Your Name, Age, Gender and Location:
Alex, 25 and from the UK.
Tell us a little bit about yourself (non-WoW related Interests, Hobbies etc)
I'm a chemistry PhD student, finishing up in the next couple of months. Takes up a fair amount of time but the rest is spent either running or learning foreign languages, some for practical use others just for fun.
Character Information:
Merinicus, Protection Paladin
Armory Link:
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/chara ... /merinicus
Battletag: Merinicus#2837
Describe your choice of talents and why you've chosen them:
Talents vary quite a bit, paladin is fortunate to have a range of options for survival or DPS and I regularly change depending on boss/difficulty of content.
Holy Shield vs Blessed Hammer depends on whether incoming damage is physical of magical and changes per fight. If survival is no issue then BH provides a bit more dps. The next tier with real options is Spellwarding and this raid it is not an option, every fight has something where Spellwarding excels and can trivialize mechanics negating huge amounts of damage (can provide exhaustive list on request...)
Unbreakable spirit/Final Stand/Hand of the Protector can also vary, I tend to run with Hand as that spot heal can be a lifesaver but each has its place in a raid. Judgement of Light is standard and can provide considerable raid healing though Aegis is niche use for an extra raid CD but positioning is very particular and requires a channel.
Last row is a mix of incoming damage type and DPS again. Narrowed down to Righteous Protector/Seraphim, physical damage survival is RP and then DPS or high spell damage fights Seraphim is the option due to Shield of the Righteous charges being less impactful for reducing incoming damage when spent on actually casting SHOTR.
How do you prioritize your stats and why?
Boringly, ilvl is king. All secondaries contribute in some regard, though Haste > Mastery > Vers > Crit is the standard for survival. Niche roles and tactics can change this but unlikely to make or break.
Where do you acquire knowledge about your Class?
Primarily the Hammer of Wrath discord or trawling through logs working out what people are doing and why. Sometimes I'll sit there with pen and paper and do the maths myself. Talking to others works well too.
Paste a your UI via [img]LINK[/img] IN COMBAT
Slowly pulling it back from Raid Leading style so undergoing some changes with less clutter.PS. Please fix MoveAnything.
What state is the state of your Heart of Azeroth?
60 on my main and 55-56 on several other characters. Mostly rank 3 essences on the paladin.
Link to your raid logs using using [url]LINK[/url].:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/character/eu/hellfire/merinicus
Raiding History:
Describe your previous/current raiding experience:
Raided since TBC, casually as a hunter/holy paladin in Karazhan (clear), Zul'Aman (2/6 pre nerfs) then I dabbled in 25man raiding Gruuls (1/2) and some early SSC/Hyjal. WOTLK I got more invested in raiding, clearing Naxx 10/25, ObbySanctum, 10man Malygos. Ulduar 10man clear and (I think) 7 bosses on 25, Algalon 10 and the preceding hardmodes. TOC heroic 5/5 on 10man and I think 4/5 on 25hc. ICC 10/12 10manhc and 5/12 25manhc, Ruby Sanctum 10/25. Cataclysm I ran a guild and raid lead, first tier very poor but Firelands was 6/7hc (10) and Dragon Soul 8/8 heroic (10). All WOTLK/Cata done as Prot paladin and some other classes.
The day MOP launched, I began university. This began a long break from WoW. I played during holidays, got AOTC in MSV but no other raiding than LFR. WOD I returned as a social player, joined a friends guild 6/7 heroic in Highmaul and 9/10 in BRF (25man). Took a break from the game, returned in mid HFC whilst finishing my masters still casual and we cleared normal mode and 3 heroic bosses. All WOD was played as prot paladin/MW monk/mage.
Cue another break, start of PhD. Returned at the end of Legion. Joined a friends guild for BFA launch and raided casually (7/8heroic, 1/8mythic uldir) before joining my current guild where we went 5/8M uldir, 7/9M BoD and currently 3/8M AEP.
Tell us about your previous guilds and your reasons for leaving them:
All guilds up until Cataclysm when I ran my own were for better progress except the last one, Fusion (Ulduar->TOC->ICC->RS). This was a great guild but the GM and an officer transferred and the guild fell apart. That combined with study leave for my GCSE's felt like a good time to try do it myself. The WOD guild was Boogie Knights a former established guild on Hellfire which collapsed in HFC. I then joined The Death Tribe for BFA a social guild on Hellfire, but left to pursue mythic raiding. I left this for my current guild Tre Lowen as TDT lacked the desire to do so.
