The Raven Council

Who is your character?
[Your character name, class, specs, and Armory link. Try to log out in main-spec gear]

Character name:Vargnar
Race: Human
Class: Paladin
Professions/Tradeskills: Mining+Blacksmithing
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/S ... nar/simple

Who are you?
[Your name, age, where you're from, etc]

My name is Adrian, 28y'old, from Romania, City of Satu Mare

To which Raid Group are you Applying?
[Our raid groups are "RG1" (3 days a week, Mythic progress priority) & "RG2" (2 days a week, Heroic progress, Mythic when possible). Each raid group has its own requirements and expectations, and you should have a preference on which one you join.]

My aim would be RG1. Im quite a competitive person, I find progress racing one of the more interesting things in WoW. That, transmogs, and lore whoring:)

Experience
[What is your prior raiding experience? Which tiers? LFR/Flex/Normal/Heroic/Mythic? And importantly: Did you clear these raids when they were current content (the most recent tier added), or come back in the next patch? For "Heroic" SoO please be clear whether you mean pre-6.0 or not (before/after the name changes). If you've performed any character change re-rolling in your time, what character(s) and role(s) did you play during which content?]

Classic World of Warcraft:
Finished leveling a shaman right at the end of vanila
The Burning Crusade:
Cleared all content up to M'uru -> Raided on a Hunter
Wrath of the Lich King:
Ah..the golden era...Cleared All content in a guild called Showdown, Eu Zenedar, world rank 165 -> Ret Paladin & Affliction Warlock
Cataclysm:
Didn't play
Mists of Pandaria:
Didn't play
Warlords of Draenor:
10/13M -> Ret Paladin

Now I know that you mentioned to explain hard modes but i somewhat feel its not 100%relevant for BC (no hard modes) and wotlk ( we just steamrolled content )
For wotlk though...Yogg no keepers...was a serious fight...LK heroic..imo one of the best fights in this game.
I've not played in cata and mists due to some familly problems (divorces and the sort)
Came back to warcraft late WoD and jumped straight into HFC getting 7/13 in <Echelon>..the guild I fell in love with and met some outstanding ppl.
Then got 3 more kills in Inner Circle

Ill explain more in guild history.

Raid Role
[Describe your current role in a raid team, how you prepare for it and how you judge your own performance. Where do you learn new things and keep yourself updated on your class?]

My current role: Melee dps
As a melee dps im proeficient in:
- Interupting
- Positioning, as I need to mentain a high uptime on the boss
- Dps-ing on the move
- Being extra carefull with fight mechanics, in melee more often than not its a clusterfuck, keeping your eyes open on stuff on the ground is trivial.
- Fast reaction times, also trivial. As a ranged you can afford being slightly late on gtfo our the raid with X or Y debuff since...you can be kind of out of it allready...but as a melee if you dont instantly react, you might just end up dropping a puddle on top of the raid.

Preparation:
- Solsacra's Theorycraft Thread on mmo-champion. He is one of the best ret paladins around, currently raiding in Midwinter on US-Sargeras
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/165 ... Discussion
- http://www.icy-veins.com/wow/retributio ... -dps-guide
- Watching Method Guides, Fatboss Guides for bosses
- Following Preach https://www.youtube.com/user/mikepreachwow
- Following Thete for Paladin Related Video Guides https://www.youtube.com/user/WarlordThete/playlists

I judge my performance using warcraftlogs, dummy testing and field testing.

Your Spec
[Tell us about your rotation priorities (for DPS primarily), stat priorities, important talent and glyph choices, etc. We like to see the insight behind your gear and build choices, and it clarifies things in case Armory shows you in some strange PvP/soloing spec!]

