My apologies in advance for those who find this application too long, I wanted to be thorough and answer every question completely.

1. Name: Nublicious
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... Nublicious
2. Class: Paladin
3. What spec would your character be applying as: Holy

4. Please explain why your spec is the better then any potential others:
I prefer the 51/17/3 over 51/20 and 51/5/15 for several reasons. Firstly, I put three points in benediction instead of picking up Imp Devotion aura simply because most raids generally have a Protection Paladin or a Restoration druid so having Imp Devotion is not necessary and the 6 percent reduced mana cost on my instants is worthwhile on longer fights. I would be willing to respect to Imp Devotion if the raid did not have a Restoration Druid or Protection Paladin. Secondly, I chose the 51/17/3 spec over some variation of 51/5/15 because given the heavy damage fights in ICC I feel the divine guardian talent is too beneficial to pass up (I use a macro for the spell that allows you to cancel the damage redirection part of the spell but keep the six second group damage reduction) a six second group damage reduction every two minutes and have found a use for it on every fight in ICC so far. Also having sacred shield last a minute instead of thirty seconds allows me one extra global cooldown every minute that I would not have if I was not spec’ed into divine guardian. Additionally, on fights where agro is not an issue (pretty much every fight other then Rotface that I have encountered so far) the six percent damage reduction from talented righteous fury helps lighten the burden on raid healers.

If the question was referring to versus prot/ret I think all three specs have strong and weak points, for me it is just a personal preference that I enjoy healing more then dps or tanking.

5. Are there any situations in which you think you would be better off as a different spec (explain answer):
If this question is simply referring to my holy talent spec, then there are several situations where another spec may be beneficial. In situations where a protection paladin or a resto druid is not available then it would be better to have imp devo over benediction. In situations where there is not much a significant amount of aoe damage going a 51/5/15 spec would be better since the increased crit would allow for a slight increase in my healing throughput as well as provide for increased mana regen through illumination and would allow me to pick up improved blessing of might.
Again, if this question was referring to versus protection/retribution specs it would just depend on whether additional healers were required, if not then it would make sense to be retribution or protection instead.

6. What could be improved in your gear selections and why:
The biggest thing that I need to improve about my gear selection and am currently working on is getting more haste. The haste amount that is generally accepted as being ideal for paladins is between 650 and 700 haste rating (EJ states a value of 676), so that we are at the haste softcap for flash of light. Namely I am looking at replacing my tier 9 breastplate with either the Breastplate of the Frozen Lake from toc 25 or with my tier 10 chest when I save enough badges over the next week or two. I also need to replace my badge ring with either Marrowgar’s Frigid Eye or the Signet of Putrefaction. I am also looking into getting Legplates of the Falling Light from TOC 25 to replace my tier 9 legs to help me reach the haste softcap. I also was recently playing around with a flash of light build so I was stacking more spell power instead of int but have found it not to be nearly as effective or viable so I am in the process of switching my gems back to epic gems that include int., just waiting on a couple friends transmute cooldowns over the next few days. I also need to change my shoulder enchant back to mp 5 instead of crit.

7. List your professions:
I currently have inscription and alchemy. Inscription I chose for the increase shoulder enchant (Didn’t want to do the Sons of Hodir grind at the launch of Wrath) and alchemy I chose for the increased flask effects from Mixology, as well as for the improved mana potions that also restores health.

8. Previous guild(s) and reason(s) for leaving:
I have not been in a serious raiding guild for about a year now, the last guild I was in was Vodka on Alterac Mountains. I had to leave Vodka because when Ulduar came out I could not keep up with the demanding raiding schedule of raiding 6 hours a day every day (I graduated college in the fall of 2008 and started my professional career in Jan. of 2009 which consequently caused my 6+ hours a day of WoW to halt). For the past year I have been playing with some friends casually in 10 mans and pugging twenty-five man content when possible. A couple of the friends we were doing the ten mans with have decided to quit the game and I decided to view this as an opportunity to get back into some more progressive raiding. The guild I am currently in is just a friends guild with about five of us that know each other in real life. Please see raiding experience for a listing of the guilds I have been in over my five year WoW career.

9. Why do you choose Valiant:
I chose Valiant because after looking over the guilds that are recruiting it appears that Valiant’s raiding schedule worked best with my availability and the amount of time that I am looking to commit to raid at this point in my life. The Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday schedule is ideal for me and the 8:30 Server start time is better for me, since my job sometimes requires me to work past 5 (6-7 typically) so it will give me time to get home and get prepared for the day’s raid. I also strongly agree with the statement made by Valiant’s guild leader on the read before applying page.


