Fixall - 515 - Holy/Disc Priest.

[fixxall]

Hello everyone reading this from South of Heaven! My name is Brian, although I have been going by Fixall both in games and on forums for almost the last decade. I hope you don't mind me

using a basic application template so as to help me keep track of my thoughts.

Name: Brian

Age: 29

Timezone: Pacific Standard

Real ID: Fixall#1351

Character: Fixall

Armory Link: http://us.battle.net...Fixall/advanced

Screenshot Link: http://i28.photobuck...nspath/ui.jpg��

My self portrait and target addon was disabled in this screen shot. Otherwise that's my basic set up. I'll be making some changes to it however when I am consistently running 25 man raids.

About me:

I just turned 29 a few days ago (scary). I was diagnosed with pretty severe Gastroparesis about three years ago and have to spend a lot of my time in the house. Previous interests have included basically anything dangerous and stupid; from skydiving to backpacking trips to areas people tend to avoid. Current circumstances have caused me to focus more on getting my adrenaline rush from raiding. Other current hobbies include computers and their many components and I currently make a living consulting and building computers for personal use.

Philosophy on raiding:

My attitude towards raiding is "work smart, not hard". What I mean by that is I like to go into a fight with a well planned strategy as well as an understanding of all known mechanics. I feel this goes a long way towards shortening an individuals learning curve which is what seems to hold 25 man guilds back the most.

With that being said... I am in no way discouraged by long nights of wiping. As I hope my raid history shows... I am not a stranger to difficult content and have spent many a raid night throwing myself at a boss until all the tweaks to our strategy are worked out. Many of my favorite boss fights have involved several raid nights of wiping such as; Mimiron Firefighter, heroic Anub'Arak (ToGC), and recently Heroic Vizier (tanks had to learn the dance!).

Addons I most rely on for raiding are:

Weak Auras - Whether it be to track a debuff placed on myself or tracking a cooldown, I find this addon pretty much indispensable.

TellMeWhen - I use this as a backup to Weak Auras. It's a nice addon when you want to quickly add something to your track list without having to worry about the icons and strings of Weak Auras.

Grid - I enjoy how customizable these raid frames are (although the Vuhdo out of range tool is making a case for itself lately). I also use Grid Corner and Side Icons as well as Raid Debuff Icons in conjunction with this addon.

Clique - I use this as well as a combination of keybinds and mouseover macros for my spells.

*Addons I use for raiding but could live without*

Quartz - Mainly used for latency tracking of my casts.

Bartender - Moved action bars for efficiency.

ICEHUD - Easy mana and health tracking.

Mik's Scrolling Battle Text - Easier access to combat numbers, cooldowns, etc.

DeadlyBossMods - Useful for farm content. I often find it a hindrance to progression for myself though.

World of Logs parses:

http://www.worldoflo...4&e=4924#Fixall

http://www.worldoflo...0&e=3345#Fixall

http://www.worldoflo...6&e=4849#Fixall

The first log is a 10 man log of Heroic Garalon. I didn't choose it because I hold the third highest world Holy Priest rank for that fight, but because we two healed it with a Resto Shaman who had never seen the fight and it went the whole 7 minute duration. I feel this is a good representation of my adaptability in stressful situations as well as my ability to maximize my healing while in spec that isn't know for sustainability.

The second and third logs are from Modern's recent switch to 25 man raiding. They are first and second kills of those particular bosses so I think they show my performance in both a brand new tier as well as how I adapted to the change to 25 mans in both the Holy and Disc specs.

Guild History:

My past guilds with Fixall have consisted of <Thats What She Said> on Mannoroth. This is the guild I progressed through Karazhan through Ulduar with. My fondest memories in WoW come from the period I was with this guild. I left this guild as it became a casual guild as the majority of the officer base quit the game. I still have alts in this guild and continue to talk to past and current members.

After that I was in <Malevolent> (the name was later changed to <Whatever>) for Trial of the Crusade through the Frozen Throne. There was a rather large falling out that I don't know a lot about. I logged in one day to the message that a lot of people had left and they would be converting to 10 man. I left the game until MoP when that happened as I was pretty disheartened..

When I came back to the game I hung around in <Thats What She Said> until I was picked up by <Incite> on Mannoroth. After spending a few weeks in <Incite> the ten man raiding core split off from the guild and started <Endurance> to prepare to transfer off of Mannoroth onto Stormreaver in hopes of converting to a 25 man guild. When we transferred to Stormreaver, <Endurance> was already taken so we became <Modern>. I am leaving <Modern> as they are going to downsize back to ten man to push progression as hard as possible. They would like me to stay, and I would love to continue to raid with them but unfortunately they want to switch to a 5-7 day raid week and that along with downsizing to 10 man doesn't sit very well with me.

