Raduo - Blood DK

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+).

Tinymanz · April 1, 2013

YES!

GNOME PRIDE!

Ashin · April 1, 2013

Hello,

Thanks for putting in an enjoyable and thorough application. I can tell the you read our recruitment post and checked out common questions to previous applications on our board, and those signs of your interest and diligence are appreciated by this crowd.

Mostly I want to congratulate you on starting a guild way back in vanilla and leading it all the way through the end of Cata! That's an impressive accomplishment, and a 20% DW kill on a six hour week is definitely respectable as well. You did not want to try to rebuild?

You say that I should not base my opinion on your DK knowledge/skill on your relative lack of raid experience, but I suppose my counter would be - what, then, should I base it on? Particularly for players who are applying to a tank position on our team, we're quite rigorous in our evaluation of your logs and your previous tanking experience. The ideal applicant would demonstrate a track record of progression tanking - heroic mode - across multiple tiers and multiple expansions. Your experience with the game as a whole is truly impressive, but your raid progression has not been as a tank until only recently.

That, combined with the time zone difference / worries over latency, creates a not-insignificant obstacle for your app to overcome.

Thoughts on all this?

As for your questions..

Outside of logs, how do you evaluate recruits/current members?

The most significant component of the trial is really seeing how your fit within the team. Fit relates to things such as your movement / awareness / raid etiquette, and also relates to your social fit within the tribe. It's not something that can be evaluated until we actually raid together. In many ways, we consider your survivability, deployment of class utility and positioning to be more important than your meter score, as we have somewhat come to take "can make big numbers on the meter" as a given by now. Likewise if we simply don't enjoy your company or feel awkward when sharing the same virtual space, that just doesn't work out for all of us regardless of how the raiding looks on paper.

Current members receive periodic feedback either in raid or offline, particularly when areas for improvement are identified. Current members are always given the opportunity to address feedback prior to dismissal.

A more detailed review / score card is handled by me personally at the end of every raid tier.

How do you determine who raids when more than 25 raiders are logged on?

We'll soon find out! This is a combination of desire to give everyone equal access to kills and raid leader discretion on progression nights. We maintain a very lean roster and therefore do not employ strategies such as class stacking.

How do you handle longer holiday seasons? (summer/winter holidays)

I'm not sure the meaning of this question. We raid all year 'round. We do not raid on major holidays such as Christmas.

What is your favorite G rated joke?

None of my favorite jokes is G rated, nor is my humor in general.

Did you read A Song of Ice and Fire before or after watching the HBO series?

I have neither read the book nor do I watch the series. This puts me squarely in the minority of the guild.

Midri · April 1, 2013

TAIWAN PRIDE! (Where/what do you teach in Kaohsiung?)

Outside of logs, how do you evaluate recruits/current members?

We take the social aspect of the guild very seriously. We have very active social members and run alt raids, group farming, and bgs on non-raid-nights; we also have a lot going on in the forums and website chatroom. So aside from raid performance (not just logs, but willingness to do and initiative in doing tricky utility things, adaptability in bizarre and unforeseen situations, etc), we evaluate how well someone integrates into the guild community. Does he talk in guild chat? website chat? on the forums? Does he participate in extra-curricular activities? At the end of the trial, do people know who he is, and does it feel like he's been with us all along?

How do you determine who raids when more than 25 raiders are logged on?

It's a mystery! We're in the process of transitioning from a team of exactly 25 people to one of 27-28. In practice, we don't think people will be sitting very often, as real life tends to happen to at least one person each week.

How do you handle longer holiday seasons?

We don't change our schedule for summer/winter breaks (assuming you're talking about school breaks?). If a raid falls on a major holiday weekend (eg. Thanksgiving, Christmas), we poll the raiders to see how many people are available, and if too many people can't make it, we'll cancel. If there aren't enough people for a 25m but enough for a 10m or two, we'll usually run farming 10ms to keep gearing up.

What is your favorite G rated joke?

I am very fond of a couple fencing jokes, but I feel they lack impact if you don't fence. Do you fence?!

Did you read A Song of Ice and Fire before or after watching the HBO series?

Befooore. I got lazy and stopped watching the HBO series. :shut-mouth:

P.S. Ashin faster typer, but I'm gonna post anyway!

Negido · April 1, 2013

Welcome to the forums! I'm Negido! Pertinent questions.

1. What's your favorite color?

2. What's your favorite band?

3. Do you drink? If so, what is your drink of choice?

4. Any random special skills that people don't normally know about?

5. Favorite disney movie?

6. On a scale of shut-in to social butterfly, how social are you?

Radbod · April 2, 2013

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.

Twelvesoft · April 2, 2013

I agree with the unnecessary changing of details, and after watching the Season 3 opener I can see that it isn't going to be getting any better. I'm just glad Tyrion managed to survive that awwwwwwful...scratch.

Ashin · April 2, 2013

Well, I have to confess that I really enjoy the vibe I get from your application. However, to be candid with you, this is not something I can move on very quickly. I will ask one of my officers to look over your logs, as I don't consider myself well qualified to do so. In the meantime, I'm going to set your account with Guest access, so that you can cruise the site and make some new friends.

Radbod · April 3, 2013

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.

Nez · April 3, 2013

A critical question you didn't answer that Ashin 100% looks for in all applications is:

Do you watch anime?

If so, which ones and why those?

If not, that's cool. We can still be bros.

Raduo - Blood DK

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