10. What is your raiding availability:
My raiding availability is pretty flexible as long as I know in advance when we will be raiding and can plan my week accordingly. Below are the times I know I will always be available for.
Mon – 8pm – 1am
Tues/Wed- 6:30pm – 1am
Thursday – 8pm – 1am
Friday – 7pm – 2am
Sat/Sun – Anytime

11. What is your raiding experience(Pre and Post BC):
I have played the game since release date. I started off on a Warrior who I played from release through Tempest Keep at which point I switched to my Paladin due to guild needs of healers at the time. Below is a detailed listing of the raiding guilds I have been in and what content I cleared with each guild. In summary (for those who may be of the to long, didn’t read nature) my pre and post BC experience includes killing every boss other then Kil Jaden and included a world first on Doomwalker and multiple US top 20 kills.

Ebon Order (Durotan) – This was the first guild I joined when WoW came out and was the top guild on the server for the beginning of WoW (Server first on all of MC, BWL, AQ). The guild broke up when Nax came out because the guild leader transferred off the server to join Afterlife.

Illumination (Turalyon) – I was with this guild for all of Naxxaramas and this was the top guild on our server and was in the top 15 US kills on both Saph and KT. This guild also broke up due to the guild leader quitting right before TBC came out and no one wanting to lead the guild in the new expansion.

Afterlife (Cenarius) – I joined Afterlife on Cenarius because several people from Ebon Order had gone there and they needed a dps fury warrior at the time. I was in Afterlife for all of TBC up until Sunwell, including when we got the World First on Doomwalker and were top 50 on multiple raid bosses. Right before Sunwell came out I had a disagreement with the guild leaders on several guild polices that I though did not make much sense (contact me in game if you would like more information) and decided to find a new guild to raid with.

Encore (Cenarius) – I joined this guild because I had a lot of friends on the server that were in this guild. With this guild I cleared all of Sunwell (except for KJ). The guild broke up shortly before Wrath came out because people got tired of wiping on KJ and not making any progress.

Vodka (Alterac Mountains) – I joined Vodka because several of my friends who I played with in Illumination had gone there after Illumination broke up and said they were in need of Holy Paladins. I was with Vodka for all of the hard mode achievements (3D Sarth being the most notable). As stated above I had to leave Vodka when Ulduar came out due to my real life career starting and not being able to commit the time required to be in a hardcore guild like Vodka.

After I left Vodka I went back to Cenarius and played with some friends in Ulduar and did up to Yogg in 10 man at which point several of them quit and I took a break from the game for a couple months to get my work in order. I came back in early October and transferred to Sargeras where I have been playing with a couple of friends and pugging ToC and ICC.

12. Who do you know in Valiant (These will be used as references, make sure they are someone we could talk to about you):
I do not have any references from Valiant.

13. Who are you? (Age? Go to school? Got a job? Computer Configuration? Internet connection? Looking for relevant personal details here.)
My name is Chris, I am a 23 (soon to be 24) year old male who works for a big four accounting firm (Ernst & Young) as an auditor where my nickname is Nugget because I like to eat McDonald’s chicken McNuggets. I graduated a year ago from college and spent the better part of this past year getting into the working groove so to speak and learning to balance work life, personal life, and gaming life. When I am not gaming I am usually out with friends or bowling (yes, I said bowling). In general I am a pretty laid back guy that has a good sense of humor and doesn’t like drama over video games. I run a dell XPS 720 machine with 2 GB of RAM and an Nvidia 756 MB graphics card. I a pretty typical cable internet connection and have never had any disconnect or lag issues.

14. What mods do you use and why:
I use a lot of different mods, some just for aesthetic purposes; I will list out the raiding relevant ones. Grid of course for raid frames, DBM, Pally Power, Recount, Dr. Damage, and a paladin timer and tracker mod (to show my beacon, ss, jotp, and flash hot timers) and Pitbull.

15. Any additional information you want to share with us?
I know you are closed on Holy Paladins right now but I would really enjoy the opportunity to raid with your guild, even if it is only a backup type basis. Valiant’s guild philosophy and raiding times are exactly what I am looking for in my ideal progression guild. I have also attached a video that we (Vodka) used to show to new apps when they were joining. It is safe for work and runs about a minute long. Additionally, I feel I should let you know that I will be taking a vacation in March (15th through 23rd) which would cause me to miss a week and a half of raids. I just want to put that out there now so it is known going in. This is the only time I have planned with the next six months that would require me to miss an extended period of raiding time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

16. Explain how you prepare for an encounter you have no experience with?
When I am preparing for an encounter I have never experienced before I usually like to approach it the same way I would a research paper. I go to a variety of different sources (mmo-champion for ability listings, elitist jerks for group discussions specific to both my class role and the encounter in general, you-tube/Warcraft movies to find a video of the fight from a healer perspective, and of course the best source, in game friends and guild mates who may have done the encounter before and could give me pointers and tips on how to best avoid/mitigate abilities and when to use cool downs.

