Hiptoss Tauren warrior

Typical raid spec

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LAM00fZh ... sGo:cTdzMm

Sometimes move points into shield specialization from focused rage if i know rage won't be an issue. ALso carry glyphs when needed for Last stand if needed for survivability CDs/boss ability timers.

I sometimes use the spec below if I know I'm going to be doing more trash/multi-mob taking. This would only be a secondary spec.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LAM00bZh ... sGo:MfNmMz


1. Armory link

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... cn=Hiptoss

1a. If your spec is different than armory, link your spec.

Spec information above, hopefully it makes sense.

1b. Explain why you geared this way.(something more than this dropped so I put it on or this gives me the most dps)

Gear choices are based on maximizing EH. Stacking stam and armor as a priority. I have a few enchants/gems to stay at expertise soft cap to maintain healthy TPS as well as rage generation. Otherwise I prioritise Stam>armor>avoidance (always assuming I'm def capped)

1c. What is your secondary spec and its relative gear level?

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LN0h0fhZ ... zAo:Gomz0o

will swap glyph of execute with cleave depending on what my role is/the fight. Gear level isn't special at all. Basically what can be farmed with Triumph badges, I'm a tier behind on my dps set.

1d. How much gold do you have available?
15-20k gold, another 5k in mats, we'll see how the whole frozen orb thing goes I imght be rolling in g or stuck with 300 orbs.

2. Post a WMO/WWS (yes - even healers and tanks. We will not accept an app without one)

I will get you a WWS following raiding on Monday. I don't have anything valuable to look at right now.

3. Post a picture of your raiding UI.

http://s934.photobucket.com/albums/ad18 ... 140124.jpg

Mods seen in the photo;

power auras to track all shouts, TC, and Sword and Board procs (the white cross to the right of the toon) I use it for the same in dps specs to track bleeds and procs.

IceHUD for tracking HP/Rage and target and target of target info (HP, buffs/debuffs)

Recount cause when someone says WTF, i can infact show them WTF.

Omen

DBM (i see you requre BigWigs, which I can switch too, will just take a bit of learning).

3a. Include your 5 most used keybinds/clique settings.

Where to begin...

I bind and macro everything. I use an 8 button mouse and bind all my offensive abilities to it. So at a click I've got shield slam, devastate, concussion blow, etc. without moving more than a finger. I macro heroic strike (or cleave depending on the bar) to all my offensive abilities so I don't just white swing hardly ever.

On my keyboard I have all my defensive abilites. Shouts, Thuder Clap, disarm, Last Stand, etc. I can hit all these with my left hand without moving much at all.

On the keyboard numberpad, on the right side of the board, I've got my pots, lock cookies, raid markers, raid warnings (when needed), and things like my jetpack for gunship.

I guess the only thing I ever need to click is my hearthstone and thats only when mages put up ports to stonard.

4. Sons of Hodir rep/Inscription Level (don't leave this blank). If you are not exalted (or a scribe) your app is unlikely to be accepted.

Makes sense. I'm exhalted although I do use the 30 stam gladiator script on my shoulders typically.

5. What were your previous guilds and why did you leave?

This toon hasn't been in any other guilds in over 3 years. However this guild has been dying for a while now and I've been playing an ally toon (which sucks) with a fwe RL friends who needed a good tank. He's a pally on Alleria in Don't Panic, his armory link below for reference.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... cn=Hiptoss


5a. Raiding experience in

Original
None, didn't pick up the game til BC

BC
Moslty 10 man content, Kara, Mags, Gruuls, ZA. Did some T5 content with a partner guild but limited in TK and SSC. Didn't set foot into BT until nerf. I see this time now as learning the game/gettin hungry for more.

Wrath
Clear all 10 and 25 man regular content up through TotC on horde toon. Then guild really started falling apart so I played the ally toon more. Cleared HMs in 10 Uld, TotC and 2/5 25s. Have pulled LK a few hours in 10 ICC and 6/12 25. I believe I play at a level that surpasses what my experience has been up to this point, but I guess thats the catch in mmo's.

5b. Do you have a 310 mount? If not, why?

No, and yes. The pally yeah, but meh. On the warrior I'm the last 3 achieves from a rusted. Again, guild motivation is lacking to complete it. I haven't done the long strange achieve's mostly because I've been foolish enough to imagine guildmates would do the rusted ahcieves with me. I'm confident my ally 10 man would get a frostbrood vanquisher, but I'd rather put my energy into my warrior he's always been my main in my mind.

