Rethos - Shaman - Shattered Halls

I. Personal Information

Name: Alex Stilianidis

Age: 18

Sex: Male

Country: Greece

About yourself: My name is Alex, 18 years old, and I study computer science, in the university of Aigaleo (Athens). I always was a PC maniac, and that's the reason i study that anyway.

Online time: On Monday i can only attend the raids, since im at the university from 7:00 to 19:00. Plus, on Friday i got university from 17:00 to 19:00. The rest of the days, im free after 13:00 or even earlier.

Communication: Im a user of vetrillo & TS in order to communicate during the raids. Should i be offline, you are free to contact me via msn or Steam.

We are raiding 3-4 times a week(Mon-Thu) starting 20:00 server time and ending 00:00. Are you okay with this days/times? Yes, apart from Monday, that im back
from the university at 20:00-20:30, so i might be late from times to times.

II. Character Information

Nick: Rethos
Class: Shaman
Race: Orc
Level: 80

Time played: (/played)

Talent spec:
Off Spec:

Post your UI:

Professions: Herbalism (450) and Alchemy (450)
Because of the fact that none of the three gathering profs' active skills are anything useful to any healer, i decided to pick herbalism, only because of the "free-HoT", that helped a lot in lvling.
Plus, since we didnt have many Alchemists in Mesmerise (an old guild i was in) i picked Alchemy myself to help anyone that needs any pots, flasks or any other alchemy goodies. Furthermore Alchemy does help in raids, since not only it increases the duration of the potions consumed,
but also it increases their effects too.

III. Additional Informations

About your class: I always wanted to raid as a healer, but wanted to make a hybrid class, that can also dps as ranged or melee. That's more or less the reason i picked a shaman.
Although the restoration shaman can't heal a single-target fight as good as a priest or a paladin, he can be an excellent raid healer. He is always welcome to the raids, because of the unique buffs he can offer.
With the new talents(patch 3.0.2), the shaman healer is a really "flexible" class, meaning we are not the old Chain Heal spamming bots anymore, making the class way more fun than it used to be.


What theorycrafting have you done with you're class?
[Note: the following are thoughts for the resto shaman prior to patch 3.1(ulduar)]
Many people believe that a restoration shaman should always aim to more mp5 than intel, but i somewhat dissagre, since our mana regeneration "ability", Mana Tide Totem, gives a % of your mana pool, meaning more mana per tic if you have more intel.
So, a shaman healer should always have a balanced mp5 (around 300-400ish with Water Shield up is more than ok) in order to have no problem in the 10mans (assuming you are using your mana wisely and not just overhealing, driving you to oom fast), and stack intel for the 25mans,
since you already have too many buffs that can increase your mp5 dramatically. Since the new talents are out (the 51 point talents), crit is always a nice stat for resto shammies to have, since not only it consumes an orb from your water shield (when HW or RTD crit), but also
heals the member with the lowest HP in the raid for a % of your heal, saving you some mana. Personally i don't "stack" crit since in the 10mans you always have enough mp5 for your needs, and in the 25mans there are tons of ppl that can provide you with more than one buffs to increase it, but still, its a factor for me to chose whetever i need an item with crit on or not. And finally, haste. Haste is like mp5 and crit... You should have around 10% faster spells with haste,
reducing your primary "slow" healing spell, Chain heal, to 2.25 sec casting (down from 2.5). If you want even faster Chain Heal(i'm saying CH because Healing Wave is already a 2 second spell with talent, and there Tidal Waves[resto talent] reduces the casting time of Healing Wave and LHW dramatically) , you are always free to sacrifise other, more important stats, destroying the "balance" of your character. Imho, more than 10-15% haste is by far useless, because you can cast
less spells(due to the fact you cut some intel to stack haste),
weaker spells(from lower SP), but in much shorter time (because of the faster casting speed and you are eventually oom...). Also, let's not forget the fact that the new tier 4 set bonus gives makes CH a 2.3 sec cast so with a 15% haste, you will have a 1.9 CH.


