Atlantíc (Holy Paladin)

Introduction

Firstly, I'd like to say hello, and thank you for taking the time to read this application. I intend to write this in a great deal of detail, but also hope to present the information in a way that is both easy to read and navigate. Whilst writing a huge and in depth application is great, I understand it is a pain when It's presented in the form of a huge block of text, where it is hard to pick out the important information and the additional information. I hope you find it both impressive and interesting.

Personal Information

Name: Ben Mason
Age: 19
Location & Nationality: England
Current occupation: Studying Music and Music Technology at college, working towards becoming a music teacher, but who knows? Also doing part time work at a super market.

In-Game Information

Name: Atlantíc
Race: Blood Elf (female ofc)
Class: Paladin
Specialization:
Holy
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#ba!002201!iPSkOj


Retribution (Off Spec)

WIP, literally just changing from protection. Of course linking a talent spec is no longer too necessary as it can be changing constantly to suit the fight, but this spec is the standard one I would go into a raid with, and then adapt if needed.

Glyphs?
There is really not much to be said about glyphs, as there is not a great deal of variety in terms of beneficial holy glyphs. With the exception of divine potection and divine plea, there are not many other glyphs that I can see my self having to use.
Professions:
JC: 600
LW: 580

Reason for choice?

Jewelcrafting Provides a 320 Intellect gain through using 2 Brilliant Serpent's Eye, and Leatherworking provides a 330 Intellect gain through the fur lining bracer enchant. As it stands right now in terms of profession perks, the professions are not that far apart, but another great option for me would be to replace Jewelcrafting with Tailoring, as that would provide both cheaper leg enchants, and +750 spirit on my cloak, which during progression could in fact be better than the +180 intellect standard enchantment.

Secondary Professions:

None of them are quite capped at 600 yet, but my cooking is good enough to provide feasts and myself with the food I need, and my first aid is also capped, which of course is the main reason to level up secondary professions.

Armory Link:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/dragonblight/Atlant%C3%ADc/advanced
As you can see, I have a number of options to improve my gear before I start raiding, such as continuing to farm the last few heroics, get the Blacksmithing gear, and get the Darkmoon Faire trinket, unfortunately with my current guild situation, the trinket was not a priority until it was too late (See Guild History).

Theory Crafting And Knowing My Class:

Rotation:
Of course, the existence of a healing rotation is nothing short of a myth for any class, but each spell that litters a holy paladins spell book is unique, and each spell is valuable in different situations. Holy paladins have been a near vital addition to ten man raiding for a considerable amount of time now, and right now is no exception. From raid wide damage mitigation, to individual damage absorption and bubbles, paladins bring a huge amount of things to the table. From past experience I have found that there is a great separation between the people who play holy paladins. A huge amount of paladins I have come across do their simple job of healing the raid up, but do not use their class to it's full potential. Use of cool downs effectively whether it is performance enhancing buffs such as wings, or damage mitigation such as Hand Of Sacrifice, Blessing of Protection and Devotion Aura.
I will not pointlessly rant about how to play my class, as I am not writing a guide as to how to play a holy paladin, and I am sure you are not here to read about it. I will however outline some of the main points.

Basic Spell Priority:
As a general rule, periods of low damage require only a beacon on the tank, or a target you know will need the heals, and using holy light, holy shock off cool down and word of glory/eternal flame with 3 charges of holy power. Periods of heavier damage will require holy light to be replaced with Divine light, and in an emergency flash of light can be used, but this is only if you think that the target will die before the longer Divine Light cast would finish. In terms of AOE damage a holy paladins job is as simple as holy radiance up to 3 charges of holy power, and Light of Dawn to finish it off.
Mana Control: With the introduction of a mana cap, mana control is an even bigger role than before when healing. Going into a fight blindly over healing during progression is a death wish, because you will be OOM within the first minute. With the combination of Divine Plea, Arcane Torrent and a Potion Of Focus, mana can be regained through out the whole duration of a fight. The key is to get as much out of the spells as you can. With correct timing these mana regeneration spells can be used 3 - 5 times per fight.
As an addition to the use of cool downs, I always try and be within melee range if I can. This is so I can melee swing the boss which can provide mana regeneration through Seal Of Insight. I can also use Crusader Strike to generate holy power, this is extremely cheap in terms of mana usage, and great when not much damage is being taken.
DPS - But I'm A Healer!?
In their current state, holy paladins can get some great burst damage out when needed. For example during the beginning of Gara'jals fight, I can pre pot an intellect flask and pop both my wings and divine favor (as I know I will still have guardian of ancient kings, another potion and Holy Avenger if I need to boost my healing out put before the used CD's are up. With this technique I can pull around 40-50k dps for a solid 20 seconds which can be the difference between a wipe and a kill on a boss that has a high DPS requirement.