I will be leaving on good terms and spent a portion of my time as an officer in there.

Raiding Experience:

I started raiding on Fixall as my main back in the Burning Crusade. I finished the tier in the Sunwell Plateau, having cleared all content from Karazhan through Black Temple before the patch hit. I was working on Twin Emps when 3.0 was released. I took a small break from the game to focus on my health while my guild went on to clear Sunwell before the WotLK expansion dropped.

I came back to the game at the towards the end of Naxx. On the 25 man side of things I progressed through all of Ulduar except Algalon pre nerf. In 10 man we achieved "Glory of the Ulduar Raider" in June I believe (with Algalon also dying sometime around then). In ToGC I (along with my guild) achieved "A Tribute to Skill" in December of 2009. My 10 ten man group went on to achieve "Tribute to Insanity" the following month. Our guild continued to be competitive throughout normal 25 man Icecrown Citadel up until Sindragosa (one boss from the Lich King!). This was when the big falling out happened.

I came back for MoP and ended the first tier 11/16 on 10 man heroic (started raiding a month or so late) before the 5.2 patch hit (13/16 since then as we went back to finish HoF). This tier I have done a full clear of the Throne of Thunder on 10 man as well as going 11/12 on 25 man normal mode.

Officer Experience:

I was an Officer and Raid Leader for <Thats What She said> for about 6 months up until the choice was made to become a casual guild in Wrath.

More recently I was an officer of <Modern> helping lead the 25 man raid to 11/12 in Throne of Thunder after converting to 25 man only a couple weeks earlier.

Why I think I would be a good fit:

I consider myself a very skilled and competent player who is always working on improving himself. Whether it be reading every priest forum out there while joining in on the theorycrafting or combing the logs of myself and fellow healers to find issues with spell and cooldown usage.

I am very dependable, achieving almost 100% attendance in my past guilds.

I am very friendly and open to both receiving and giving help on most any gameplay matter.

I am very adaptable and have continued to play at a very competitive level on my priest as both Discipline and Holy no matter the changes to gameplay.

Other Information:

Internet Connection:

40 down/5 up.

Computer Specs:

2600k @ 5.8Ghz, GTX 680 @ 1250Mhz, 16GB ram and an SSD (load times).

[Twelvesoft]

Heya Brian, thanks for the app! I just have a few basic questions to get the ball rolling and to pick up on some things that I am sure most people will be curious about from your app. First off, what about 25 man raiding intrigues you so much that leads you to leave your current guild and look elsewhere? I feel like most people embrace 10 man due to it being much less of a headache in most circumstances. Second question, do you ever DPS as a priest, or do you stick solely to the healing side of the class? And lastly, and the most important, what about our guild stands out to you, and what makes you feel like you want to be a part of our team? Thanks again for the time and look forward to seeing you around.

[fixxall]

The fact that my guild is switching from a three to four day raid week to a five to seven day raid week has been a much bigger part of my decision to leave then the switch back to ten man. To answer your question though, the thing that draws me to 25 man raiding is most definitely the "epicness". The sense of achievement you get after 25 people come together and work in perfect harmony to down an extremely difficult boss just can't be attained in ten man raiding. As fun as it was to down bosses like Mimiron hard mode on ten man... Every fight I have downed on 25 man has been a much bigger thrill. This current tier is a good example. I have cleared ToT normal on 10 man and gone 11/12 on 25 man. The amount of enjoyment was exponentially higher on 25 man then it was on 10 man. I know ilvl on loot is now the same on both 10 man and 25 man and I could probably gear up with less of a headache in my 10 man raid as I would be the only one rolling on Spirit cloth... But gear has never been a very big factor to me. I am at a 515 ilvl right now, but I could have been very easily sitting at a 520+ ilvl with our recent drops. I've been spending a lot of time passing however as I have been more then competitive enough in my current gear.

I spend the vast majority of my time healing as the other officers have been extremely hesitant to lose my healing in the raid. They have called on me to Holy DPS a couple fights (and I was competitive on single target, no joke!) so they could test a healing app but they have never actually given me the chance to go Shadow. In the past I have been decently competitive as Shadow, but I can't say that I enjoy playing DPS very much. It just doesn't give me the thrill that healing does. And to be honest... The officers of Modern are probably right in thinking I'm a much bigger asset as a healer.

