Name: Razortusk
Race, Class, and Main Spec: Troll Warrior, Protection.
Armory Link: here

What's your name and where are you from?

My name is Aleš (pronounced Alesh), and Ali for short, that's how my friends call me, so... yeah :)

How old are you? Please express your answer in Reverse Polish Notation.

I have absolutely no clue what a RPN is, so I'll just substitute it with a Soviet Russia joke! In Soviet Russia, babies make YOU! And I'm 23.

How long have you been playing WoW? What experience do you have of endgame raiding?

Depends. I am subscribed for some 6 years now, starting with vanilla patch 1.4 (I think..), and taking some breaks during that time, explained further. Just keep on reading ;)

Is this your main? How often do you play this character? Tell us about your other characters, including any serious alts.

Yeah this is pretty much the only character to whom I've given all my love so far during all my WoW career. Got some 115 days /played. Only one serious alt now is my cute female goblin Warlock.

What's your complete guild history, on this realm as well as any other? Why did you leave / are you leaving your current or previous guild?

Hello my friends, stay awhile and list... erm... read thru a wall of text!

During vanilla, I was just an average raider. Got some experience in MC and on Onyx... one or two ZGs. Then I got bored and quit for a year until TBC came. During TBC, I didn't raid at all (not a single raid, can you believe it?) mainly because my pre-previous server had like no viable guilds... so running heroics was all the endgame I have done. Then another break came when I got bored again, until the next expack. When I bought WOTLK, I xferred to Dentarg just to escape the horrible community that was on Drak'Thul, a 99% (of total population) douche-infested server.

Knowing no-one on my new home realm, I responded to a random LF MOAR PEOPLE TO GUILD on a tradechat the very first hour I logged in. I was accepted, got to know many cool and laid back people (some of whom I still miss playing with), leveled up, got to raid as a DPS, eventually becoming a Class Leader, later Officer and Raid Leader. The times were pretty epic with the top being our glorious time when we had like 85 people online at one time with 2 25mans going (would provide you screenshot if my harddrive wouldnt crash about two weeks ago)... then I got bored again and quit to take a break when we had naxx on farm status.

The time came after some odd year and a half later, feeling prepared for another expansion pack. I logged in again, got immediately invited back by my old Guildmaster, just to see that the guild was now in ruin. Many people quit before the Cata came, and the rest just dispersed into the other guilds. We struggled to make a raid, and the performance just wasn't great. Then my irl mate told me that he has a plan to create a raid with 10 people who know each other irl, with years of skill under their belt. I didn't hesitate to xfer the following week.

So I got to Defias Brotherhood, getting into the new guild. Started grinding for gear, waiting for the people to level and xfer their toons, helped them equip themselves... but days passed and there was virtually nothing done... after some weeks we started assembling raidgroups, and almost everytime we had to pug some people, the plan just started to crumble. We started to do pretty well in nerfed BWD/BoT, but a try in firelands was a disaster... two and a half hours of wiping on shannox - barely getting one dog down, and I started to feel something ain't right there.

Moving to the present, the reason I came on this server, that being playing with some of my irl friends, is dissipated. People who are supposed to raid with us dont even login anymore, or dont sign up for raids, my two irl friends who were the sole reason to xfer dont play anymore. There are only three people who I really like in my current guild that are holding me there at the moment - and they are the ONLY thing holding me there.

Yesterday Luminor and the troupe pugged me as a tank to Firelands. We got 6/7 down in the normal raidtime. Yeah I failed a little bit here and there, solely because I was there for the first time and was quite confused until I learned the mechanics. And I told myself... I had a blast, and yeah, this is what I'd like to do!

Provide the names of some people we can get in touch with in-game as references. Please note that references are required: give names of characters on other realms, if necessary. If you know anyone on the Path, either in-game or IRL, mention that here also.

From your own ranks, it's Luminor and all the guys who were on raid 3. 8. 2011 (sorry guys I'm really bad at remembering names QQ), my friends whom I spent a really long time here playing with are Sorra, Lerak, Redentor, Sarniellis. One of my fellow ex-guildmates at Azrael on Dentarg who still plays is a hunter named Kridence on The Maelstrom server.

What is your role in raids? How do you judge whether you're doing a good job or not?

I'm there to have fun, to entertain people, and to do a good job tanking the hell out of the bosses. Well, if I die during a bossfight or someone else gets aggro for more than (insert the number of seconds it takes the person to die here) seconds, then I guess I didn't do a very good job and if we down the boss without a wipe I did a good job (me being alive is just a sweet topping on the cake).

