I usually just let the guild find me...On my last server I was on my way to do a WC run when I ran into Seven Paths to Sins on their way to hit The Crossroads...it was a really good guild but I just got sick of some of the people who were always on so I left...The guild I am in now Legions of Hell, which just got up and running yesterday, was started by a warlock who I always ran into so we started questing together. Guilds are fun and its good to have people around who are willing to help quest but if the drama flares up I am outta there.

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I am kind of like you, I will never join a guild that puts their recruitment in the LFG channel. For one it means to me that they are desperate for people and they just take in whoever, at the same time you have the people who are too picky and try to be snobs about letting people in their guild. Such as this one time someone whispered me asking if I would like to join their endgame guild, so I go to their website and fill out an app, a few hours later they want me to come on teamspeak and they give me an interview. I felt as if I was applying for a job or something. Like if I said the wrong things they wouldn't hire me. I just wanted a guild that I could expirience the end game content, and get some descent gear, well by m saying that I wanted to get "geared" I guess that was something they didn't want to hear. I mean who doesn't want better gear. Especially if you are a paladin. Oh well been running solo ever since farming for the rest of my Lightorge.

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I usually try to remain guildless as much as possible until level 60. I don't like joining guilds that advertise in the LFG channel either as it does mean some sort of desperation just to up their numbers. I've experienced soloing most of my levels up to 60 and just PUG'd the majority of the instances I needed.

The one thing I hate the most about "guilding" is when I'm just walking around in a city and all of a sudden someone invites me to their guild without even asking me. I don't like an extensive guild application process either. So note to those that run guilds: it's not a job. We're here to play and have fun.

Overall, I've been in two guilds in two realms: Elders of Turalyon (on Turalyon) have a simple application process on their website and was a non-pressure guild that helped each other a lot. It's too bad they recently disbanded. On Kul Tiras, I was part of Hand of the Valar which my co-worker and his g/f were a part of. Valar gave me my first look at endgame (MC, Ony, ZG). But if I knew of the drama that will be in there, I would have left long time ago.

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Same here, drama starts - I'm out. I'm here to play and have fun - not relive high school.

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I'm picky about my guilds. So much so that I made my own after several bad experiences.

P.S. Is that supposed to be some WoW-ized Sephiroth?

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Your tactics completely coincides with mine I too so constantly I do!

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I honestly joined a guild based upon repeated runs of instances with current guild members in PUGs... It turns out I joined an AMAZING guild (Decepticons, Stormreaver) and we just downed Rags after 2 weeks, and/or 6-8 attempts...

We had a discussion about guild makeup last night, and there are plenty of guilds out there with large numbers that have different sets of raiders on every raid night... we've been lucky and have had the same core set (with a few exceptions here and there) of raiders that show up for our 3 night a week raids... it doesn't overburdnen us, and we still run 20 man raids on the off nights where we can't get 40 people together...

All in all, I think if you're unhappy with your guild situation, bring it up to your Guild Leader... if he's a total dick about everything, you're welcome to find another guild... it's all about the people, so find a guild that has the people you're looking for...

Decepticons, Stormreaver FTW!

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I found my current guild in a similar way. I was picked up as the 5th in a scholo run when they were short of dps. After they had a chance to see I didn't get upset about dieing or bad luck with loot they very politely asked me if I'd consider putting in an application.

I took a couple of days to check out their webiste, talk to friends who knew them and even a couple of friends from the guild I was leaving before I did so. I've been with them for 6 months now. We were all fairly new to being 60's and have had a chance to learn and experience end game together. I've had some great times and have never regretted making the move.

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I keep an eye out for guild names when I'm in PUGs...if you get a good experience with a player in a PUG, there's a better chance of their guild being a good experience for you too.

And of course, references from real-life friends are always a sure thing.

The other thing I look at is guild names that I see very frequently - indicating big, active groups.

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I'm a guild leader over on the Aerie Peak server, and my standing rules on recruitment are that we ONLY recruit people we have grouped with or friends and family of current guild members, it makes for an extremely tight-knit guild and cuts down on drama.

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I actually stumbled across mine kinda strange. I had spent 60 lvls in a guild made up of some of my RL friends, who had no desire to participate in any endgame content. I did. So I left, and then was trying to find a good endgame raiding guild. I asked a pretty famous player on my server, Spikespiegel, if he knew of any good guilds for what I was looking for. He recommended Evil Empire, and I now have 2 60's (Warrior and Lock) in the guild, and am working on a 3rd (Drood). All in all, a great recommendation from an excellent player (if you're reading this, Spike, you RAWK!) led me to an excellent guild that has really made me feel welcome, and is kicking endgame content's ass, slowly but surely.

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I've had several guild over the course of playing WoW for the almost 2 years it's been out. I've joined some guilds by them finding me. Others I've joined after a mostly inguild run of . Recently, I've started running with Wraithsteel Legion, Azjol-Nerub H. They're very much a casual guild, but one that thoroughly enjoys running instances. Occasionally we'll have a tard night, and just about anyone that's on will raid up for a night of tardedness. This can be anything from rolling every alliance flight master on a continent, to ganking every leader in stormwind. Camping the WSG exit in Ashenvale is a good time, too.

