WoW ReApp - Babylonius (Now WW Monk)

[Ashin]

There isn't anything my current guild could do, short of passing up your progression this week, which won't happen.

So if your guild had a better progression you'd be happy there? There are teams that have better progression than ours - are we a rung in your ladder?

[Babylonius]

That obviously came out short of what I was trying to say. Short of them suddenly getting all their shit together and everyone playing at a very high level with no drama and impressive performance.

I used to play for a rung in the ladder back in Wrath, now I just want to play around people who play around my level or above and see all the content on a minimal schedule with good people whom i get a long with.

[Ashin]

Hi Babs,

I would like to trial you and see how you do with our team, but I am concerned about a few things. Is it wrong of me to think that you took your application process more seriously in the past? I was hoping to be woo'd by your insight on ww monk raiding, and possibly even swoon. Instead I felt like your responses were hurried and a bit generic.

Additionally, I get that you're coming from a different place now. You feel really good about your monk, your epeen is swollen and your confidence is high. Without meaning to belittle that in any way, let me just be up front with you that ranking on normal mode fights within a team of modest accomplishment is not super impressive to this crew. We're all capable of doing that. Ranking is largely a function of your assignment and your environment, and yes also relates to how well you push your buttons.

On this team we're far more interested in abstract qualities, such as the judgement you demonstrate during a fight, your overall situational awareness, how quickly you learn, how well you handle yourself under moments of pressure or stress, whether we can trust you with special assignments that your class is well suited for, and so on. There are times when doing what is best for the team will come into conflict with your meters or your ranking - in those moments you can make choices that could lead to a progression kill. On the other hand, you could make choices that deprive us of that kill because you didn't want to let our rogue pass you on the damage meter. See where I'm going with this?

I don't need to reinterview you because we've already done that and I know that I like you. But I do detect this attitude shift and I want to clear the air before extending a trial invite.

Let me know what you think.

[Raer]

you didn't want to let our rogue pass you on the damage meter

Hi :3

[Ashin]

Hi :3

Maybe I was referring to Tilly - he is the better behaved one after all. >.>

[Morkgrim]

Tilly behaves?

[Babylonius]

Hi Babs,

I would like to trial you and see how you do with our team, but I am concerned about a few things. Is it wrong of me to think that you took your application process more seriously in the past? I was hoping to be woo'd by your insight on ww monk raiding, and possibly even swoon. Instead I felt like your responses were hurried and a bit generic.

I agree, most of my responses were hurried because I had my previous post with much of the silliness. I can tell you everything I know about WW monks, direct you to my sources, or answer any questions about my class if you'd like. I figured I had done the leg work in the past and this was merely to update you on my current status, performance, class, etc. I can understand if the current form was unacceptable and I can scrap it and write one similar to my first one if that is you're wish.

Additionally, I get that you're coming from a different place now. You feel really good about your monk, your epeen is swollen and your confidence is high. Without meaning to belittle that in any way, let me just be up front with you that ranking on normal mode fights within a team of modest accomplishment is not super impressive to this crew. We're all capable of doing that. Ranking is largely a function of your assignment and your environment, and yes also relates to how well you push your buttons.

On this team we're far more interested in abstract qualities, such as the judgement you demonstrate during a fight, your overall situational awareness, how quickly you learn, how well you handle yourself under moments of pressure or stress, whether we can trust you with special assignments that your class is well suited for, and so on. There are times when doing what is best for the team will come into conflict with your meters or your ranking - in those moments you can make choices that could lead to a progression kill. On the other hand, you could make choices that deprive us of that kill because you didn't want to let our rogue pass you on the damage meter. See where I'm going with this?

If I had ranks on heroic bosses I'd link those but this is what I got, just to show that I know what I'm doing well enough. The fights in ToT don't have mechanics that can be cheesed for the benefit of one person at the sake of the raid performance, that I've noticed at least. If I use SEF on Horridon or Council its to get all the targets down faster, if I stand in a fire/puddles/lines/lightning its to use ToK and get bonus DPS while taking no damage. AOEing on Primordius to get the bloods down before they reach the boss and so others can get the buff faster. And if any of these choices are counter to the guild getting a kill, progression or farm, then I don't do them simple as that.

Ranks is how I measure myself against myself one each fight week after week, if I wasn't ranking I'd still be comparing myself to my own DPS or EPeenBot percentile. Its how I perform above and beyond doing the strategy of the kill and the strategy will never suffer for my DPS. If I'm the last on DPS because I had a job to do but the boss dies then thats fine because it means I succeeded in my job, like writing the symbols for the buffs on Twin Consorts. Other than that my job is to do DPS so tracking my logs/ranks is the best way for me to assess improvement.

[Ashin]

Okay Babs, thanks for that response.

