6 Choices That Will Make Selecting a Guild Pleasant

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applying, applying to a guild, Choosing a guild, Games, Guild, guild selection, Leadership, Massive Multiplayer Online, RAID, Video game, World of Warcraft

Oh, the Guild Hoppers

I am proud of the fact that my Holy Priest has only ever stepped foot into 3 guilds since creating her in Vanilla, and I guilded myself shortly after level 12.  Recently, I have been seeing many applications from what I call “Guild Frogs”…  people that hop from guild to guild because the grass is always greener on the other side.  I believe there are many reasons I have such loyalty to my guilds and one of the greatest factors is that I put a ton of time into researching a guild before even typing up an application.  Here are some tips on finding your next home more effectively.

1.  Talk to an Officer about their current needs.

If you are looking to raid with a guild, understand their current raid composition.  If you want to raid every raid night don’t join a guild that already has 2 or 3 players of your class.  Know your limits for waitlists, know how flexible you can be then find out if the guild you are considering will be able to accommodate your play-style.  If you are someone who is fine working for a spot or proving yourself and being benched for a little while, joining the guild with 2 to 3 of your class is just fine.  Biggest point here: Know your play time expectations, and do not settle!

2.  Listen to the way an Officer addresses you.

The leadership in the guild you are considering will play a huge role in your World of Warcraft time.  You may mesh better with certain personalities or respond better to certain types of leadership.  I personally like Officers who are knowledgeable, honest, respectful, and witty.  You may be someone who responds best to a dictator.  Do not be afraid to ask the Officer a few questions and really listen for their tone as they are talking to you about the guild.

If there are any aspect you do not understand about the guild, now is a great opportunity to learn.  Ask how active the players are, what they do outside of raids, how the loot system works, and how the leadership handles different hardships.

3.  Get on their website.

Depending on the guild the amount you’ll be able to see is going to be different, however whatever you can see will tell you a story about the people in the guild.  I remember I was close to applying to one guild till I spent a few hours on their forums.  Honestly the level of crudeness as well as disrespect turned me away.  If I had only read their rules and a few of the Officers posts I would have missed what the greatest part of their roster was truly like.  Once again, any and all posts you can see, you should read!

4.  Get to know a few of the guild members.

This step can be hard, especially if you don’t already know anyone in the guild.  It means stepping out of your comfort zone, finding members online who are doing things you are (if you see they are pvping, invite them to join you, etc).  Doing a few heroics, pvping, questing, and even just chatting with a few of their members will give you a better feel for their community and it will also make the transition easier as you enter their ranks.

5.  Take your time.

You may think you need to escape the guild you are currently in, but the best option is to just be patient as you look for a new home.  Most likely you have a few friends in your current guild, you have some perks, and you have a place to be.  Don’t feel the need to rush out of it prior to really weighing your options.

6.  Be confident!

Finally, you’ve got a great idea of the guild you would like to join.  Now it’s time to be confident in yourself as a Raider.  Take time on your application so you know they have a great understanding of who you are, where you come from, what you have to offer, and why you want to be a part of their guild.  Your application must be well written because this is their first chance to get insight into you as a player. Prepare yourself for an interview and go in knowing as much about your class as possible, do NOT just agree with everything they say.  Finally, just be yourself with the person interviewing you, personality can go a long way!

Introduction: The Holy Priest

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Games, Guild, Massive Multiplayer Online, Massively multiplayer online game, Priest, Video game, World of Warcraft

Welcome!

Hello, my name is Mariah and I play Kairilone, a Holy Priest on the Zul’Jin server in World of Warcraft.  Currently I’m raiding with a casual progression guild named Machin Shin. I am creating this blog in hopes of improving myself as a healer, generating ideas and putting them somewhere, and in hopes of cultivating my vocabulary, and my ability to express my ideas as a Raider.

The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.

~Lao Tzu

The Inception

Now for a little about myself as a World of Warcraft player.  I began playing World of Warcraft towards the beginning of 2006.  I began leveling Kairilone as a holy priest from the moment I was able to choose my first talent point.  All I could think was I wanted a “good girl”, so obviously choosing a holy priest meant my character was innately better!  I reached level 55 on her and then the unspeakable happened…  she was deleted!  (She wasn’t on my account and I was using my boyfriends account as I explored the world of my first MMO)  I quickly got an account of my own and began leveling Kairilone again same model, same guild, same spec…  It was painful, but I had many guild friends that made it worth while.  By the time I finally hit 60 I had little knowledge of end-game content and that there was even such a thing.

January of 2007 the Burning Crusade was released.  I was still a very casual player and leveled at my own pace, enjoying the cinematography, the questing, the  friendships I’d been forming for over a year in my casual guild, Dragons Reborn.  The game was all about the people to me, and they were the first to introduce me to raiding through Karazhan.  What an incredible instance to first experience raiding in.  The entire castle completely captivated me from the Opera House to the Menagerie …  I was sold on the idea of a team of people coming together, communicating, executing their roles, and accomplishing something significant together.

Growth

Soon I would transfer to the Skullcrusher realm in order to play with my boyfriends guild Dark Entropy.  Little did I know the extreme level of competitive raiding.  This was an US top 50 guild.  They were no joke, everyone knew who they were, they had all the server firsts, the members were as elitist as could be.  This was one of the few guilds that could say they killed Kil’jaeden pre-nerf.  This little holy priest went from finding out about raiding to being in one of the better guilds out there.  However, I could hold my own and soon had the chance to prove it.  I had healed since level 15 when I could enter my first instance.  I was great at quick judgments and soon enough Dark Entropy was bringing my little priest along for some of their kills.

The first opportunity I had to prove myself was in Serpentshrine Cavern.  I remember them all talking about bringing in this casual who had “no experience”, they assigned me a group and told another healer that they would need to pick my group up “when” I died. It was great to surprise them all when my entire group made it the entire length of the fight and this under-geared inexperienced priest was able to keep up.  From then on, I gained some respect among their better healers and they mentored me as I learned the ropes of a hardcore level of raiding.  Eventually, I earned a spot as one of their healers until the upcoming deployment of my boyfriend.  It was then that I stepped back down to a casual position in the guild.  Whenever I was ready to come back to raiding, they had fallen apart and were only raiding as a 10 man guild with many of my friends gone.

Current Status

I decided to move my priest back to the Zul’Jin server to find a raiding group there. After researching a few guilds Machin Shin was the guild that met my needs the most at the time.  I quickly became a valuable asset to the guild and helped them in as many ways as I could as a Raider, spending endless hours helping out Officers and giving advice.    As my worth increased I was asked to become an Officer of the guild.  This brings me to where I am today.  Yes, I’m still Kairilone the Holy Priest, but now I just have a few more responsibilities beyond playing well.