Gosh, I'm really sorry about the length. I tend to get carried away, and I really didn't mean to bombard you with text.Your name:Dan Almhøj Poulsen.
Your age:23 years old, born on the 27th of June 1986.
Character info:I am Qieth, a level 80 tauren druid. My preferred main spec is balance, and preferred offspec is feral. I have no problem switching to feral for 10 mans, or even for a few fights in 25 mans if necessary, but my primary spec is balance, as that is what I really enjoy playing. It would be considered hazardous to the people under my care to ask me to spec resto. While I am sure I could pull it off, if I actually researched it, I have yet to have much flair for resto healing.
Character profile:http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet ... am&n=QiethThe general moonkin key to gearing up is to get hit capped (which occurs at 263 hit rating). I am currently 2 hit rating below the cap, but I find this acceptable, as the alternative is a lot more hit rating, but a big loss in damage stats. It would take a few thousand casts to see a miss in this situation. Next up is 401 haste rating, at which point wraths will be at the global cooldown with raid buffs and Nature's Grace up. Following that, crit is largely the focus until a point where you have 42% crit fully raid buffed. After this, haste and crit are worth about the same in terms of damage.
Two blue gems for the meta gem, pure Spellpower for red sockets, and SP/crit gems for sockets with a bonus better than +5 spell power.
My spec is the general accepted spec for moonkins, taking no mana talents (except for 1 point in moonglow, which is unavoidable to get furter down into the tree). This leaves two points for random talents, which I usually put into Owlkin Frenzy, as I find this the most useful of the remaining talents. On AOE fights, i will generally put these points into Gale Winds. I don't normally use Typhoon, because it's generally a waste, and I have found that it's not really very useful on most fights. In times where I have way too much hit (over 315), I will take a point from Balance of Power to increase Owlkin Frenzy again.
Gear wise, I am actually not very far from my
planned BIS list (work in progress!). My current average ilevel is 256, although we can probably all agree that item levels does not always show how good an item is for a class.
List of alts:I am very bad at making alts. I tend to focus a lot on my main character, and alts are usually neglected to a point where they are hardly worth mentioning.
To be fair, I have a 72 priest and a 72 hunter. I have no other characters in level 80.
PVE experience:Vanilla: Everything up to, but not including, Twin Emperors in AQ40. This was done on my priest
Aymy, which was holy at the time.
The Burning Crusade: Everything up to, but not including Twin's in Sunwell Plateau. Did have a lot of tries on them, however, but I wasn't there for the kill. I also had a lot of tries on Mu'ru. All bosses before this has been killed well and properly before 3.0. This was done on my hunter, who is also called
Aymy. I played a survival hunter for the majority of the time raiding in TBC.
I moved Aymy (previously Aym) to Hellscream, but the name was taken, and Priest-Aymy is still back on Doomhammer.Wrath of the Lich King: As of the time of writing, I have completed all encounters, except for Blood Queen Lana'Thel and Alone in the Darkness. I have completed Naxxramas (although at the time, I ignored the special achievements), Sartharion 3D, cleared Glory of the Ulduar Raider, killed Algalon and all of Trial of the Grand Crusader (plus achieved A Tribute to Skill, although we took quite a while to get him down), and apart from killing everything up to Blood Queen Lana'Thel, we have also done a few of the achievements for Glory of the Icecrown Raider.
Class role:A moonkin has the benefit of bringing buffs that you would otherwise have to cover in several other classes: 13% more spelldamage to the target, minor armor decrease, 3% chance to hit with spells, 5% crit, 3% haste (stacks with Totem of Wrath and so) and, if it's not glyphed, Insect Swarm will reduce the chance of the target landing hits by 3%.
A good moonkin would lay comfortable on the meters to say the least. It was not uncommon to see equally geared and skilled moonkins at the very top of the meters in Trial of the Crusader, and its still not unheard of in Icecrown Citadel. Of course, it is very difficult to compare one combat log to another, and it's very easy to draw conclutions too quickly. I don't ever like to compare our DPS to the "highest DPS of all time"-lists, as these are usually biased and shows only which classes benefit from certain fight factors. Looking at the general moonkin logs on World of Logs, however, I see that many of the more experienced moonkins are quite on par with the majority of their guilds, which is the conclution I draw from my own experiences as well.
Unfortunately, due to scaling issues (where due to our caps, crit largely only benefits wrath and haste largely only benefits starfire) and the excessive movement in Icecrown Citadel (which hurts all casters, but especially moonkins due to our dependency on Eclipse), moonkins may be seen dropping slightly on high movement fights that we can't control, as compared to, say, our performance in Ulduar or TOTGC.
While the position on the meters might vary, there shouldn't be a massive difference between the moonkin and the core of the DPS group. On some fights, however, I find that we are struggling quite a bit (Festergut is a real killer, Rotface is slightly tricky, both due to movement), and a moonkin would probably struggle to be in the middle, but should still do well enough. There is no reason why moonkins wouldn't be an excellent option for a raid spot, and while we don't have the pleasures of an arcane mage, or the burst abilities of a rogue, I am content with how we do.
Improvements to DPS can be made by minimizing movement as much as possible, and noting when or when not to refresh dots. I actually did a lot of theorycrafting on this, which I put in a little video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWmAI4By2gA. It is an ongoing process to discover more ways to increase your efficiency on the various fights, and a fun little chase for the perfect performance.
