Name: Levon

Race, Class, and Main Spec: Undead Protection Warrior

Armory Link:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/defias-brotherhood/levon/simple

What's your name and where are you from?
Samuel, United Kingdom

How old are you? Please express your answer in Reverse Polish Notation.
10 21 + or in hex 0x1F

How long have you been playing WoW? What experience do you have of endgame raiding?
Ive been playing off and on since around patch 1.4. Ive raided MC/BWL/AQ20/ZG at 60, Kara/SSC/Gruul/Mag/Eye and a little of Hyjal/BT and a couple of Naxx runs at 80.

Is this your main? How often do you play this character? Tell us about your other characters, including any serious alts.
Yes this is my main, I have a rogue and a priest on another server that I no longer use. I dont really play alts though I may start off a goblin and a worgen to have a look at their starting areas.

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?
Right then, my first guild was Avatar of War on Azjol Nerub. When I hit 60 I eventually moved to a raiding guild called Dark Matter though it wasnt the most welcoming of places. I left and joined a friend's guild called Vita Luna and did a little more MC/ZG raiding with the odd BWL run. After that I left to set up a guild was a friend called the Wolf Pack and we ran it fairly successfully from the end of classic wow till about mid way through TBC. A lot of people moved on and so I felt it was time to go as well. I played a little bit in WotLK in a small guild setup by a friend and did a few pug runs but I wasnt quite the same. I moved a character from Azjol to Defias to play a bit with an old friend and am currently not in a guild.

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.
You can talk to Denathos, Savian or Myssa.

What is your role in raids? How do you judge whether you're doing a good job or not?
Well my role in a raid would be either main tank or off tank depending on the raid composition/encounter. I expect I would have to switch to a dps spec from time to time if required. The only real measure of a tanks ability is TPS or threat per second. If you know your rotations and you are not undergeared you should be able to stay ahead of the dps classes, boss permitting. You have to watch your position, the position of the boss and any other factors in the specific encounter and keep an eye on your healers to not break line of sight. I would also be aware of any mobs that were running free for whatever reason and try to get them back under control.

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.
My choice of spec currently is one more suited for 5mans/heroics. I have not picked up Vigilance since I can only see the use of it in a raid. Ive gone for some of the aoe threat talents such as Blood and Thunder, and Thunderstruck. They both make tanking groups of mobs a little easier. For raiding I would probably move a few points around maybe drop the Thundershock talents and pick up Vigilance and full Cruelty.

Where do you go to read about your class outside of the game?
Ive been using Tankspot and Elitist Jerks.

Please provide a screenshot of your UI during raid boss or dungeon boss combat.
http://img810.imageshack.us/i/wowscreenshot.jpg
Im just running Omen and an addon called Tidyplates for a bit more threat information.

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.
Levon was born and raised in Stratholme. He joined the city guard as soon as he was able to due to not wanting to become a baker like his father. After serving for several years he was promoted to corporal and was given responsibility of one of the guard posts on the approach to the city.
During Prince Arthas' purging of the city he died trying to protect the citizens since he himself had eaten the infected grain and was also a target of the prince. When the Scourge occupied the city he was one of the many raised to some semblance of life again. He fought against some of his former comrades during the war and when Sylvanas tore herself free from the Liche King's control was freed as well. Although much changed, he still tries to protect those he can.

Additional notes. Optionally, mention anything else you'd like us to know about your application.
Ive heard that you ask people to raid 2-3 night a week. Im not sure I can attend that many. If that means I can only join as a social/casual player id be very happy to do that.

Huzzah! Protection Warrior! We haven't had one of those since Naxxramas.

Since most folks are still in the process of leveling and gearing for endgame content, and I don't know as much about plate tanking as I probably should, I'll just ask this: What do you think of Cataclysm tanking right now, versus Wrath of the Lich King tanking (and previous expansions/vanilla)? What do you like and/or dislike about it?

And if you do join us for raids, how often would you be looking to get a spot?

What the heck is this ?


On a serious note you mentioned some addons that you currently use, if you were to raid with us would you find it useful to perhaps go fetch anything else? What would that/those be?

Not much into the plate tanking as Ekhan said but being a healer and having a warrior alt I would like to know what your thoughts are on the Impending Victory talent?

/ Vedder

*thumbs up* I like meatshields!

Yo!

As a warrior, what abilities do you have in terms of recovery.

For example, someone has butt pulled a pack of four mobs and they've all gone for different targets. How would you go about picking them all for up?

I've heard that stacking stam is not the best thing to do currently? Is this true, what should tanks be going for? Is it class specific?

Thanks

Cataclysm tanking is pretty good , warriors have some decent aoe threat tools, good single target threat and still have their emergency buttons in shield wall/ last stand. Enraged regeneration is a nice addition since TBC, while it is not Death Knight level self healing it all helps and the talent trees are a bit easier to manage now. I didnt tank much in vanilla wow so I cant really compare it.

I mainly like the challenge of it.

I would probably be able to do 1-2 times a week.

Deadly Boss Mods is the most important raid related addon I can think of. Since the inbuilt raid frames are much better now I dont see much need to change them. I might also try some kind of actionbar addon to clean up my interface.

Impending victory is a difficult one, I havnt seen the need for it in normal 5 mans yet. Id say it might be an idea to try it out for heroic/raid tanking but ive not read much positive about it .

Well challenging shout is the button I usually hit for emergency multi target taunting. But if I had a couple of seconds warning or CS was on cooldown I would have to use a combination of rend/thundershock with a few cleaves and a shockwave to try and get them under control. This is contingent on me getting some of the mobs within my aoe range.

Well yes and no. Stamina is good but ignoring block/parry/dodge/mastery etc is really bad. Id still use +stamina gems for socket/meta requirements. Mitigation and Expertise/Hit gems have their place depending on which stat you need improving. If you start talking about other classes it gets a bit complicated due to the different value that mastery has for each class. Once a warrior reaches 5400 combined avoidance mastery begins to have equal or greater value than dodge/parry. Im not sure if/when this happens for druids/paladins/death kinghts.

With regards to the healing side of heroic dungeons that is, atleast every bit of selfhealing on a +100K healthpool would be more than welcome , since it generates threath aswell and is even more powerful with the Field Dressing talent I wouldn't cast it aside right away, but being a healer on fulltime comes along with some workissues . Will in due time level my own warrior up and play around with it.


I would also like to know what would be keeping you away from attending 2/3 raids/week (hoping it's not too much of a personal question). Is it the specifique raiddays, times or the general idea of contributing 7ish hours of WoWlife to raiding?

Well have yet to make up my mind on Imp Victory for raiding but ill give it a go when I start doing some heroics.

As to my raid days, its a combination of work/other hobbies and the fact that I used to raid too much in the past that makes me unwilling to commit past what I have already stated.