What websites and/or Forums do you visit? Wow-europe.com(forums, for fun tbh...), mmo-champion.com(should a new patch is going to be out soon)

Preparation to raids: For 10mans, i always carry 2 stacks of Flask of Pure Mojo and for 25mans, 2 stacks of Flask of the Frost Wyrm. I don't really bring any food with me, since in the previous guilds, we always a specific person that set the feasts. All i had with me were some mats for it, should he get low on mats or out of feasts(the feasts were made by mats from the bank ofc).
Also i make sure i have at least 4 stacks of mana pots (for me and should any fellow member has forgotten to bring some for him/her), and 1~ stack of healing pots.

Experience: Vanilla wow: BWL, AQ40, Onyxia, ZG
TBC: Kara, SSC, Eye, Maggy, Grulls
WotLK: Naxx(10/25), OS(10/25) with 1 drake up so far on 10man though, VoA(10/25) without the 2nd boss yet though, EoE (10/25)
Apart from WoW i have played Guild Wars, Lineage II, Warhammer Online (only as a casual though, no "raids" or whatsoever).

PvP: I've only played BGs since lvl 70. Now i'll collect some resilliance gear in order to join the arena on my "spare" time.

Alts: Just a lvl 30 Warlock in Shattered Halls, but i also have a lvl 30 Rogue and lvl 70 Mage in Lightbringer.

Previous guild: The only guilds i have been with Rethos is Mesmerise and Art of Mesmerise. Why did you decided to leave them? Well, the guild was fine back when i was playing. Then my game card expired and after some time "offline",
i'm back seeing the guild... dead.

Reason to join us: I love progressing through the raids and the game contest with an organised and social guild, and since some of my friends are in Vfml already, i decided to try my luck with you.

Expectations of VFML: A social and active community with raids at a daily basis so that everyone can get the gear they need, and "alternative raiding" once in a while. There are some raids that i havent been to yet that i'd love to do when possible.

Your goals: The Warcraft universe has awesome lore and thats more or less the reason im still playing the game. I want to see and complete as many raids and events as smooth as possible. I don't know when i'm going to stop playing, but i doubt this is going to be anywhere in the close future...

Other: All i have to add, is that im open to any kinds of ideas and opinions. If you find anything wrong about me, either my behavior(attitude etc etc) or my character(talent build, gear, etc etc), feel free to correct me.

Llamas!

wow, Minobachas really likes WG...

-- after looking at your UI, i cannot help but notice you do not have Decursive AddOn. any reason for this?

To tell you the truth i have never tried it. But since i never had any problems decursing without the help of any add-on, i didn't find the reason why to DL it.

-- Can you tell me the Benefits / Drawbacks of having [Totemic Focus] talent?

Totemic Focus seems more of a pvp talent to me, since in pve you don't see pushbacks much. On the other hand, i haven't done Ulduar, so i can speak for sure, if it's needed for pve as well now. Pushback itself can be really annoying. Apart from the fact that your spell is interrupted, you are also unable to cast any other non-instant spell while you are "on air". So, the totemic focus' major benefit is that it makes sure that you land on ur feet much faster, allowing you to continue healing. The only drawback i see, is that you have to spend talents, losing other abilities.

-- What are your reasons for spending points in [Healing Grace]?

I havent spent any points in Healing Grace, actually. Maybe some link has bugged or something, but i can asure you i havent spent any points there. Since 3.0.9, tanking has become really easy. everyone regenerates huge amounts of TPS, making it for a healer impossible to reach his aggro.

-- Since patch 3.1 has hit, gearing a Resto Shaman has changed slightly. how would you prioratise the stats Mp5, Haste and Crit? and your reasons for this.

I don't think i can answer that since i havent done Ulduar before, as a result i don't know what kind of fights to expect or what amounts of damage does each person of the raid recieves. Nevertheless, i'll act accordingly to the fights' needs.