Raider Application - Death Knight (DPS/Tank) - asprin

[Applicant]

Hello, Iron Edge!

I am applying for the main raid.

Character: asprin
Armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/Kazzak/asprin/advanced
Class/Spec: Death Knight (DPS/Tank)
Member Type: raider

Personal Info:

Hassan
35
Sweden
Researcher


Class/Spec:

Specs: I main DPS (Unholy atm due to higher DPS, but love playing Frost being in love with lore). I also play tank, I've always been off-tank in my previous guilds. And I always love pushing my M+ keys.

Traits: My specs are 56, 56, 57 traits for UH, Frost, and Blood respectively.

Gear level: All 3 of my specs are ~930ilvl. I have all legendary gear for my Frost spec, BiS legendary gears for Unholy, and only utilities for my Blood.

Gears: I have all my BiS trinkets for all my 3 specs: Specter, Cradle, Convergence, Etwind, Pajresh, Feverish, and Arcano. All above 915-930, except for Arcano which is 885.


Well, I don't know what to write here. Starting alphabetically and I will just go through some of them very briefly:

- Blood stats: Haste+Mastery/Versatility. I go for Haste and Vers>=Mastery for M+ specifically to do more dmg.

- Blood Spells: DeathStrike is the most important one. Banking runic power for encounters such as KJ where high amount damage in a short period of time should be mitigated. VampiricBlood's timing is crucial in survival. MarrowRend ALWAYS up, a good DK tank should have 98%+ up time.

- Blood Talents: 3-1-?-2-?-3-? (?: situational talents) is kinda the must. lvl 90 talent using the soul of deathlord legendary can be quite useful, i.e. having both Rune Tap and Bulwark.

- Blood Relics: Rule of thumb for me is that if relic is +25ilvl upgrade, doesn't matter which one it is. If not, I check if it matches my play style or not. e.g. Do I need to increase my BloodPlague dmg (i.e. more dmg in M+)? Do I need to increase amount of health from vampiric blood? Do I want more Heart Strike dmg thus more healing, thus more runic power through lvl 56 talent 2? etc.

- Frost stats: Haste and haste and haste, then critical, then Mastery=Versatility.

- Frost Spells: Right now Frost is all about BoS, so: 1) bank runic power, but don't let it overflow! NEVA! 2) If it is above 75-80, cast Frost Strike. Pillar of Frost + T20 set is the bread and butter. Too many casts: runic power will be wasted. Slow cast: BoS turns into shit and opportunity lost.

- Frost Talents: Not so much for change here, until 7.3 hits: 3-1-2-?-2-3-2

- Frost Relic: again, ilvl rule same as blood. But this time as long as it is not the survival related relics (e.g. more healing through death strikes). Ambidextrity, Nothing but boots, and Cold as Ice: these are the best relics.

- Unholy stats: Mastery, Mastery, and MOAR Mastery. then critical and haste. Versatility is da poop.

- Unholy spells: UH is mechanistically hard. It is about dots, more dots, more dots, more dots.  Virulent plague should be up, like 95%+ up time. Festering wounds never below 3-4. above 6-7 and Apocalypse on CD, pop it using Scourge Strike. Runic power should never go to waste, Death Coil casts is a good filler while waiting for runes. Here is the fun part: talent choices and legendary choices can change rotation: Legendary shoulder means Dark Arbiter and 3-2-1-1-1-1-1. Legendary head means Defile and same talents. For AoE: Bursting sores can be useful. UH is all about managing dots and resources. For AoE pop Defile/D&D and VirulentPlague + wounds and pop with ScourgeStrike to dmg all targets, etc...

- Unholy talents: As I said above, 3-2-1-1-1-1-1 with chest and shoulder, 3-2-1-1-1-1-2 with head, 2-2-1-...-2 for AoE, level 90 talents can be chosen based on encounter: infested Claws or Shadow infusion, or even level 58 talent choices if there is movement and the choice of Castigator can help to pop wounds from afar.

- Unholy relic: pretty much same ilvl rule as Frost. Here Eternal Agony, Pleaguebearer, Rotten Touch, and The Darkest Crusage are the best relics. It all depends on the choice of talents...



Alts:

Nope, just puny very low ilvl warlock.


Professions:

BS and Enchant. I gather xmog, so BS is for my xmog only. I have gathered quite some of the patterns.

Raiding Experience:

Well, I've been playing since late TBC on my warlock Asprin-Skullcrusher. I re-rolled DK in WoD, and never played Pandaria.

