About me in general and how i raid.I think it's crucial to start a application or interview with a little bit about my self so that the viewer gets a insight into what i am like. My name is Steve. I'm from England, I can raid at least 4 or 5times a week it's no problem for me. During a raid i don't need breaks as i get my drinks / food before hand so that i will not need to afk. I don't mind having a 5 or 10 minute break during raids, i have become immune to the whole i need to take a break from the computer staring at the screen is making me hallucinate kind of stuff. I like my humor, but i don't use it in the wrong situations. I get drunk often but not in the times that you raid, so i don't come back to raid and start trolling all over guild and raid chat.
My Druid as a Whole.My Druid is called Smellmydruid, I started playing World of Warcraft around 4years ago. The playtime on my druid is around 170days and with alts about 130days. - Friends have said to me "Hey Steve, what made you choose the name Smellmydruid?", the truth is i don't have a clue, when i first started the game i had no idea on what it was like or how other people named/played, as it was the first online game that i had played. In all honesty at the start of the game i thought that when i walked into Orgrimmar, that everyone was a 'NPC'.
Anyhow... When i play my druid i like to play a mixture of Balance and Resto to keep things more exciting, when i do anything on it like raid or dungeon etc, i find that Balance or Resto is for me. although when i pvp it is strictly Resto. This is because i find that when i play against other players i like to see how i am against them - and how long i can withhold their attacks.
On my druid i have had much experience in the Firelands raid. I have had experience in 7/7 and killed 5/7, the remaining left are Razor (Bird) which i have gotten to around 20% and Ragnaros (Big scary guy at the end) to around 40%, the reason that i didn't kill Ragnaros was because people didn't understand the concept of "MOVE FROM THE FIRE" when he smacks his hammer into the ground, ironicly this was the same on Razor, people did not move from the massive fire tornadoes or the worms that spew fire for LONG time if people don't move... Seriously blizzard should put a ban on how long they spew that fire, i mean really a worm cannot hold that much fire in it's little stomach, they should do what happened to me many years ago and put a hose pipe ban on water, but instead of water do it for fire/lava... yeaaah that would be awesome.. ANYWAY, yeah that is the reason that we didn't kill Ragnaros/Razor.
I used to be Resto main spec for a very long time while i was raiding, but i kept in touch with my Balance side and kept my skills up so i didn't loose my touch. I don't have many Firelands pieces as i didn't have much luck in drops, but i do have the weapon from Beth'tilac, the Friendly reputation back and honored waist. Since i was Resto raiding my better gear is Resto, but i also have some good Balance gear as well, since i have never fully been Balance main spec i have had to have a mix of gear when i play, but i still do good in both specs. If i was accepted i would be Balance main spec meaning i would be able to focus of Balance 100%, reforge my gear, gems, and gear fully to Balance so i could pull out as max DPS as possible.
In my Resto gear i can pull out around 13 or 14k HPS on a boss fight.
This link will take you to Smellmydruid WOW armory page for his Resto Gear.
In Resto i am trying to get the haste cap of 2005 around 15%, this is so my heals can be cast much quicker, this will be very useful for Baleroc The Gatekeeper. When i hit the haste cap i would of then put any spare into intellect so that i can boost my spell power some more. I know this is not completely necessarily for my Balance application but i like my viewer to know 100% about my class and how i play it.
My balance gear i am still working on making more awesome, as in my last guild i was MS healing, i do like being a healer very much but i also enjoy Balance, so it is a toss between the two, which is good because if you lack a healer for a raid or would like a quick dungeon, i would always like to help in anyway i can. Some of my Balance gear you will also see as my Resto gear as some of the pieces are good for both specs, like the trinket for alchemy. I think that the trinket is good for balance and healing because it provides a nice amount of intellect and haste for both specs, meaning that my spell-power and haste will be increased considerably. The weapon i use is my most favorite weapon as it provides some very nice stats for both my specs. Right now for Balance i am working very hard to get the 4 set bonus for my T11 gear. I believe that this will help me DPS alot because it increases my Crit chance by 15% and decrease's each time by 5%. This may not give a whole load of DPS but like the supermarket says "every little helps". The reason at the moment that i use the Firelands druid T12 Resto gloves is that when i was Resto main spec, obviously i was gearing for Resto
, i use them for balance because the stats on them are better than the T11 Balance one's, for example the crit and mastery stats that they give me are really nice for me.
This link will take you to Smellmydruid's Balance Gear and spec WOW armory page.With my Balance gear i tend to, if i can get gear that has more sockets or the same sockets than my current one, there fore i can put in a extra gem and get more stats then i did. I feel that like in Resto haste is good for me, as obviously if my spells can cast quicker i will do a little bit more DPS. As of yet i am around 0.80% off of my hit cap (while i am writing this application) - but i am going to change a piece of my gear or re-forge something so that i can get it. Because the hit cap is very special - if i miss with a spell that could crit for 80k damage.. well that will just upset me, of course i do not know what it would of crit for but the thought is always there, "what if i did crit for 80k? i would of done more damage.... what about all the other times that i have missed a spell on this boss?, maybe they would of crit for 80k omg... the boss would of been down faster", and while fighting a boss, saying that out loud would distract me from what i was doing (like just happened, anyway...), therefore lowering my dps.... which is why the hit cap is important. I also try to look for gear that has haste and crit on it, so that i can hit two birds with one stone.
