Raduo - Blood DK

[Ashin]

Nyisha stop trolling my applicants.

[Radbod]

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.

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.

[Negido]

Upon checking back, you were ready for me. You had a disney movie prepared in your app. I'm thoroughly impressed. You have done well.

[Midri]

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?

I have only vague memories of that movie, but I adored The Once and Future King!

[Nez]

Nyisha stop trolling my applicants.

Okay.

Also, ever since the Sword and the Stone, I always wanted to be a squirrel. Their Disney-depicted life seemed entertaining.

[Ashin]

Hi Rad,

One of my (semi)retired officers will try to review logs and provide feedback later today.

Thanks for staying tuned in.

[Radbod]

Thanks for keeping me in the loop. =D

Edit:

A more recent log.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-fh7v4ejvqbsw8ql8/

Edited April 4, 2013 by Radbod

[Hip]

Whats up Rad,

Welcome to the boards and sorry for the delay in my response.

I like the thoroughness you display in your app, I like that you’ve reviewed other applications and have an idea of what to expect/anticipated questions.

Well done.

Off the top, why so much stam? Stamina gemming and 2 stamina trinkets, etc.

I see that you recently switched out some gems to get more mastery rather than pure stamina, why did you make that switch?

What are your thoughts on the Blood 4pc bonus for this tier and do you plan to pursue it?

Talk to me about your Glyph and talent choices. Is your current spec what you normally roll with? Do you make frequent glyph and talent switches? What are some swaps you normally make?

Your Blood and Bone Shield usages look ok. Average Blood Shield sizes look ok, but uptimes are a bit all over the place. Do you typically work to maintain/build your Blood Shield when not actively tanking? What are your thoughts on this practice?

How could you improve your overall uptime on some fights?

CD usage is highly varied as well. How are you using your Vampiric Blood on a fight? Same for IBF.

What are you using to track the availability of your free 20 sec CD Rune Tap?

I’m seeing a gap on CD usage for fights that probably rank as “easier” vs. more challenging for your current guild. What could you do to prove you could be more consistent?

Offensive spell usage seems in-line; appropriate Soul Reapers, BBs/DnDs, etc.

How are you using your Raise Dead spell? What philosophy do you keep in regards to using Death Pact?

Thanks,

Hip

[Radbod]

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

[Hip]

Whats up Rad, thanks for the prompt reply.

I like that you've got a methodology and that you expirament. I also like the conclusion that you've come to and that you've pulled back some of your stam stacking for additional mastery/avoidance gemming through hybrids. This should be a strategy that will serve you better.

As per your comparison with the other DK, I would argue it's in how you're using your DeathStrike in comparion to the other DK rather than how you're gemmed that is making the difference in your Blood Shields. It is through appropriate timing and the size of your HP that allows for the Blood Shields you're producing, which could still be done with a smaller HP pool it would just feel more "roller coaster". The benefit of the roller coaster however would come as the additional mastery would net larger Shields and smoothing things out after the first few spikes.

Essentially what you've chosen to do is smooth things out up front by stacking stamina and providing yourself and your healers a larger net to work with at the beginning of a tanking rotation. Then sustaining a higher potential for damage taken as the fight rolls on by having lower potential for your Blood Shields.

Essentially this same scenario can be created by rolling your CDs more frequently. Popping a CD early gives you that smooth transition at the start of a pull while you work to stack your active mitigation. Yes, you now have your CD burnt, but it would allow you to take a more aggressive mastery stacking approach, increasing your Blood Shields throughout the fight and therefore lowering your overall damage taken.

Essentially Defensive CDs should firstly be reserved for known "Threat Level Midnight" moments (henceforth known as "OH SHIT" moments). If you know said OH SHIT moment is coming 4 mintues in to a pull, pop a big CD early to establish stability and then roll those blood shields. It's no different than offensive CDs. If a known mechanic exists where you want to get through a phase in a fight as fast as possible and you need to have powerful CDS up for that, then save them, otherwise why wait until the last 4% of a fight to "make sure" the monster dies?

A raid has already failed if it's relying on the tank to keep themself alive for the duration of a "big CD"

I would encourage you to continue to expirament with your Stam and Mastery levels for various encounters.

I think you make fine points regarding kiting and having extra trinkets and gear on hand to deal with certain scenarios is always the best choice for a tank. Keep those bags full good sir.

I figured you weren't doing much DS'ing while not actively tanking, the size of your shields and # of DS's seemed a bit off relative to your uptime, and your approach explains it. I would encourage you to expirament with this as well, but I see this as a much smaller issue. The DPS you gain through HS rather than DS is making little impact on your raids, as I don't see you hitting many enrage timers in the logs.

Feel free to respond if you so desire.

Overall I like what I see. I like a tank who has a philosophy, and is willing to challenge it. I also get a good vibe and a sense that you can play this game pretty well.

I'll give the logs another go over, but so far so good.

thanks,