Application - Abatha, resto druid

• Character Name: Abatha

• Race/Class: Tauren Druid. Main spec resto, offspec feral (Armory says feral is first; this is only because I actually wanted to kill stuff before I could dual spec!)

• Armory Link: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Earthen+Ring&cn=Abatha

• What is the hardest or craziest achievement you have done in the game? Hmm not many of these…I’ve done XT003 in hard mode, yay go me! My girlfriend and I did Zul’Aman, just the two of us, that was kinda fun.

• What raid experience do you have? (Any raid experience counts. Elaborate, please.)

Vanilla – (when my main was a resto shaman), did MC, BWL, ZG, AQ20 and about half of AQ40 I think. That was when I was on Argent Dawn in a raid community called Whaco; I started off wondering why I wasn’t allowed to frost shock stuff and ended up occasionally leading raids after a few months, although my main job was sorting out healers (ah the days where there were 15 healers and people needed to be told which groups they should buff…hmm actually that wasn’t that fun!)

Just before TBC came out I realised I was bored, and quit. So I missed all of the TBC raiding content. Fast forward to Summer 2009…

…when I got back into the game and created Abatha. With her I’ve done Naxx, Uld (up to but not including Yogg-Saron), ToTC in full, and killed 6 bosses in ICC, with dabbles on Blood Princes, Singarosa and Putricide but no successful kills. Again I’ve ended up leading raids so I have a good grasp on the strategies needed for all character roles, at least on the bosses that I’ve successfully fought.


• Why do you have your current spec?

My main was always going to be resto, I got really into my healing in vanilla and wouldn’t make any other choice for raiding. I’m in a minority I guess but I like standing at the back and keeping people alive!
If the question is more about ‘why is your spec like it is, with regard to specific talent points’ I’ve mainly based it on advice taken from the blog treebarkjacket.com, and conversations with fellow resto druids, although with a couple of tweaks based on personal preferences (I really like revitalise, for example, although its considered optional)
I picked feral as an offspec as I’d never had a tank before in any MMORPG and fancied the idea of the flexibility of being a tank and a healer, with enough DPS to grind stuff without it being an utter drag. It’s worked out even better than I hoped (I love druids  ) as I’m able to tank raids fairly successfully for an offspec (done first four bosses in ICC, although I’ve mainly been needed, and would prefer to be used, a a healer) and Abby’s DPS is even capable for some totc 10 fun runs! Again I picked that spec with advice off the ‘net although as it’s somewhere in between a tank spec and a DPS spec (it lacks master shapeshifter as I need more points in the feral tree unfortunately) it’s been tweaked more than my main spec, but it’s been fine for what I need from it.

• What do you believe your class (and spec) brings to raids?

I mainly take the job of a raid healer, although I’ve found that I can tank heal effectively (often I’ve been in ICC 10 raids with a holy priest or another druid as the only healers for first 4 bosses and I end up healing the tanks) with a good bit of nourish spam. The ability to throw rejuvenates and wild growths around very quickly allows me to keep all raiders health topped up and hopefully allows me some time to spend on helping the tank healers out. I particularly enjoy the fights where there’s steady but manageable raid-wide damage (like the twins in totc, I love that fight) as that’s where I feel the druid excels with spreading the HoTs around. There’s always the crucial rebirth ability should something go wrong (as well as ignoring the whiney hunter who wants you to use the rebirth on him because he failed to move out of fire…a critical role!), the tree of life (6% to healing received for all) is nice and everyone loves a pink paw of course.

• If you could only keep one of your current talents, which one would it be and why?

One talent! Eek, nasty question. I’d especially miss wild growth, empowered rejuvenation , and gift of nature like mad but…I think I’d have to go with Tree of Life.

• Do you have an offspec that you're able to play well?

I can tank OK on my feral spec, heroics and totc are no problem and I’ve done first 4 bosses in ICC like I mentioned. My cat dps is not really raid worthy, would need a lot of work to get better but don’t really get much chance as it’s basically off-off spec and I’m always needed as either healer or tank!