When geming my gear, i will put a 'Burning Shadow Spirit Diamond' (+54 intellect and +3Increased Critical Damage). I gem 'Brilliant Inferno Ruby' in all red/prismatic sockets so that i can increase my spell power, and also in any blue/yellow sockets where the bonus is less than +20 intellect. In blue or yellow sockets where the bonus is +20 int or better i will use 'Purified Demonseye'(+20int and +20spirit) or 'Reckless Ember Topaz' (+20int and +20haste). With the haste i know that the tick rate of a DoT depends only on the haste at the moment it's cast and it does not change dynamically while the DoT is running.
I will go into extra detail for my Balance rotation so that you can know that, i know what i am talking about. Solar power - I watch for when your Solar energy is at 80 or higher, this is so i know when my current Starfire cast is your last one, so i can que my Wrath spell. I have found out in my experience of playing to cast Insect Swarm/Sunfire at the beginning of Solar, I will cast one Wrath or Starsurge first. This is because if my que IS after the last Starfire, it will cast before Eclipse actually begins. When i cast Lunar - My Wrath gives its Eclipse energy upon landing, and because it is a trickier to time the swap to Starfire correctly. If my Lunar energy as i start to cast Wrath is 74 or higher, it will be my last Wrath (This is because the one i cast before that is heading towards the enemy will give 13 energy). I try as hard as i can to avoid casting extra spells beyond what's necessary to proc Eclipse. Because if i'm planning to cast Moonfire when Eclipse starts, I will cast one Starsurge or Starfire first so that i can get Natures grasp to increase my haste rating. Because in Cataclysm my DoT's do alot more damage than before i intend to keep them up 24/7 so that i can get max damage out of the time they are up, when i am going to refresh my DoT's i do them JUST as they run out of time so that it casts just as the last tick goes. Oh wait... i have just remembered reading the patch notes when Cataclysm came out (my memory is bad sometimes
) Cataclysm changed the way that DoT refreshing works on a target which is extra awesome than what it was like in Wrath Of the Lich King, when i re-fresh a currently ticking Damage Over Time effect, I no longer waste a partial tick. Awesomely, when i refresh a DoT when it has only one tick remaining, there is no loss at all. Which means the optimal time to refresh a DoT is during its last tick, thereby maintaining true 100% up time. When i use Starsurge i want to use it as much as possible, so as soon as it comes off the of the cool-down i will use it, this is so that i can maintain as much damage as possible, also i use Starsurge whenever Shooting Stars procs so i can get that little bit of extra DPS. With Force of Nature -I will use this as many times as possible in a fight at any given time, so as soon as it comes of cool-down. If i know that Bloodlust is going to be cast, i will use my tree's just before, so is so i can save around 2seconds when bloodlust is popped, because if i pop tree's after bloodlust i will loose around two seconds having to click the tree's and where to position them. I will give innervate to a healer that calls out for it, or if i see that they are low on mana and they need it, at the start of a fight i will try to use innervate when a healer is on around 70% mana, this is so that it will come off cool-down near the end of the fight when they need it and also give them extra mana at the start, which sometimes can be very useful for long fights.
The addons i use are;
1. Quartz - This addon will let me position myself/target/focus and pet anywhere on the screen so i can see everyone i need to see, and what they are casting. This helps me because it tells me exactly how long a spell takes to cast so i can time when i am going to refresh my dots que to when they come of cool-down as this addon times spells by the millisecond.
2. Squawk and Awe - This addon in a little list will show me a list of bars for Boomkin related timers. Also i can position this table anywhere on the screen so that is does not clutter up the place and i can't see what i am doing or what is on the floor. As like we all know, if we can't see the floor - WE CAN'T SEE THE FIRE!
3. I also use Deadly Boss Mods like every raider should, we all know how this works it tells us in a raid warning and in little bars what the boss is going to cast and what the boss is casting, also the little sound effects for this addon are very cool "run away little girl... run awaaaay" - now when i first heard that i was like who who who wtf whats going, and with my instinct i ran away which was quite awesome!.
4. Bartender - I use bartender so i can place my actions bars around the screen accordingly, or like i do, i have them all in one place so i can access all of my spells easier, although - all of the Boomkin spells that i use like: wrath, starfire, moonfire, insect swarm, starsurge etc... are all keykinded and all next to each other so it's easy to use.
5. Recount Damage Meter - I use this addon not because i want to link it when i am at the top of the damage so EVERYONE in the raid can see how i boast about how awesome i think i am, but because if i know that i am not doing the DPS that a should be doing i will always try to push myself that little bit harder so that i do more damage and in the end get a boss down.
