Accepted : Garrit - Paladin 1/11/8

[Azunai]

Hello,

I'd like to apply to Dead Men Raiding, so I guess here's my app:

Me:

My name is Bob Balm, I am from the Netherlands and I'm 20 years old.
I'm a student in Communication and Information Science at the lovely city of Utrecht. I live with my parents but I'm looking into getting a room in Utrecht.
My internet connection is a fast and reliable cable connection and my computer specs are enough to run WoW on 1280x1024 full detail @ 40 fps in raids (except for those new fancy shadows =( Need to get a new vidcard sometime). I've been playing computer games since I was about 6 or 7 I guess... all kinds of games, fps, rts, rpg racing etc.

I've mostly raided Pre-TBC, with Righteous (MC, BWL, AQ40 and parts of Naxx). Post-TBC I've seen up to and including TK just once, I've mostly filled my time levelling alts and I've also taken a break of a little over a year.
I've been in Righteous RG2 as raidleader, it split up so I moved to Prometheus. Prometheus was great but it has stopped raiding. Now it's more or less a ghost guild, hardly anyone on, and while they're great I don't think they'll manage to get to raiding in WotLK.

I do have alts, yes. Right now my intended main for WotLK is Garrit, my paladin (endgame spec to be decided given the inc. Ret nerfs, I'm thinking about tankadin). I also have a 70 hunter (Azunai), 70 Priest (Hayllen) and a 68 warrior (Azunaii), and some other low level alts that I barely play though. Right now I'm mostly found on Garrit.

Aszune's been my home since 11-02-05 so no cross-realm applicant in me. I enjoy the game mainly from a PvE perspective. I plan to enjoy the 70-80 process thoroughly, levelling first my paladin for getting to 80, then doing it over on my hunter to explore the more of the lore. I do not intend to rush the process on either toon, but I won't take ages either. I'm interested in seeing content, hence my application to a raiding guild. When instancing I enjoy efficiency and a certain degree of professionalism, while keeping atmosphere dictatorship-free, if you catch my drift. I do what I'm told, and I do it right.

I don't like most of the PvP aspect since I miss too much PvE in it (kind of the point of PvP I know). I like AV though, and have some hopes for Wintergrasp, but things like WSG or Arena are not for me.



My character:

My character's Armory Profile: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Aszune&n=Garrit

It's worth noting that I'm of not much use pre-WotLK as you can see my gear is still fresh lvl 70 stuff (only dinged 70 about 2 months ago). As for my spec, I'll use WoWhead as a substitute:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZaxZVfrtdIucrsgzAo

The above would be my endgame ret spec. If you ask me it provides all possible bonusses a ret paladin can ask for. It has the ability to heal smalltime up close (Divine Storm is getting a boost next patch as well), the mana battery, and a 3% crit (Heart of the Crusader) and 2% dmg  (Sanctified Retribution) boost for the entire raid. I took kings for small instance utility and in the case no one else with kings is around. I dropped Vindication for this (and 2 points in Sheath of Light), because Vindication doesn't work on most raid content anyway. Art of War furthermore allows me to sustain myself (and possibly others) to some extent due to the instant flash heals.

EDIT: I realised the other day that the above spec was filled out for lvl 70. I corrected it to add the last 10 points, which have gone into Sheath of Light, Pursuit of Justice, imp Kings and Vindication.

Since dual spec is intended for 3.1, and also since I'm not sure I'll spec Ret for endgame, here's what my tanking spec would look like (I also would be more than happy to fulfill primarily a tanking spot, it depends on how entertaining Ret is endgame):

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sZaxVA0ugteIRhoVf

Off the bat I have to say I'm not an experienced paladin tank yet so this build is prone to critique and change, but I think it suits the needs of a paladin tank overall. I couldn't think of any low tier must-have talents in the other trees so that made it fairly easy. One thing I'm not sure about is Divine Strength. Those 5 points could maybe be used to fill up the higher tier talents I didn't fully take. I left out Judgements of the Just as I am not sure if it works on raid or instance content. If it does it's probably worth investing 2 points in, that I would take from Divine Strength in that case.