T1: Long Arm of the Law -> Acts as a gap Closer and escape method in the same time
T2: Fist of Justice -> Stuns on shorter CD are always nice
==================================================
T3: Selfless Healer-> Makes a flash of light instant cast, can save lives.
T3 Option 2:Sacred Shield-> Can be incorporated in rotation, mitigates damage
==================================================
T4: Unbreakable Spirit-> Lowers CD's on defensive personals
T4 Option 2: Clemency -> Some fight need additional external usage. Fights like: Council, Killrog,Xhul (Akkelion hits hard)
==================================================
T5 Sanctified Wrath-> Pretty much the go-to talent in this tier of raiding. That being said ...holy avenger might have some uses.
==================================================
T6: Execution Sentence-> Best Single target dps cd that syncs well with wings
T6 Option 2: Light's Hammer-> For heavy aoe situations.
==================================================
T7: Seraphim-> Best single target on-demand burts (if timed). It sims higher than Final Verdict on single targer overall aswell.
T7 Option 2:Final Verdict-> Good single target dmg, great aoe, thx to empowered divine storm.
==================================================
Regarding the T7 talents I like both..so i tend to switch them about and constantly experiment.

Ok: Rets are all about mastery...the dmg bonus from it is #1 on top dmg-ing spells.
HFC BiS gear is crit heavy so it somewhat becomes your 2nd stat.
Also, some say to neglect haste..but I dissagree. If you play seraphim..haste is important since you need to squeeze in as many hard hitting spells in that brief window as possible.
Also..more haste=more holy power=more abilities=more dps.
Staying around 15% haste is advised imo.
MS shines if u favor the FV playstyle...it used to be really good, but as I said, HFC BiS is crit heavy..so if u plan on stacking MS you end up sacrificing str due to ilvl loss.
Basically..MS is good but I'd advise against stacking it. It comes on some bis pieces...take it as a bonus.

Trinkets:
EDH is bis.Always
DC Cleave trinket (4+ targets)
Class in most cases the go-to option.
UH goos for speedkills when your buffuptime/killspeed ratio is good.

!!! For the following question, I chose not to respect the app question order since I felt it will put things into perspective I switch the questions around a bit!!! Hope you dont mind...too much:) I bumped guild history further up the list.

Guild History
[What other guilds have you been in? What made you move(/plan to move) from these guilds, and why do you want to join TRC?]

All of these guilds are on EU-Sylvanas

I've returned to warcraft (late WoD as mentioned) I and joined ELEMENTS (romanian only guild)...but for some reason I didnt like the atmosphere.
I always preffered meeting ppl from other countries, practicing english, learning about their habbits, countries etc.

Then I joined Nemetos Order (Team Echelon) it was here where I met some really great ppl, we still have our whatsapp grp going, even though the guild disbanded, still keeping in touch and speaking every day.( I reffer to the raid team within Nemetos Order)
At some point we decided on making Echelon our own little corner of heaven...and I think we did. It was the best social experience I've had in wow.
Sadly the officer team(myself included) couldn't get the guild to progress as we hoped..and at some point we decided to try a merge with a guild Inner Circle...needless to say it went bad. One of Echelons other officers and I decided on starting over..we kinda were Co-gm's in this new guild we made...Hazardous Legacy.

We realised how ignorant ppl can be and how much work we have to put in to atleast stand a chance on staying competitive.
That being said..we got 7/13 again..but it exhausted us.

I got so involved in the rebuilding (and the failed merge drama)...it started affecting my job and relationship...so I decided to take a step back. Went and joined IC (Inner Circle) where I was put straight in the raid team...but I just couldnt perform like I used to. I was so affected by the events that happened that I was literally feeling uneasy...I somewhat still do...I really miss the atmosphere we managed to build within Echelon

At the moment I'm just looking for a place to call home..get nice progress and be surrounded by qualitty ppl and friends..

Off-specs and Alternative characters
[How comfortable are you switching to your off-spec for a fight/raid if needed?
Do you have any alts that would also be a viable option for raiding with us? (for the case that we love you but can't fit your main in our rosters) Please add Armory links for other characters if so, and tell us to what degree they are/have been played.]

Im, afraid I'll have to dissapoint here, if I haven't allready ( its gonna be the 1st out of 2 dissapointments).
As I returned to WoW late WoD...I focused my efforts on my paladin, retribution to be specific. I've tanked heroic, but I cant say I'm 100% confortable tanking mythic. Im a fast learner, with guidance, I could do it. I must say, its quite enjoyable to tank, but my affinity was always towards dps classes.

