Simetrik - Blood Death Knight

[simetrik]

Hi,

I'm Simetrik, former main tank of the little known guild End Result, once on Lightning's Blade, recently transferred to Bleeding Hollow, and even more recently rendered dysfunctional by ridiculous roster turnover and lacking officer leadership. I hear you all are looking for a blood death knight to add to your roster.

I'm a tank at heart - I have a level 90 prot paladin, a level 90 brewmaster monk, a level 85 warrior (still with his dragon soul gear, poor guy), and a level 67 druid that I will get to the level cap someday. I've been playing the game since Burning Crusade, but only in this expansion have I started delving into the hardcore tank community characterized by such figures as Riggnaros, Slootbag, Treckie, Sco, and others. I'm familiar with all tank classes, yet I have chosen a death knight as my main for the past year. Why?

In two words: death strike. The power that death strike gives a blood death knight is immense when played correctly. It is an ability that heals, grants a damage shield, and does significant damage. My style of playing a death knight can be summarized in that I maximize death strike output, thus contributing to my maximization of survivability. But that would be an oversimplification of the art that tanking can become. As Reniat espouses on the death knight thread on EJ, burst damage is the chief tank killer in 25s. I may have only been in the realm of bosses hitting like wet noodles on 10 man, but I always try to practice the preparedness that is necessary for 25 man heroic raiding. Let's talk about my cooldown usage:

AMS: Always preplanned usage. Thunderstrike on Lei Shen, Static Burst on Jin'rokh to prevent the tank swap, beams on Durumu (although you may not have tanks soak a beam in your strat), etc. etc.

AotD: Typically used on pull, but super useful for damage reduction when used with DRW and avoidance trinkets. Preplanned usage without exception.

Bone Shield: High uptime on this is awesome, but on fights with mechanics that frequently require cooldowns (Megaera's breaths) I will delay usage as necessary.

Dancing Rune Weapon: I admit, I've used this almost exclusively as a damage cooldown while raiding 10s, but this is another one where I'd delay as necessary. Great when tanking lots of adds for the parry boost and damage increase.

Death Pact: Emergency cooldown, sometimes used with purgatory to survive big individual hits.

Death Strike: Not a cooldown, but I always keep two death runes at the ready, as well as keeping my blood tap charges high. Having one, and hopefully two, death strikes always at the ready is the best thing you can do as a death knight tank to prevent death. Frequently those two can heal up 200k+ hp while putting up a 400k blood shield (this is why I love death knights!)

Empowered Rune Weapon: An underrated cooldown - a full set of runes while undergoing heavy damage makes death knights, in that moment, unkillable. Used either as an emergency button or to build a large blood shield for big hits.

IBF: I preplan my shield wall, although not without exception. I won't list all the applicable situations - one can easily imagine the uses of a 50% damage reduction.

Vampiric Blood: Despite any claims I might make that I save this for mechanics, a glimpse at my logs will quickly reveal that I use this almost on cooldown. I like to bank death runes for maximum death strike use during the period this cooldown is up, although it does not boost the blood shield values

My thoughts on different tanking stats:

Mastery: The crux of death knight tanking. My love affair with death strike/blood shield is only aided by this amazing statistic. Like every death knight ever, I stack this as much as possible.

Stamina: Certainly the biggest difference between 10 and 25 is the importance of stamina. It benefits blood death knights more than other tanks, due to death strike sizes (although frankly, that's not a concern on 25 - the blood shield size should always be increased). With that said, I avoid stamina in 10s because I can comfortably survive each individual hit, and other secondary stats can benefit me more. Should I tank 25s, the stamina trinket would come back out (I still don't have Lei Shen's though, that and Animus trinket are the only ones I need!) as the need to survive monstrous hits would arise.

Dodge/parry: My current reforging setup negates this in order to cap hit/exp, but dodge/parry, especially on fights with lots of adds, is very useful. I don't like it as much due to its inherent unpredictability, but should I switch to a 25 man guild, I would unquestionably prioritize this over hit/exp capping.

Hit/exp: Useful for increasing damage. It does technically increase runic power gained through increased Scent of Blood procs, as well as guaranteeing rune strike to grant blood charges (although that only requires capping hit). Personally, I think it's worth it in most 10 man content, especially that which I am doing currently, but the situation in 25 man content is obviously quite different.

Haste: Increases rune regeneration, and accordingly, runic power regen. However, it doesn't account for the loss of defensive stats. Useful for ranking, even sometimes viable on 10 man content, but basically never worth it on 25 man heroic progression.

Of course, I love talking about this stuff, so feel free to ask any questions.

My current progression is 2/13h, which needless to say, is significantly behind. However, as I previously mentioned, I obsessively watch the streams of high end tanks, and am familiar with many of the aspects of strategy in 25 man heroic raids. I also watch all of Vox Immortalis's guides (yes, the 30 minute+ ones) in order to deepen my understanding further. I was the one who developed our guild's strategy for heroic Ji'kun - needless to say, I consider strategy one of my strengths. I wouldn't pretend that I could step right into tanking for your guild, but I would certainly communicate as much as possible and work out any issues as they come up.

In terms of who I am outside of the game, I'm an 18 year old about to graduate from high school with far too much free time. When I'm not online I'm either running, playing musical instruments (I've played piano for 13 years now), watching movies, and hanging out with my ridiculous friends. It's easy to see how one might be worried about my consistent attendance due to my young age, but I haven't missed a significant part of a raid date since February and haven't missed a full night since December (both cases in which I gave plenty of notice in advance).

