Frozenorange - Resto Druid

[Frozensoup]

Player information:
- Age & Location: 27; California
- Usual Play Times (Server Time): 5pm-3am
- Number of Testicles:2, most days
- Can you attend raids on these days:
-- Monday: Yes
-- Tuesday: Yes
-- Wednesday: Yes
-- Thursday: Yes
-- Sunday: Yes
- Do any others have access to your account? No
- Do you use a blizzard authenticator? If no, why? Yes
- How long have you played WoW: I hit 60 about two months before Patch 2.0 came out.
- Endgame experience (What bosses have you killed):
Tier 15: 5/13H (Jin'rokh, Horridon, Tortos, Ji-Kun, Iron Qon)

Tier 14: 15/16H

Dragon Soul: 8/8H
(Morchok @ 5%, Yor'sahj, Hagara, Ultraxion @ 10%, Zon'ozz @ 15%, Spine, Madness @ 25%)

Firelands: 3/7H before DS (Shannox, Rhyo, Domo); 6/7H before 5.0

Tier 11: Not active while relevant

ICC: 9/12H

Character Information:
- Name, & Class: Frozenorange, Druid

- Race & why did you choose it: Tauren; before I came back to the game and subsequently went horde, PvP was an important aspect of the game to me, and I wanted Warstomp. I don't PvP much if at all now, and would be open to race changing for berserking. (I don't really dps or tank ToT, so I'm not too concerned with the added benefit of +5% damage to beasts, though it is there).

- Link to Battle.net Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/shadowmoon/frozenorange/advanced

- Can you describe the ruckus? The Breakfast Club is about as old as I am, so I didn't get the reference at first. I watched it to see precisely what the ruckus was about... I was entertained.

- Professions and why did you choose them: LW because when I joined my current guild, there were no max level leatherworkers. Alchemy to provide an additional transmute for the guild.

- Spec, Dual spec. How often do you play other specs? Resto, Guardian. I only really play guardian to quest, run people through heroic dungeons, and sometimes do LFR.

- Explain your choice of gear for main & offspecs:
Resto:
Most of my gear is just what I've been lucky enough to pick up. I have primarily been healing on my priest since HoF was released, which contributes to my being behind on gear. On top of that, almost nothing but plate drops in our group, and my druid is obviously last on priority on tier. I do have some pieces that are higher ilvl, but 4pc t14 is worth a fair bit to me both in terms of throughput and flexibility.

As far as stat priority goes, I prioritize spirit until comfortable > 3043 haste for tranq and rejuv +1 > mastery. I actually have a bit more spirit right now than I've needed, and may drop some after testing in harder content (I maybe be dropping a fair amount of it when I get my meta in 4 secrets).

Update: I got my 20th secret and did my rep grind to exalted yesterday. Need to get Nalak to finish the deal, then I'll plug it into my h.feng helm and do testing to do to see whether I want to preserve t14 4set by swapping in lfr tier legs at the cost of some int and ~1k spirit, or drop it in favor of higher ilvl off-pieces. I'll almost definitely be keeping 2pc for the time being, since I don't have any better gloves.

Guardian:
I use stam(offsetting low ilvl) > hit/expertise cap > crit > haste > mastery. I want enough hp that I don't die before my healer(s) can react, then I prioritize TPS and RPS for avoidance through savage defense.

- What glyphs do you use for each spec and why:
Resto:

• Lifebloom: saves 2 GCDs when moving it for a tank swap and (probably less relevant in 25m and current regen levels) allows it to be used as a spot heal in periods of relative downtime in place of rejuv. Also can be used to reapply it more quickly if out of range.
• Wild Growth: Technically an HPS loss if WG needs to be used on cooldown, but because that has typically not been the case in practice, it's been beneficial. Good synergy with t14 4pc, which I am sadly still using, and Soul of the Forest
• Regrowth: Guaranteed crit on regrowth makes it higher HPS and HPM than HT or nourish, when living seed is factored in. Even though its worth scales inversely with crit chance, reliability is important.
• (Stampeding Roar): I can switch this glyph in for raid utility, if necessary.

Guardian

• Maul: DPS (Would switch to Survival Instincts for a good number of fights, if I were ever to tank anything 'serious')
• Stampeding Roar: utility
• Faerie Fire: increased pull range for LoS pulls, mob tagging, etc.