Past Guild history:I really don't think its necessary to mention my Vanilla or TBC guilds, because they have all disbanded by now. Because I did rather hard core raiding in TBC, I started WOTLK with my own 10-man-only guild called And Friends, where I was the main tank and raid leader. I later moved to my current guild, Escapism, and joined them as a moonkin halfway through Ulduar.
Reason for leaving your current guild and applying to The Hungering Cold:I love Escapism, I really do, but lately the performance and the general mood in the guild has gone down. Our progress is still very nice, but it's very clear when people does not read up on tactics or listen to instructions on Ventrilo, and I can't help noticing this more frequently over the last few months. This, in turn, has gotten the mood in the guild down a considerable amount, everybody seems to be on edge with each other, and it sort of takes away some of the fun of raiding.
We are a lot of people taking the time to be available for raid, and my mantra is that I'm responsible to help 24 other people get the best out of their time. I am no stranger to wipefests and would never scorn someone for making mistakes. I certainly don't expect military-like execution from the get-go, but I do dream about a bit more general focus, and a more friendly attitude in general.
Your references:I know noone on Defias Brotherhood, and I doub that Vredens and Anubelle - whom I spoke to briefly - would be in any position to comment on my character, other than, perhaps, that I ask a lot of questions and "just wont go away". I feel that perhaps my involvement in the druid community could testify to my dedication to my class and to the game itself (see below), when you have no people you know to ask about me.
Your availability:My evening hobbies can generally be modelled around as I see fit. On most evenings I should be home to be able to play at 19.00 if need be, but I would definitely be available on raid nights from 19.30 at the very latest. In case of delays, I always make sure to inform the guild as soon as possible.
RP section:Qieth BrambleheartIt had taken years, and while he had come so far, there was still a long way to go. For years he had been working on the forestation of The Thousand Needles, the harsh, barren desert filled with those marvelous peaks of rocks, stretching from Tanaris and all the way to the western coast. Of course, that part was no longer referred to as of The Thousand Needles. The forest had taken its hold of the land, and animals and humanoids alike had settled in the woods now known as Feralas. But it would be a long time until his task was complete.
He couldn't remember when it had all started, but it seemed like another lifetime altogether. He was just a calf back then, barely initiated as a druid. He had no proficiency for healing, like the other druids did, so he had to settle for caring for the land and the creatures in the ways he could: With potions and herbs, bandages and dedicated care. He would travel from settlement to settlement and offer his aid to anyone in need, and everyone who could not afford a real healer. He collected his remedies on his travels, and always passed up on payment if the family looked like they needed it more. He would be content with resting on a bale of hay, sleeping soundly knowing that he cured a feverish child, or helped a broken arm on the way to recovery.
And it was in these dreams that he was met by a spectre. A curvy shape, with barely visible facial features resembling a night elf, bathed in a light so bright that you could almost not stand to look directly at it. Mu'sha looked at him and smiled, and while no words were uttered, much passed between them. He awoke, not on a bale of hay, but on a bed of grass and flowers, stretching further in all directions than he could reach. Mu'sha had seen him heal the people of the land, and had given him the power to heal the land itself.
And as he had done so many times before, he stood on the border between the area now known as Feralas, and the ancient canyon of A Thousand Needles, one hoof nestled in tall, bright, green grass, and the other buried in warm, dry sand. He kneeled, and put his hand on the sand. As he closed his eyes, he spoke the words that he had never learned, but that he had always known in his heart. They came to him. He commanded them, and they commanded him. And as the soft whisper left his lips, tangled roots grew up around his fingers. He withdrew his hand, and watched the roots spiral around one another, until they merged into a healthy tree. As he walked around the sprout, checking for any defects of diseases from the land, grass sprouted from the indentations left by his hoof. He extended a hand to the skies, the clouds were swept away, bathing the newborn tree in a nurturing sunlight. He thrust his hand to the side, and treants appeared from the ground, ready to tend to the newest member of the family.
As the first leaves emerged from the branches of the tree, Qieth turned away and set out for his cave. Later, he would sit in the tranquility provided by Mu'sha as she had blessed his home, and rejuvinate himself for the next day to come. Yes, there was indeed still a long way to go, but he laid down to sleep with a smile on his face, bathed in silvery starlight, nursed in a solid sleep by all of the nature around him.
He was blissfully ignorant of the terrible challenge the lands would soon face...
Additional notes:I will try to keep this short, but there are still a few things that I would like to share with you.
A few months ago, I started running a moonkin blog, which has gotten quite popular. [url=http://www.qieths-quips.com[Qieths-quips.com[/url] is my little outlet of creativity, and as I love writing, I usually manage to get quite a lot out of my system. I fancy myself as a creative guy, with ideas flying left and right, and I haven't had much luck with art, acting and that sort of thing - you might understand how nice it was to find an outlet for all of this.
I am also very active in the druid community. While i rarely post on Elitist Jerks, I do read up on the full moonkin thread. I spent a lot of time on MMO-champions forum, usually in the moonkin threads, talking about everything from theorycrafting to helping out new people.
When Qieth goes to sleep, I spend my time as the editor and head of administration of a large social networking site. I manage our support staff, handle campaigns and projects on the site and work with the police, youth organizations and others to ensure the safety of our users online, and work towards minimalizing the hazards people might experience online. If I am asked to cover my job in short, I tell people that I do anything that doesn't have to be programmed.