With TL, I've agonised over this decision for a while. I was the raid leader for about 6 months but recently stood down. They're great people I have a lot of friends there and I've enjoyed it, but there are stark differences in aspirations for raiding and effort that people are prepared to put in. I thought about looking for a more suitable guild in late BOD but then the 8.2 release date was announced and I was not prepared to leave them with a new raid imminent, I've seen the damage it can do. Can go into more details on teamspeak/discord if you're interested.
More Information:
Can you meet our raid schedule of Wed/Thur/Mon 21:00 to 00:00 server time with at least 90% attendance?
No problem, think I've missed 2 or 3 raids since November. I tend to know my schedule well in advance and can give warning. I'm away the coming UK bank holiday weekend but no other plans in the foreseeable future.
We also raid on Sunday at the start of a new raiding tier. Are you aware of this?
Yes
Are you able to Listen and Speak on Teamspeak?
Yes to both.
What qualities do you bring to a Raid?
Years of experience and plenty of game knowledge having been a raid leader over several expansions and playing all 3 roles. An attitude involving a desire to learn then finding ways to put it into practice. Highly analytical nature (part of my job). I think I can demonstrate a high level of mechanical skill and am ready to own up to any mistake I make during a raid.
Throughout late Cata and all of MOP, I was the author of the mmochampion protection paladin guide and currently I get involved in the TankingTuesday paladin section on reddit each week. Communication is important both in and outside of raid.
How comfortable are you playing your offspecs?
Comfortable in terms of knowing how to play them and how to improve, where to find resources etc. Inexperienced however as I've always just been asked to tank. Certainly up for the challenge and confident I could do very well, just not exceptionally from day 1.
How do you feel about progression raiding?
It's the fun part of the game. Some of the most fun I've ever had raiding was pulling, failing miserably, finding out why and constructing solutions. The kills are satisfying, the problem solving is fun. Wiping however many times is never a problem provided there is discovery and learning going on.
Where did you hear about Curse of Years and do you know anyone in the guild?
When I properly returned to the game, my beautiful server of Hellfire was even more dead than it was years previous. People from "Arathor" had appeared, and I saw CoY about, particularly a few weeks ago when one of your shamans killed me in Nazjatar. I know Harrydh in the guild and I've narrowed the shaman down to 2 who I would approach with caution.
What encouraged you to apply to Curse of Years?
The desire to push harder with raids with players who take the same attitude to raiding as I do. The raid days and times fit in with my life as well as they could. The guild has clearly performed well over the last few years and I've spoken to Harry a lot about it. When raid leading I've regularly used your logs as an example of what to do/targets to aim for and thought I could fit in with that.
A negative push from TL as well - mostly comes down to raiding aspirations which told me it was time for a change, a few other reasons that I'd explain over Teamspeak but don't want to write negative things about a guild that I've enjoyed being in for the last 10 months.
Do you play outside of raid?
Every day. I play numerous characters and specs and this requires time investment. I've never felt the obligation but do it for the benefit of any team I might play with. Teams kill bosses, and when we needed that DH or that DK I knew I could do it. I cap many characters on M10's each week to keep up. I just like playing the game.
Is there anything else you'd like to add to your application?
Well the obvious problem - I'm a tank and as far as I know, you don't need one. Harry encouraged me to apply anyway. I would always throw my hat into the ring as a potential and I'll always do the role I love most, but I play the game to raid and kill bosses, not to raid and kill bosses *as a protection paladin*. If I were to need to earn a raid spot as something else then I hit the keys and the sims, play the benthic lottery, farm islands if necessary and get on with the job. I've actively played all 6 tank classes throughout BFA and feel comfortable on any, so learning something else wouldn't be an issue.
It might be seen as a risk (for both of us) if you wanted to take me on as something else though I hope my logs demonstrate that I can press buttons in the right order which at times can seem a rare skill. Would be an investment into what I hope I can demonstrate is a solid player, and I wouldn't have applied if I thought I'd waste your time with it.
Fairly open on possibilities, have some preferences, if this is something you'd like to look into then might be worth a separate chat about it to see if there is a Me sized hole in the guild.
Other than that, thank you for reading at least some of this extensive wall of text.
Tell us a joke:
I occasionally stream our raids, guild takes advantage of my tea breaks to speak to my Alexa.
https://clips.twitch.tv/LivelyBovineAxeBudStar