Pnerdd - Prot Paladin

[Pnerdd]

1. Real First Name / Age: Adam/21


2. Do you have an Authenticator? Yes


3. How did you find Escaper: World of Raids


4. Primary Language: English


5. Your Country / Time Zone: US est


6. Can You Be Online And Ready To Raid with 99% Attendance Monday – Thursday 6:15pm – 10:30pm PST?

Yes I can.

7. Do you have any factors that may cause you to go AFK during raids?

Nothing out of the ordinary. I pee and drink occasionally.

8. School / Work Schedule Due To Dramatically change in the foreseeable future?

Not for the next couple of years. Student atm.

9. Are you a transfer or a local? (xfers please list your realm)

Xfer from Mal'ganis

10. Character Name & Class:

Pnerd Paladin

Primary / Secondary Spec Links(http://www.wowhead.com) :

MS Prot

OS Holy

Armory Link: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&cn=pnerdd

Past Character Names: Pnerd, Pnerdd

Total Time Played (/played) and Time Played @ 80 (/played):
Total - 98hrs
At 80 - 69hrs
~ive played a differ main each expansion. over 350 days played across my 80s.


11. Is this Your First Main Character? If not, what did you used to play?

Rogue at lvl 60
Resto druid at lvl 70

12. When did you start playing WoW? Have you played any other MMOs?

This acct was created march of 05.

13. Willingness to adjust talents if asked?

I will change specs/talent points as needed. My prot spec is by far my best geared spec. I am prefectly compfortable as holy also which is probably my second best gear set. I do and will alter talent points as needed and as other specs are buffed or nerfed.

14. @Level 60 Highest boss KILLED in:
Molten Core - rag
Blackwing Lair - nef
Ahn Qiraj - twin emps
Pre-WotLK Naxx - spider wing, noth, patch, instructor

@Level 70 Highest boss Killed in:
SSC - vashj
The Eye - kt
Hyjal - arch(pre attune removal)
Black Temple - illidan
Sunwell - KJ (muru pre nerf)

@Level 80
Heroic Naxx - KT
Heroic Malygos - Killed
Heroic Sartharion - +3
10/25 Normal Ulduar - cleared
10 Ulduar Hard Modes - Have drake
25 Ulduar Hard Modes - Algalon. Practiced but never downed yogg+0
10/25 Normal ToC - cleared
10 Heroic ToC - insanity
25 Heroic ToC - mad skill(I have set for solo tanking adds)
ICC 10 - 7/12
ICC 25 - 6/12

15. Any special Achievements / Titles / Mounts you have earned in PvE you would like us to know about?

Nothing too special. 10 uld drake is my only 310.

16. Link to WWS / WMO logs of recent raids you attended.

http://www.worldoflogs.com/guilds/20029/

17. What is your current Guild?

Giant Censored Robots

18. What were the last 3 guilds you were in, and reasons for leaving:

Giant Censored Robots: Most frustrating part is the server. Mal'ganis is 1:6 ally to horde and is the laggiest place ever. On top of that, the raid team is very small, which I believe it should be. But the officers have been turning down app after app while we go night after night without a full raid team. Doing putricide attempts with 21 people is far from optimal. Tues-thurs on this server the lag is horrendous and makes raiding miserable when you wipe due to 5s lag spikes.
Vintage: Guild fell apart due to silly politics and drama all of which I had nothing to do with but was sick of it destroying my raiding opportunities. Raided with this guild through BT/hyjal/sunwell up through Ulduar.

19. Do you have someone in Escaper that will give you a good recommendation on your application?

Unfortunately no = /

20. How you would like to benefit from being in Escaper; why did you choose Escaper?

I would like to see the future content to come and hopefully get to know some people. I found your guild on WoR recruitment section and you seem like a strong well established guild.

21. How do you feel about playing a role off the bench? Can you be ready on short notice if called upon? (Even if there is an opening for your class, it does not guarantee you playtime.)

I don't mind being benched (especially in the beginning), but I would like to become a full time raider. As a tank, I feel it’s very important to have superb attendance.

22. Are you willing to spend 400 gold a night in repairs and consumables, stay focused and wipe for 4 hours straight, come back the next day and do it all over again until a new boss dies (or even a "farmed" boss)?

I have plenty of gold and am more than willing to spend it. I spent 8000g of my own on my anub set to help my guild progress. I greatly enjoy the nights of learning and often wiping on new bosses. I hate the limited attempts because I do love learning new content so much. Wiping and learning each attempt to get a little better each time makes the end kill SO much more exciting.

23. Can you maintain a high level of professionalism during raids AND on public forums?

During raid times I am completely focused and do my best to respec others and their opinions and help people with issues that I see. I dont troll the forums much.