- If you are applying as a DPS, what is your normal rotation? N/A

- If you are applying as a healer, what spells do you use & when/why?

• Lifebloom: keep up on active tank most of the time.
• Swiftmend: tank heal/spot heal/stack healing/before WG if running SoTF.
• Nature's Swiftness: Emergency heal or on cooldown to conserve mana
• Wild Growth: aoe healing
• Regrowth: Clearcasting procs, emergency tank/spot healing if swiftmend, NS are on cd
• Mushrooms: plant on free GCDs if there is a predictable stack point/tanking location; bloom for aoe stack healing or LoH on tank.
• Tranq: At its specified time, or a raidwide emergency if not specified.
• Rejuv: the rest of the time, unless conserving mana.

- Highest PvP Rank on this character (vanilla & arena titles): Stone Guard (well, Knight-Lieutenant); Duelist

- Prior guild(s) & your reasons for leaving:
From most recent to least recent:
<Deal With It>, formerly <Dissent> (US-Shadowmoon) - Our gm quit and raid dissolved. We had been having roster issues prior to this point anyway.

<Genesìs> (US-Shadowmoon) - This was the guild I joined when returning to the game in Cataclysm because my friend, who was leading the raid said there might be a spot for me. Shortly after I joined, the raid group became involved in a dispute with the guild leadership, which resulted in the raid breaking off and forming <Dissent>; I followed my friend.

<Shadow Fire> (US-Ner'zhul) - I quit playing the game (for real this time!) and when I returned (...or not), the guild was more or less defunct.

<artifice> (US-Ner'zhul) - Deleted character; was planning to quit in part due to irl drama involving someone in the guild. Ended up character restoring under a different name and finding a new home shortly thereafter.

<arf> (US-Black Dragonflight) - Most of the guild moved to Proudmoore toward the end of BC; I chose to take a break from the game instead.

Other Information:
- A Screenshot of your character's UI:


- WWS/Wowmeter/Worldoflogs reports (not optional):
Logs of my druid in our guild runs are sporadic and on farm content. In addition, a lot of them are overhealed. This parse, from a guild advertising in trade chat for a healer gives a slightly better picture of my capabilities on my druid: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/a4hji88r10y6nvz2/

My guild's logs are also available at http://worldoflogs.com/guilds/170061/character/.

- Alts & their name/level:
Icecreamsoup*** (US-Shadowmoon) - 90 Priest
Freezieplate (US-Shadowmoon) - 90 Paladin
Frozenorange (US-Arygos) - 90 Druid

***Not really an alt, per se. It was my main for the majority of the expansion.

- Out of game contact information (AIM/MSN/etc):
[email protected]
If I am not in-game, the best way to get hold of me is by text message. I can give you my phone number in a less publicly visible location.

- How did you find us? Is there anyone you know in Simple Math?:
I am acquainted with Mist from healing forums and its off-topic thread's IRC channel. It seemed from things that he said that there may be availability issues with some of the healers, and a reliable mw/rdruid/rsham might be desired.

- Why Simple Math? Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
With my raid's recent stagnation and then dissolution, I'm looking to take a significant step up in progression, and ideally join a guild where I already know someone. I'd also generally prefer to go back to maining my druid; it was my first and only character from vanilla into mid-wrath and I'm still attached to the class.

In all honesty, I'm somewhat torn. As frustrating as it can be to learn bosses as a group, there's a sense of accomplishment when you do progress, and I'd be missing out on that by joining a guild where the majority of content is already on farm. Looking at the prospect of higher-level raiding in future tiers, though, I think it's the right choice for me.

- What kind of computer do you use? CPU/Memory/Video Card? Typical FPS during a 25-man raid?
CPU: Intel Core i5 Quad 2400K (Sandy Bridge) 3.10GHz
Memory: 16GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

30-40fps

- What kind of internet connection do you have? Run an internet speed test against New York at speedtest.net Link the results below.


- Finally, we ask that you draw us a picture using MS Paint. (This is not optional).

[Mist]

Woahwoahwoah. Don't put words in my mouth! I never said that there were availability issues, just that another healer might potentially be really nice.

