Finding A Guild That Matches You
Lets talk about how you find a guild that will suit your needs and help you achieve your goals in World of Warcraft. It is without a doubt that World of Warcraft is a very social game. Guilds play a major role in the game, and depending on what you hope to achieve in World of Warcraft choosing the correct type of guild can either make or break your experience with WoW. For the sake of not giving bad info I will only cover finding a PvP or Raiding guild as Role Playing Guilds and other specialty types like Machinima guilds,I dont really know much about. Ill be honest I started playing WoW soon after the TBC expansion and a good friend of mine who had already been playing for quite some time guided me in the right direction on a lot of subjects that without his help I would have been completely oblivious to. Today I would like to explain some of the things that have helped me be successful, and maybe answer some of the questions guys/girls may have which seems to hold so many potentially great players back from finding there place in an epic guild somewhere.
The first thing that you have to realize about WoW is that the community stretches far beyond just the animated colorful digital world of Azeroth. The players themselves have created a huge online presence. As you can see with Horde Review there are fan based blogs, theme sites, software betas, fan created addons, discussion forums, guild websites and so on. Making yourself familiar with these sites will keep you up to date with what is going on in the game and the community as a whole. One big thing is understand that with each, and every patch your play mechanics can and most likely will change in some way, which means you have to be prepared to adapt and overcome any hurdles which are thrown at you. This is something that is expected of you in any guild that is PvP or Raiding based. Being knowledgeable about your class is of the most importance otherwise you will simply drown in a high end guild and be pushed out the back. It is not personal however any guild that is truly pushing the limits of their guild has to weed out the wannabes. Here are a few websites I suggest you take a look at to keep up on encounter strats and class mechanics:
Intelligent conversation and theory crafting about the world of warcraft, and these guys are serious about it if you post mindless content you will quickly find yourself banned from the forums. It doesnt take much to get banned by these guys so make sure you are adding worthwhile content to their page.
This forum is a great tool for not only tanks but any raider as they are always coming out with strategys for the next big encounter. My guild uses this website alot, we often tweek the strategies to fit our guild makeup, but a great place to build your knowledge of the game.
this website is another intelligent conversation forum but not as strict as elitist jerks. The best PvP makeups are here and you will find that the top Arena teams in the entire WoW Universe are often found trolling around here. They offer you strategies for taking down different opponents great PvP macros and much more. This site is a must use tool for the tool box for anyone looking to up there PvP game.
Another great way to stay up on the game or to get the latest updates and strategy encounters is to turn to the guys who write the pro guides like the newly released PVE Bible or PVP Bible . These guys make a living from keeping you up to date wth advice and strategies on the latest encounters, and you can guarantee they want to make a good name for themselves. Another great way is to subscribe to Warcraft Formula which is a monthly WoW magazine that also cooks out the best information on all the upcoming WoW related changes and patch notes.
Picking A Guild That Will Not Fail
The first place I suggest you look is the World of Warcraft main forums site. They have a forum dedicated to just guild recruiting. I would check there first, then your server forum, and then start branching out to the fan based sites like elitist jerks.
You want to look for a guild that has players somewhere within your same gear range and that are on your level as well. If you are just starting out as a raider you are not going to find a realistic spot in TOCG hard modes, or a guild that is looking to go straight into Icecrown as soon as the patch releases. Yes running heroics now can get your gear to a much higher level than it needs to be however you probably truly lack the skill to just jump into an Ulduar Guild, or TOCG if you are just starting out.
Statistically most guilds fail within 6 months, this is not necessarily because they are bad players, but because they lack leadership or just have poor management. Running a successful guild is hard work, and I dont mean like casually hard work I mean like hours and hours of organizational hard work. It is imperativethat when you are looking at guild recruitment you ask yourself if the guild you are considering is serious or not. If you read a post that is slapped together with misspelled words poor grammar or looks like it hasn’t had any real thought put into it at all then you should probably move on, they are not really serious about putting the needed time into their guild.
Look for posts of people who are returning to the game after a break looking to start a guild, that have websites established, you can look at the guild site and see what they are doing or if they are drama filled. I know on our site at http://nepentheum.com you will see that our forums are extremely active we have intelligent discussion, organization, and it is pretty much a requirement to at least check the forums to know whats going on. If you go to a guild site and its dead, then there isn’t much promise that the members are serious. Just keep things like this in mind when checking about the lucky guild that potentially could have you in their ranks.
How To Apply
Many guilds that are serious will probably have an application process. Our guild does not skip or allow waivers in any way even if you are a returning member to the guild. Everyone has to apply to the guild and have a vent interview conducted with a vote amongst the officers before being given the blessings to enter our ranks and view the hidden guild page content.
Take the application seriously check your spelling, and write complete answers. It seems like a no brainer, but you would be surprised how many apps we receive that we just throw out simply on this fact here. We are looking for mature players who are serious if you can not take the time to correctly fill out the app then we will not take the time to interview you.Be prepared for the vent interview, by this I mean be prepared to discuss your class, discuss what encounters you have seen and what you hope to achieve with the guild which you are applying to.
Being in a guild is great experience I have been lucky to only have been in 2 guilds both of which were extremely well put together and have reached high rankings in World of Warcraft. Their are players from my first guild who are a part of my current guild and we bring alot to the table having worked together in the past. Never think that you are to good or try to take over in any way. Wait your turn and interject with thoughtful comments dont ever enter trying to be an elitist as this will secure your failure in a guild. I hope this helps someone out there find their guild, and I wish everyone the best of luck.
-Bless
I like the insight on this article