24. Do you have any PC or disconnect issues we should know about? If possible list your system’s specs. Who is your ISP?

I have a solid cable connection through Time Warner.
My comp has 4gigs of ram. 512mb vid card. dual 320g hard drives.

25. Can you use Vent? Do you have a Microphone and Headset? Are you comfortable speaking on Vent?

I have a mic and am more than willing to speak in vent when needed. Communication as a tank is key.

26. Short Essay: This portion of the app is here for you to provide your "personal touch" and demonstrate your ability to articulate and show us what you are worth. Show us what sets you apart from the rest of the candidates; what makes you better? What can you bring to Escaper? What do you want us to know that wasn’t covered?

I see WoW as a fairly complicated game that takes a certain amount of intelligence to play it well. I study the game more than I study for my classes. I research every aspect of new encounters and my class to make sure that I am performing at my very best each and every night. I have a set schedule so attendance will not be an issue. I am a quick on the ball thinker and it has saved raids at times: i.e. our first festergut kill, the 2nd tank died at ~10%, I already had nine stacks, so people thought it was all over. I instantly bubbled (the ret pally with 2nd threat ate it ><) and I taunted back. Luckily the bubble removed the debuff and it turned what everyone thought was going to be a wipe into an easy kill.

Thanks for reading/considering,
Adam, aka Pnerdd :poke:

[Zowi]

Thanks for taking the time to app, before we do into too much detail I will let our more tank savvy raiders throw some questions your way.

[Pnerdd]

I look forward to the challenge. Thanks for replying.

~Pnerdd

[Bigbare]

My questions, and thanks for taking the time to apply. Understand that Tanks are always under the highest scrutiny and the following are provided to assist us in choosing a proper candidate.



1) You have chosen to enchant your gloves with Armsman, can you explain why such a choice? With the known fight mechanics in ICC can you explain what may perhaps be a superior choice.

2) With regards to above, if there is concern with threat, why would your spec not include superior threat / dps talents and glpyhs to overcome these concerns?

Specifically (please respond to each):

- You have not chosen to obtain Conviction, Heart of the Crusader and Crusade.
- You have chosen to include Seals of the Pure
- You do not glyph sense undead, yet you have an available minor slot for it
- You have glyphed hammer of the righteous, when other choices (Vengeance and Judgement) are superior

3) In what scenario would improved HOJ be required as a MT? With most paladins speccing 0/53/18 are these points a valid choice?

4) Explain where the Divine Sacrifice talent would come into play in a raid, and typically is this not supplied by Holy Paladins (with further talents) to supply a "raid wall" scenario.

5) With one of the few restrictions on Paladin tanks being mobility, why would POJ not be utilized?

6) Do you find 2/2 Spiritual attunement well spent? Combining 1/2 SA, Divine Plea and Blessing of Sanctuary is the additional 5% needed?

7) Do you have someone in raid that is continually providing the utility that you have missing in Vindication? Do you have an issue with providing this utility?

8) Turning to gear, can you explain if any of the crafted items are an upgrade for your current items and by what margin, if any? Additionally if they are an upgrade, do you have them? If not, why?

9) Taking ICC into account can you explain what would be a superior cloak enchant, and why?

10) Do you have the Clutch of Fortification? If so, in what scenarios is it superior to what you have?

11) As to the lag on Mal'ganis, i do know it to be an issue. Have you discussed with the leadership of your guild your displeasure and your desire to leave? Understand that every guild has difficulties at one point or another, both in recruitment and progression, is this something that you have discussed with your guild and attempted to resolve or have you simply felt "im outta here!"?

[Pnerdd]

1) You have chosen to enchant your gloves with Armsman, can you explain why such a choice? With the known fight mechanics in ICC can you explain what may perhaps be a superior choice.

The other enchant that I see on many tanks is the 18(I think) stamina. As my stam gets more and more through the roof, I have been using my armor trinkets on some fights( the one off putricide10 and the emblem one). I really never have any threat issues, I suppose I just took the parry and the threat is an added bonus. I have no real significant reason I suppose ><.

2) With regards to above, if there is concern with threat, why would your spec not include superior threat / dps talents and glpyhs to overcome these concerns?