So, if any of you crazy folks actually read this:

We are Wraithsteel, the Legion of the Night. In darkness we arrive, and by darkness we depart. All fall before the Legion!

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In my single server experience, there are two main kinds of guilds. The friendly, buddy guilds, that are great for folks up to 60, and raiding guilds, which are necessary for raiding at 60.

I have been in both, and both have their uses. The friendly guilds tend to get members by random grouping and meeting, or by RL friendships as most folks described above. The good raid guilds on our server all have application processes and are more or less serious about the process. Some classes are in high demand and even mediocre players in those classes are in demand, other high population classes are pretty much shut out of easy invites to prominent raid guilds.

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I was in an end game guild, second farthest guild on the server. We stagnated badly. 6 months and only 3 new boss kills. Constant attrition and leeching by the top guild on the server sentenced us to be nothing more than a gear-you-up-in-BWL guild. Despite the efforts of many, including myself, we were stuck. It got to the point that I just couldn't stand another day in BWL, and left that guild and enough DKP for more than 2 full tier 2 sets.

I couldn't see going to the top guild on that server, would feel too much like a traitor. That meant a server transfer was my only option.

There would be little point in joining another guild that was in the same sistuation as the one I left. I knew I had to get in to a guild that was at least as far along as the one I left, and one that was *progressing*. This limited my options quite a bit.

So, I started at the WoW Realm Forums. I plowed through almost every eligible server's forums, checked out all the top guild's websites, read their rules and a bunch of posts trying to get a feel for each potential guild.

After tons of research, I decided on a server that had several guilds in Nax, and contacted the top guild, a pretty uber raiding guild.

The application process for any raiding guild is at least fairly formalized. For some, it is extremely strict and can be rather lengthy. I understand why it is this way, and believe it is not only wise, but needed. Some of these guilds have been together 5 or 6 years, since days of playing EQ together. They are not going to just randomly invite any player. Anyone joining their guild has to be stable, skilled and consistent. A detailed application process is needed to reduce the chance of getting players that are just in it for the loot, or are just going to cause problems in their tight knit group.

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Sometimes you just have to get lucky.. I was guildless until level 49 on my priest until I got in with what could only be described as the best guild ever :)

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All the guilds I was in pre-60 were started by common friends and only had about four or five real people in them as well as our 300,000 alts.

Once I hit 60 I decided to branch out an join an end-game'ish guild and I found that it was a terrible fit for me. I am not fond of being a guild with 250 or more... the guild chat was unbearably immature, racist, and homophobic. I'm not a prude by any standards but I still found the topics they discussed to be incredibly obnoxious and on Vent they were even worse.

After a few days I talked to the guild leader and we parted ways. They had fun playing and interacting how they did, and I didn't. There were no hard feelings and I still keep in contact with some of the people from the group.

About a day later my girlfriend found another end-game'ish guild and they have been just fantastic. All very cool, knowledgeable, and active. Of course there are some problems here and there but about 99% of the time it's a lot of fun.

I think if it's not working out, just leave. There are a billion servers and even more guilds so be as picky as you want. I only had to join two to find one I liked.

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Sense of humor, because if the members can laugh and have fun, I'll have more fun too.

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My guild is a bunch of real life friends and aquaintences linked through comic books, animation or podcasting. It's neat to have a bunch of people who are actually entertaining for a living to talk to on WoW. Breaks the doldrums.

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I myself stay guildless until I group with a few people for a couple days / weeks. I don't ever join a guild that advertises in-game.

I normally high-tail it out of there if the members are 12 years old, and whine all the dame time, also if none of the members have a sense of humor.

Thankfully, after returning from England for 10 months (no wow!!) a bunch of my local friends decided to pick up the game so we have about 20 locals in a guild in Dunemaul :)

Goodluck with your new server / guild!

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David,

You don't tell us whether you went Horde or Alliance, and that's something that always plays a role in my guild recommendations. ;-)

As for what I would do now, if I wasn't the GM of my own relatively large, successful guild on the Gul'dan server, I would download the CensusPlus Mod from http://www.warcraftrealms.com/censusplus.php , put it on auto-scan, and just let it run for a few days, collecting data. Then, you'll have a good idea of who the movers and shakers are on your server. Personally, I prefer 1-60 guilds who nonetheless do some end-game stuff, so I would look at the top 2-3 guilds who have people of all levels, a nice number of 60's, and contact their members, find out who the GM is. Once you've gotten the GM names, have a chat with the GM's. Ask them the questions that are important to you with regard to a guild in the long run, e.g., prospects for promotion, what the guild values, mission statement (if any), the way loot will be divided end-game. All of these things and more are the kinds of things that I would want to know before I joined a guild. Anyway, I realise that my method is a bit more scientific that most, but I think it should work well on a newer server.

Cheers,

RivanLord

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