Guess I can see what your thoughts on PvP are? You can see in my sig that I have a sore spot for Hunters in PvP

Edited March 15, 2013 by Noesis

[Namour]

I have not been a force in pvp, to say the least. I have always lived on carebear servers, and have only dabbled in arena. Had a few periods of doing battlegrounds. An area of the game I am open to exploring more....

[Ashin]

Hi Namour,

I'd like one of my hunters to review your logs, and also you should add my btag ashin#1840 so that we can get in touch over the weekend.

We do run a very lean roster, and while our plan is 28, we're currently at 25. So your schedule unfortunately presents some real (if short term) concerns for us. I hate to have your whole post boil down to that, but consistent attendance is really important for the way our team operates at the moment. You otherwise sound like a great fit.

Cheers.

[Stridur]

Hey Welcome to the forums

Nice app first of all, its good to see old veteran player from vanilla, since SOH has a lot of people who played from vanilla. Your toon setup , logs and heroic experience seem really good. The only thing like ash said is the 30min afk that might happen. As we only raid 9 hours week which, any long afk's, or D/C's hurts the raiding schedule and team. Few questions:

1) Can you upload a SS of your UI during raid combat for both BM and Surv specs?

2)What PC hardware do you currently use for 25 man raiding (CPU, GPU, RAM, etc.)?

3)What ARE your current stat weights and do you always gem for the socket bonus? is +60 crit and 120 mastery better than 100 extra agility?

4)Initial sims are showing that BM and MM are going to be near-equal on single-target fights while Surv stays dominant on AoE-fights. Which spec(s) will you be playing throughout 5.2 and why?

[Namour]

Ashin, I send a friend request. I will look forward to chatting this weekend.

Stidur, thank you for your questions and for taking the time to look over my logs. By the way, I can't claim being a vanilla player. I started Dec 2007 during T5...

To answer your questions:

1) Will upload the requested screen shots later today or tomorrow AM when I have a chance to get a LFR in to do the captures

2) AMD Phenom II 465 (black) x4 3.4 gHZ CPU, GeForce GTX 560 Ti, 4 GB ram (forgot brand). Purchased parts and assembled this box about 20 months ago. I get 20-60 fps in 25 man settings

3) I do not always gem for socket bonuses. My gem choices for the chest (320 crit + 120 mast > 160 agi) and boots (220 crit > 80 agi) are toss ups. I made them when I had a lower crit rating and haven't gone back to reconsider. The FD test I just did showed a 400 dps loss by going full agi, which basically confirms my sense it is a toss up. I generally value agi a bit under 3/1 over crit. I use 180 crit 140 mast 100 haste as my settings in reforgelite.

4) I am not a believer in MM yet. Have seen a few poor performances from MM and no strong ones on recent guild parses by other hunters. In general, I prefer looking at damage trends by spec on Wol ranking parses in terms of choosing my spec for a particular fight as oppposed to sim rankings. I don't just look at the top few parses, but look to see which spec maintains higher numbers deeper in the rankings. I have only run the first 3 bosses (with kills on 2). Pet is broken on Jin Rok; I did 20k better as SV versus my pulls as BM. Horridon clearly SV. I could see either for Council, depending on my job. If I was pure burn on a boss, then BM, otherwise SV to reduce penalty on pet target switch and better aoe on sandstorm. I have been reading suggestions on MMO champion for the other fights, but haven't really sat down and mapped out the rest of the bosses by going through WoL fight by fight yet. From what I am reading, SV sounds to be strongest for about 8-9 fights, with BM for about 3-4, at least in normals. The bottom line, though, is that I will play whatever spec provides the best chance to kill the boss. I have played all three specs (although not much MM since beginning of DS).