1. Character Info: Name, Class, Main Spec (Link armory): Paladimus, Protection Paladin (Offspec: Retribution) http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Sargeras&cn=Paladimus 2. Explain your talent selection (theorycrafting source, specialization choices etc): I use a common protection build which reaches into the Ret tree. I take vindication, for an attack power debuff on the boss, and crusade as a good threat talent. The extra speed from pursuit of justice is also useful for some fights. I look at EJ and maintankadin for theorycrafting. I enjoy reading up on theorycrafting. Some of the math involves can get interesting. 3. Your Age: 18 4. Current professions and their raid benefit: Enchanting: 60 stam from ring enchants Jewelcrafting: 63 stam from 3 jewelers gems. 5. How long you've been playing WoW and what PvE progression you've accomplished: I started playing during the middle of BC so I didn't get into a strong guild to kill more than kara, gruuls, and mag. I have done much more in wrath: Naxx, OS, Maly, Ulduar (glory of the raider + algalon in 10 man, didn't kill mimi and later in 25), ToC and ToGC10, and Ony for previous raid content. ICC 10: 12/12n 7/12h ICC 25: 8/12n 6. Describe how you theorycraft your class: I look at EJ and maintankadin several times each month. I use these sites to see which enchants, stats, talents, etc are superior. I make sure I understand why these are superior so I can learn more about my class instead of simply copy/pasting cookie-cutter models. I also try and talk with other prot paladins, although there aren't many in this guild, to get a different points of view. Another opinion helps me learn by comparing and contrasting our talent builds and gear choices in order to bring up topics for me to research on theorycrafting sites. 7. Occupation and living arrangements that impact raiding (family, schedule, etc): Currently, I am an undergraduate living in on campus dorms. I have a late class on Wednesday that ends at 7pm server. This is the only conflict I have with the raiding schedule, which means I will be on 20-30 minutes late on that day. 8. Guild History - where are you leaving and why: Exile - it is a great guild and I enjoy playing with many people in there. However, raid attendance for our raids is very inconsistent and we usually have to bring a few under-geared people as a result. 9. How did you hear about us? List any friends/references within the guild: I was asked by both Kie and Fluffytoy to apply here. I have known them for a while in exile and enjoy raiding with them 10. List your raid consumables and your method for maximizing them: Flasks of Stoneblood: 1300 is a lot of extra hp Blackened Dragonfin: 40 agil/40 stam (or fish feasts) Indestructible Potion: 3500 extra armor for 2 minutes, very useful as an extra mini cooldown. 11. List scheduling conflicts (include times for possible weekend 10mans): As stated above, I have a slight conflict on Wednesdays due to a late class. I will usually be 20-30 minutes late. 12. Provide your raid damage/healing performance. Examples are Recount Screenshot with personal breakdown of attacks, WoW Web Stats (WWS), or World of Logs: (tank) 13. Provide a screenshot of your UI: I do not have an updated SS of my paladin in a raid environment. This is on my shaman which is basically the same but my paladin also uses pallypower. 14. Can you take constructive criticism and being call out on mistakes (both in and out of raid)? Yes. If people don't get called out, how do would they fix their mistakes? 15. Final comments you feel could help your application: I enjoy progression, even if it means wiping for a few hours on a new boss fight. IMO, the challenges are what make this game fun. Thanks for reading my App!
a few theorycrafting questions: can you explain your socketing def/stam for bonus in rings and bracers but not cloak: ie did a spreadsheet give you a critical value in which socketing was better in just 2 as opposed to all or none of those +6 stam for 1 yellow socket items? (this may be the case, since def rating that won't push to another point is wasted rating). how does a nightmare tear rank compared to these enduring gems have you considered hit for those yellow slots to reach cap? i know i ran into issues with taunt resists even at 262 hit without the taunt glyph on heroic fights. also, how do place on threat as the hellscream buff increases? have you looked at figures on the scaling to 30% with and without the % threat increase glove enchant? how much value have you found in blood draining and how did you come to pick that as your weapon enchant? how does 275 hp rank vs 10 stats to chest? do you intend to get a 2pc sanctified and which slot would that replace if so? how do you rate Gargoyle Spit Bracers (reg 251) vs current bracers? overall, very strong gear with minimal room for pre-heroic gear upgrades as well as strong experience in 10 mans that should translate well into 25 man personal-progression as he sees further fights, though i am curious where stacking raw hp on certain pieces and mixing in hp drops for extra defense on others comes from as perhaps its something i can do better. it was late when i was looking, so please don't take any offense to these questions as none was intended... there are many ways for tanks to stay alive and hold threat after all.
That is something I overlooked with my new gear so I apologize. Missing taunts can be dangerous if it happens at the wrong time so I will get that fixed. I will repsond to the other posts later, I am busy in a ToC raid atm.
