Raider Application - Death Knight (DPS) - Wrathzz (XR)

[Applicant]

Hello, Iron Edge!

I am applying for the main raid.

Character: Wrathzz
Server: Stormscale
Armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/Stormscale/Wrathzz/advanced
Class/Spec: Death Knight (DPS)
Member Type: raider

Personal Info:

Name: Joe Farabella
Age: 26
Location: Nottingham, UK
Work: Firefighter at Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue

Work pattern consists of 2 day shifts (06:30-19:30 server time) and 2 night shifts (19:30-08:30 server time) followed by 4 consecutive days off. With my work pattern raiding attendance isn't generally an issue except from the odd night shift that clashes.

Class/Spec:

I currently play Unholy at the moment, occasionally changing to frost on fights where bloodlust isn't used on pull (you lose so much from not having dark arbiter at the start with bloodlust that it gimps you quite a bit). Unholy i'm sat at 964 equipped and my frost is 967. However when you armory check i'll probably be in my speed set for old content so i apologize in advance!

For unholy stats wise my priority is to first hit 26% haste for the extra tick of Dark Arbiter and then to dump the rest in mastery. I'm using the legendary shoulders + chest so my opening burst window is outbreak-festering strikex2-apocalypse(if at 6 wounds)-Chains of Ice-Dark Arbiter-Death coil-Dark Transformation. After this it's just about keeping above 2 wounds and using scourge strike to generate RP to keep death coil spamming to keep my Dark Arbiter pumping out damage!

Frost is pretty faceroll, similar to unholy with burst windows but these happen more frequently. It's all about lining up pillar with obliteration and going to town on Frost Strike-Obliteration.

Alts:

Alts are all at 110 minus my shaman. Would like to look into playing DPS Warrior in BFA as i've been playing quite a bit of beta and both DPS specs are fully enjoyable and I honestly wouldn't mind playing either, whereas DK's on beta only have the one interesting spec (Frost does do high damage but playstyle is definitely lacking). Each of my alts are at the 920-950 range.

Professions:

I did have JC and Alchemy although i've recently got rid of both in exchange for mining and herbalism to help farm for netherwing rep in Shadowmoon Valley. Once i've completed that i'll probably drop Mining for Alchemy again as my Warrior has Mining in legion and my DK can be a flask bot for raids.

Fishing is also maxed! I obtained the Fishing artifact pretty early on and will definitely miss the traits in BFA

Raiding Experience:

Started playing in TBC not having a clue what i was doing!

In WOTLK - I started in Naxx and cleared the content with my first proper raiding guild. Shortly after they disbanded during Ulduar so i played casually (Football manager took over my life) came back towards the end of TOTC and started ICC with decent gear ready to go. I moved to a new guild for progress and made it up to Putri HC before that guild disbanded due to low attendance of raid members.

Cataclysm i started off in a casual guild and completed BoT and BWD but only on normal. Raided up to Ragnaros in Firelands and in Dragon Soul i completed it in normal mode whilst not being in a guild (Pug Life).

MoP didn't interest me too much raiding wise. I played a lot of beta and it didn't really leave a lasting impression on me. Came back during the Timeless Isle patch but it was too late to get back into raiding at that stage.

WoD I started raiding in Highmaul and made it to Morgok before i was unable to raid anymore to my old job(worked most 1200-2200 so finding a guild was pretty difficult).

In Legion i started up a guild with a few friends and started off well, we managed 2 groups, i managed the 2nd group which consisted of more casual players. The first group who raided an extra day got Cutting edge for EN and 2/3 for ToV. 2nd Group tended to get enough players for mythic too late to make a serious dent into progress but nonetheless achieved a few mythic kills each tier. We merged groups and went heroic only in Nighthold, although we did get 2 kills in mythic shortly before tomb came up.

In tomb we was also heroic only but has enough members for mythic towards the end and managed to get up to mistress without too many issues and then Antorus came up.

Antorus was pretty fun, we cleared normal first night and then moved onto heroic. After clearing heroic we got 2 mythic kills down before going separate ways, my guild would turn into a social guild whilst the raiders wanting 3/4 days a week progress moved to form a new guild.

Previous Guilds:

Nothing Too Serious - lack of members to run 25 man content in WOTLK. (this will be a recurring theme as the Daggerspine server i was on was low pop).

The Addams Family - Similar issue to NTS, had to have a rotation for raiders as we had around 18 people showing up for raids so each raid 8 people had to miss out.