I also have an enhancement shaman at level 80 with decent enough gear, his DPS is much better than Abby’s so I tend to use him if I need/want to DPS.

• Name one personal PvE weakness, and be honest:

I’ll say learning the more complicated fights. From recent memory, Rotface took a lot of getting used to with all sorts of carnage going on, and it probably take some a little longer than the average raider to get my head fully around the mechanics of a complicated fight. Once it’s learnt though it’s fine, and you’ll never hear me moaning about wipes whilst learning a fight!


• Our raid days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday from 1900 to 2300, how many of those days can you attend on an average basis

I’ll say all of them, with two caveats.

1) I’m currently training to be an accountant, and exam season is upon me. I have exams on 25th 26th and 27th of May. This means I won’t be available until then for raiding – except possibly this Sunday should you need/want me to do a trial or something similar. I’m sorry to apply when I’m basically unavailable for raiding but I will have all summer free after the last exam is done and saw you had a spot for a resto druid, so wanted to get an app in.
2) I’ll start college again late September probably, and that may take away one raiding night depending on when the course falls (it’ll be one night a week, I’m 99% certain of that)

• What is expertise good for?

I’ll give you the honest answer first (me typing off the top of my head): It reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged/parried. My enhance shaman needs this, the cap is…26 I think.
Now for the copy/paste from the internet answer (mainly to show you I am able to use google/wowwiki): Expertise is an attribute introduced in Patch 2.3.0. One point of expertise decreases the chance that melee attacks made by the player will be dodged or parried by 0.25%. At level 80, every 8.2 points of expertise rating grant 1 expertise.

Well I was pretty close

• What do you expect to gain from being a part of Murder?

I hope to gain a sense of community from being part of a successful PvE raid guild, friendships with like-minded individuals with whom I’ll end up spending a high percentage of my spare time, and a sense of achievement from overcoming all the PvE obstacles Blizzard put in players way.

• If you could go back in time to give yourself one tip about your class what would it be?

I think as I was levelling up I underrated rejuvenation and tended to use regrowth and healing touch too much. So I’d go back and time and say ‘Hey, Rejuv is good times, kk?’

• Do you know someone that's currently in the guild?

Nope. Just saw an advert in trade channel.

• Tell us a bit about yourself. (For instance name, age, profession, nationality, hobbies and your favorite animal)

I’m Dave, a 27 year old Brit, living in Derby. I work at my local fire service as a trainee accountant, which is currently dominating my life as I have exams to prepare for (see above). Other than WoW I’ll spend time watching sports with a particular fondness for baseball and American football for some reason), I’ll play cricket when the weather is nice and I dabble in poker from time to time. I studied history at University so still do quite a lot of reading of history books.


Animal: 1) Cat 2) Rabbit 3) Squirrel. Hedgehogs are cute too. Anything but dogs really. And spiders…I’m arachnophobic. I mainly fight Hadronax with my eyes closed.


• Why do you raid?

I find it challenging and enjoying. I could go on for a while but put simply if its not fun and its not stimulating there’s bnot much point doing it  thus why I’m applying to this guild really, if you’re going after hard modes I want to be there, basically!

Final notes:
In case you care about professions, Abatha is a LW with some ICC recipes and basically has no need for frost emblems any more (for main spec at least) so I can always get some more recipes. My shaman is an alchemist and I have a fire mage that is nearly 80 but has jewelcrafting 446 (nearly there!).
If you try to contact me in game I probably won’t be there as I’m not online that much at the moment due to exams. Hopefully we can chat via this forum or in game letters or something
I'll log in and out with Abatha now and make sure her resto gear is equipped, for armory.

Hope to hear from you soon

Abatha

Really nice application, will get in touch with you as soon as I've discussed it with Ranch.

Dont we have Vatapata on resto druid duty?

@ Denothor, Vatapata was recruited as a Feral Main spec and a Resto offspec.

@ Abatha, Will contact you ingame for a chit-chat.

Accepted for trial.

Accepted as a member. And now... The Larch!