That being said, I've an ilvl 700 hunter and leveling a mage as we speak. Im also considering choosing one of those classes for legion.

Communication
[Do you have a microphone and how comfortable are you with using it during encounters if needed? Are you happy to use these forums for discussion of tactics/general scheming, and check back regularly for important information?]

I've no problem, listening, talking. Browsing forums is a thing I usually kill the little spare time I have at work:)

Combat Logs
[If possible please link a log showing your character raiding current content. If you have no logs, please explain why (eg, logs expired) and/or aim to log your performance from an LFR/Normal/PUG run, to add to your application. TRC raiders are expected to review their own performance on Warcraft Logs in order to improve, so you should be/get used to doing this. It's especially important for dps-players, and applicants who would need to transfer before we can trial them (eg Horde).]

2nd Dissapointment:

As stated in guild history...the turmoil that our guild went trough and all the guild hopping affected me, more so than I would have thought.

From a median ~ #80 ranked player for 5/13M ( Our guild was stable and we we're having a blast)
To a shamefull ~ #50 ranked player for the Upper bosses ( it was at this point we were talking about the merge and all the drama started)

If you check heroics medians, again, we were having a blast as a guild my % are quite good.
That being said however, I think the ranking part in logs is much less relevant then the aspects where u can check for fails, uptimes, problems etc.

Anyway here are the logs:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/c ... 39/latest#

Your UI
[Attach a screenshot of your current raiding UI, and if it shows anything unusual (in the UI, not the chat box :p), feel free to explain your choices.]

My pretty classic UI:
http://imgur.com/a/t12d9

Raid availability
[Can you generally make all of our raiding days/times, or are there any difficulties with this? Our current raid schedule is found here.]

I can make any of the raid days/times just fine. Shouldn't be a prob mentaining 100% attendance. In case stuff happens though and I cant make it, I've the mobile app on my phone, so I just infor ppl in guildchat. Or if u have a whatsapp grp (hope u do:P ) i can just inform everyone there.

References
[How did you hear about us? And do you know someone from the game who can vouch for you as player/person?]

Sadly, I dont have anyone vouching for me:(

I've been thinking about RP realms for quite some time now ( well..since my guild went FUBAR more or less). I've the impression that on RP realms the game is more ''old school''...I'm one of those plebs who miss the ''good ol' days''. Also I feel that RP realms have stronger focus on the social aspect of the game, where the word community is actually a real thing.

I really liked the info you posted on wow-progress about your guild, even little details like character naming:) THIS GAME IS AN mmo-R (ole) P (laying) G (ame)... and ppl being called loloomgxxmage and other silly childish stuff somewhat ruin my immersion. And I like being immersed, thank you very much! (maybe because im a lore whore)

I follow Preach on youtube, bellular, nobel, heelvsbabyface,lazypeon and some other wow content providers. When im not playing the game, im watching vids of it:)

That being said...ofc I preffer to find a guild with decent progression. I also like the fact that you have 2 raidteams, i'm a helpfull guy, more often then not, I like joining friends raids to help and whatnot.

About you
[A little something about yourself as a person. It can be brief if you like, it's just a sort of introduction to the rest of the guild.

Im Adrian, 28 years old,I work as a manager for Vodafone, I've a dog, a cat and a girlfriend, im an open person that can take criticm and actually learn from it. I enjoy video games..duh..im a competitive player..loving dota and heroes of the storm and many other single player RPG's, I like pizza,traveling,weird humour and slightly fat.

I love everything space and science related. Im also a sucker for everything physics related, I could watch all sort of documentaries for hours on youtube. Ofc this means im also a sci-fi fan.

I also like Lord of the rings, Warhammer Universe, and pretty much any type of fantasy...be it High, dark, Sci-fi ..whatever, bring it on:)

Im a massive nerd, I wear glasses...im pretty sure I could fight 5 ppl at a time ( my best is 4 ) since i've practiced 4 and a half years of Taekwondo...but last year I quit...hence the slighly fat thingy:)...err dunno, I guess we'll socialize and get to know eachother and you'll find out more.