6. We raid Tues-Thurs, 7:30-11:30 PM PST. Monday's added in on heavy progression, and Thursday removed on farm. What times will you make? Have problems with?

I can make this schedule work. I live in EST, so this is late enough to only be an issue in emergency situations when time wouldn't matter anyway (not that I anticipate any emergencies).

7. Why do you deserve a raid spot?(Something more than "I r deepz" is good)

I'm a skilled player. I pick-up mobs quickly and efficeintly. I use my CDs to keep myself alive.

I learn from my and others mistakes.

I keep quiet on vent when I don't need to be talking. I can figure out when I'm not in charge and when I need to step up and say something.

I study fights, boss abilities and room designs to best understand a fight and how to beat it (finding the third skull from the pointy part of the floor as 11 yards away is useful).

I'll get loot when it comes. I don't get butt-hurt over drops.

8. What do you spend the most time doing outside of WoW?

I'm fairly serious about exercise. I train regularly, not for anything in particular just life I guess.

Beer is also delicously entertaining.

9. Pick a question from another guild's application that you like or one that you wish we'd asked and answer it here. Put a real question - nothing like "Why are you so awesome?"

I found a question on a different app that asked, "how do you handle being yelled at?"

I thought that was pretty interesting. 1, it seemed like they were expecting and asking people to plan to fail. 2, it seemed to set a presedent for the RL to be a dick.

I get that fights can be stressful and that RLs have a lot of responsibility. I get that 1 person can cause a wipe...or lots of them. So yeah people being vocal and being critical is expected, when its my place I'll call people out too. I don't do well with people that only have big balls because they are on a vent mic and when you try to take it up with them in a more mature/orivate way later they avoid it. I'm not confrontational, but I am not afraid of conflict. Yelling sounds like drama and drama is a raid and guild killer in my experience.

thanks

I'll get into some more detailed stuff later, but why are you applying on your Horde Warrior when you've got a Paladin who's more progressed through ICC? Is this going to cause problems with dedication to multiple characters? We don't require you to be on THAT particular character at all times, but if you're missing stuff because you're too busy on another character, that doesn't reflect too well. Just wondering how this would work in the long run.

I see that I could have been more explicit with this.

I want the warrior to be my main. He has always been my main, at least in my mind.

I had a horde pally that I faction changed to ally about 6 months ago to play with a real life friends' guild that needed a tank. I only did this as my horde guild was grinding to a halt. We hadn't done any 25 man content since the first few weeks of ulduar. Despite my efforts to be a part of the solution; being active in recruiting, building a website, etc. I needed a break from the horde guild as it was too disfucntional.

I started really playing my horde warrior again 2 months or so ago as the horde guild started to resurge. About 2 weeks ago our guild had about 25 people gquit over loot. The trink off 25 saurfang went to an officer that didn't deserve it. So, we dont raid again and nobody is trying to rebuild, "maybe in cata" is the response I get from them when I ask how we're gong to get off the ground again.

I could go back to the ally toon, but don't want to. I'd rather find a permenant home for my warrior, and on the horde side (lok'tar ogar and all that). I'm looking for a stable place to play and to progress deep into this game.

When I find a place that is right for me and the warrior I will faction change my pally over to wherever the warrior is. So, the short answer is no, I wouldn't be playing the pally in any way that would interefere with my warrior.

hope that makes sense.

thanks

Hi Hiptoss!

First and foremost, I want to ask you about your trinket choices. Perhaps those are just what you logged out in for a max-stam encounter, but do you have any others with more than just static stamina? The Black Heart is good and easy to get, as well as heroic Ignus trinket and both the frost and triumph trinkets.

Why no ilevel277 Ashen Verdict ring? The instance has been out long enough for most people to accidentally get exalted :P

Also, why have that expertise gem in your belt instead of another 30stammer if you're at 26 expertise?

Last question is strange but also important. What was the funniest wipe that you, as a tank, have ever accidentally caused?

Thank you for applying to Roadrunners.

Fair questions, I hope to explain.

The extra red gem in the belt is what actually keeps me at the expertise soft cap, 26. Since you asked about it I've been doing some research on expertise. It seems that the importance of staying at dodge cap for TPS drops off withe higher gear levels due to inherent strength and the improved scaling to shield slam, concussion blow and the coming changes to revenge. Is this what you've found, that the need for expertise has lowered? I am only trading 6 stam for the 10 expert by getting that socket bonus, but can easily change that out if the soft cap isnt as big a deal as I initially thought.

I was 250 rep from the top end ring, I hit exhalted tonight.

