Aszmodan 513 Mage

[Aszmodan]

Hello and thanks for taking the time to look over my application.

Name and Class

Aszmodan - Mage

Armory Link

http://us.battle.net...zmodan/advanced

Recent WoL Parses

http://www.worldoflo.../?s=1109&e=1574

http://www.worldoflo.../?s=4049&e=4327

All logs can be found here (http://www.worldoflo...om/guilds/2790/)

Voice Communication

Mumble (preferred)

Vent

Have working microphone and willing to use it

Past Guilds and Raid History

I started raiding on my shaman (Kazadoom - http://us.battle.net...zadoom/advanced) as a healer while I was in Matador on the Madoran server. At the time I was playing with a few friends I worked with and we joined up with some other guys from another guild to create Matador. We started raiding in BC about 3 or 4 months after release, just doing 10 man Kharazan. Soon after we cleared that instance we decided we wanted to grow the guild to a 25 man raiding guild. At this time I was promoted to officer in the guild and helped build it up from a 10 man guild. After a couple weeks of intense recruiting we had enough to field 25 mans and started doing Gruul's Lair. During BC, our goal was to kill Illidan in Black Temple before the next expansion released. I took over as Guild Leader during SSC and we were able to accomplish the goal of killing Illidan, in addition to killing Vashj, Kael'thas, and Archimonde before the giant nerf to all BC raids. We were not able to get into Sunwell before the nerf however. Our Illidan kill was a Horde first and 2nd overall on the server at the time. So we were proud to have come up from nothing at the start of BC to accomplish that.

In Wrath of the Lich King we continued in 25s and we cleared Naxx, Malygos, and a server first 25 man 3d pretty soon after release of the expansion. We continued on into Ulduar and although we did not get a server first Yogg Saron kill (alliance guild beat us to it) we did manage to get the server first Algalon kill as well as many other 25 man server firsts in Ulduar. In ToGC we managed to kill all heroic fights except for Anubarak. We also got all hard modes in ICC down on 25 man except for Lich King, whom we were working on for what seemed like an eternity.

Cataclysm was a very weird time for our guild. I spent a lot of my time between my mage (Hideus - http://us.battle.net...Hideus/advanced) and my shaman (Kazadoom - http://us.battle.net...zadoom/advanced), so my experience was wildly split between the two early in this expansion. During the expansion our guild swapped back and forth between 10 and 25 mans what seemed like every 3rd raid week. Because of the inconsistency in our raid group, our progression was not what I would have expected out of our guild based on past expansions. We only managed to do 6/6 heroic in Blackwing Descent, 2/5 heroic in Bastion of Twilight, and no heroic kills in Throne of Four winds. I did end up taking a small break towards the beginning of Firelands because it was one of the many points in the expansion where we transitioned from 25m to 10m, and I was not enjoying the 10m environment at all. Later during Firelands, we then transitioned back to 25m again and I picked up on my shaman healing again and continued through Dragon Soul. We eventually got 6/8 in heroic Dragon Soul down in 25m but, once again, transitioned back to 10m when we lost so many of our core players we couldn't continue in 25m. This is when I stopped playing in Cataclysm. The guild did go on to clear heroic Dragon Soul in 10m, but I was not apart of that as I was not interested in 10m.

I had no intention of playing in Mists, but when a co-worker suggested I join his guild and play the expansion with him I decided I would give it a try. I started a new mage, Aszmodan whom I am applying to this guild with today, and started on the Lethon server in a guild called Thousand Sons. This was a very very casual guild. We didn't even start raiding until 3 or 4 weeks after the expansion came out, and when we did it was for a couple hours two nights a week. Coming from a more serious raiding guild, I realized that the reason I play this game is to raid at a high level, which this guild was not doing. My co-worker and I then transferred back to Madoran and joined my old guild, Matador. We joined the guild a couple weeks after HoF was released and we were able to go 4/6H in Vaults, and 5/6H in HoF. We only made a few attempts on heroic in Terrace, which I was a little discouraged about. I also wasn't incredibly happy that we never cleared Vaults on heroic, given how much we over geared the instance at the time. Which brings us to current day ToT, where we are currently 9/12 in normal mode. All of my experience thus far in Mists has been in 10 man.