Miscellaneous
[If you have any extra notes that do not necessarily fit in anywhere else, stick 'em here.]

Ye,Ill add some bonus questions that might have some relevance:

1. What is your current gaming setup's specs and internet connection? Include a Speedtest
I've an I7 processor, gtx 970,16gb ram and a tv as a monitor:) Big screens ftw.
Logitech gaming Keyboard&mouse, Hyper X Cloud 2 Headset
Speedtest: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5303103489

2.What sets you apart from other players in this guild that have the same role/class as you?
Im not hoping to find something to set me appart..im hoping to find similarities skill and attitude so that we work as a well oiled machine towards the same goal and mentain the social aspect of the game alive.
Also..I hope to find ppl from wich I can learn to be a better player and in turn, if i can..add my 2 cents of advice when needed.

3.Have you ever lead a raid? If so, how many times and where?
Yes, I've raid lead in tbc and wotlk on almost a regular basis. In wotlk I was also melee role leader..than ranged when I re-rolled lock.

4.What are your expectations from a guild and what can a guild expect from you ?
A mechanically sound player with a good attitude that doesnt cause dramas. A logical person and an inquisitive one, that always strives to be better at everything he does.

I expect to find a home in this online world we spend our time in. A progress orientated home. A home where ppl are friendly and lasting bonds can be created!


Thats about it:)

Regards,
Vargnar

Thanks for your application just give us some time to review it

Update:

Got 11/13M and got my hands on a mythic weapon

Hello, sorry for the delayed response, unfortunately with the current level of performance we are going to have to decline you due to flaws in basic Paladin rotation such as poor Serphim uptime (30-36%) which should be at 50% roughly, poor Hammer of Wrath use, along with CDs being used out of sync. If you want the full feedback provided to me I can happily give you it just poke this forum in the next 24 hours the thread be locked after then.

Hello, thx for the feedback. I can partially explain why is that happening. I delay the 2nd seraphim so it lines up with execution sentenc..same with the 4th. This can explain the downtime. Could you give a bit more feedback abouth the out of sync cd usage and poor hammering?

Latelely my play was subpar, I know this. (This is because of the events that kept happening and guild disband). I know for fact I cand do better...and did better when things were "quiet".

As I mentioned in the post, I want to become a better player so yes, i'd like to hear the full feedback if its possible.

Also, considering that I was ready to transfer this week, i want to ask you if this is your final answer regarding my app. I do want to emphasize on the fact that i know I can perform better, also, in more than happy on receiving criticism and feedback so i can improve as a player.

Thank you for your time!

This is the direct copy and paste from what one of the players we have:

Latest reaver logs: Uses avenging wrath at weird times (why 4sec into pull when 1/4th of ring is gone? If he's going to chain them, which is what he did, I find it strange that he would miss 3 and 7 seconds on an ability off the GCD. Furthermore he uses his wings, a 2minute cooldown with a 30sec duration, 2m7s into reaver, which is just barely before reaver takes off. Reaver was still at 13.4% HP so he should have known reaver would take off, though I can fault it to being overly optimistic. His Seraphim was at 36% uptime, completely stopped being used while reaver was in the air, but even before that he is not "on top" of that, having more downtime than what he should.

Other Reaver Logs: Not popping Avenging Wrath on pull seems to be a habbit, avenging wrath still have huge gaps while chained, seraphim still bad uptime, used some during air phase but a lot less than outside of air phase.

Latest Kormrok logs: 3 avenging wrath over a 3min fight (4 expected), went with final verdict for hands damage, had 2 fury warriors there so got limited value out of that, though his numbers are still higher than if he would have went with Seraphim. He pooled his holy power well for the timing of the hands, being able to get off 2 casts most of the time, though the hands did die rather rapidly. His second avenging wrath is 1m55sec into the fight and there is at this point literally no time to use the remaining charges of avenging wrath because he decide to sit on them all fight. 2nd pot is 15sec before boss dies which is a 10sec loss of pot, I have to raise the question "why not with 2nd avenging wrath for 2nd hands".