Specifically (please respond to each):

a- You have not chosen to obtain Conviction, Heart of the Crusader and Crusade.
b- You have chosen to include Seals of the Pure
c- You do not glyph sense undead, yet you have an available minor slot for it
d- You have glyphed hammer of the righteous, when other choices (Vengeance and Judgement) are superior

I have added letters to the above to make my answers clearer.
a&b) I don't take the threat talents because I have not had a situation where I needed anymore threat. I have Seals of the Pure because it does add a bit more threat. I feel that I have a good balance between having enough threat and all of the excess talents in prot that I find useful. Like I said in my app, if i am told/discover a good reason to respec I will, but as of yet, I have had no issues with threat or taking any more damage than other tanks. So my spec has changed pretty much the same for the last few months.
c) You win, I should have had that done. I use sense undead all the time in ICC. I had actually forgot that glyph existed.
d)I had the glyph of vengeance but replaced it for anub HM with the glyph of righteous defense so that I can taunt off of healers in p3 with less misses. Same with the Hammer of righteous glyph. Helped on quick snap aggro on anub HM so that the aoe could begin faster on the adds so that I wasn't just hitting 3 of the adds.

Many of these changes that I have that might not be optimal for an ICC encounter I still have in my spec/glyphs because I still to togc25 each week and I don't feel it gimps me much for ICC encounters. IE. I made these changes to help the overall performance of the guild.

3) In what scenario would improved HOJ be required as a MT? With most paladins speccing 0/53/18 are these points a valid choice?

To be completely honest, its for soloing ZG. The healing add on tiger boss is a pain in the ass for a class that cant do anything while silenced. I have that to help me out there. I can change it if needed.

4) Explain where the Divine Sacrifice talent would come into play in a raid, and typically is this not supplied by Holy Paladins (with further talents) to supply a "raid wall" scenario.

I had it specced like this before it got killed in the last patch. Haven't respecced since the talent has become much less useful. I suppose another thing I could fix.

5) With one of the few restrictions on Paladin tanks being mobility, why would POJ not be utilized?

I used to have it for fights like anub in naxx when kiting, but I havent found a fight in a very long time that required me to move any faster. Any fight that roots/slows I always quickly hit Hand of Freedom on myself to speed out of the situation.

6) Do you find 2/2 Spiritual attunement well spent? Combining 1/2 SA, Divine Plea and Blessing of Sanctuary is the additional 5% needed?

It is relatively easy for a prot paladin to go oom. Many of our abilities are quite expensive and I would rather have too much mana than not enough. Was always nice on general HM, I was oom for half of that fight.

7) Do you have someone in raid that is continually providing the utility that you have missing in Vindication? Do you have an issue with providing this utility?

Normally a ret pally or I believe demo shout apply the same debuff, I would have no issue speccing that way if needed.

8) Turning to gear, can you explain if any of the crafted items are an upgrade for your current items and by what margin, if any? Additionally if they are an upgrade, do you have them? If not, why?

I would like to get the pants for the armor buff and the minor stamina gain, I have posted it in the list of patterns for the guild to buy and just waiting for it to be purchased. The boots are an upgrade but not massive and I havent calculated if I could take the hit from not def on both the pants and feet.

9) Taking ICC into account can you explain what would be a superior cloak enchant, and why?

22 agi. My set for anub HM includes my current cloak and im barely over the % necessary to tank it.

10) Do you have the Clutch of Fortification? If so, in what scenarios is it superior to what you have?

I do have this ring. The armor bonus is nice to mitigate full physical hitting mobs. I really like the extra avoidance on the Band of the Traitor King and intend to not be using either soon by getting another ICC ring. I have considered buying the BoE one if prices drop a bit more.

11) As to the lag on Mal'ganis, i do know it to be an issue. Have you discussed with the leadership of your guild your displeasure and your desire to leave? Understand that every guild has difficulties at one point or another, both in recruitment and progression, is this something that you have discussed with your guild and attempted to resolve or have you simply felt "im outta here!"?

I have tried to encourage people to hop on one of the free transfers off or to even do a paid one somewhere. The server does calm down once all the bosses are unlocked and people are working on HM's. But even at that point, tuesdays are still terrible. I have not talked about my desire to leave personally, but no one else seems interested in doing anything to avoid this lag. I like to be able to raid to max potential multiple nights a week instead of just "toughing it out" until it calms down at 12am est. If you aren't logged on by 7est you risk a que off 1000-1500 = /.


Thanks for the questions,

~Pnerd

[Vimy]

My concerns are as follows:


In several responses you have misunderstood what was expected in your response. Tanking and Effective Health theory have been around since the game was conceived and many of the above questions point to an understanding of the same.

Specifically (Questions)

1) Glove re-inforcements (level 60) are your strongest enchant for a non threat scenario, followed second by a Heavy Borean armor kit (18 stamina)

2a+b) Whilst you may not have a scenario wherein you require more threat, you are misunderstanding the role of a tank. That role is threefold: simply to survive the fights, to create enough threat to allow the fight to be completed prior to enrages / time constraints and to provide as MUCH dps as possible. Considering you are geared well enough to satisfy the first requirement, and you state you generate enough threat for the second, talents and glyphing would then fall to satisfy the 3rd requirement. All of your varied talents do not help to satisfy a dps increase from a tank utilizing current Paladin mathmatics.