If I had ranks on heroic bosses I'd link those but this is what I got, just to show that I know what I'm doing well enough. The fights in ToT don't have mechanics that can be cheesed for the benefit of one person at the sake of the raid performance, that I've noticed at least. If I use SEF on Horridon or Council its to get all the targets down faster, if I stand in a fire/puddles/lines/lightning its to use ToK and get bonus DPS while taking no damage. AOEing on Primordius to get the bloods down before they reach the boss and so others can get the buff faster. And if any of these choices are counter to the guild getting a kill, progression or farm, then I don't do them simple as that.

Maybe not "cheesed" per se. But there will be times - actually on almost every fight - where you are given specific instructions as to your DPS priorities. That is where we've run into trouble this tier with people wanting to rank. We ask you to kill these adds, but you like sitting on the boss instead because you lose too much score from all the target swaps. Or, we ask you to sit on the boss but you can get so much AOE if you kill the adds! Etc. For example on Horridon if I want to rank I must use all my single target on Horridon and just blanket AOE adds. But my actual assignment has a specific priority of adds to deal with, including interrupts. So I will not rank on that fight - I just need to try to optimize within the constraints of our strat and my assignment.

Does that make sense?

At any rate, I don't really think you are a meter slut or anything. You struck me as being a team-minded guy. So I'm not overly worried about this, but I wanted to get it out of the way.

With that said, I mentioned that I would like to take you on a trial, and my officers gave a bit of pushback and asked the question - what does a WW monk add? For example a rogue brings smoke bombs. A feral can HotW tranq, or do other crazy things via Symb. So this is partially rhetorical but partially just for my own education. What will your monk bring to my team that isn't covered by other melee classes? Related to this, how geared and comfortable are you as a Brewmaster? Reason I ask is not to say I would ask you to main tank, but we've seen at least one fight (HM Tortos) where having a Brewmaster offtank would have trivialized the learning curve. In case we find others of that ilk, I'd like the option to ask my WW to go Br.

Let me know your thoughts, and we'll connect tonight or Saturday re: a trial. If accepted, are you available to start next week?

[Babylonius]

Does that make sense?

It absolutely makes sense, but you'll never see me not target switch. WW monks lose very little in a target switch and can often get to a new target faster than others due to our crazy mobility..

What will your monk bring to my team that isn't covered by other melee classes?

WW Monks utility come from our mobility, defensives, self heals, and SEF. none of these are novel and new but the combination and versatility is awesome. My monk brings the most mobility of any class, in concert with engineering. I can roll, run, rocket boost, FSK, or spec into another run speed, enabling me to get in and out of things faster and more regularly than others.

WW come standard with a 90% damage reduction CD and can spec into another in addition to a 20% damage reduction and health boost CD. finalky. Touch of karma allows us to basically absorb damage up to 100% of our health and redirect it back to the target, making it both a powerful spell defensivley and offensivley. This allows us to do things like solo soak static shock on Lei Shen or stand in fire to send the damage back to the boss. I can survive a hit of about 4 mil damage with Diffuse Magic and redirect the damage i do take back to the boss with Touch of Karma, leaving me unscathed.

With chi wave, dispell harm, and healing spheres I can self heal a reasonable amount. It won't replace a healer healing me but it may keep me alive a few extra seconds till that heal can come.

Finally Storm, Earth, and Fire allows me to split myself and send my spirits to other targets that copy my rotation. If I split once the me and my spirit do 60% of my normal damage each, which totals 120% do my single target, with two spirits we do 45% damage for 135% my single target. This allows me to up my dps by a reasonable amount while spreading the damage out to other targets. It's more often comes in handy to speed up an encounter like Council or Horridon. It does however have the bonus of the spirits taking 90% less aoe damage, so anything short of them being single targeted, they survive. So if I can't attack a boss for a period of time because they are aoeing I can send in a spirit and attack something else, at least to continue some dps, if that is what the strategy allows. I have also found They do not trigger effects, so a fight like Heroic Spirit Kings, I could put a spirit on the shielded one to continue damage. This likely doesn't work all the time but it can be used for good.

Related to this, how geared and comfortable are you as a Brewmaster? Reason I ask is not to say I would ask you to main tank, but we've seen at least one fight (HM Tortos) where having a Brewmaster offtank would have trivialized the learning curve. In case we find others of that ilk, I'd like the option to ask my WW to go Br.

I have little experience as BM outside of tanking adds on Horridon which is more crazy than controlled. I can learn, just need practice. I try to practice on LFR but that doesn't enable me to master the stagger mechanic which is the hardest part. I am not confident enough to do it right away but I can learn.

Let me know your thoughts, and we'll connect tonight or Saturday re: a trial. If accepted, are you available to start next week?

I can start next week, should get my second lei Shen 10m kill on Sunday and hopefully a trinket.

[Ashin]

Babs when do you think you'll be online? Was hoping to catch you this afternoon but heading out for food soon.