EDIT: Same here, the original build was set to 70, added the final 10 points. Added Tier 2 talents in Ret tree and filled up some holes deep below in Prot tree.

I decided to play paladin because of the changes in WotLK. My toon was already lvl 35ish at that time, so I lvled it to 70 and kitted it with some easy to farm S2 gear. I started out with paladin when I started WoW, but stopped to play it when it turned out not to be a sort of 'space marine' like crusader but more of a .. well healbot but not so efficient at that either thing. Now that Paladin seems to be going in the direction I want, I picked it up again. Paladin itself has no special preference, I like and can play all classes to a good extent, in my humble opinion.

I think Paladins in their current state can fulfill, dependant on spec, all essential roles in a raid except ranged. With the dualspec feature upcoming I'd like to fulfill important roles (I'll spec either healer/tank, or tank/retri) because I like to be in control of those roles. Tanking especially can make or break a raiding group and since I like to see myself as an easy to talk to and well-performing person, I can see myself fulfilling such a role.


This guild:

I know it sounds cliché or kiss-up, but what I expect of DMR is precisely as you posted it on Aszune boards. Raiding times that suit me, yet the aim to perform, and all that in a social atmosphere.

''Dead Men Raiding'' - Makes me wet.. no seriously, it makes me think of a guild partly filled with old-timers of the raiding caste and also with players who don't like being rejected because they can't be available 24/7, but who do have the dedication to perform regardless of their timeframe. Also, it makes me think of zombies (the pain is still fresh ;_;)

I've not looked into many guilds yet, this one caught my eye on Aszune boards. Also I've got the feeling it's not such a smart move to apply to a settled guild right before expansion release. It might have changed alot at 80. A guild created purely with lvl 80 raiding in a certain form in mind (like Prometheus was at preTBC) oft performs well endgame because its members are likeminded.

Your memberlist is rather ...mixed of all games and WoW-armory is being a bitch and not loading so I can't really check up.. but since I see bits of SoG in the how to join link, I might know some people. Lots of the people I played with in the very early stages of WoW (before Righteous) went to SOG in the end (Torir and Menedil the two biggest examples) and I got along with them really well, although I don't think they're still with you. I'd have to check armory later and get back to you on this.

Yes, I've read your documents. I like the philosophy part especially. Like you state it's something many look for but few find, and luckily there's more and more people taking up the gauntlet to form their own guilds around this concept. Would love to see it in action.


Annoying questions

A guildie says something you find offensive, what do you do? I shut up and ignore them, unless it's personally aimed at me. I used to respond to pretty much everything during Righteous, and that wasn't always the best thing to do (especially during the split-up time, everyone was kinda edgy).
Cake or Pie? Some hybrid of both really needs to be invented, but I'd have to say pie. No apple or crazy fruit in it though, just normal pie. With lots of cream, delicious. Cake is also great but it's rather..normal. But add some cream and I'm game!

That was all I think! Hope to hear from you soon!

Regards,


Azunai (or Garrit..I'm so used to Azunai though)




P.S.: This app is for my paladin, but I can imagine you get loads of paladins applying since the changes. I'm more than willing to bring Azunai (whom I consider a second main rather than an alt) in as a hunter should that be required. I love playing both classes equally, the paladin just offers me more responsability in a raid (being able to tank/heal).

[JonnyAppleSeed]

Thanks for taking the time to fill in a very nice application.. They usually get back to you within 48 hours. GL with the Garrit and hope to see you soon :byebye:
 
Ps yes a forum clean up will be coming soon

[sheepy]

a ncie mature sensible application i see no problems in you coming on board, just want to confirm with a couple of the other guys b4 we give the full go ahead

[JonnyAppleSeed]

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