Otherwise, do you use any sort of a scrolling combat text mod? Default popup text gets super cluttery in a 25man environment. Additionally, I'm a bit behind on resto druid theorycraft, so I'll let Nacho handle those specific questions.

[Frozensoup]

Woahwoahwoah. Don't put words in my mouth! I never said that there were availability issues, just that another healer might potentially be really nice.

Otherwise, do you use any sort of a scrolling combat text mod? Default popup text gets super cluttery in a 25man environment. Additionally, I'm a bit behind on resto druid theorycraft, so I'll let Nacho handle those specific questions.

I'm sorry for misspeaking or misinterpreting.

Since I come from a 10m background I hadn't had much need to. I'm planning to spend a couple days to revamp my UI a bit to be more suitable for 25m.

[Frozensoup]

I also wanted to add that my reforging was slightly off when I submitted this application because reforgelite wasn't properly updated to deal with the new item upgrades. It's been patched, though, as has my gear.

[Nachthymnen]

Hello there! Thanks for the application.

I think you should reconsider your enchants on your gloves, boots, and chest. A run speed enchant is invaluable, and mastery for gloves and stats for chest are ever so slightly better than the ones you are currently running.

I'm not going to say it is mandatory that you do so (the other officers might have something different to say about it), but going Troll is definitely a plus. Berserking isn't the greatest for Resto because at 3043 haste, it doesn't give any extra Rejuv ticks, but faster Regrowths and more Swiftmend/Wild Growth ticks are still better than what Tauren offer.

Do you ever swap your tier 1, 4, or 6 talents? If so, when?

How do you value crit? What about haste past 3043?

Wild Growth: Technically an HPS loss if WG needs to be used on cooldown, but because that has typically not been the case in practice, it's been beneficial. Good synergy with t14 4pc, which I am sadly still using, and Soul of the Forest

That's actually not true, the glyph is an HPS gain even when WG is used on cd. Although you're getting slightly fewer WG ticks, you're getting proportionately more free GCDs at your disposal, and it is a net mana gain because you're spending more on cheap Rejuvs rather than expensive WGs.

Aside from slightly low Lifebloom uptime and the occasional holding on to Clearcasting for too long, your logs look pretty good.

[Frozensoup]

I will disagree insofar as the glove enchant is essentially identical, unless it contributes to wasted stats. 170 haste instead of mastery on my gloves is 170 haste that gets reforged to mastery somewhere else.

The chest and boot enchants are.. relics. The chest enchant is from when I actually felt I needed the regen from it: I'll switch that out ASAP. The boot enchant I've left on there since I ran around with the 6652 haste breakpoint (I'll mention stats more later). I use Feline Swiftness 90% or more of the time, and +15% move speed is good enough in almost all situations, so I hadn't bothered changing it back and instead opted for the additional stat points. I'll probably change that back for more flexibility in the tier 1 talent choices.

As for talents, they are fight-dependent, of course.
Tier 1: I run Feline Swiftness the majority of the time. Wild charge is slow and sort of clunky in caster/travel form, and I much prefer Displacer Beast on fights with positional ohsh*t moments. To be honest, though, when I take DB, it's most often when I don't trust the tanks (my druid has healed for all manner of PuG) and I need a way to put distance between myself and the adds that want to eat me. I still wish it temporarily dropped threat, though.

Tier 4: I take Incarnation if I know there is/are phase(s) of the fight where I absolutely need to maximize HPS. Last tier, off the top of my head, I took it on some Elegon kills when the burn phase was relatively long and scary, Vizier for F&V, normal WoE, and Empress.

Tier 6: I took NV in similar situations as Incarnation last tier. This tier, because I'm undergeared, and because the bonus healing has been reduced to 10%, I perhaps overvalue the additional HP that HoTW gives me, because mechanics like Ionization and Static Shock are liable to 1-shot me otherwise. I'd probably consider taking NV for use during p4 of Iron Qon, as well as Durumu and Megaera.

