Raider Application - Hunter (DPS) - Howsonn

[Applicant]

Hello, Iron Edge!

I am applying for the main raid.

Character: Howsonn
Armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/Kazzak/Howsonn/advanced
Class/Spec: Hunter (DPS)
Member Type: raider

Personal Info:

Luke, 19(20 in 3 days), England, currently unemployed. I spend a lot of time on the game but also off the game as i socialise with my friends from university and my girlfriend, which leads to me playing the game mainly for raiding.

Class/Spec:

I main Survival as it has a much higher mobility than Marksmanship and it excels in Highmaul right now with the Multi-Shot/Serpent Sting synergy. Marksmanship i use mainly for soloing 25HC Cata Raids/Mogu'shan Vaults however i do spec into it at times as it is better for fights such as Kargath/Brackenspore. I'm 673 ilvl with both specs as the stat priority for hunters doesn't vary that far.

My main two stats are Crit/Multistrike, however a lot of Highmaul gear doesn't have these stats on, leading me to have a lot of unwanted stats along with Crit, however i always enchant/gem my gear with Multistrike to bring it back up to a good standard to synergise with the Multistrike bonuses Survival hunters get.

My rotation is prepot/Blood Fury(orc racial), then applying Serpent Sting on all possible targets immediately, Barraging if there is more than 1 target, Black Arrow which is my main DOT, then i use Arcane Shot if my Thrill of the Hunt/Scales of Doom proc is up or Multi Shot if there is more than 1 target. I then use Explosive Shot and if Lock and Load procs i like to throw an Arcane shot inbetween to keep the DOT up permanently. I also Explosive Trap if there is more than 1 target to put even more DOT's on the adds/boss. I then use a Murder of Crows to apply yet another DOT. If there is only one target i seldom use Barrage as it isn't much of a DPS increase and with human error sometimes leads to a DPS loss. I then Arcane Shot to focus dump and Explosive Shot/Focusing Shot to regen.

Alts:

None on Kazzak.

Professions:

Engineering - 700. It makes me money and i like to make a lot of the Cybergenetic Goggles which sell for a lot on the AH, however i'm running low on Gearspring currently.

Fishing - 700. I fish for sea/riding turtles in my garrison, currently already got the sea turtle.

Raiding Experience:

14/14NM SoO, 4/14 HC SoO(Cutting Edge:Garrosh), 7/7HM HC, 2/7HM Mythic.

On a previous, now banned character - Naxx 25, Yogg 25, LK 10.

I played years ago at a high level but got banned for buying gold(was a mistake), i then took a large break and only returned to the game on a different character early 2014, i then climbed my way up to finishing the legendary quest and clearing Normal Siege within 3 months.

Previous Guilds:

Frostheart - 2/7 Mythic, they disbanded only a few days ago.
Shattered Hand - 1/7 Mythic, bit of an unprofessional guild and i(don't mean to brag), was one of the higher DPS' in the guild, and when i don't class myself as a good player, i feel that's pretty bad, so i would like to join a guild where people can teach me things and i can compete at a friendly level.

Availability:

Most of the time i'm available, however i do have a girlfriend/friends to go out with occasionally, which is why the 2 raid days suit me perfectly. However i could be available to do more depending on the availability of my friends etc and whether they would like to see me on that week, stuff like that. But most of the time i am available, when i'm not out, i am on Battle.net.

Communication:

English is my main language, i've had TS3 installed for years, i own a pair of Sennheiser PC360's and use it all the time. I have no problems communicating as i have done so in the past in a raiding environment.

Computer / Connection:

Yes when i was working last year i saved up 2 months wages of about 1K to buy myself a new 'monster' computer. It isn't incredible compared to some other systems, but i can run WoW in ultra and stream it at the same time with absolutely no FPS issues. I rarely ever lag as my internet is fibreoptic and very stable.

Addons/UI:

I use DBM as it shouts at me if i'm in the place i shouldn't be. I also use WeakAura's to track my cooldowns.

