The Raven Council

Who is your character?

Grobaak
Warrior
Arms/Prot
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/chara ... od/Grobaak
https://www.wowprogress.com/character/e ... od/Grobaak

Who are you?

Christopher, 31, England

Experience

Mainly this expansion I've been doing Mythic + Dungeons. I raided mostly normal in previous expansions moving on to Pugging Heroic runs. I skipped Legion so I didn't get much done. I tanked most of WoD but was casual due to work commitments. Most of my raiding was done on Horde side but nothing super impressive but I believe I'm more than capable of progressing in the current tier of HC/Mythic raiding.

Raid Role

I'm there to kill stuff and not kill my guild mates in the process! I sim my character regularly, I'm up to date with my class changes and Azerite and enchant priorities. I watch a lot Twitch and especially the Method World First attempts. Icy Viens is where I pull most my information from but I also subscribe to various Warrior players on YouTube.

Your Spec

To be honest I believe my build to be pretty standard. I don't like the new talent systems and the Azerite RNG talents. I come from WOTLK and I miss being able to spend my points. As an Arms Warrior though it's mainly Rage management like most Warrior specs currently. Knowing when to use Sweeping Strikes effectively and making sure Bladestorm is used during periods of low Rage as to not starve yourself and be locked out of Rage building skills for valuable seconds. Luckily a lot of the fights in BFA have a lot of opportunities to cleave so I feel good playing my Arms Warrior even if it is technically the lowest performing DPS in game according to sites simming at 425 ilvl.

Off-specs and Alternative characters

My current Arms spec is sitting at 393 ilvl but my Tank spec is slightly higher at 395. I'm not a huge fan of raid tanking and much prefer 5 man tanking. Sadly, with the ridiculous costs that come with swapping out talents on Azerite gear I have dropped Prot spec and currently focusing on Arms. I'm not against playing Prot when needed but as I said, I'm a much better 5man tank than I am raid tank. I've done it before though and it would just be a matter of brushing up on the mechanics. I know how to play Prot since Grobaak was my first ever character and I've always had an affinity with the class.

Communication

I have discord and I'm usually pretty vocal. I only speak when I need to though and usually I'm happy to sit and listen and keep my attention on the raid and not jamming up the comms.

Element#21469

Combat Logs

I don't have an account with the site but I will get one if it's important to the guild. I'm always looking to improve but haven't been in the business of raiding this expansion so I don't have any data for you. I'll sign up though and update this or link in game to a GM/Officer of Guild when I have the data.

Your UI

Don't currently have a screenshot from raid but for what it's worth I use DBM, Weak Auras, MSBT, Skada, Tidy Plates and a slightly customized version of ElvUI.

Here's one screenshot but outside of raid unfortunately: https://imgur.com/PhQt9u1

Guild History

Moved over from Horde to play with friends on Alliance. I was in Violent Noise previously on Horde. I left them for no real reason other than they were more of a social guild with raiding thrown in and I don't mind that but I do like progression

Raid availability

I should be fine for the raid nights. Although my shifts do occasionally change it's not ever been an issue when it comes to raiding.

References

As I said, fairly new to Alliance. I'm still making friends!

About you

I'm a Londoner so I like a bit of banter but usually I'm pretty quiet and going about my business. I like getting involved in Guild stuff like PUGs or Mog farms. Anything that stops me from AFKing in Boralus tbh. I've played WoW on and off for 10 years or so. I used to play a lot of DOTA2 but taking a break from it currently since it's pretty draining. I support Arsenal if anyone is into football, which I'll probably regret mentioning since they're complete garbage!

Miscellaneous

I marked the post as Social/Raider since I'm never sure how joining a guild will turn out. I won't expect to be thrown into raids instantly but I'd be happy to just chill with you lot as I really don't mind pugging. As I said, I have some very good players I play with who I know IRL so they're always about looking to do something so I don't usually miss out on loot.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you for your application. Please give us some time to deliberate.

Hi, some questions

Say you get an item with your worsts stats, but its 20 itemlevels higher. How would you step by step figure out if this is an upgrade or not?

Lets say you start raiding and pull a rather mediocre performance. In what way would you analyze your own performance? Please specify details such as tools/ideas/thoughts/ metrics of special intrerest etc.

Well when it comes to ilvl I have to factor in what I gain from the base stats in terms of STR and STM over what ever secondary stat the item would provide. For instance, if I had a ring item at 385 with Haste and Master and a 400 ring dropped with Crit and Vers then I know Haste is the highest stat prio for my Arms spec. I'd obviously run some static DPS tests on a training dummy, I may even run an LFR to try the higher ilvl item out. The problem becomes much greater when you have an Azerite piece at 385 with perfect traits for your spec but then you get a 400 ilvl piece in the same slot and the STR stat and STM stats are just so much more beneficial. Also, I have two trinkets that give STR as a base stat but there Use function is Vers and the other Mastery. I have two Haste trinkets at lower ilvl but they provide stronger secondary stats but in testing the two less desirable trinkets at high ilvl perform much better. I think blindly equipping high ilvl gear is a massive error and in some cases I will take out certain pieces of gear (mainly trinkets) for different fights. I'm a bit of a sucker for experimentalism. I hate how cookie cutter WoW has become and it pisses me off seeing BiS items and the same builds universally over specs. Sometimes I like running CRIT gear for a laugh, I wouldn't do it in a guild raid but sometimes I want to see big numbers. WoW is a game after all, if you're doing progression then go optimal build but I used to play ARMOR PEN Prot Warrior in WOTLK and it was the most fun I had even if the healer hated my guts.

As for your second question. Being a melee DPS I have to know EXACTLY where to be and where I should be next. I think like all encounters you learn your positioning as you get more comfortable with the fight. I used to play an Arcane Mage and if you have ever played one you'll know if you don't take the clear casting talent you need to know exactly when you Evocate otherwise you was screwed for a long time. Arms isn't quite that unforgiving but depending on how well your raid team is geared and how well it knows the fights 300/400 DPS could be the difference between a kill and a wipe. Fortunately both specs for Warrior DPS are kind of easier to play than some I have before. I don't believe in tools outside of using your brain if you're talking about addons. I should know where to stand and when to do what due to research and common sense. Besides I always found that in a lot of cases boss fights do get messy and being quick thinking and making smart choices is a far more desirable trait than "what an addon told me". In saying this though I won't claim I'm perfect since that would be a lie. We all make mistakes but I like to think I never make the same mistake twice.

Oh just to add to the second part. I have ShadowPlay running at the start of every pull so if somethings goes wrong or something goes well I can look back and see from my perspective what I done right or wrong... it takes up a lot of space on my SSDs I need to delete some haha

Sorry for the slight delay. We would like to offer you a trial, we're just waiting for one more officer to approve the social side.

You can send me a DM here on the forum and we will set up the raiding side while we wait.

Yeah sure, as I said. I'm more than happy to join as trial and just be part of the guild. I enjoy doing Mythic runs and I'm still short of a few pieces of gear before I would feel comfortable with my DPS in HC BoD. I'll send the DM now.

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