Why Am I Applying to <South of Heaven>?

The biggest reason I am applying is because I want to go back to 25 mans. I never enjoyed 10 man as much as I did 25 man, and while I have been enjoying the current expansion much more than the previous two, I think I would enjoy it even more if I were playing in the format I enjoy the most.

Another big reason is because I really want to do all heroic content in a tier while it is relevant. In BC (outside of Sunwell) and ICC I was able to partake in all endgame content that I expected to. Unfortunately, since then progression has been trailing off at a rapid rate and I have not witnessed quite a few of the endgame heroic fights in the last few tiers. I feel as though I am a very capable raider and would be an asset to any heroic team, I just need to be in a guild that shares the same values as I do.

There are various other reasons as well that I would be more than willing to discuss in an interview, but the above reasons are really 90% of the reason I am applying.

What about <South of Heave> interested me?

My main concern was finding a guild that raided only 3 nights a week. I am a husband and father, and at this point in my life cannot devote more than 3 nights consistently to a game. There are occasional weeks where I might be able to, but it would not be fair to a guild to only be able to count on my the 4th night once a month.

I have done a lot of research and I wanted to find a guild that only raided 3 nights a week between the hours of 8 and 12 central time. I also really preferred a guild/realm in the Chicago data center as I am located in central Wisconsin and it is the closest geographically. Another large consideration was finding a guild that was either working on heroics, or very close to working on heroics. I feel as though I am able to be a great addition to a heroic team, but am being somewhat held back by what I consider stalled progression. I have read through other applications in your forums and can really tell that you put a lot of thought and effort into who raids in your guild. To me this shows a dedication and commitment to making your guild as successful as possible, which is very attractive. And last but not least, I want a 25man guild that has been around for awhile and does not have any intentions of disbanding and/or moving to a 10 man format. This guild seems to have a very rich history, being 8 years old, which is also very attractive.

Who Am I?

My name is Nate and I am 32 years old. As I mentioned above, I am a husband and father who very much values my family above all else. When I'm not doing family stuff though, I absolutely love gaming. I started my MMO career in The Realm, anyone remember that one? I then moved on to Everquest for many years and raiding through the Planes and stopped in GoD. I still hop on to Everquest every now and then when I'm bored and box 3-4 characters since it is now Free To Play. After Everquest, I moved to WoW and am still here today. I've also dabbled in LoTR Online and Rift, but always found WoW more polished. Though I do love the Rift class system. I also play LoL every now and then when I find time, but I'm still only level 15 or so and still very much learning that game.

I work 8-5 everyday as a programmer for an insurance company. When I'm not gaming, there's a very good chance I'm programming something for fun. I work in .NET mostly on web applications. If anyone has ideas for the next million dollar web application but just needs a programmer, let me know!

I am also an avid sports fan. Played sports my entire life but my main sports were Football, Soccer, and Basketball. The only sport I don't care for much as Baseball. Yes I even like Tennis and Golf more than Baseball. I am an absolute die hard Green Bay Packers fan, and never miss a game. Been lucky enough to go to games at Lambeau Field at least 30 times throughout my life. The start of football season is like Christmas for me, it's in every way a holiday.

Why would I be an asset to your guild?

I am a very dedicated raider and guild mate I always want what is best for the guild, if that means me sitting out for a certain fight due to comp reasons or passing gear to a raider in greater need. Guild progression always comes first to me. I am extremely reliable. I can not always predict family concerns that will keep me away from a raid night, but if I cannot make a raid night I make every effort to notify the raid leader or another officer as soon as possible. That being said, I don't miss many raid nights. I play this game to raid and missing a night is missing my favorite thing about this game.