Naissance - Really fun guild however things turned sour when we hit the Putricide heroic wall.

Divided We Fall - Guild migrated server and i was a struggling student who couldn't afford the server transfer fee!

Dice - This was my own guild where i chilled with friends, eventually the casual attitude and people wanting to raid more became an issue and we split. Everyone remains on good terms fortunately.

Availability:

Work pattern consists of 2 day shifts (06:30-19:30 server time) and 2 night shifts (19:30-08:30 server time) followed by 4 consecutive days off. With my work pattern raiding attendance isn't generally an issue except from the odd night shift that clashes.

I also get married at the end of January so would miss the first 2 weeks of February honeymooning in the US!

Communication:

English is my main language. I have TS3 installed and a competent microphone and headset.

Computer / Connection:

I have a decent computer, i've recently purchased a custom build one with a high end graphics card and have no issues since the purchase.  Internet connection is 200mb d/l and 20 mb u/l. It is also wired so reliability issues are a thing of the past! I'm yet to have any lag/DC issues since switching to my new internet

Addons/UI:

https://imgur.com/a/j46FwNN

I've used the same UI since WoD (Skullflower UI) as i find it lightweight and easy to follow. Although i've replaced recount with details now.

Most abilities are macro'd to my mouse. I have 16 buttons on the thumb side so as well as 1-10 I also macro abilities on CTRL1-5, Shift1-5 and Alt1-5

Other Games:

Quite a few really, the ones i mainly play are:

- Telltale games series (e.g. Walking Dead, GoT, Wolf among us)
- Football Manager
- Monster Hunter
- Civ
- Hearthstone

Why Iron Edge?

Looking for a new guild on a new server where i can get the chance to show i'm a good player and prove that i can be an integral part of a raid team.

Researched several guilds on quite a few different servers and this guild seems like the most polished and professional one i've came across. Plus i thought the website is really well done!

What can I offer Iron Edge?

Can offer reliability. My job put's me in a lot of stressful situations where i'm required to keep a cool head and it would be no different for raiding. I think i've got the right mentality to keep it calm even when wiping 20+ times on progress bosses and i won't get defensive when handed constructive criticism.

Where did I hear about Iron Edge?

Searching on google funnily enough this site came up as one of the top hits so i thought i'd check it out further.

Last Words?

Hope my application was ok, it's been a while since i've done one of these but if i need to go into any further detail just hit me up on battlenet WalkingDead#1179 and if unsuccessful i would like to be considered for the weekend guild if possible.

[Tutan]

Hi Joe,

Your application leaves me with a few questions.

How frequently will your work schedule clash with raid times?  Your day shift finishes 15 mins before raid time, will you have enough time.to get home and be prepared for raiding?  4 days on 4 off seems great but if you are.missing the start of raids from day shift, the full raids for nights it isn't ideal.  I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Can you log out in your actual gear for UH and/or Frost.  The speed set tells us nothing!

With this expansion coming to an end there's little to be learned from curremt abilities and rotations.  Your explanation of the current UH playstyle is a limited, but your explanation of Frost as faceroll tells us even less about your understanding of the abilities, required stats, mechanics and interactions of all these factors to produce damage.

What spec are you planning on using during BfA?  Will you be switching specs, what is your opinion of the talent and ability changes for both Unholy and Frost.  What changes, losses or additions do you like or dislike?  Let us know what you know!

Moghulkan will have more questions I'm sure.

What about mythic raiding experience, how's that going for you?

Do you do mythic plus?

How about logs to show us your performance?

Cheers

Tutan

[Wrathzz]

No worries, apologies for not being thorough!

How frequently will your work schedule clash with raid times?  Your day shift finishes 15 mins before raid time, will you have enough time.to get home and be prepared for raiding?  4 days on 4 off seems great but if you are.missing the start of raids from day shift, the full raids for nights it isn't ideal.  I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

I've been raiding at the same time in legion and it wasn't an issue, luckily it takes me 5 minutes to get home after work and it's rare that I leave work later than 18:25.


Can you log out in your actual gear for UH and/or Frost.  The speed set tells us nothing!

Just logged out now, apologies!


With this expansion coming to an end there's little to be learned from curremt abilities and rotations.  Your explanation of the current UH playstyle is a limited, but your explanation of Frost as faceroll tells us even less about your understanding of the abilities, required stats, mechanics and interactions of all these factors to produce damage.