I had been "renting" the armor trinket and trading it back when I wasn't using it. I bought it again tonight and won't revendor it. With badges as they are, not really sure why I was still doing this, habit i guess. My trinkets do suck. I don't have any better stam trinkets on this toon atm. I run 25 TotC every lockout, but still no luck. In the few runs of 25 ICC i've done with this guy the gunship trink didn't drop either. So trinks I do have, block one from 5 main VH, def one from 10 man Thaddius, dodge/armor from 10 TotC, dodge from 5 PoS, and the armor badge trink. Farming the blackheart would be easy enough, but I wasn't aware that the numbers bore out for this being a more viable trink for warriors.

As far as wipes go...back in OS I got myself douched by a lava wall and knocked back into a tornado, that shot me way out of heal range. Consequently Sarth ate the raid. And for a bonus, screw up...as a pally I respec'd my ret spec to a second prot spec for add tanking in the colosuim floor of 25 Thorum. I use a mouse-over macro for BoP, but I didn't put the macro on my bar, I dragged the one straight out of my spell book. So, when I went to BoP a clothie when the adds were whirling my auto self cast BoP'd me, no aggro, eaten healer.

I wanted to get a WWS ready for this post, but I'm not getting it to successfully upload. I'll see if I can fix it and post, if not I'll get more data Wednesdday.

thanks

It feels like you've rushed this app a bit early on your warrior.

I'm also concerned in that I don't really see real hard mode progression in the past on either character although I might've missed it adding up the dates. It looks like your TOGC kills were after ICC came out. And you're Ulduar kills were at the tail end too.

How much experience do you have progressing on heroics? And what do you do to prepare for them? You mention you can play at a level beyond your experience (something everyone hopefully does at some point!). What makes you think that? What gives you the edge?

And what do you as the major difference required of a guild working on heroics compared to one that isn't?

I can see your point on the warrior. I feel confident I am doing what I have him/ get him in line and don't feel that he has any major deficiencies or is a liability in any way.

Yes, the ulduar kills came late. I started in on them within a week or 2 of joining with the ally guild but TotC was out. Realistically this was the first time I was reallly around enough people that had a similar mindset and desire to get HM kills.

I believe the TotGC stuff was on time. I'm certainly not claiming to have been competing for firsts, but we didn't get the kills just because we were overgeared and stomping them.

As far as progression goes, I have my experience from TotGC, but that was all in 10s. I did do a trial with a HM guild in Ulduar on my warrior back when it was relevent in 25s. I was not prepared and I knew it. So, I took a step back to learn more about the game and get better. I feel capable of learning but realize that the place to learn isn't in a progression guild. There's too much going on to expect to really teach a member of the raid, particularly a tank.

As for why I think I can be a part of progression and what I think makes a progression guild different from other guilds. Attitude is a big part of it. Desire to kill content, regardless of the wipes. Focus, to put wipes, mistakes (yours and others) behind you and have your mind right to get the kill. Skill, playing with your head up, looking at the screen, knowing where all your spells are and accessing them without looking at your finger whle it pushes a button. The ability to learn and adjust, for progression you can't just wait until the strats are available online and just do what ciderhelm says, you have to problem solve and come up with the ideas. You have to be able to change things, sometimes slightly sometimes dramatically to make the changes necessary to win. At the same time though you have to be willing to put your time in outside of the game to learn the boss mechanics, find any availiable information on the fight, the room design, and possible strats to be as prepared as possible before you get there. Getting caught by surprise gets you killed probably every time.

thanks

I can't really think of many more serious questions to ask you that haven't been brought up already. You seem to know the class tanking mechanics pretty well and you have shown personality and thoughtfulness, which is refreshing... you aren't just a stat-regurgitating robot. Just a few more questions if I may.

You mentioned macros in your app, could you please expand on what sorts you use and how they help the raid as a whole?

Since you have a dps spec in addition to the tanking one, why not spec for full mitigation instead of the Deep Wounds threat build? Also, when in the aforementioned mitigation build, what glyphs would you use?

Let's say you and a couple other raid members were killed by, I dunno... let's say... a Darkfallen Tactician, and we don't feel like dropping a Fish Feast for three people, what food do you use?

After going strong in a raid for a few hours, we're allowed a 5-10 minute break. What do you do with that time?

Also, when you get the tanking 4pc (which is meh, but good to have for some encounters), which of the tier pieces will you swap in to get the bonus, assuming they are all of equal ilevel?

Thanks for the dap and of course you can ask more questions, it's your forum afterall.