The Glyphs that i use are to help my damage done and to also help other people in the raid that fight along side me. Firstly i use 'Glyph of Wrath', this increase's the damage done by my wrath spell, this is a nice constant bonus when i use wrath and is very nice is most situation of boss fights and it is a quick cast spell and is nice for when a boss frequently moves, of course i would like it if a boss just stood still... but whats the fun in that. Secondly i use 'Glyph of Moonfire', this increase's the periodic damage of my Moonfire by 20%, and i also use 'Glyph of Insect Swarm' now, these two glyph's do give a very nice bonus as it increase's the damage done of each tick, which in the long run when you think about it is very nice and amounts up to ALOT. For my fellow raids along side me i use 'Glyph of Rebirth', i would recommend this glyph to anyone in a raid encounter and if they don't have, then they obviously are not wise enough to be in the raid, This glyph will ressurect the target back to life with 100% health, which is very important in raising valuable ally's especially since the limited number of rebirths per boss fight. I also use 'Glyph of Innervate', this is good because when i cast this spell on a healer not only will they gain extra mana but also so do i, thanks to this awesome glyph i will gain 10% of my maximum mana over 10seconds!
My progression on my Druid is 7/7 experience on Firelands, i have downed 5/7. Leaving Ragnaros and Razor still up, like i explained previously in the application the reason that we were not able to kill these boss's was because of some people not moving from the fire, though after many attempts of trying the boss while i had business to do, my old guild downed the boss which i was very pleased about and happy for them. (I will explain why i left that guild later on in the application so i can have everything in one place, as i like things to be organised). Back in the days of Burning Crusade when i started the game and my druid, i was only level 70 for around 6months, and in that time i was messing around and still getting used to how to play the game at high level as it was my first time where i reached the cap. I played burning crusade with my brother and alot of university friends, so we messed around alot in battlegrounds, as back then i was mostly a PVP'er. I started doing serious raiding when i hit 80 when Wrath of The Lich King came out, When i hit 80 i left the guild that i had been in with my mates and joined a raiding guild 'INSANE', is was a friendly guild with alot of friendly people in there, i fit in nicely and i got to know every within a few days. What i was surprised to see was that i was mostly in all the raids because they had a lack of healers, which i is what i tend to see in most guilds now-days they are having a lack of healers. After that i cannot remember what happened because my memory from that far back is quite bad, but all i know is that i stayed in that guild (for about 1year +) until i joined another. When Cataclysm came out, and i started leveling my Druid, which then i met a nice paladin in Deepholm called Ralph, who was in a guild called Defiance - I then took a break from wow for about 2months and joined back, since i was then in brothers guild again i decided to ask him how his guild was doing bla bla bla, all that stuff - he told me to make an apply and i simply did. I was then accepted as a healer and started doing all kinds of healery things in dungeons and raids and pvp. So when i got geared i started raiding and i killed all boss in 'BoT' and all boss's in 'ToTFW' and and all for Nef and Chim before the nerf patch. And like i said i did a few boss's in Firelands etc... The guild was good for a while, the guild master made sure that everyone got a spot, like every time we downed 1 or 2 boss's or after 1 or 2hours he would swap someone out for someone else so everyone got a spot. We tried mana attempted on Ragnaros but unfortunately it didn't happen
... now the reason that i left that guild to come and apply to Cráb People. The guild master went away on holiday for 3weeks, when we started raiding after he had gone, the replacement GM didn't swap anyone in or out of the raid like planned, he wasn't let any new people raid for that time, and wasn't going to do 25man raids until the GM was back. Which meant that alot of people would not be able to raid, now although i was one of the core healers that got a spot in just about every raid if i was online, i was unhappy that other players were not able to get a spot, i gave up my spot to a Resto druid who has the same experience than me and just about the same gear, but after i had gone online he had /w'ed the replacement GM and he just got ignored, and instead of taking the druid or a healer, the replacement healer was a balance druid... which i don't think it fair on many people in the guild who do not get a chance to raid. Also... some of the behavior of the people the guild was just unnecessary and inappropriate, it was to sexist by some members.. i could go on, but it would just annoy me to much.
I use a good internet line where i don't get DC'ed at all unless it was like 4 in the morning and it updates itself. My computer itself is a laptop, it was 4 hard drives maxing to 1teribite of memory, 3D vision and alot of other goodies that increase's my game play, when in power saver mode i have around 70FPS, when i put it on high performance for extreme raiding, i can get around 150+ and when just standing around i hit 200+ once, i was quite pleased!
I thank you for reading this application, i have written this with my best English skills so that you will be able to read it more easily. I hope that you find this to your liking and that you will reply to me in your own time
, i not in any particular rush to get a reply - as i am kind of chilled out with my time.
If you need ANYTHING more to know about me or about my druid etc feel free to say and i will get it up as soon as i see it, i will check this page everyday so that if you do need anything else you will get it as soon as i can!
