Hello, Iron Edge!
I am applying for the main raid.
Character: Atlanteans
Armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/Kazzak/Atlanteans/advancedClass/Spec: Paladin (Healer)
Member Type: raider
Personal Info:I'm Ryan, 19 years old and from Northern Ireland. I'm a first year at university, studying physics (unfortunately... so many ragretzzz). WoW is my main hobby and I've played it since I was 12.Once I learned you could experience being part of a team without having to stand out in the cold and wet playing sports I was sold :p (in saying that, I do go to the gym and keep fit). I’d rather sit in a pub and talk with good friends than get wasted in a club with strangers… although that has occasionally been known to happen!
Class/Spec:Main spec: Holy (ilvl 690)
Off spec: Retribution (ilvl 680 – missing a decent trinket, currently 630)
I raided as retribution back in WOTLK, and in cataclysm I didn’t like the changes to ret so I rerolled and started playing disc priest and fire mage in casual PvP when combustion was insane. When I began raiding again mid-MoP with friends I switched to holy when I realised I had a natural talent for healing. These days, since I’ve been playing and raiding since I was (literally) a child I find no challenge in the DPS role in PvE and much prefer healing for this reason. I can’t explain why I don’t like tanking, but I REALLY don’t like it - it almost feels like it doesn’t suit my personality.
Stat priority: Int>spirit>crit>haste>multistrike>vers>mastery
I always prioritise gear with spirit over gear without. As a healer more mana = more options. I push my mana pool to its limits on every fight I do. I feel like I have failed to reach my potential if I end a boss fight with excess mana, because I could’ve cast more expensive and faster spells and therefore done more HPS.
As far as a priority or rotation goes, in the vast majority of cases, I place 1 beacon per tank (if there are 3 tanks beacon swapping will be involved). I always pre-mastery-shield the tanks before the fight begins to make the pull as smooth as possible. I always prepot at 2 seconds on the pull timer and use a mana pot during. On progress fights some guilds like it if the healers dps until they need to heal and I am fine with this. Holy prism is my strongest heal, but I have read that it’s not worth using on CD unless it will actually heal people (i.e. the mastery shields it can generate aren’t worth it on their own). It is better to save it for when people take damage since it is so powerful. Holy light is my filler heal and if there is nothing to heal I will usually spam cast this on the tanks (refunding 40% of the mana cost each time) both for the healing and for the mastery shields. I use holy shock on cooldown because it is instant and to generate holy power and infusion of light procs (which comes from holy shock criticals, part of the reason crit is so good for us). I consider eternal flame a free holy light and use it accordingly (since the HoT is nowhere near as significant as it used to be).
Beyond this, I do whatever the situation requires. If there are not 6 people stacked around me and the damage is minimal I will holy light spot heal people, if the damage is heavy and holy light isn't enough I will flash of light them (using every infusion of light proc I get, of course) since FoL and holy light heal for about the same, but FoL is quicker and more expensive. If 6 people are stacked up holy radiance becomes worth it and I start casting light of dawn at 3 holy power. Unless assigned, I decide where to use avenging wrath on a boss-by-boss basis for maximum healing output. If a DK tank goes into purgatory I immediately lay on hands him. If we have no blood DK I use it when I think the tank is about to die, or near the very end of a fight for extra mana.
Gruul is the only fight so far in mythic where I haven’t used clemency, either for the 2 sacrifices, HoPs or both. If unassigned, I try to use sacrifices when the tanks will be taking heavy damage. I use the glyph of merciful wrath so I have AV available as many times as possible during any given fight and have personally found this to be a massive HPS boost. The Sanctified wrath talent has been shown time and time again to provide the highest overall HPS.
Basically, paladin is a very easy healer to learn to play and a very difficult one to master simply because it is so simple. Being a good holy paladin relies more on quick reaction times and good decision choices than the other healers in my opinion, and this is why I play it. It feels much more active than any of the other healing specs I have tried (in PvE). I don't enjoy playing healers like shamans where a totem will heal for you, or druids where channeling one spell saves the day.
Alts:Traditonally, back in wrath, I put all my focus into one character to try and master it. I have found myself in a similar position now in WoD, despite having 5 level 90s and 3 level 100s simply because I feel a lack of content in the game to motivate me to play an alt. If I needed to fulfil the DPS role in a raid I would simply play ret. I tried to gear my level 100 elemental shaman, but find ranged dps to be incredibly boring and easy. Being forced to do LFR to gear makes this infinitely worse. I have PvP alts but consider these irrelevant.
Professions:Enchanting and jewelcrafting. Before profession-specific bonuses were removed this was a common combination, nowadays I keep it to make gold with and find the convenience of being able to do my own enchants and gems (and those of a few friends too) for free to be extremely desirable. I strongly dislike what they have done to professions in WoD.
Raiding Experience:Summarised old content:
Wrath: As ret I was GM and raidleader during naxxramas/ulduar/TotC and cleared normal with some hard modes both on 10 and 25 man. I decided to join a hardcore raiding guild and cleared 11/12 hc ICC and nearly got LK hc. Started raiding again in MoP as holy during ToT casually with a group of friends through to the end of siege. Eventually became an officer in this guild.