3,4, 5) You have talents that are not required by an endgame tank and are severely inferior to others.

6) I can only see this on very specific encounters, typically it is simply not the case.

7) n/a to respond

8) Alright, i would have expected a progression tank to purchase the pattern themselves however i cannot speak for how other guilds work. Do you have all the materials for these to be crafted? If they are a tremendous upgrade?

9+10) Again see response to #1. Mighty armor is what i would have expected to be your response. Additionally the Clutch of Fort is superior due to armor levels.





What i am concerned with is responses like the following:


Many of these changes that I have that might not be optimal for an ICC encounter I still have in my spec/glyphs because I still to togc25 each week and I don't feel it gimps me much for ICC encounters. IE. I made these changes to help the overall performance of the guild.

Escaper recruits tanks who are expected to be itemized, geared and gemmed accordingly for each and every encounter. Specifically we would expect you to have gearsets depending on what is required for each fight.


Do i require more threat? Do i require more health? Do I require more dps? Do i require more mana? Gear effectively.

Additionally we would expect tanks to be geared, glyphed, specced, gemmed and enchanted for progression raiding. While you may not feel it gimps you, mathmatically it does, and it diverts the strain elsewhere (to healers or to dps) to overcome the strain.


I have plenty of gold and am more than willing to spend it. I spent 8000g of my own on my anub set to help my guild progress. I greatly enjoy the nights of learning and often wiping on new bosses. I hate the limited attempts because I do love learning new content so much. Wiping and learning each attempt to get a little better each time makes the end kill SO much more exciting.

Does the above statement not contradict what you are doing currently with ICC?


What also concerns me (as hinted above) is your lack of dps. With enrage timers in ICC and moreso in upcoming hardmodes looking at your logs you seem to be 1-1.5k below our other paladin tank on a stationary fight with no other reducing factors (movement, etc). Both of you are in near equivalent gear, and utilizing the same weapon. In a 6 min fight thats 360k lower, thats easily the difference on a first kill on a progression fight.

Can you explain this variance? (I can provide our logs if required).





Moving onward to other questions:

1) Could you describe the major change professor Putricide undergoes in p3 specifically how it relates to tanks, and the point of the (sometimes) convoluted swapping strategies that tanks employ during this phase.


2) Discuss the mechanics of the ooze explosion on Rotface and what your responsibilites would be as a kiting tank, be specific.


3) Assuming two tanks on Festergut 25 man and a 4 - 5 min kill time, how would you organize two wildly-differently geared tanks (one being super badly geared and one being well geared) on the taunt rotations and why?

4) Describe the tanking scenarios in the upcoming 2 encounters in the Crimson Halls. Be specific as to a tanks responsibility in each.

[Pnerdd]

My concerns are as follows:


In several responses you have misunderstood what was expected in your response. Tanking and Effective Health theory have been around since the game was conceived and many of the above questions point to an understanding of the same.

Specifically (Questions)

1) Glove re-inforcements (level 60) are your strongest enchant for a non threat scenario, followed second by a Heavy Borean armor kit (18 stamina)

2a+b) Whilst you may not have a scenario wherein you require more threat, you are misunderstanding the role of a tank. That role is threefold: simply to survive the fights, to create enough threat to allow the fight to be completed prior to enrages / time constraints and to provide as MUCH dps as possible. Considering you are geared well enough to satisfy the first requirement, and you state you generate enough threat for the second, talents and glyphing would then fall to satisfy the 3rd requirement. All of your varied talents do not help to satisfy a dps increase from a tank utilizing current Paladin mathmatics.

3,4, 5) You have talents that are not required by an endgame tank and are severely inferior to others.


6) I can only see this on very specific encounters, typically it is simply not the case.

7) n/a to respond

8) Alright, i would have expected a progression tank to purchase the pattern themselves however i cannot speak for how other guilds work. Do you have all the materials for these to be crafted? If they are a tremendous upgrade?

9+10) Again see response to #1. Mighty armor is what i would have expected to be your response. Additionally the Clutch of Fort is superior due to armor levels.


I am willing to respec as stated. I have had the spec going into the ret tree with speed increase and dps increase and I am more than willing to do it again as needed. If more dps is needed I will do my best to provide it. That seems to be one of the major issues through this section. I understand that spec provides more dmg and I will spec it.


