Simmaz, Ret Paladin

A. General Intelligence
# of correct responses required (you will be denied if you are unable to meet these requirements)
-DPS apps: 3
-healer apps: 4
-tank apps: 5


1. What is the next number in this series?
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32...64


2. Suppose there is an island with only two types of people: knights and knaves. Knights can only speak the truth, and knaves can only tell lies. You run into 3 people on this island and are tasked with identifying them based what they say, as follows.

A: The two people down the road, only one of them is a knight.
/walk down road
B: This fellow with me is a knight.
C: I am a knight indeed.

If B is telling the truth he is a knight as the rules of the island state, this would make C a knight and prove that Knaves can only like (A).
If B is lying then C is lying as well, making A a knight since A cannot lie.

3. Create a dialog between two different people D and E, no longer than four sentences, that clearly demonstrates they can be neither Knight nor Knave. The fewer words in your dialog, the better.

D. You will never know that I am a knight
E. I am neither a knave nor a knight

4. What is the next number in this series? Bonus points if you can name the pattern.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...13 Fibonacci Pattern, it starts with two 1s, and then each subsequent term is the sum of the two previous terms


5. There is only one pattern at play in the following. Identify it, then complete the statement. Most applicants get this wrong.
six: three
twelve: six
four: four
two: ...three


B. Your Toon
1. Armory Link:http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow+Council&cn=Simmaz

2. What is your primary spec? Retribution

3. Can you play a second and/or third spec at a high level? If so, what is your gear level for these specs?
I have very little experience with Holy and Prot, but I am very open to gaining more experience with either spec so I am more versatile in-game for when Cataclysm releases.

4. Do you have any alts that you are willing and able to play at a very high level for progression? If so, link their armories and let us know the specs you have mastered.
I do not at the moment, once I find a permanent home for the end of Wrath and heading into Cata, I will have an alt ready for double progression.


4a. If you do not currently have two raiding professions, are you prepared to respec your gathering profession if you are given a trial?
I am currently 450 Engineering and 455 Jewelcrafting, I chose these professions for my class being that they are the most effective for end-game raiding.

C. Game History
1. How long have you been playing? How many long breaks have you taken and why?
My WoW career started when Wrath Came out, I hit level 70 literally the day before Wrath was released for retail. I have not taken any breaks from the game but I have gone through phases of hardcore raiding and casual raiding mainly due to unstable guilds and raiding cores, I love progression and I love competitive raiding, it is fun playing under pressure, even thought at times it is stressful, you never get better unless youre pushing yourself every attempt.

2. What are the two most recent progression guilds you have been in? Why have you left them or are considering leaving them?
RoKK - Kil'Jaeden
Subject for Change - Shadow Council
I left RoKK mainly because two of my RL friends that played there decided to quit, progression within the guild was slowing down and we had started to turn into a casual guild and people lost motivation for progression.
Subject for Change was destined to implode before it was created, first we were lead by a ruthless leader, and second it was a reformed guild 'made for' Cataclysm, although we did do very well for how short we were together, 11/12 HM 25m our first week in ICC.
I participated in the 'Core' 10m and we got our server first Bane kill just after 40 attempts, with a second group getting it within two weeks of attempts.
This guild was too good to be true apparently..
We had many people join the guild farm gear/titles and then transfer to maybe a higher ranked guild? Most likely a more stable guild...

D. Theorycraft
1. Link your most impressive combat log parses. How did you maximize your performance on these fights? Note that if you are a DPSer without any ranked parses, you are very unlikely to be considered.
I have talked to Kenshone about this situation in PM.

2. Link a screen shot of your UI with keybindings highly visible. How have you set up your UI to maximize your performance in raids?


I have set up my UI to maximize my visibility during raid. I have all of my abilities bound, from my engineering perks to my seals and potions.
I like to have my UI condensed so I am able to maintain great awareness.

3. How do you set yourself apart from other players of your class? Give us a detailed answer that shows us you truly understand the nuances of your class.
I set myself apart by doing everything in my power to make myself better, all the little things count when maximizing numbers and overall play, there are always basic questions I ask myself, and then improve on next time.
-How much extra movement can I cut out?
-How can I time my cooldowns/potions better?
-How were my rotation priorities different this week compared to last?
Those are just some basic things that I always try to improve on. I make sure my stats are all right at cap or above. Hit cap is very substantial for my class and I never drop under it, even if that means gemming for it with 10str/10hit gems but with my current gear that will never be a problem again.
Ret Pallys are one of the strongest single target DPS classes in the game, but we are somewhat hindered when it comes to target switching DPS, this is where seal twisting and timing CD's/Pots/engineering perks really come into play. I know some top guilds leave their Rets on PP the whole fight, in my last guild I was less fortunate and we couldn't afford to do that so I would have to keep my SoV stacks up on PP while dpsing the adds to maximize my dps and overall damage.
Strengths/Perks we bring to raid: Increased raid damage due to improved might, 3% increased raid damage and crit chance. The ability to curb some of the raid damage with divine sac or aura mastery. As a Draenei 1% hit to group. Also the 30k+ heal we can pull off when a main-tank is getting owned by soul reaper and the threat reduction incase a DPS is pulling some serious TPS.

E. Your Technical Specs
1. What kind of internet connection do you have? (DSL, cable, etc.) Wired Cable, I have been raiding on it for almost two years now and have yet to experience a DC or lag issue.