This is my UI - http://i.imgur.com/uE7l17p.jpg

Other Games:

Hearthstone, Oblivion, a LOT of RPG's such as Final Fantasy.

Why Iron Edge?

Just from the website alone i can tell you guys have a lot of banter, and that's the environment i want to be in. Take it seriously when needed, but other than that we can have fun whilst progressing.

What can I offer Iron Edge?

I know my class inside and out as i've been playing it constantly for one year(70 days playtime in that year). I have no issues switching inbetween specs for certain fights, i always come flasked/potted/fooded up and, not to sound immodest, but i'm a pretty banterful bloke.

Where did I hear about Iron Edge?

WoWprogress, first place i went after my guild disbanded, i want to get back into the Mythic raiding environment ASAP. I miss it.

Last Words?

I hope you guys consider me an asset to your guild rather than a hinderance. I hope you give me a chance.

[Rash]

Nice application, good experience!

I'll make sure the other hunters and officers take a good look at your character, but this looks trial-worthy to me.

[Howsonn]

Welp, should've registered before i applied, but this is mine anyway.

[Nubby]

Your description of your opening on a bossfight is fairly blurry. You dont mention the use of black arrow or crows when you have blood fury/pre pot and trinket procs running.

Your opening should be pot/Blood fury -> Explosive shot, Arcane shot, (trinket should proc), black arrow -> into crows which leaves you on 10 focus or so. 1 focusing shot into 99% of the time lock'n load procs. use those then barrage asap. Then back to normal prio list of keeping sting on all targets, using explo on CD, using crows smart if possible, otherwise just keep it on cd (pref with trinketprocs and blood fury)

Also for survival atm. Stat prio goes Multi->Vers then crit but the margin between vers and crit is so small.

Steady focus is a better option atm. just by pure numbers it outperform thrill of the hunt. Also the synergy with Focusing shot is just godmode.

Other than that idd. like to see how you perform in a raid environment, so ill approve this for now until i have seen the performance.


Best regards Bowflex

[Sinafey]

Hi. I like the application. I'll leave the stat/rotation stuff to our hunters. Some quick questions:

1) Can you provide any logs of HC/Mythic HM?
2) Are you comfortable doing jobs often assigned to hunters in HM? Flamethrower, ball soaking etc.

Other than that I'd also like to see how you perform in a raid.

[Aretum]

A quick look at warcraftlogs gives an idea...

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/character/340406/latest

[Howsonn]

Your description of your opening on a bossfight is fairly blurry. You dont mention the use of black arrow or crows when you have blood fury/pre pot and trinket procs running.

Your opening should be pot/Blood fury -> Explosive shot, Arcane shot, (trinket should proc), black arrow -> into crows which leaves you on 10 focus or so. 1 focusing shot into 99% of the time lock'n load procs. use those then barrage asap. Then back to normal prio list of keeping sting on all targets, using explo on CD, using crows smart if possible, otherwise just keep it on cd (pref with trinketprocs and blood fury)

Also for survival atm. Stat prio goes Multi->Vers then crit but the margin between vers and crit is so small.

Steady focus is a better option atm. just by pure numbers it outperform thrill of the hunt. Also the synergy with Focusing shot is just godmode.

Other than that idd. like to see how you perform in a raid environment, so ill approve this for now until i have seen the performance.


Best regards Bowflex

Sorry about that, i do indeed use all of these immediately after popping pot/racial, within a couple of seconds to get through all of them, i was just listing the order in which i use them and the scenario. I am aware of the stat priority and am looking to get myself a pair of Cybergenetic Mechshades either by making them myself off the AH to increase my Multistrike up to 9-10%. Also looking to get myself some Wayfaring Gear in the coming week after i've done my Cata raids(for money) so i should be in the teens for Multistrike.

I chose Thrill of the Hunt as Simcraft stated due to my gear that Thrill of the Hunt excels Steady Focus by JUST a tiny bit, however once my gear changes with Multistrike, i imagine Steady Focus will be the better option, in which i will spec into it soon.
Thanks for the reply.