Stat priorities and reforging

My current stat priority looks like this:
Intellect > Spirit > Mastery > Haste > Crit

Intellect and spirit will always be on top for holy paladins unless the role of the statistics change. Intellect is of course vital to increase healing output, and spirit is mandatory to be able to heal for long periods of time, especially in progression.
There is some argument between what is best for a holy paladin, Mastery or Haste? I have been stacking Haste until very recently. Haste used to grant an extra/faster ticks on Holy Radiance, a spell which was used so much during 4.3 (with many fights involving stacking up and taking AOE damage), but since then HR has been changed to not be a HOT. Many believe that leaves haste no where near as good as the mastery absorbs. From what I have found the line between which is best is still quite small, but with haste purely reducing GCD and spell cast, and mastery adding large absorbs (which without stacking were already providing a large percentage of my overall healing on meters), logic shows that mastery is on top at the moment. That being said it is not a huge difference and those that use haste can often do just as well.

References and keeping up to date:
I use a mixture of Noxxic, Icy Veins, Elitest Jerks and MMO - Champion to gather information I need on holy paladin changes and theory crafting. I think it is important not to completely rely on theorycrafting sites, a bit of self experimenting and investigation goes a long way.

Alts:

Hunter: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/twisting-nether/Ent%C3%A9i/advanced

Rogue: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/twisting-nether/Knuckl%C3%A9s/advanced

Due to my very casual play style through cataclysm, these are gathering dust.

Raiding Information

Availability:
The raid times listed on the website are absolutely perfect for me, and I would be more than willing to raid later or on extra days if needed to progress. My evenings are on the most part free (apart from occasional gigs and work on saturday nights)

Communication:
Communication is definitely key in a 10 man group, as it is such a small and close network of people who rely on each other. Being able to call out instead of type things is a huge advantage and I am always ready to use my microphone. That being said I know when to shut up and listen, and also when to give my input if I feel it is appropriate.

Raiding Experience:

I didn't really start raiding properly till Wrath Of The Lich King, at this point I decided to start my own guild with some friends and raid together, very casually. Although we were not playing at a high standard I learnt a lot about raid leading and guild leading, and the game in general, and I can now have empathy for other raid leaders and appreciate decisions and certain things they might have to do.

Here is a list of my progress, in respect to when the content was current.

WOTLK:
TOTGC: 4/5
ICC HC: 12/12 10 man, 10/12 25 man
RS HC: 1/1 10 man

Cataclysm:
BWD: 5/6 Heroic
BOT: 1/5 Heroic
TOTFW: 2/2 Normal

FL: 7/7 Heroic
DS: 8/8 Heroic (late kill)

MOP:
4/6 Mogu'shan Vaults Normal
(Most bosses done on raid finder and some done on normal during Beta)
Guild History

I have been playing since late vanilla, but only really did anything noteable when I came back to wow after a short break during late WOTLK. As I mentioned before, I ran my own guild named <Natural Perfection> over on the alliance side of Ahn Qiraj. It was only me and some friends running a guild purely for socializing, and that is exactly what I treated raiding as back then. Another way of socializing through World Of Warcraft. That being said we still managed to clear 5/5 TOTC and get our lich king kill. With the introduction of Cataclysm I knew I had alot of real life constraints that will result in me not being able to attend a specific raiding calendar. With this in mind I packed my bags and moved over to frostmane where I could easily pug something everyweek. After spending quite a while witha guild called <And an Imaiginary Friend> the guild disbanded due to the release of SWTOR. This is when i went to twisting Nether as horde.

With 4.3 came abit more time for me, but still not as much as I had hoped, I joined a friend over at "Nexus" where I got my 3/8 HC DS. I then met a player named Carneros who was setting up a second team for "Flat Earth Society" (World 194th), which I decided to dedicate myself too. Since then I have been with FES trying to get the second group of the ground. Within 1 week however, acouple of the team we had got together decided to wait until MOP, including Carneros. With this a friend named Gellrin took charge along with the assistance of me and others who were dedicated, and we spent a good 2 months trying to get the team up and running. But ofcourse, even with a leading guild title above our heads, recruiting a full team of players to the standard we were after was hard, and unfortunately before we had succeeded, the main team decided to transfer in time for MOP. This of course lead to the disformation of the second group. I actually was offered a place to tag along, although I could not be promised raids, Salmis (GM) had offered me a spot if I wanted it. Unfortunately the raid times are just not possible for me (as I previously said, I just can't raid from 14:00 - 20:00 and so on!) Salmis will willingly vouch for me if needed.