My computer is good enough to raid 25s with 15-20 fps on high. It's not amazing but it works, and most importantly, it's a laptop, which allows me to take it just about anywhere. My connection is usually around 40 ms.

Assorted information on websites:

Armory: http://us.battle.net...Simetrik/simple

Wow-heroes: http://www.wow-heroe...ollow/simetrik/

I should note that this week, I began tanking in dps gear, and almost immediately got the US 3rd rank on heroic Jin'rokh while taking less damage then many other death knights who parsed similarly.

Logs: http://www.worldoflo.../guilds/170581/

Almost any log on this page has me in it: pick and choose to find which fights you want to see me on.

My UI:

http://i.imgur.com/WpmT27H.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Rm2tIoC.jpg (not in raid, but displays how I track all personal and external cooldowns - it's one of the most important parts of my UI)

Fun fact: I'm listening to Songs from the Wood (by Jethro Tull) right now.

As soon as I get home, I'll be sure to update this app with the numerous things I have inevitably forgotten.

[Araenith]

What do you do outside of raids? Is there a human behind this app?

[simetrik]

There is indeed! I updated my blurb accordingly. This is the first time I've ever filled out a totally freeform application, so apologies while I fill in the gaps.

[Hip]

What up Sime,

Thanks for the app and stopping by the forums.

We've got some competition brewing here for our Blood DK tanking spot, what would make you stand out as a tank?

I'm seeing very little in the way of HM experience and also only 10 mans, do I have that right?

Overall your experience level seems fairly low, how would you make up that gap to be an effective tank for SoH? I appreciate you are watching streams but I'm not sure that vicarious living would do the trick?

Lastly I'm going to test the waters before sifting through your logs. I want to be sure that you're ready to stand behind what you've linked. are the logs I would look at the very best you have to offer?

If so, let me know the best days/fights to look at to see your A game.

If not go get some better logs and come back later.

thanks

Hip

[simetrik]

My heroic mode tanking experience is almost entirely limited to Dragon Soul (8/8h), Tier 14 (8/16h prenerf), and what I previously mentioned for Tier 15 (2/13h) with attempts on heroic tortos, heroic horridon, and heroic iron qon. I haven't tanked consistently in 25 mans since Dragon Soul, where I did have a brief three week stint with 25 heroic tanking, although it was with a 15% nerf.

What makes me stand out is my knowledge of my class and my love of looking up different strategies. I will be totally honest - I haven't come across a true challenge while tanking since tanking undergeared in Dragon Soul. In part, I'm applying to this guild just to expose myself to hard content again. I'm familiar with the content in ToT and I have a pretty good idea of what my cooldown rotations will be - I just need to get the opportunity to do it. I'm not sure what else I can do to be prepared.

I linked all of my logs because I'm not going to hide anything about my performance - I'm proud of it, one way or another, in almost every context. With that said, heroic Horridon attempts typically characterize my better play, so I would go there (that's also the only fight that's had any appreciable tank damage this tier). Regretfully my group has not reached phase two of the fight (and never will now, I guess), which would obviously be most useful from the standpoint of analyzing my play in high damage situations.

[Ashin]

Very solid app on the surface. Welcome to the forums and good luck. I will circle back with some questions of my own when I've had a chance to read this in full detail.

[Tinymanz]

18 is really young...and although I'm like THE LAST PERSON EVER who should be asking this question: Are you sure you'd be able to commit fully to the raid times without ever really missing? SoH runs a very lean roster...and thus requires commitment from the team. The last thing anyone needs is a tank flaking out at the last moment to go to a spur-of-the-moment party or something. I know you already spoke to this but I wanted to ask directly...

It is summer, after all.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Tinymanz

[Estarriol]

(that's also the only fight that's had any appreciable tank damage this tier). Regretfully my group has not reached phase two of the fight (and never will now, I guess),

At 2/13H, I can see why you say this. Otherwise, it is quite laughable. Phase 1 is pretty calm, phase 2 hurts substantially, especially that first Triple Puncture after Jalak dies. The 2nd red head and 5+ green head on Megaera hurt more than P1 Horridon, as do aspects of most of the other heroic fights this tier. Other than Jin'rohk, of course. He's a pansy.

[simetrik]

Yes - I left a crucial phrase out of that sentence, that being that it's the only appreciable tank damage I've encountered this tier. Although I can't say I was particularly impressed with snapping bite on heroic, I've heard stories about Megaera (as you said), Primordius, Durumu, when all three dogs come down on Iron Qon, Lei Shen, Ra'den, etc. etc. By no means is that the only fight with appreciable tank damage in this tier, as I wrongly implied.

Regarding missing raids, I'm enough of a nerd that raiding takes priority over those things. That isn't to say that I'm a basement dwelling hot pocket eating monster, but when I commit to raiding with a team I make the raid dates unless I am physically not able to make it. In the rare case that I can't, I give plenty of advance warning.

[Ashin]

Hey Sim,

There are a couple of things working against you here. The main thing is just that I strongly prefer someone 21+, especially in the tanking role. The second is that your experience is 10m (hence your comment about not appreciable damage so far). Third your progression is quite a bit behind ours right now.

You seem like a solid guy and I'm especially pleased that you're able to get into Jethro Tull. But I think we will pass on your application for now.

Thank you for the app and best of luck to you in your search!