Current progress: 4/7 mythic 7/7 heroic HM, 3/10 mythic 10/10 heroic BRF. Had 4% wipe on Gruul this week (dps died in smashes...) and the guild I was in also had already downed oregorger, so I have first-hand experience with 5 mythic bosses so far. Hungry for more!
Previous Guilds:Avarice: was an officer in this guild with a few friends. We cleared highmaul hc before BRF was released but struggled in BRF hc due to a very poor roster. To try and remedy this we merged with another guild, but the merge failed and we ended up right back where we started.
Mors Certa: we transferred to Kazzak and joined this guild, but experienced déjà vu with the merge situation, we decided that we couldn’t go through another merge after just coming out of one.
Agnostics: Was supposed to join this guild with my friends, but half of them stopped raiding and the other half didn't enjoy the raid atmosphere. Their raid leader just quit because he didn’t feel that people dying in smashes on gruul or wiping because ranged dps don’t know how to spread on flamebender (etc, etc, etc) was a good way to show appreciation for his hard work. I left because I honestly don’t think they can do mythic without him, and didn't enjoy the raid atmosphere either.
Availability:Available both raid days every week for the foreseeable future (unless there’s an apocalypse). I don’t find it hard to manage university and raid reliably at the same time, even during exam periods (except maybe the night before an exam, but this is an exceptional circumstance and i will probably feel like there's an impending apocalyse so...).
Communication:I have no issues with talking on TS where appropriate and when the need or desire arises.
Computer / Connection:I rarely have fps or lag issues. I have a custom built PC and recently upgraded the RAM and operating system. I have a stable ethernet connection both at university and at home.
Addons/UI:http://imgur.com/editI made my UI myself back in WOTLK and have simply updated, upgraded and maintained it since. Of course I have all the standard stuff like DBM, but I also have a way to track anything I need to, e.g. i have indicators on grid which show me who my beacons are on, what the mastery shields are currently at for each person, whether they have eternal flame, if they have a dispellable debuff (or any relevant debuff e.g. if they’re hit with I spear on beastlord).
http://imgur.com/flR5NyKI have separate, hidden action bars for my binds and this is standard for all characters. I needed to do this because I want to be able to move spells around on my action bar freely without having to change the bindings around too, and this was also a massive issue with dominoes when switching between specs since the bindings are the same for each spec. Also I have an action bar close to the middle of the screen/beside grid so I’m not staring at the bottom of my screen.
http://imgur.com/BRGQVyyI use clique to heal and most of my healing spells are bound to my mouse. The list is pretty long, this is just a few of them.
I will probably upgrade my UI again soon when I get the time, I intend to make use of Tell Me When and will get an addon to track things like CRs and raid cooldowns, but so far have found my UI to be more than sufficient for mythic raiding.
List:
Angry assignments
clique
combopointsredux
forexorcist
grid
kgpanels
pitbull
prat
satrina buff frames
recount
rclootcouncil
quartz
sexymap
speedyactions
tidyplates
dbm
Other Games:I play LoL with friends now and then, but I devote so much time to WoW that any more time spent at my computer would probably be unhealthy! (I use this as an excuse for not doing uni work too, of course).
Why Iron Edge?I prefer 2-day a week guilds because they allow me to have more of a social life and not fall behind in my grades, however I still want to progress in mythic and finding a guild with the right attitude to do that and still have fun is very hard in my experience. From what I can see, you guys have it down.
What can I offer Iron Edge?I’m reliable. I'm experienced. I'm exceptional at my class. I have over a year of playtime in WoW (270 days on Atlanteans alone), so I know this game in and out. I don’t die in fires, and if I mess up I won’t make the same mistake twice. I come from a time when raiding was a more enjoyable social experience, when being part of a community mattered, so I know how to have fun at the same time. I still speak to so many of my old friends from years ago in WoW because of this.
Where did I hear about Iron Edge?wowprogress
Last Words?Pick me pick me!!!
But seriously, just in case you're not convinced, here's a couple of recent logs of me getting ranked:
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/1xhymoiudhpx42gz/http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/x6wi904vrwd6p8lo/http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-0bnvbvtgb3xpgf15/http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/el5zt5pmp8sgmogi/
Apply as a Social
Name, age, location, work/school, etc.
Healer
Tank
Why are you playing your current class/spec? Is it simply because it's strong or because you think it's fun?
Any relevant alts you have and their levels.
What professions do you have and why? Any cool/special recipes?
What previous raiding/PvP experience you have, Setups, Ratings etc.
Previous guilds and reasons why you left them.
Times at which you are available. Include things like work shifts, upcoming exams, holidays, etc.
Are you proficient in english? Do you have Discord and can you listen? Do you have a microphone and do you use it?
Do you have a decent computer? Do you have fps issues? What's your internet connection like? Is it stable? Do you have high ping to Kazzak? Do you lag? Do you disconnect every hour?
List any addons you use for raiding and why you use them. Also include a screenshot of your ui (this is mandatory) and list any relevant key bindings that are not shown.
What other games do you play?
Why do you want to join Iron Edge?
Friends? Wowprogress? Openraid? MMO-Champ? Battle.net? Trade spam? Somewhere else?
(Write the name of the owner of the dog in the picture above!)