I am dedicated to my class. I'm not a person who wants to switch mains every month. I put in endless hours of research to make sure I am playing as optimally as possible. When a new patch drops, I research as much as possible to make sure I am 100% on top of any class changes that might modify my gearing or rotation.

My greatest asset in a raid is I don't die. I pride myself on understanding mechanics and I will always put survivability on the forefront of my game play. Playing a healer for many many years has taught me to not rely on always being healed, but rely on your abilities and positioning to keep you alive. Granted I do make mistakes, but I will absolutely never make the same mistake twice. In addition, I learn from the mistakes of my peers. If I see another teammate make a mistake, I try and do everything in my power to learn from that mistake and not repeat it.

Thanks again for looking through my application and I look forward to speaking with you further.

Aszmodan

[Ashin]

This is what a good application looks like.

Please add ashin#1840 so we can set up a mumble interview this weekend. More specific questions on your armory and logs are forthcoming I'm sure.

For now, can you tell me why you play a mage? Why do I want a mage on my raid team instead of another ranged DPS? How have you felt about the class this expansion overall? Can you give me some specific examples of ways in which you used your class utility to help your team progress on T14 HM's?

Cheers.

[Tinymanz]

+5 points for being named Nate.

It's a good name.

[Aszmodan]

Hi Ashin, thanks for the reply. I'll add you as soon as I login this evening.

As for your questions, I play a Mage mainly because I like range dps and I fell in love with the mage class while I was leveling one. I love the big numbers mages can generate and when I'm playing a non-mage, I find myself trying to blink all over the place to no avail. For me the biggest thing is actually being able to level a class to max level. Mage, shaman, and DK are the only classes I've been able to bear leveling to max level. Mage and shaman are my favorite classes, and if I'm on a shaman I'd prefer to heal, so Mage is my go to for range dps.

Mages bring exceptional dps to most raids. The fire spec is one of the better raid dps specs in the game because of the way we scale with gear, arguably better than any other class. Outside of dps though, Mages do not bring a whole lot of utility to raids outside of buffs other classes can bring. And as of late this has been one of the biggest gripes of most mages, if we aren't bringing dps there isn't a whole lot more we can bring unless you don't have another Bloodlust (highly unlikely). We do however, bring utility in the form of absorbs and cheat death mechanics. Cauterize is a great cheat death mechanic that be used to negate high damage that would ordinarily kill another class will save a mage. Ice Block is another great utility mechanic that can be used to either completely negate damage or remove a dangerous debuff. Another great self utility skill is Greater Invis, which can be very useful as yet another damage reduction cooldown. Some examples of using said abilities in the last tier that I have done involve talenting for double Ice Block on Blade Lord so I can ice block off two wind steps to help healers and using Greater Invis on the heroic Elegon fight to soak an add explosion. Other examples that I was prepared to try but never got the chance because we never got to those fights are using a combination of blink, ice block, and cauterize to soak multiple add explosions on the heroic Will fight and also use blink to quickly apply the damage debuff to Lei Shi on the heroic fight, especially during Get Away.

During the first tier I felt pretty good about the mage class. Fire is my absolute favorite mage spec, so I obviously was pretty ecstatic when it was pulling huge numbers towards the beginning of the expansion. I was pretty discouraged when the nerf to fire happened, and although it was needed, I still believe it was way to harsh at the time. However, I quickly got over it when I realized how good Arcane was then. I'm not sure why, but I very much preferred and actually liked the scorch weaving rotation of Arcane over the old dump and evocate rotation (damage and numbers aside). I have not tried Frost yet this expansion, but I would be more than willing to learn it and play it if needed. Currently, I think mages are pretty good overall due to how well fire scales. I wasn't super excited over the increase in bomb damage essentially turning us into a super mult-dotting class, but with change so must we change. =)

Thanks again for the response and I'll add you tonight once I get in game.

Aszmodan

[Mytralala]

I'm not sure why, but I very much preferred and actually liked the scorch weaving rotation of Arcane over the old dump and evocate rotation (damage and numbers aside).