My long dedication to what appeared to be the doomed from the start second team for <FES> shows my dedicationa and loyalty. I like to think of myself as a likeable guy. The reason I am after a 10 man guild is because I feel the social aspect raiding brings in a 10 man environment is alot better. I understand a team should be a close group of people who can work well together and that is what I am after. I know my experience does not do me justice, and I want to fill my potential in the next expansion.
With that in mind I applied for Monsters Inc over on Dragonblight (currently within world 100 ranking, I raided with them for the end of cataclysm. It all went great, but unfortunately an ex officer, and unluckily for me, holy paladin returned to the game. Of course they knew him much better than they knew me, and for that reason alone I was pushed aside. I have since been raiding with the guilds second team, and although progression is "tidy", it is not at the level I really want to be at.

Gameplay

UI & Addons:

Here is a picture of my current UI, bare in mind Grid would not be this much in the way during a 10 man raid.

Larger Version: https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img692/3358/wowscrnshot101212192940.jpg


Keybinds & Macros:

1-5, ctrl 1 - ctrl 5, alt 1 - alt 5 = spells and CD's

Shift and w = Movement speed increase

ctrl + s = Hand of sacrifice mouseover macro

I have all my cooldowns put into one macro for 1 click powa button, and then individual one's hot keyed to use throughout fights. This one button to burst everything I have is excellent for getting through the last few % of a boss.

Computer Specs:
AMD FX 4100 Quad-Core Processor (3.6ghz) - Soon to be OC'd to atleast 4ghz

GEFORCE NVIDIA GTX 480 gpu

8gb ram

Windows 7 64 bit

Internet



World Of Logs & Raid Bots

[i]http://www.worldoflogs.com/guilds/194244/ & http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-lqv0fbfl3sbak4il/sum/healingDone/

These are taken from the second group raids with Monsters Inc, when originally killing them I ranked acouple of times, off the top of my head I ranked 88th for Gara'jal The Spirit binder.

I also ranked a few times in DS heroic back in 4.3. Here are some extra percentile rankings from Raidbots, baring in mind that this was a very un motivated and stressful time in my "wow career" http://raidbots.com/epeenbot/eu/twisting%20nether/atlant%C3%ADc/#Yor'sahj_the_Unsleeping-25N-501 http://raidbots.com/epeenbot/eu/twisting%20nether/atlant%C3%ADc/#Morchok-10H-501 http://raidbots.com/epeenbot/eu/twisting%20nether/atlant%C3%ADc/#Yor'sahj_the_Unsleeping-10H-501 http://raidbots.com/epeenbot/eu/twisting%20nether/atlant%C3%ADc/#Lord_Rhyolith-10H-501 http://raidbots.com/epeenbot/eu/twisting%20nether/atlant%C3%ADc/#Omnotron_Defense_System-10H-501

Why Pick Me?
So what brought me here? I have been on the hunt for a guild to spend MOP for a long time now, constantly checking wow progress and other sites to find a good home and Corecrew was one of the guilds I feel most suit what I'm looking for, and after careful consideration I have chosen to apply here. I understand that there is not a lot of experience but I truly feel I am up to the standard and will be a good addition to your guild. I understand the need for friendliness and the need for a 10 man team to get along, and I love people. One of the reasons I play wow is because of the social side of it, i have made so many friends and memories in this virtual world over time and I love it, and i have been eager to make more of the one's I made back in vanilla. I very much want to start playing at the standard i've been meaning to for years now, but every year something has got in the way that I did not play and put me out of any chance of getting a decent progression, due to this i have been forced to guild hop looking for a home for most of the expansion, and now it is my time to settle down.

I apologize for the length of the application, but I hope it shows my dedication, enthusiasm and the fact I am willing to put in the effort. I don't want to come across as arrogant, cocky or up my own backside, but I understand the need to sell myself :p, I hope I have not given that impression because the truth is my wow history is nothing hugely impressive, but I hope I have shown skill and ability, and I hope I can have a chance to put that potential to use for a change.