Describe your choice of spec, how you came to your current build, and any other things you feel we should know about why you spent your talent points the way you did.

Since one day a really imba-equipped frost DK kept stealing aggro from me like mad in BWD, I decided to go with a single-target optimized talent build investing in Incite for that little aggro gain and Drums of War because there's nothing worse than wanting to interrupt and having no rage. Sorry, no piercing shout :P

Where do you go to read about your class outside of the game?

Google, elitistjerks, mmo-champion. But I'm the kind of guy who likes to figure out everything by himself, so guides are pretty much useless for me. Only thing I'm directed by is 26 expertise and 5% hitcap.

Please provide a screenshot of your UI during raid boss or dungeon boss combat.

Just a basic blizzard UI with a few addons, I'm leaving to my friend's flat after I send this application, so I might post something later on.

Roleplaying Section: End your application with a short in-character biography, a note from your character to the officers, or other RP story or RP statement about yourself. Effort is much more appreciated than length or content, and your application will not be considered without it.

Helllooooooo! I'm Lindsay Lohaaaaaaaaaaaan!

Erm ok.. now on the more "serious" part:

A troll walks to you slowly, then looks you in the eye and shakes your hand.

'Ey mon, glad to meet ya. He grips your hand firmly with a friendly glimpse in the eye, which is kind of unusual for the bloodthirsty race the Trolls are. Me name be Razortusk, a seasoned warrior, who used to be a Legionnaire once. He stops for a while, reminiscing about his previous battles and achievements. Then he starts explaining why he came to see you.

But dat be a long time ago. I was pokin' around for fun when I heard your troupe callin' out for a warrior into dem Firelands. Da warrior who would protect your party from harm. I knew about a place like that, saw pictures, and heard stories, but never been there. Then he begins to tell his story excitedly After proving meself worthy, we went on and journeyed to dem Firelands. The creatures of tha fire I saw for da first time in me life, but stood vigilantly against dem. Finally, with a few more scars on my face and a few new dents in me armor, we got to see the Ragnaros himself. I was gripping my sword and shield tightly when I saw him, but we were all getting exhausted already, so there is yet a story to be written about the Firelord's downfall.

He sighs a little, with a relieved look on his face. I had fun with ya guys, and I liked how skillfully we took dem bosses down, dem spells in their faces, de swords and daggers swinged and stabbed in deir backs while dey were tryin to hurt me. And I'd like to get dat chance again and again, as I have me skills to offer to ya! Finishes speaking and awaits your response.

Additional notes. Optionally, mention anything else you'd like us to know about your application.

Oh yeah, I study college, mechanical engineering to be precise. And I do some pvp now and then. And it took me quite the time to write this app! Otherwise than that, cheers and thank you for your time, also I commend your patience for reading it all the way thru. :)

Heya Razor! Good to see you here Was an interesting read and you're a great guy as we noticed in last night's raid. Unfortunately, I know nothing about warriors or tanking so I'll leave those questions to Tjivi, Lumi and Tau!

I have a few other questions though:

- How do our raid times suit you?
- What combat addons do you use? I recall hearing you say you didn't have DBM last night
- Beer or wodka (or something else)?


Sav.

I like you! ^^
And it does show that you put some effort into this! Nice RP with alot of feeling in just a few lines!
Have heard some about your raid last night, and to me it would seem like you're off to a good start, altough you'll probably be grilled a bit by people who accually know stuff about warriors and tanking.
Although I think I missed where you come from? If not the soviet Russia joke was a hint.
GL!

His eyes gleaming faintly from his deep eye sockets, Garnath leans back and measures the scarred troll as he presents his offer to the officers of the Path. A shadow of a smile sweeps over his face at the naive view of the Firelord Ragnaros and his monstrous henchmen, as well as a cold hand of concern grips what's left of his intestines.
Glad not to be the one making the decision, he silently observes and waits.

cant rly say much about warriors either, so im gonna let tjivi and arache do that, but from what i saw in yesterdays raid you did some few mistakes, basic mistakes as a tank but that is very easily fixed, and most got fixed.
you have to get DBM. its very important.
and thats basically all from me today gl!

Hey Razortusk,

A few words from me...
I'm gonna be honest with you, we are currently in no real need of another tank. So I was wondering how your off-spec is currently laid out?
If you by that meaning would be interested to convert this application to a melee dps one instead of a tanking one, ofcourse you would be able to keep your spec as prot but we will most likely not be able to fit you into many raids with it.