I have all my achievements on my warlock, my DK is a bit thin on that front.


Previous Guilds:

Ravens-Skullcrusher (from TBC till WoD, disbanded), Outreach-Al'Akir (WoD till Legion, GM melt down), EndGame-Al'Akir (Legion, work issues and couldn't raid much, guild stopped raiding), transferred to Kazzak: Tuft of Gorrilla Hair - Kazzak (Legion, not social enough, only trial for a week, tight social circles that are alien to new comers)


Availability:

I can almost raid every day. I work in academia (post-doctoral researcher) so my time is flexible. I can raid everyday except some Thursdays which is drinking day for me :-) (I know, I know it is mid-day... But a man gotta have a schedule even for drinking)


Communication:

Well, my application shows my level of English proficiency. I have Discord and TS3. Choice of application is not a problem. Of course I do have microphone :-)


Computer / Connection:

Stable computer, FPS always above 60-70, 100/100Mbps, 30-35ms, no lag, no DC.


Addons/UI:

Loot council addons, DBM, Details, Angry assignments, BLT raidcooldowns, and weakaura.

https://gyazo.com/5acfb36c69bd8a1336db010b64598f7f

Other Games:

Anything I can find really... I've my real life quest to play all my 350+ games on Steam, a man can dream.

I mostly play indie games on Steam, HotS, Overwatch (very rarely), and WoW.


Why Iron Edge?

Looking for a stable game to find a home for raiding, social interaction, and you know progress the content while enjoying the game.



What can I offer Iron Edge?

A stable raider, socially active, almost always willing to tank any M+ key.


Where did I hear about Iron Edge?

wowprogress

Last Words?

Pass my legacy to my kids, tell them .... oh you don't mean last last word.... No I don't have any last word, except saying that although I am not the best DK in the game but I'm extremely active in guild and dedicated to my raid team. Given the chance I can prove myself, even if taken as weekend raider only.

I also have the ugliest xmogs...

[Paul]

Hey Hassan,

Thank you for your application, a officer or the best DK in Iron Edge will comment and likely to ask questions very soon,

Good luck,

Thanks

[Tutan]

Hi Hassan/Aspirin,

Glad another 30 plus has applied, I keep getting the kids taken piss out of my age at 38, that's still young!

I'm the only other dk for in main raid at the moment so I guess that qualifies me as the best do in IE by Quickzor's admission, feck you Bofi, you're a tank, you don't count.

I've got a few questions if you wouldn't mind answering please?

Are you applying to the main or weekend raid? Your application states main raid bit you talk about being unavailable some Thursdays because you're out drinking; one of our main raid days is Thursday at 1845 server time.  How will you handle this clash?  At the end of your application you talk about being accepted as a weekend raider.  Can you clarify please?

You have all the legendaries for Frost, great! Exactly what legendaries do you have for UH?  I can see you have Cold Heart from the weak aura on your screenshot, but what others do you have?  Legendaries are critical in deciding your talents and playstyle for a situation.  I guess this leads me on to my next question where we have a little disagreement on your talent choices and to my mind, understanding of why you take these talents.  Maybe I'm wrong however, convince me!

Crit vs Versitility.  As I read your app you seem to favour crit as a stat over vers, can you explain why this is?

I'm having difficulty figuring out what talents you are selecting for an AoE build, again can you clarify what talents and why? From what I see on your app you are only changing Dark Arbiter for Defile as an AoE build.

Castigator is a talent that went out pre 7.2 because of the lack.of crit with current builds making this a weaker talent choice, when would you use castigator?

Can you log out in your Unholy gear so we can take a look please, your character profile shows us your blood spec.

Do you have any logs of recent performances, I believe the application template asks for logs.

The thing that concerns me the most is the screenshot of your UI.  The screenshot shows keybinds for some abilities but I can't see any for the following:

Dark Transformation
Death and Decay
Chains of Ice
Dark Arbiter
Taunt
Raithwalk
Mind Freeze
Deathgrip
Deathstrike
Anti Magic Shell

Some of these are more important than others, but I find it worrying that you potentially click, in my opinion, 8 spells that are integral to the DK playstyle, utility and survivability.  How do you interrupt at short notice while moving if Mind Freeze isn't keybound?  I have legendary shoulders and chest; Chains of Ice, Dark Arbiter and Dark transformation are essential for Single Target, how do you hit them fast enough if not bound? Wraithwalk, Deathgrip, Deathstrike; you get the picture.

What relics are you using in your DPS weapons?  What arenyour thoughts on a lower ilvl Plaguebearer vs slightly higher ilvl Rotten Touch?