I actually don't know of a good spreadsheet to use, if you have a link to one id definitely use it. From what I have read from maintankadin and EJ, +6stam socket bonus isn't worth it for this level of gear. However, considering I am under hit cap I may need to get those socket bonuses anyway. I have considered gemming hit in the yellow slots like I mentioned above. I haven't looked into how my threat will scale with the hellscream buff. I didn't even think about that or know there are figures on it, but I will try looking that up tomorrow. The weapon enchant has probably been the most difficult decision to make for enchants. It is hard to make a clear decision on which enchant is better when they have such different effects. I have considered blood draining, mongoose, and a few others but the two I listed I think are the good ones. Mongoose proc gives some dodge, armor, and crit chance. Although it is a random proc, overall I think it provides a larger benefit than the static exceptional agility. I have tried blood draining only recently. Although it doesn't provide mitigation or avoidance, it does provide a nice mini heal when needed. It can no longer cause AD to be leapfrogged, which originally may have made it more harmful than helpful. I am somewhat new to this enchant and if I find the charges aren't stacking high due to constantly being hit below 35%, I would switch to mongoose. The chest is also a tough call. It is basically a trade off between health and some dodge+armor+threat. I currently have the health enchant to give a slightly higher health pool for the hard hitting bosses and spell damage, but I should re-read the theorycrafting comparing these 2 enchants since they seem really close in benefit. I do plan to get the 2pc, the extra hammer damage will help with threat. I will either replace the chest or shoulders. The chest will get replaced if I have enough expertise to handle it, otherwise the shoulders. The armor on the gargole bracers is nice. It is a hard choice without a spreadsheet but I would consider using the armor bracers. Armor is very beneficial since many pieces this tier have high armor values. This high armor will reduce boss physical damage which would make tank damage less spiky. Even though bosses will hit more often due to sacrificing avoidance stats for higher armor, I think it will be easier for healers to manage more consistent and smaller boss hits. I would still keep avoidance gear on me for the fights that involve much more spell damage, since armor only reduces physical damage. About the defense/stam gemming, like I said at the beginning I don't know a good spreadsheet to use and I feel bad for not using one, but unless a spreadsheet does show this gemming as optimal, I do not think it is. At this level of gear, theorycrafting I have seen says that +6 stam sockets are not worth it. However, I need to reach hit cap so these socket bonuses will get used anyway. Thanks for the comments and the great questions. They definitely got me to think harder about why I gear a certain way. Sorry some of my answered couldn't be more specific, it is late for me and I had to get off of WoW after the ToC raid. Thanks again for the comments, I enjoyed answering these questions. If you have any other questions I will answer them tomorrow
I'll vouch that Pala does an excellent job tanking. I've never had a problem with healing him, I've never had him miss a taunt, and he has a great understanding of mechanics. Definitely one of the greater tanks on Sargeras.
there are advantages if the yellow stat is needed for a cap like hit etc sometimes. since you met 2 bonuses but skipped the 3rd, i was just curious how the decision came and you gave a good honest answer to that. alot of the questions came from as i pointed out: you go big EH here and balanced stats there (which isn't always a bad thing). typically RAWR is a good tool to use, but there's quite a bit of number crunching on maintankadin as well. since you already have 264's in each spot, no matter which way you go, you'll lose a handy piece. what i would recommend doing for selecting your 2nd piece if you use rawr to calculate, is remove your helm or put an alternative (that doesn't have stats like hit/expertise that you're already short on) and then see which 264 you have now would drop your rating the least (or manybe increase it) since rawr heavily bumps up tier set bonus and obviously thats coming with any of those options. for expertise, the "26 without going over" that melee use is perhaps even too strong a criteria as a pally tank since you have 2 attacks that care about it. i personally went tier helm/gloves cause the shoulders/chest you have are amazingly good for the stat balance game, but i have crafted pants, so your options may be vastly different than mine, but i did put your toon into the rawr interface (kind of a graphical spreadsheet) and most of the questions posed were things that involved potential upgrades (i didn't actually test the enduring gems to see if a 3rd reached a plateau but ive experienced such a spot where 3 socket bonuses out of 4 was better mitigation scale rating than 0 or 4 were, so its always something to watch for if you don't need the hit) as for glyphs, just bringing up the concern and issues i faced. being ready to switch them fight specifically is a big plus, but don't be in a big rush to go buy stacks of them as the guild does a good job of providing things like that if they pull you in
It appears rawr saves a "PC ZIP File" when I try to download it, so I don't think it will be compatible on my macbook. However, I do go home sometimes on the weekends so I can use it on my desktop PC. For the tier armor choices, I can check that on rawr this weekend. Gloves look like a good option since they have the hit rating on them.
Ok so i am definatly going to tell you now, you most likely will not find a better replacement paladin tank than Pala. I've been raiding with him since ICC first came out. He is smart, geared, and oh did i mention not a retard I know i am just an app for now but i know he would be a huge asset to the guild, and that you wont regret giving him the chance.
I have re-gemmed and should be melee hit capped. Spell hit cap is much higher so I can just use the righteous defense glyph if needed.