As for macros. I macro almost all my abilites with the /cast !heroic strike or /cast !cleave to reduce or eliminate white swings. I use modifier macros with my shift key to do different abilities, i.e. charge with a button or intervene with shift + said button. I use a mouseover taunt macro for quickly grabbing up loose or incoming adds. If/when in fury or arms I have a mash macro to switch stances and equip my tank weapon/shield. Target macro's for known adds coming into a fight that I need to pick up and occupy. Overall these help the raid by me being able to react more quickly to situations and do my job more effeciently and effectively.

Your second quesiton has me a bit confused. I am not sure what you mean by referencing my dps spec and how that affects my prot spec. I run with my current prot spec as the most "all around" spec for mitigation and threat. I am spec'd that way because survivability hasn't presented a problem in the encounter's ive been doing. That said threat isn't an issue either so I could change to higher mitigation without issue.

To answer the second part of that quesiton
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LVZGV00x ... sGo:dTrozm
if I needed to rely on the more powerful shouts on my own, i.e. no other warrior with me.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LVZGEZVI ... sRo:drTzmM
If I'm not responsible for keeping commanding shout up.

Tacticians suck. As a general rule I focus more on keeping them stunned more than tanked. But I get your point. I would never expect to see a fish for just my benefit. I typically carry stam/agil and or stam/str food with me also if I'm lacking severely on hit or (gulp) expertise I will carry that food with me too. I would enjoy any of these munchies depending ont the situation if such a case arose.

As for raid breaks; usually it's a cycle of pee, refill my water, grab a beer then back to the PC to repair my gear and depending on what's next prep whatever i need to (if its a fairly new fight review the mechanics, pop a noggenfrogger, whatever)

As for the 4pc question it's easier for me to think of this in terms of what non-set piece I'd want to have equipped, and that would be the pillars of might. So I'd go for the set helm, chest, shoulders and hands. That would give me a the highest amount of armor available with those gear choices. I would probably need new boots though as I would lose def off both my chest and legs and could even swap out a minor glyph as bloodrage wouldn't hurt me anymore anyway.

thanks

I believe what praeto was getting at is since you do not have two tanking specs, one for mitigation and one for threat, why not have your tanking spec for more mitigation instead of more threat.

Ah-ha, thanks for the clarity.

The prot spec i've been using was more for an all around/utility spec. Gives me good mitigation and max threat.

The questions though got me thinking more about it all, and I changed my very under used Fury spec to a max mitigation spec to test it out. I guess I can just do my JC's dailies as prot...

Threat isn't an issue outside for the sindragosa fight. The total lack of strength on the frost resist gear does let the dps creep up on me a bit there though. I will try out the max mitigation spec in 10 ICC tonight.

To answer why, probably mostly habit. This process has been fun and very helpful. It's got me thinking and being more intentional with my toon. Our guild has like 5 prot pallies and literally no other warriors so it's been good to be challenged by a warrior-knowlegeable group.

Here's some WWS data from last night 10 ICC.

http://wowwebstats.com/uierocwwkryjo?m

I've only gone over a bit of your WWS, but so far so good. It's a difficult site to navigate on my slow work computer, and will give it more than a cursory glance tonight. Perhaps I was looking in the wrong place and didn't see cause I'm a baddie, but how often have you been keeping demo shout/tclap/shield block up?

Would have also liked to see heroic throw used a bit more... it causes 'high threat', certainly more than a sunderless devastate when all other threatening offensive abilities are either on cd or have not been procced yet (ie about 1.5 sec until shield slam is off its natural cd, revenge is on cd or not up, conc blow and shockwave on cd as well). Plus it costs no rage at all /warriorwood.

Also didn't see mocking blow utilized as much as a 1 min cd should be (again maybe I'm blind or fail at WWS).

ALSO also, awsome job keeping your white hits to a minimum. I myself find it tough to use heroic strike to its maximum potential (mine is bound to mouse wheel down).

Super ALSO also, if you see something that I don't on your own WWS, please let me know!

Does Heroic Throw still reset the swing timer? I haven't tested it in a while, but if that's the case, is it still worth resetting your next Heroic Strike in terms of threat? Honest question, I haven't tanked seriously in ages.

I'm not sure, a recent tanking threat flow chart included heroic throw as last-ditch threat move to use to 'Max' threat. Will post a link to the chart on the appropriate forum later.

Edit: According to a 2008 wowhead post on heroic throw, it does indeed reset the swing timer. The warrior was enouraged to 'time accordingly'.