Statwise, I consider crit more valuable than haste between breakpoints. Saying "haste past 3043" is kind of nebulous and a little too involved for me to answer too simply. I consider gearing for the 6652 haste breakpoint competitive, but not optimal in most cases (I was using that amount of haste because on my druid I frequently found myself in situations where I did not trust my cohealers). My gear doesn't really support it, and I plan to find myself in a more pleasant raiding environment as far as trust goes, so I dropped back down to 3043. Certainly, I would put more value in going from 3043 to 6652 haste than in dumping it into crit... but for an arbitrary number of stat points, I consider it better spent on crit.

You're absolutely right about the WG glyph. I had meant only with regards to the WG cast itself, but I misspoke by saying it was an HPS loss.

[Ninetales]

How comfortable are you with balance?

[Frozensoup]

How comfortable are you with balance?

I haven't raided as a moonkin since BC, and at that point I was using a really simple rotation (something to the effect of IFF uptime > IS SFx4) to ensure mana longevity and the raid utility of 3% chance to be hit and -6?% chance to hit debuffs.

I try to stay more or less caught up with my class, so I have a general idea of current stat priority:
(hit to cap > haste to moonfire/sunfire breakpoint > crit > int > mastery > additional haste)

and rotation:
start pull 1 wrath short of eclipse -> prepot -> starfall -> wrath -> Incarnation + dots -> (prioritize SS>starfire) until starfall wears off -> starfall -> (SS>starfire) until leaving eclipse -> CA -> dots -> (SS>starfire) -> refresh dots before CA ends -> settle into SS>SF moving to solar eclipse, SS>wrath moving to lunar eclipse, refreshing dots with Nature's Grace (though not overwriting the CA dots) and using starfall when hitting lunar (unless saving for AoE)

That said, I'm probably too undergeared and definitely too out of practice with it to help push any kind of current progression as moonkin. I'll do research and practice it, but I make no promises: I've always been better at healing than at dps. If my experiences with shadow are any indication, I'll probably eventually do well enough to not embarass myself entirely, but I won't be winning any awards.

[Ninetales]

Would you be available to talk with us on mumble tonight, around 6:45 est?

[Frozensoup]

Yes, definitely.

[Ninetales]

check your inbox

[Frozensoup]

Updating application to note that as promised, I've been working on moonkin.

I'm still not so comfortable with it that I'd want to use it for progression unless necessary, but if we're in a situation like last night where we have more than enough healers and are struggling due to lack of rDPS, I'd rather at least try switching for some attempts to see if it works out better.

I also know my way around shadow reasonably well (more so than moonkin, especially on multi-target fights), and since I've transferred my priest here due to the character service sale and Andorhal's abysmal economy, I'd also like to offer it as an option. (Furthermore, if any fights benefit greatly from stacking healing priests of either spec, I am fluent as both disc and holy - I did main my priest for most of t14 and until the time I applied here.)

To that ends, I'm also submitting logs of parts 3 (moonkin) and 4 (shadow) of ToT LFR:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-30fxvil0on9a74jz/

[Nykez]

Updating application to note that as promised, I've been working on moonkin.

I'm still not so comfortable with it that I'd want to use it for progression unless necessary, but if we're in a situation like last night where we have more than enough healers and are struggling due to lack of rDPS, I'd rather at least try switching for some attempts to see if it works out better.

I also know my way around shadow reasonably well (more so than moonkin, especially on multi-target fights), and since I've transferred my priest here due to the character service sale and Andorhal's abysmal economy, I'd also like to offer it as an option. (Furthermore, if any fights benefit greatly from stacking healing priests of either spec, I am fluent as both disc and holy - I did main my priest for most of t14 and until the time I applied here.)

To that ends, I'm also submitting logs of parts 3 (moonkin) and 4 (shadow) of ToT LFR:

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-30fxvil0on9a74jz/

A quick lookthrough of logs this late and just kinda skimming through them for your gear your uptime on Sunfire and moonfire is pretty good. You wanna try to shoot for 100% uptime but thats sometimes impractical when you put that into effect. So in reality 90-98ish % is what you wanna try to shoot for. RNG happens a lot especially with moonkins so reapplying them is a pain. You have the gist of moonkins with more gear im sure you can compete with the rest of the group in terms of dps. I'm sure Nachthymnen may have a few questions for you if the officers do decide to have you roll moonkin for some fights. I'll add more tomorrow when I'm not so tired.

[Amye]

O.o