There are actually a few main things that really stand out to me about you guys. First is the fact that you have been around and raiding for such a considerable amount of time. If you look at my guild history, you'll see I've been in a few guilds that self destructed. I am very calm person and enjoy a drama free environment, so stability was near the top of my list. Another huge draw for me (and my gf for that matter) was the fact that you only raid three days a week. I can commit to up to four, but that's about my limit for competitive raiding. I play daily, but sometimes I like to enjoy the other aspects of the game. And lastly there was this from your wowprogress post;

• We need personality. I've just gotten home from a 12 hour workday, I'm famished, and now I'm going to spend 3 hours with you. You need to be fun, or this won't work.
  
• We are eclectic. Our members are boys, girls, gay, straight, conservative, liberal and come in a variety of colors. Do not apply if you don't know how to behave in this environment.
  

I can't even begin to tell you how right up my alley this is... I am a; Libertarian (Ron Paul!), environmentalist, bookworm, health nut, adrenaline junkie, computer geek, exotic animal rescuing, love punk, foodie, technophile (with luddite tendencies, I'm weird), Jewish, German, Irish, Native American, member of Mensa. I have a slightly colorful background to say the least.

Edited April 2, 2013 by fixxall

[Ashin]

What an intriguing app!

I have a few early questions / thoughts, in no particular order.

First, I'd enjoy a discussion about this bit:

DeadlyBossMods - Useful for farm content. I often find it a hindrance to progression for myself though.

Explain how DBM can sometimes be a hindrance during progression, in your eyes. Does it not help for planning your cooldowns to see some of those timers?

Second, and without meaning to pry, does your stomach condition create any complications or interruptions during raid? (Sorry for your misfortune, by the way.)

Third, I really enjoyed the pic of your tree frogs! Where'd they come from - one of your rescue adventures?

Now as far as taking a holy/disc priest, it isn't off the table. But our experience this raid tier so far has been very rough on conq tokens. We're slightly heavy, and we've been on a brutal RNG streak. So for reasons that don't really have anything to do with your gameplay or with holy priest capability, I'm just hesitant / shy in this case. That said, I'm not going to ignore a solid application for reasons of that nature, so I would definitely like to proceed with the app and set up an interview. I'm available tonight (Monday) - how about you?

Lastly, talk to me about why you've stood by your priest all these years. You clearly enjoy the class. Why? What about priest-healing turns you on in ways that other classes don't? Tell me why I want a Holy priest on my 25m team - what does the class bring to the table that others can't? Please give me some examples during your heroic T14 progression of ways in which you leveraged unique capabilities of your priest to get the team through the fight.

Looking forward to your reply.

[Ashin]

Oh, and also just curious - have you been raiding with Zecky prior to Modern? I noticed you both come from the same server previous to Stormreaver.

[Alaska]

Oh, and also just curious - have you been raiding with Zecky prior to Modern? I noticed you both come from the same server previous to Stormreaver.

And Guild. <Malevolent>

[fixxall]

What an intriguing app!

I have a few early questions / thoughts, in no particular order.

First, I'd enjoy a discussion about this bit:

Explain how DBM can sometimes be a hindrance during progression, in your eyes. Does it not help for planning your cooldowns to see some of those timers?

I should have clarified that sentence a little better. It's mainly the first week or two of new raids that I'm hesitant to take DBM's word as law. Most of the time the timers are correct when the updates are released but there have been several times that the timers for new raids haven't worked out well for me for the first week or two. On top of that when I'm in a brand new raid with all new mechanics I sometimes catch myself paying too much attention to the timers when I should be getting a feel for the boss fight. After shutting DBM off for the first week of raids after new content had been released I noticed my learning curve improved a lot and have stuck with that strategy since. Of course all this only applies to that first week or so before there are mainstream boss strategies floating out there on the web. Those timers can be huge for preemptively putting in place Disc shields... But after my time in WoW I have started to get a feel for how most abilities on timers work out after a couple boss pulls.

Second, and without meaning to pry, does your stomach condition create any complications or interruptions during raid? (Sorry for your misfortune, by the way.)

Not at all. All my treatments are finished up by 3pm server time. I've never missed a raid from complications from my illness.

Third, I really enjoyed the pic of your tree frogs! Where'd they come from - one of your rescue adventures?