"Best" Kormrok log: 4 avenging wrath on a 4m11s fight, I can excuse this a fair bit more, but he only got half the duration out of the 4th one. Holding first one for 27second like in his latest log. 3 execution sentences, 4 expected.

Latest Council log: His avenging wrath is really weird here. First one 4sec into the fight with execution sentence, second one 1m18sec (so delayed 14sec) with execution sentence, 3rd one 2m6s into the fight skipping 12sec and then not using execution sentence again before he is CRed 5min into the fight. He died at 3min into the fight which means he had at this point missed 2 execution sentences (2min one and 3min one).

Looking at his damage taken from his last raid, he does not seem to take a lot of avoidable damage, I can take a look at other raids he participated in later.

His rotation is completely off, he does not use hammer of wrath anywhere near enough. Over the duration of 2 avenging wraths he used 13 hammer of wraths, while I find other paladins using 41 in a 1m48s fight (2 avenging wrath will have lasted for 1m). He uses divine storm on zakuun, which is a DPS loss. Because of this he gets off less of every single ability, templar's verdict, hammer of wrath, all of them. He uses exorcism during avenging wrath, which just should not happen. He have no clue of the rotation, and it shows in his average DPS.

Final thoughts are he really need to actually learn the rotation. I do not believe he prepares the ammount he says he does when he manages to get off 6 hammer of wraths in an entire avenging wrath (you should at minimum with 0% haste get off 10), it's just something he put on the app in an attempt to impress. His cooldown useage is terrible, and he have some 4sec delay on avenging wrath on every single fight which I can not grasp.

Unsure I mean, I would need to talk to other people and get responses I would be more inclined to suggest to get better logs on rotation even if it is HC logs to prove you can play your rotation properly then resubmit, even if you use the same application I would have no problem accepting you off your application. I think I need more proof you can play before giving you a trial I will check.

You are welcome to apply again later after you have had some practice and tighten up the performance.

But delaying Seraphim is something you never want to do. With ring on 2 min, wings on 2 min, ES being 1 min and finally Seraphim being 30 sec, you can see that for every second Seraphim you will have it up for ES, additionally every second ES and every fourth Sera you will have Wings again (Ignoring 2-set). Hammer of Wrath should be used as the every second cast you do, and I see a bunch of Exorcisms that should not be there during wings.

With all of that your pot and general cooldowns usage is usually a couple of seconds late into the second ring is popped, losing some damage.

And for your opener I will refer you to this post:
http://longlasting-warcraft.blogspot.se ... in_12.html

The thing about delaying Aveging Wrath. I do that so it lines up with seraphim. I understand that the one that reviewed my logs suggests on popping it straight away?

Also, using divine storm( empowered) even on single target is dps loss?

I agree on the hammers. I agree that council is not one of "good" fights. I've always disliked that boss and and i do have certain issues on him.

As a final question,would it be possible to get in contact with rhe person writinf the feedback, i feel it could be constructive if he agrees on a chat.

Thx

Kramt is the person to talk to about Paladins, both the Paladins agreed with each other hence the small part written by Kramt.

Edit: By all means you can have a chat on mumble with him if you want to just add me and I can set it up emi#2760

Ok,
@Kramt, in order to use that opener you suggested, it usually means, going speed of light. Im not 100% sure this talent would be the best option. I agree its great for an opener...but say xhul for example, if you get fel, speed of light wont last for both get out-get in..resulting in us not being in melee.

Im up for testing it and I will, but at this point im not sold that the ''perfect opener'' can make up for the dps loss difference of us not being in melee in situations where we need to move out. ( xhul, zakuun seeds, reaps even)

The reason i've been delaying abilities in all honesty, is CD stacking, in this new guild im in, Inner Circle, I just didnt know the timig of stuff (didn't know how fast they kill stuff, when do they pop hero, etc). So it was all experimenting:(

The mistakes you mentioned regarding hammer are correct though, i'll work on that.

Not been on wow enough to see if you have messaged me, been taking a break apologies. Any new logs that you are willing to provide, could be posted here in the next fews days would be greatly appreciated.

Seeing as no reply I'm taking it as not interested anymore good luck in the guild you've found.

<Not Recruited>