17. What potential new and exciting drama can you bring to our guild?
I am usually not a very drama filled guy so I am not sure what kind of drama I could bring other then who doesn’t want a female dwarf paladin with spinning pigtails in their guild? Plus you could say you had a Vengeful Gladiator in your guild, the title always seems to bring me some sort of drama or attention even though I haven’t pvp’ed seriously in over a year.

18. Explain what healing skills and ranks you use and when you use them: Well max rank of course since they all cost the same amount of mana now anyways. Skill wise my typical setup is beacon on the main tank with sacred shield on him if there is no offtank (sacred shield on the offtank if one is required). I flash once every 7 or 8 casts to keep the hot up on the sacred shield tank and basically spam holy light on the offtank/raid while letting beacon heal the MT. I have my divine favor holy shock macro ready if for some reason there is a large burst and I don’t think my holy light will land in time. I use lay on hands for burst situations that are unpredictable or in situations where heavy damage is going to be coming and the lay on hands buff is needed (most notably on Festergut when he has 3 stacks as part of the cooldown rotation). I use bubble hand of sac for similar situations where the tank will be taking heavy damage for a period of time. I use guardian sacrifice when a damage reduction cooldown is needed for the raid or when it is setup as part of a cooldown rotation for the tanks.

2. Explain what your most important stats to gear for are and why: Haste rating is consider the most important stat for Holy Paladins who chose to go with a holy light build focus because it is the one stat that increase our healing throughput the most. After getting over 600 haste rating the next most important stat (some consider this even more then haste in terms of gemming and gearing since you can usually get to 600 haste from gear if you get the right drops) for the Holy Paladins is Intellect since it provides the most benefit per item point. (Increases our mana pool, increases our crit rating, increases our healing through talents, and increases our mana regen through allowing us to gain back more mana during divine plea). The third most important stat is mp5 since it allows for longer periods of healing and thus more healing throughput. After that crit and spell power are 4th/5th.

19. Explain which is better for your class; Spirit or Mp5: Mp5, any paladin who gears spirit of any kind should probably have their game uninstalled. We don’t have talents like druids and priests that let a percentage of our spirit regen during casting so it is worthless for us since we are typically never outside the 5 second rule window.

20. Explain which is better for your class; +healing or spell haste: Spell haste is more valuable to the Paladin class since it increases our healing throughput by a greater amount then spell power does per item point. This is due to holy lights high base healing amount; so it is essentially better to just cast faster/be able to cast more holy lights over a period of time rather than simply marginally increase the healing of each individual holy light.

Prioritize the following from 1 (most important) to 5 (least important):
Honesty:1
Loyalty:3
Pride:5
Integrity:2
Compassion:4

I will be posting my UI later tonight when I get home, at lunch at work right now and just finished editing the application so I figured I might as well throw it up now and then attach the UI screenshot later tonight. I currently do not have any wws or recount screenshots of healing done but I will potentially be doing a raid this weekend and will attach a screenshot of recount if/when I can.

Attached is a screenshot of my UI.

Your application and knowledge seem very legitimate. However, we currently have quite a full house on healers. I'm not an officer though so lets see what one of them say.

Hate to pass up a stellar app; hopefully ninja gets in here soonish

Seems to be a very impressive application. Seems like a pretty cool guy and I like his preference for McNuggets and Alchemy. I mostly just wanted to comment on an observation I made that many of our applicants list compassion as either 4 or 5 on the scale.

I'd like to think I am pretty good judge of character, and I get a vibe that my buddy Nugget here is a fairly compassionate person. I suspect that a lot of people think compassion would not be very important to a serious raiding guild and therefore do not rate it as highly. I just want to throw it out there that there are some very friendly people in Valiant that you don't need to be afraid to be friendly to. If you're the kind of person that likes to hug trees feel free to look me up anytime, whether you are in the guild or not.

I think compassion is an important value for a healer, and I think my heals are actually more effective because they are cast with love. In summation I think the next 30 seconds of this clip capture what I am trying to say in a catchy tune.

Seeing how Ursarkar just went to casual status, I think it would definitely be worth picking up another holy pally for the ranks. Very well done app we could really use the second holy pally even if we have a good amount of healers.

truth. i mean we have lime but hes only like 50% dependable.