Glad you liked them! That's Vito and Joe there. There are indeed rescue animals. They were re homed with us after being taken from an illegal frog breeder. He had over 200 Red-Eyed Tree frogs living in the most disgusting habitats. My gf and I also have a five foot Royal Python that was rescued from a metal band and a Siberian Husky that was going to be a show dog but had an undescended testicle so the owner was going to put him as he couldn't be shown.

Now as far as taking a holy/disc priest, it isn't off the table. But our experience this raid tier so far has been very rough on conq tokens. We're slightly heavy, and we've been on a brutal RNG streak. So for reasons that don't really have anything to do with your gameplay or with holy priest capability, I'm just hesitant / shy in this case. That said, I'm not going to ignore a solid application for reasons of that nature, so I would definitely like to proceed with the app and set up an interview. I'm available tonight (Monday) - how about you?

I completely understand the situation you are in, I have been there myself and it's painful, lol. I am available at any time to talk more.

Lastly, talk to me about why you've stood by your priest all these years. You clearly enjoy the class. Why? What about priest-healing turns you on in ways that other classes don't? Tell me why I want a Holy priest on my 25m team - what does the class bring to the table that others can't? Please give me some examples during your heroic T14 progression of ways in which you leveraged unique capabilities of your priest to get the team through the fight.

The main reason I've stuck by Fixall all this time is because I LOVE healing. No other class in the game brings such diversity to a healing team. Not only do I get to play the only class in the game that has TWO pure healing specs... But I get to play a class with two healing specs that are completely different from each other. With a push of a button I can switch from a heavy mitigation healer making constant use of shields, DA, and Shell who pumps out some damage... To a much more reactive raid healer able to push out extremely high heals per second on demand.

That same diversity is what makes Priests such a great addition to any raid. DPS enrage a little tight? No prob, have me go Disc for some pretty significant damage. Have a fight with constant damage going out to the entire raid from start to finish? That's ok, I'll go Holy and abuse the crap out of our Mastery hot and smart heals to even up the raid damage. New progression boss have an ability that nukes the whole raid for 300k damage? Good thing I can go Disc and put a Spirit Shell and PW:S on the entire raid making the damage negligible. On top of that... The variety of cooldowns a Priest brings to a raid shouldn't be underestimated! Not counting Spirit Shell (on a 1 min cd!), Disc Priests bring a 40% damage reduction tank cooldown, a 25% damage reduction bubble the ENTIRE raid can fit in. Holy brings a cooldown that allows the target to receive 60% increased healing from ALL sources (think fights like Tsulong!) as well as the extremely powerful raid cooldown that is Divine Hymn. Both specs bring a cooldown that save a raid by swapping health with a tank about to go down (Void Shift) as well as Hymn of Hope which has also saved many a raid by providing mana to healers who are oom. The biggest reason you should bring me isn't because of my class though. It's because of my overall skill and understanding when it comes to warcraft. I feel I could play pretty competitively as most any class.

The best example I can give from T14 Heroic progression where my unique capabilities as a Priest helped get my team through an encounter is Heroic Will of the Emperor. I had been running as Holy for the fight in our ten man group as the constant Titan Gas made it very viable. Because we had a Holy Paladin rocking the 4 piece pvp set at the time for the amazing set bonus, raid heals ended up being MUCH less of an issue then we originally planned. Instead we had a big issue with keeping the spark soaker (had a rogue feinting) up. Holy Priests can be strong single target healers, but they don't excel in fights with both high single target and raid damage (mana issues). If I had been on a class that didn't have a second healing spec, we would have been boned until we could come up with some changes to our strategy. However, because I had rolled with the awesome class that is the Priest I was able to quickly change to Discipline, giving our raid team the burst single target healing we needed while still keeping a respectable amount of raid heals and tank cooldowns.

Edited April 2, 2013 by fixxall

[fixxall]

P.S.

Yes I was in both Malevolent and Whatever (same guild different name) with Wes (Zecky) over on Mannoroth.

<3 that guy.

[Midri]

I kept looking back over the first post, trying to find the tree frog picture links! Apparently I am just not as good of a Photobucket stalker as Ashin is... ><

[Ashin]

I'm going to look for you tonight around 7 to 8 server time.

One question that popped in my head while reading your reply - how do you feel about the interaction between two priests on the team? My healing officer plays Disc as his main spec.

Please add ashin#1840 and, yes, my stalking skills are strong! Show her the frogs, Fix. They are cute.