What i am concerned with is responses like the following:

Quote:
Many of these changes that I have that might not be optimal for an ICC encounter I still have in my spec/glyphs because I still to togc25 each week and I don't feel it gimps me much for ICC encounters. IE. I made these changes to help the overall performance of the guild.

Escaper recruits tanks who are expected to be itemized, geared and gemmed accordingly for each and every encounter. Specifically we would expect you to have gearsets depending on what is required for each fight.

I have the enchant on my cloak so that I can tank anub adds as efficiently as possible and the glyph is to save healers. Seeing as thus far the ICC fights aren't that demanding on a tank except for maybe festergut damage.

Do i require more threat? Do i require more health? Do I require more dps? Do i require more mana? Gear effectively.

Additionally we would expect tanks to be geared, glyphed, specced, gemmed and enchanted for progression raiding. While you may not feel it gimps you, mathmatically it does, and it diverts the strain elsewhere (to healers or to dps) to overcome the strain.

Same as above. I will gem, spec, and glyph as efficiently as possible.

Quote:
I have plenty of gold and am more than willing to spend it. I spent 8000g of my own on my anub set to help my guild progress. I greatly enjoy the nights of learning and often wiping on new bosses. I hate the limited attempts because I do love learning new content so much. Wiping and learning each attempt to get a little better each time makes the end kill SO much more exciting.
Does the above statement not contradict what you are doing currently with ICC?

I do not have the mats atm but I could buy them. They are an upgrade. If that is what it took to help with my application. I could blow the money.

What also concerns me (as hinted above) is your lack of dps. With enrage timers in ICC and moreso in upcoming hardmodes looking at your logs you seem to be 1-1.5k below our other paladin tank on a stationary fight with no other reducing factors (movement, etc). Both of you are in near equivalent gear, and utilizing the same weapon. In a 6 min fight thats 360k lower, thats easily the difference on a first kill on a progression fight.

Can you explain this variance? (I can provide our logs if required).

The only fight I can think of may be festergut that I am standing still and dpsing and to keep off the back of the other tank I was stopping dmg to stop from pulling aggro and killing myself. Also speccing into those higher dps talents and glyphing for dmg would help increase my damage.



Moving onward to other questions:

1) Could you describe the major change professor Putricide undergoes in p3 specifically how it relates to tanks, and the point of the (sometimes) convoluted swapping strategies that tanks employ during this phase.

In p3 putricide stops spawning the oozes so the tank is dropped out of the abom(I always drive the abom). He begins applying a stacking debuff to the tank which does aoe dmg split between the raid. It increases significantly with stacks. Depending on what is decided you can gain the stacks in different orders. I have been doing 1/1/1 2/2/2 3/3/3 and so on so we were taunting each stack and going through the 3 tanks.

2) Discuss the mechanics of the ooze explosion on Rotface and what your responsibilites would be as a kiting tank, be specific.

This is the job I typically undertake. I have a mark on my head and have the first 2 ppl with the debuff stand near me until their small oozes pop. I then kite the large ooze around the room. I give a warning when the ooze is coming close to exploding then an order to move once the slimes have been released into the air by the big ooze.


3) Assuming two tanks on Festergut 25 man and a 4 - 5 min kill time, how would you organize two wildly-differently geared tanks (one being super badly geared and one being well geared) on the taunt rotations and why?

The tanking is pretty much split into 3 sections due to the stacking debuff. I would have the more geared tank go first, then the OT pick it up for his 9 stacks, then the more geared tank takes it back for the 3rd section of debuffs and the boss should be dead before this tanks stacks reaches the max.

4) Describe the tanking scenarios in the upcoming 2 encounters in the Crimson Halls. Be specific as to a tanks responsibility in each.

On blood princes I would be one of the two physical tanks on either Taldaram or Valanar. Taldaram should never face the raid. Most of the attacks are random target and aren't terribly threatening to the tank. Valanar does a knockback to the tank so getting back to him quickly is a priority and to run away from the empowered knockback.

On Blood-Queen there is some sort of a cleave from what I read and a possibly tank switch. My main source is tankspot for most encounters and they dont have an incredible amount of knowledge about it at this time. I keep the boss as stationary as possible due to the high dps required to defeat the encounter.



Thanks again,

~Pnerd
Let me know if I missed anything. Tried to color my answers to make it less of a mess to read. I am making the changes to my enchants/spec atm.

[Pnerdd]

Respecced and did 4816dps on festergut on 10 man which is an increase of 800 dps with WAY less buffs.

[Zowi]

Thanks for taking the time to app and answer all of our questions. At this time we don't feel you will be a good fit for Escaper. Best of luck with your guild search.