My armory will be updated soon once I spam afew heroics and auction houses to get the things I need to be ready for heroic content.

Thanks for reading this application, look forward to hearing your reply, questions and criticism.

Despite logging on the realm earlier today and late last night (I had alts on here once), I failed to realize the realm is currently locked. As I am cross realm that's a big problem that might make accepting me impossible, regardless I'd still like to hear some feedback, never know what might happen in the near future, and what possibilities there are to work around it? Maybe I'm being to optimistic with that, it is Blizzard after all

Feedback:

We know the bonuses of each profession. No need to explain how they work.
Only secondary that matters is cooking. To make sure you get max stats from feats.

Abit to much holy pala guide material. But it shows if you know your class I supose.

All in all. I think its a very good post. However I feel it lacking abit of the WOW factor.
But the quality of the apply got me to take the time to read and repply. Which is rare.


Actual reply:
A good apply with lots of info. However I dont see a fairly new healer with relatively low high end raiding experience will be able to preform on the level we want.

Lets face it(Dont tell our healers this). Healing is by far the most difficult role in this game. And alot of it comes from experience.

However I think would like you if you can preform like you give the impression of.

Anyway lets see how the healers feel.

I like that you put enough effort into the application to make it very readable.
However the content of it is not what we are looking for in this guild.
There was several points in the application where I felt that you aren't at the level we would need you to be. I'm not interested in pointing them all out for you but to give an example that is easy for you to understand:

The effort you put into your char is very low. Our raiders ofc leveled up the first 24 hours some that couldn't get off work etc in a few days. Then they spent a few days in running a fair amount of heroics each day. We stopped there before the normal raid as we know we wouldn't need more then that for it and we managed to score a 87 rank on clearing it with the heroic gear, after the normal raid as we expected people would turn revered and AH would crawl with epics not to mention the DMC became availible. You will see every raider has the dmc and most of them even pvp gear because that is currently better then a lot of heroic gear. If a craftable isnt better itemized it makes sense to not get it but you havn't actually put any money where your mouth is.

We do not raid more then 2 progression raids and one clear and we are never likely to do that because of the schedule our raiders hold. This means that we to get a good rank need players that can bring it and put effort into their chars, maximize everything & squeeze out everything you can to become better. To get that out of players we only choose the ones we can see really put the effort in all the way.

Expansion has been out 3 weeks now and the effort you have put into your char represents our raiders 2 days after hitting 90. And they didnt have the blessing of lfr to gain ilvl from or sha on a 10 min spawn timer to get free boots

Tips for future applications
Dont bring up ranks not in the top 20 it might be mentionable within 30 but I wouldnt personally bother with anything after 20. It makes you look like you think that your rank is good and 88th isnt really good. Its better then a lot of pugs but not what hardcore players will be looking for.
Dont blame someone else for why you havnt bothered to gear up. If I was in the position you mentioned I'd go all out gear up with everythin availible to me and really push myself to show them that I was too good to be left on the side. And if that didnt work I'd after putting that effort in look for a guild that could appriciate my level whatever that may be.
Don't say things you can't backup. Proffession are NOT very close to eachother infact they are worse then they have been in a long time. There might be other factors to why you wouldnt choose the best ones ie you are the only jewelcrafter in your guild and need to provide or have choosen to nerf yourself a little to let other people gain something from you.

Hopefully this will help you to get in somewhere you fit in quicker as we all know everyone wants to raid in the start of a new expansion I think your best bet is depending on how "hardcore" you want to be if you want a chance on some ranks choose a 5-6 days raiding guild, if you don't want to raid that often, look into a more casual guild.

Happy hunting

The deal with my gear is simply that I found out my raiding situation ALOT later than I would have liked (the day after MOP was released), and since then I have been unmotivated and trying to figure out what my next step is. I completely agree my gear is no where near optimized as of right now, but as you can imagine it's been a stressful couple of weeks and I chose to get looking for guilds and such, and completely disregarded actually making my character the best it could be, assuming it would not take long and as it is the beginning of the expansion that would not be a priority in an application. I see now that was the wrong decision, so yeah my bad!

I guess it will be keeping my eyes out but most likely finding a guild for next patch or after progression, as you can imagine not a lot of guilds are looking for a holy paladin or are prepared to swap in the middle of progression.

Thanks or the quick reply, I appreciate that, and all the feedback. I wish you guys the best of luck with progression, and I may well be back at a later date when I've had a little more experience, and I can back it all up. Take care and cheers.