Preach to the choir! Last tier was literally the first time I have ever enjoyed playing arcane in this game. I have no clue as to why they didn't like the scorch weaving concept. Sure our damage was a bit high but they could have just nerfed some number somewhere rather than forcing us to completely change the play style to what THEY wanted rather than what the general collective was enjoying.

Hello and welcome to the forums. This is a quality app. You'll come to know me as the local whining mage of the guild

For my one and only question: could you give me a list of trinkets best suited for a fire mage this tier? This isn't a test or anything I have just been reading a bunch into it and the mage community seems to be arguing over it. Just curious what your thoughts are on the matter.

[Aszmodan]

Hi Boombox. I couldn't agree more about Arcane, I really wish they would have left scorch weaving in and just lowered the numbers.

As for trinkets, I don't have any more data that what's already posted out there and the only trinket I've gotten my hands on yet is Breath of the Hydra but the top trinket I'm looking for is Cha-Ye's Essence of Brilliance. Given all different theories flying around right now, all that crit on one trinket is too sexy to pass up imo. Wushoolay's Final Choice has too much hit on it for my liking. I already have too much hit I don't know what to do with so I'm not sure this trink would benefit me personally as much. Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen is very intriguing. But reports of the low proc rate on it kinda of push me away from it. You see 100% crit rate and as a fire mage you drool a little, but if it only procs once every 4 or 5 minutes I'm not sure how worth it is. I think right now my top two trinkets for me personally are Breath of the Hydra and Cha-Ye's Essence of Brilliance.

I have an upgraded heroic Light of the Cosmos so I really have no interest in the VP trinket either, all the reports I've seen say an upgraded LoTC is better than the VP trinket.

What is your take on the trinkets?

And thanks for the response, I look forward to discussing more magery with you.

Aszmodan

[Noesis]

Very nice app. Three things from me

No pvp?

See you're spec'ed flameglow. Do you like it? Do you think it was better to place blazing speed as T1 talent?

You say you prefer mumble. What makes you like mumble over the alternatives?

[Aszmodan]

Hi Noesis.

I have never really been big into PvP in WoW. I'd much rather spend my time either raiding or reading up on boss strategies and information on my class.

I specced into Flameglow just to try it out. I wanted to see if I could tell a difference but I find it incredibly hard to notice a difference between an "always on" talent and two others that benefit more from usage at high damage times. After a week or two of Flameglow I actually think I prefer Ice Barrier more because I notice the most difference out of that talent during large damage spikes. The only thing I don't like about Ice Barrier is the lost gcd. But i feel it more than makes up for it being able to easily stay alive during those intense damage periods. I never really liked or noticed Temporal Shield much. It's great it has a low cd and does not consume a gcd, but you still take 100% of the damage, which negates the point of that tier of talents to me.

I've never seen a real need for Blazing Speed, as I have never had problem with movement. With blink being available almost every time I need it, i feel like PoM offers a better advantage because of the dps increase. In a fight where movement was a huge issue Blazing Speed might be a better alternative. But even in a fight like Tortos with high movement, it is just constant movement, so it doesn't matter how fast you move unless you cannot move out of the rockfalls, which isn't a problem at all with blink. If it were a high movement fight where you had to get to certain position quickly and blink wasn't enough to get you there, Blazing Speed would certainly be a good choice.

Our guild used to use Vent and switched to Mumble in Cata. There was a noticeable difference in latency between vent and mumble, with mumble being the clear winner. In fights where callouts need to timely, I haven't experienced anything better than Mumble.

Thanks for the response and nice to meet you Noesis.

Aszmodan

[Noesis]

[Mytralala]

I approve of all the things you said and it follows my line of reasoning as well. I have HLotC but its not upgraded /sob. Cha-Ye is def the BiS and from what I gather breath is best for lust on pull fights and wooshu is better for the rest. We'll see how it goes, I definitely like the fact that we actually have options as far as trinkets go this tier