Lastly, what sources are you using to research DK's currently?

Cheers,

Tutan

[Asprin]

Hi!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Everyday that passes, makes me feel wiser but people around me might have other opinions. I'll let to their own judgement.

I'll try my best to answer your questions:

A. Raid Attendance:

• I'm applying for main raid. But if I don't get accepted, please consider this application for your weekend raids. I would very much like to be part of main raiding group for progress though.
  
  
• Every third or fourth Thursday of month I'm not available, that is because in our small IRL group we take turns to organize a small pub where I work. This schedule will most probably change from November. Do you expect 100% attendance or 100% predictable attendance? As a raider, I can offer 100% predictable attendance. In case I can't attend any raid, I always make a note and inform at least 1 week in advance. Does this address you concerns?
  

B. Legendary items:

• I have shoulder and head for Unholy spec.
  
  
• I equip Unholy legendary head and Soul of the Deathlord for AoE (2-3+ targets). Favoring mastery over² critical strike over haste over versatility.

C. Stats, talents, and choices I'm forced to make:

• My rational behind choosing priority for my stats is from simulations. I'm forced to favor some stats over the other due to gears in my bag.
• You are absolutely right about talents, I was not clear enough and it might caused confusion. The choices for AoE build (of course with legendary head and legendary ring): Ebon fever + free bursting sores from legendary ring, pestilent, clawing shadows, sludge, infected claws, and defile.
• I made a mistake in my application, I meant clawing shadows and not castigator. Castigator is a funny and clunky talent. One has to have a lot critical strike to make it work and it will sacrifice mastery or even force haste to drop below 15%. To make it work, blighted rune weapon is the solution, but with 1min CD on it, it renders castigator kinda out of touch at the moment.

D. Logs and keybinds:

• After the transfer, something happened to my logs from my WarcraftLogs profile. I will try to fix this ASAP.
• Sometimes I play on my laptop for chill WQs and whatnot, so I'm using BlizzUI's keybinds. I couldn't find a way to make it visible and bartender keeps showing its own keybinds and not standard UIs. Here are my keybinds for the spells you've asked: https://gyazo.com/2fe6ac6a42b5be73406075b9f03abef3 and https://gyazo.com/678af4066eb19e74b9f194bb5dcc7554 I'm not a clicker  . I hope this clarifies :-)

E. Relics and resources:

• Right now I have rotten touch, eternal agony, and plague bearer. I was not lucky with Unholy relics in the past.
• Plague bearer is always a superior choice.
• My resources are forums (mmo-champion, , DK discord, WarcraftLogs (mimicking the best players), and watching streams sometimes.

Thank you for considering my application.

Cheers,
Asprin

[Tutan]

Hi Asprin,

I feel exactly the same myself!  Mind you, there is plenty of time for being sensible when we get older!

For Attendance I will have to pass you on to Phoenix and Rash, I'm just a member so  feel it is down to them to answer about this.

Legendaries are a pain in the ass when you don't have the ones you want, I'll keep my fingers crossed you get the ones you want soon

That seems to be a better, and more standard choice of talents for AoE, cant fault your response here, thank you for clearing that up.  Stats are really character dependent based on the sims from your own gear, quite right.

Logs again I'll refer you to the officers, it's probably more important for them to see your logs, I'm more than happy with your responses to the questions I've asked.

The reason I was asking about your keybinds is that from my own experience, popping every ability in succession can be very difficult with the DA build given the short damage window available for your minion; clicking would very much slow this down.

Again I like your responses for relics, no arguments here.

Have you seen a guy called Abyssalwave on youtube?  Check out his guides, very clear and are a good addition to what you read in text.

I have no issues with any of your responses, I feel you have answered each of my questions admirably.  Just need to hand you over to Rash and Phoenix.

All the best,

Tutan

[Rash]

Hi there Asprin!

Very nice application and good responses to the questions. You can poke an officer for an invite.

There's a post you can read about how to raid in Iron Edge. It's pretty useful for starting up with our raid!

[Asprin]

Hi RashKebab,

Thank you reading and accepting my application. I can't wait to raid with you guys. I'm away until next week Thursday, a birthday trip gift I received today :-) (and this raider application acceptance is the other gift :-D ) . I wonder if there is possibility to poke officers for invite next week Thursday?

Cheers,
Asprin

[Rash]

No problem, we'll be around. If you would like to keep in touch with the guild in the mean time, we have a discord server at www.iron-edge.co.uk/discord

Enjoy your trip!