2. How stable is your internet connection? Very Stable. I do not steal my neighbors connection, my dog wont chew my wire and a tornado wont run through my house..goldfish might drown though.


3. How stable is your computer? Very Stable, I have yet to experience a 'Crash' or FPS issue.


4. What kind of ping and FPS do you get in a 25man raid environment? In a 25m raid environment I push 60fps but can fall down to 30 depending on the fight.


F. About You
1. Have you read the "About You" section in “About Zephyr: Part 1?” And are you able to meet most of the criteria? If not, why?
I've read over the “About You” or Part one of the application forum post. I believe that I can meet all of its criteria mentioned. I will be able to maintain at least 95% raid attendance, I do not complain/wet my desk over loot downing content is far more important. I believe in my situational awareness as a player and accept those terms posted.

1a. Do you meet any of the "Bonus Criteria" from "Applications: Part 1?"
Sadly I have never been a Gladiator, I think the highest I've been in arena is 1920, nothing special. I place SC2 for fun, I have never actually played it competitively.

2. Name: James


3. Age, Location, & R/L Occupation: 22 - Orange, California - College student


4. What is your greatest strength as a raider/guildie? What is your greatest weakness?
My greatest strength as a raider is my situational awareness. For example..
1. I was put into Subject For Changes core 10m just after one night of raiding with them. I take pride in receiving my Bane of the Fallen King achievement just one week after receiving my Kingslayer achievement.
2. Situational awareness, our strat for Bane was to have the off-tank rotate cooldowns and soak the vile spirits in P3, somehow he went down from taking too much damage and only managed to get half of them, I popped bubble soaked the rest while the off tank was rezzed before the next set of spirits, a small effort with big results. We got the kill just after 40 attempts.
2a. Always being prepared, whether it be watching my timers or always being on my toes because my class has so many great abilities that the raid benefits from, a huge part of the Heroic Lich King fight is defiles, I am always watching my timers, preemtively moving when needed.
3. I do my research, reading, watching, discussing. I am always trying to figure out how to maximize my production during all boss fights and especially during progression. I have a personal goal of posting at least five top world parses before Cataclysm and seeing the end of Lich King. Looking at the big picture, I want to be settled into a new home before the release of Cataclysm, I want to have time to get to know the people that I am playing with and allow them to get to know me, Cata will be very “team” oriented and I feel getting to know who your are playing with is always huge contributing factor towards a guilds success.

5. When and how often would you miss scheduled raid time? What is your availability outside of our 25man raid hours?
I am on all the time, I am always on before and after raids. Im on during off days and usually into the wee hours of the morning. RL emergencies > Game.

6. Give us a brief introduction to yourself.
I am laid back, I have a great attitude towards guildies and raiding. I love playing wow outside of allotted raid times, I love achievement farming and rep grinding. I love participating in 10man raids because they help with learning/maximizing on 25m fights. I enjoy skiing in the winter and water sports in the summer. I love going out with friends on the weekends and I enjoy being a student. I keep an open mind about everything and I am always open to criticism IRL and in-game. We all learn from our mistakes, and mistakes are rarely ever happen twice.

For a specific fight like LK, how would your questions that you ask yourself apply? Movement is a big part to that fight, any less movement could potentially lead to a bad defile drop.

Other things like your damage parses...I do hope that Kenshone will enlighten us to your situation so that we can plan our responses accordingly.

Have you looked up the fights for Halion, etc., and do you have the proper addons to help with the timing of defile/debuffs?

Gear is decent, enchants are fine, you need to regem your pants and chest since going for the socket bonus in your pants is a loss of dps, put the 10 stat in your chest and replace your orange gem with a red one.

Your UI is ok, I don't see why you would need a chat, damage meter, or omen, that long.. but whatever makes you happy.

Your keybinds confuse the shit out of me, I can assume you have macros for cs/ds and even judgement since I myself have macros for them all... I just can't tell where your are since you don't use the same icon. I'll also assume you have bubble as a macro since it's not on your bars either.

Without and parses I can't really tell much more about your game play. Good luck with your app.

The macros for CS/DS and judge are all bound to my engineering perks, Saronite bombs, GTSC, Hyperspeed Accelerators. I am using Clcret which helps but does not tell me how to prioritize when DS is proccing like crazy. Bubble is also on bind to my mouse5..
After having almost 150days played on this toon I can confidently say I am comfortable with where everything is and how my keybinds/macros work.

Yeah I didn't mean anything by it, I just can't tell what is what because like I said you use macros, like any ret pally should, you just have them with icons that aren't their own.

The only thing I spotted that was wrong was the gemming that I listed out for you, other than that you don't look bad.

Random gearing question. Why did you buy the t10 heroic shoulders over the chest? From what I just looked up the chest is a higher dps gain compared to buying the shoulders

kosinissa wrote:

Random gearing question. Why did you buy the t10 heroic shoulders over the chest? From what I just looked up the chest is a higher dps gain compared to buying the shoulders

They obviously look better.

No problem clearly, just re-assuring you that I am comfortable with my UI/Binds/Macros .
As for the shoulders/chest Kosinissa, you are correct, if I come across another token before Cata. thats what I will be upgraded next.

edit- and lol i just looked that the SS again the binds action bars all different I am in my pvp spec in that SS, thats may be the cause for the confusion?