On a sidenote question for both of the specs could you elaborate this line a bit for me:

What exaclty do you find valued in gearing for this?

Hey guys and sorry for the late reply, irl has been pretty hectic the last two days, so just about now I have found myself some time to get it back and rockin' :)

@Sav: The raid times suit me pretty well. I'm used to raiding at these times.

Combat addons I use are... Mik's Scrolling Battle Text... since my harddrive crashed three weeks ago i'm way too lazy to use my curse client to get forteXorcist for watching coolwodns and DBM... well... I might just set it to download while I am typing this, right? :D

Beer, definitely! As we from Czech Republic are the #1 consumers of beer in the world and also produce the top quality ones (Budvar, Pilsner Urquell and many moar :D).. I had one accident with vodka at my friend's house where I drank too much of it and then puked all over his toilet with his mom seeing all that :D But it ended up good, not counting the hangover :) Else, cocktails! Tequilla sunrise!

@Garnath: As I mentioned earlier, Czech Republic is the place to be ;)

@Luminor: Hehe yeah I know about them, when I run away from the mob I'm not a subject to parry or block the incoming attacks :) But I was quite nervous and this OMFGWTFBBQ BIG ANGRY HUNGRY FIRE BIRD HUNTING ME HALP!!1 Moment got the best of me :) I just need to get everything under my skin to execute properly ;)

@Vedder: Aw, that quite makes me a sad panda as I invested helluva time in making my tank equip. BUT, even before I bought wow with my irl mates, I KNEW what I was going to be... A troll, that was definite. And then either a dual-wielding warrior or a shaman. I'm stuck with warrior ever since.

That brings me to an answer yeah I'd like to DPS, as single-minded fury build, why not. But my DPS gear is somewhat sub-par (loads of 353 items, few firelands-reputation and two 359 trinkets, will logout with my DPS spec on so you can take a look later. If I were to get a spot, I'd craft my self 2x obsidium edged cleavers (or how those two axes are named :D) and hit a training dummy for an hour or two to get some nice DPS :)

About the caps thing: For tanking: threat generation. Base miss chance for 1handers and special attacks is 5%. People were telling me hit is useless stack for avoidance and fsck hit. Well I did... and although you have like a 4% chance to miss, you WILL know that on a DPS fight when you miss one or two devastates/shieldslams/whatever that the aggro you are keeping with some mad dps started to actually fall a little below 100% instead of increasing/stagnating. I noticed it especially in firelands.

DPS: I currently have a PVP build which I switch to PVE (arms),I need to optimize it quite a bit. The same goes - damage. Base expertise and miss chance are 5%.

Here goes RP!

Me be seein' you be a cunnin' fella mister Garnath mon, he snickers. But just so you be seein', I'm not only good at defending my friends, while he slowly unsheathes his sword in the left hand and a mace in his right hand , but also dealin' some pain to dem enemies! he starts swinging wildly with the weapons, a nearly enchanting look of his masterful moves. He finishes the combination of the attacks and sheathes his weapons back. The room is quite full with a scent of blood, although none was shed . So you might as well mention these skills to your colleagues.

Thanks for the elaborate reply! Though you might have to wait a few days for some meaningful text from others, seeing as the Luminous Path guildmeeting in Sweden (PathCon3 for the insiders) is in full force right now

Thanks for the heads up Sav. Hehe hope you guys are having fun there!

So, I'm just going thru converting myself to Fury. I'll be done sometimes around tomorrow, I'll post when I'm done, during that time feel free to ask moar questions or whatever

Hey guys, bumpitty bump. So I've finished tinkering out my DPS build. This is what I'm willing to raid with. I spent some time and quite a few thousand gold on getting where my equip is now. Nothing worldshattering, that's true, but I hope you would be willing to give me a chance. If recount ain't broken I can dish out something between 16-20k DPS depending on the fight, trinket/enchant procs and kindness of the RNG.

You can see it in the full glory here

Feel free to shoot me with questions, and I hope you had a good time at the guildmeeting.

Hope to tak to ya soon.
~Raz

Heya again Razor,

Sorry for the slow replies on this topic, just dropped in to say that we are not ignoring this, even though it may seem like that but as Savian already pointed out most of us where away for a weekend rendevous in Sweden. Most of us are back now so we'll probably shoot you with some more questions.

I like the fact that you are willing to convert to a dps one instead. I don't know much about warrior dps but will come with some questions at a later time and lets see if we can't have an answer for you soonish.