Hi. I like the application. I'll leave the stat/rotation stuff to our hunters. Some quick questions:

1) Can you provide any logs of HC/Mythic HM?
2) Are you comfortable doing jobs often assigned to hunters in HM? Flamethrower, ball soaking etc.

Other than that I'd also like to see how you perform in a raid.

As Aretum said, you can find my logs on Warcraft logs, none recently(im 673 now, i believe the latest was last week when i was 662, i THINK there is one of Twins when i'm 670). But yes, in my old guild i was tasked to orb soak on Ko'ragh, stack switch on Butcher, flamethrower on Bracken, all of which i have no issues with as hunters have a lot of responsibility in this expansion, and i quite enjoy it as opposed to MoP where we didn't really have much to do. Except, maybe engineers on Garrosh, but that wasn't that bad.

[Nubby]

Looking at your logs, cant say im really impressed by the numbers. Comparing the numbers to myself at the same ilvl you seem to lack abit behind. There could be alot of reasons why this is, so would judge it to hard.

Steady focus is better, also in your current gear. I just ran your char through the sims, and you seem to be gaining roughly 700 more dps from Steady Focus. It provides ALOT more smooth focusgain, which makes your rotation so smooth if you do it proberly. Having ToTH will make you sometimes be at 100 focus with lock'n load and thats a bad thing.

[Howsonn]

In regards to the logs, one thing to note is that my gear hasn't been enchanted to its fullest potential since i was 660 due to lack of money(money i now have so all my gear/future gear is properly gemmed to its highest capability), which obviously leads to a DPS loss, and i only very recently switched over to using Barrage. Glaive Toss was a personal favourite of mine since MoP so i didn't want to change it, however seeing most of the high ranking hunters use it, and seeing many sources saying Barrage was overall better, i switched over. I can agree that Barrage is a lot better, i just had a soft spot for Glaive. Not saying this can make up for a lot of DPS, but for fights like Tectus where my DPS is incredibly low, Barrage would have helped majorly.

Hm, odd about the Steady Focus as last i checked it(few days ago), Thrill of the Hunt was better. Although, that being said, i have tweaked a few items around since then so that's probably the reasoning. I have switched over to Steady Focus in preparation for whenever i next raid. Thanks for the tips.

[Cecerio]

I'm just gonna jump in and say that we are currently 5 hunters rotating in a 20man mythic group.
With that I mean we are 5 hunters all gearing up for mythic progress and get switched out now and then. The gear will then get splitted up and a 6th hunter will make an even bigger split. But if u performance wise is a good hunter, its always a spot.

[Mooneclipse]

Hiyo.
I do quite like the application you've made, and I'm more than willing to let you on and have you on trial for a position in the raid. It might be a bit of a short notice, but we're raiding from 19:45-24:00 today where we're clearing heroic before moving on to mythic. I'd very much like to have you with us for this and get to have a look at you in raiding conditions.
You can poke me or an officer ingame for an invite! 

[Howsonn]

Thanks for the reply Moon, i would love to attend, however i didn't expect to be accepted(not sure if i am yet or not), or offered to be invited on a raid so soon. I am quite occupied tomorrow as my girlfriend is coming over and we're just sort of 'chilling' while she revises for her exams, so while i will just be playing other games while she's with me and doing her own thing, i'm not sure i'll be able to fully commit myself to a raid at the same time if that makes sense. HOWEVER i may be able to squeeze in an hour or two for a Heroic raid and show you some capabilities of what i'm made of, then drop out for the Mythic raid and let your main Mythic raiders handle it, until Monday in which i will be able to attend 100% and would happily like to join you on your, i assume Tectus progression.

I apologise for the inconvenience, as i said i really didn't expect such a welcoming response(thanks boys), and if i did get accepted as a trial, i really didn't expect it to be so soon, i hope you can understand.