Understandable, it was quite a sarcastic answer from myself as i don't want to make DK sound intricate and complicated to play, because it isn't. Unholy DPS revolves around 2 phases, when Arbiter is up and when Arbiter isn't up. When it isn't up it's about scourge striking as long as you have at least 2 wounds on a target, keeping virulent plague up and using FS when no wounds are on the target. You only really death coil when close to capping RP or if you're in need of a RC proc due to having low runes at that time, whereas during the Arbiter phase you're spamming death coil as soon as it's available.

In regards to Frost, with the most optimal talent setup, it's all about pushing as much damage as you can during obliteration windows and popping your razorice stacks with Frost Strike due to the T21 4 set bonus which fires ice spikes at the target that adds razorice to the enemy. This allows you to take shattering strikes so you're constantly consuming and refreshing razorice for a lot of damage. In regards to which stats i choose it's a bit of a trick question, if i'm just targeting stats and not simming myself then it's not optimal due to how stats have played out in legion.



What spec are you planning on using during BfA?  Will you be switching specs, what is your opinion of the talent and ability changes for both Unholy and Frost.  What changes, losses or additions do you like or dislike?  Let us know what you know!

At the moment i'm looking to either reroll to warrior in BFA (I really enjoy both specs, it's a new class for me but i'm more than happy to put in the time to learn it). Unholy in BFA is quite similar, the artifact ability is now baseline and gargoyle and DA have been rolled into one talent. The biggest change for both frost and unholy is the new AOE RP dumps Glacial Advance/Epidemic. Cleave wise i think DK's will be really strong, with shadow infusing being made baseline you'll have your super ghoul up a lot more frequently and the old Unholy Frenzy is back as a talent, however it's been combined with blighted rune weapon to make it even stronger.

Frost is in a weird place because BoS could be making a big comeback, but without the legendaries and scaling down of stats it's hard to see it working in a raid environment at the moment, obviously at 120 it could be a different ball game with the gear that's available.


What about mythic raiding experience, how's that going for you?

I'm not raiding currently, just doing mount runs weekly and playing about on beta! I did get to 2/11M early on before our guild disbanded.


Do you do mythic plus?

I have been doing a decent bit of mythic plus this expansion, mainly tanking as blood. My highest key was a +20 VOTW in 30m 14s. Also from wowprogress my completed keys are:


Amount of Mythic 2+ Dungeons completed in time: 207
Amount of Mythic 5+ Dungeons completed in time: 164
Amount of Mythic 10+ Dungeons completed in time: 94
Amount of Mythic 15+ Dungeons completed in time: 19


How about logs to show us your performance?

Quite outdated as it's been a bit since i've raided but I have mostly Epic parses with the odd legendary, i'll admit my mythic parses are poor, but such is the nature of progress, especially with my kills both being progress and extremely scrappy!

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/character/eu/stormscale/wrathzz#difficulty=3&partition=1


Hope that covers it, apologies again.

[Moghoulkhan]

Hey Joe

As Tutan says, not much point in chatting about current rotations and abilities as (1) its all about to change, (2) unfortunately we don't have any logs to look at and talk about and (3) you are looking to reroll.

I do want to ask about a couple of general things though:

I see you use skullflowers UI, which is fine, but that screenshot is from WOD and it would be nice to see an updated one (particularly in a raid environment). I can't see for example on that image how you are tracking things like your deathgrip CD, your pet stun and grip, potions etc.

Apart from Skullflowers and details, are there any other addons you use for raiding?

Finally, you don't have the most mythic experience looking at your raid kills over the last couple of expansions, and you haven't done much higher M+ than a 16 (based only on RaiderIo - correct me if I'm wrong). Do you think you are ready for the step up to Mythic? You say in your application you have the mentality to keep it calm on 20+ wipes on progress bosses. What about 200+?

Otherwise congrats on getting hitched, and good luck with the application.

~M

[Wrathzz]

Hey man, thanks for the reply.

https://imgur.com/a/TLSpijG

That's a shot of my UI in legion, when in unholy the ghoul stun is on a bar that requires mouseover to show, but it's located just underneath my character frame when in combat. MSBT tells me when utility CD's come up as well as offensives etc.

I think the +16 is the highest i've done this month? Can't really comment on why that's showing but if you look at my wowprogress i've got 17's done as well as a 20

https://www.wowprogress.com/character/eu/stormscale/Wrathzz

[Tutan]

Hey Joe, do you have any info on the warrior you are looking to reroll to?

I have little experience on warriors so I'll havw to bow out of the questions for just now.

Tutan

[Rash]

Just replying to this thread as a reminder that this application is still open!