Over the course of my WoW career (did I just call my online gaming habit a career?), I have been fortunate to have been in a few very good raiding guilds that have garnered quite a few server firsts and been very good places to hang out, make friends and gear up alts. How did I find these guilds? Well, some of them I sort of stumbled into during the course of casual play. Others, I have tracked down using a few methods that I will detail herein.
1) Realm Type
Each realm can be either Normal, RP/RP-PvP or PvP. I have never tried an RP server, so I cannot speak to that but in terms of the difference between a Normal server and a PvP server there are quite a few differences and more similarities than you would think. First of all, I must admit that my view into this topic is strictly from the standpoint of a PvE oriented raider. While I enjoy winning in duals, arenas and battlegrounds, for some reason I get too tense and stressed during player-vs-player encounters, that afterwards I wonder why on earth I play this game (to relax?) in the first place.
Normal realms, you typically find people very focused on progression, raiding and pugs, you would think. This is the case, of course, but once you experience a PvP server, it really takes all of that to a whole'nother level. I recall early in my raiding experience looking at the top guilds that would get world firsts, and most of them were on PvP servers. I figured that if players were so accustomed to playing their characters that even when not in a raid, they had to be alert and deal with the PvP aspect of the game, with no real 'at-rest' time, then these types of full-time players would be better, in-general, in comparison with players who only raid and do not PvP. This is also typical of the raider who is serious about arenas and battlegrounds, not just simply raiding. The added situational awareness required for constant realm-wide pvp offers more of a possibility that players will become better, of course this is a generality and not always the case.
PvP servers also require the added commitment to the game to have the extra where-with-all awareness and willingness to be under constant threat of attack, often against uneven odds, even to the point, dare I say, of enjoying such an environment. Another aspect of PvP servers is the added sense of reality to the genre and story line of the game. After all, its World of WAR craft, not World of My Little Pony, or World of CareBearCraft. True to this notion, I have found, generally speaking, more committed players on PvP servers. Also, generally speaking, I have found more situationally-aware players on PvP realms.
2) Faction
Of the two possible factions (Horde, consisting of Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elves, Undead and Tauren, and the Alliance Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves and Draenei), the story line is very different than the reality. The reality is that typically you find more polite and politically correct chat and vent amongst the Alliance, often termed the good-two-shoes faction. While amongst the Horde players (viewed as the evil races) you find more cajoling, more off-beat humore, more questionable characters and not-so-politically correct vent and guild chat.
3) Timezone
Amongst the USA servers, despite the timezone of the server, you can find guilds with raid times all over the map. It is not at all unusual to find EST servers with PST raid times, or vice-a-versa.
4) Server Population and Guild Size
Guild size is important only as so far as the raiding roster goes. I like to feel needed and a 'part-of' hence when I log on to raid I like to know, not only do I have a spot, but that my spot is needed and if I do not show up for raids, another will be recruited to take my spot, but if I demonstrate 100% attendance I will be granted 100% attendance as far as raid composition goes. Some guilds keep tight raiding rosters, while others abide by a regular bench rotation, where raiders regularly sit in order to support a larger list of raiding members.
Server Population is another matter, www.warcraftrealms.com lists the current census of USA and EU relams, as well as the ration between Alliance and Horde on each server. Often times, a high population server means better LFG and BG queues, while it could also mean more lag on patch day as well as logon screen queue time. A low population server may benefit from less lag but also may have less pugs. Strive for a medium population server closer to the top, but not in the top three. Another facet of population is to make sure that the population is representative of the faction you will be playing. If you are Horde and transferring to a 23,000 population server, where only 8,000 Horde are playing, you may be better off transferring to a lower overall population server with a better Horde-to-Alliance ratio.
5) Policies
Every guild has a set of policies that they list as a charter to govern the way that all of the officers and raid members try to conduct raids, administration, the social atmosphere and general continuity of the guild. Guilds that have given this more thought are typically worth investing time in.
6) Applying
Often the wording of the quiestionnaire, which one is required to fill out as part of the application, can be so inspiring and can speak more clearly as to the policies and goals of the guild than the charter. Case in point, look at some of the leading guilds on any server and read through their questionnaire. If it is not comprehensive, then the guild either makes use of extensive (often time wasting) vent interviews in order to weed out the crap from the good raiders. To really guarantee the best chance of getting into the guild, demonstrate in the application the level of seriousness that you would put into a progression raid encounter with the quality of the answers that you provide. Do not lie, do not embelish, do not show off, as any of what you put down can be quickly and easily verified either via a quick vent chat with your former guild, or via www.warcraftrealms.com character history tracker, via wowjutsu.com guild transfer tracking, or via the wowarmory.com list of achievements.
7) Achievements and Progress
Besides listing the killshots on the guild website, there are multiple sites that record a guilds progress in both 10 and 25 man instances. Guildox, Wowprogress, Wowjutsu and others can display not only the rank of the guild, ascertained by daily scans of the armory, each member's gear a sign of the guilds progress as well as each members achievement a sign of the guilds acheivement. Naturally multiple members are scanned to remove the possibility of it being a pug.
So, in looking for a guild, I recommend looking for one that is not simply ranked on boss kills in 25 and 10 man, but that is ranked high on achievements. This shows that the guild is willing to go the extra mile and enjoys raiding not simply to get the badges and gear and get out, but to get the mounts, titles and prestige which simbolizes complete success of all that Blizzard has thrown into each and every encounter.
8) Needs
Its important that a guild has a need for your class. Naturally, most guilds will take any exceptional player, however this is often hard to prove, due to the nature of each fight and random number generators (RNG) as well as latency and a whether you get into the right raid. So I recommend, that even if you are a superstar, best to apply to a guild which lists even a low to medium need for your class and spec.
Another way to confirm the needs of the guild is to open the guild armory (www.wowarmory.com) and look at the members who are of the popular higher rank (raiders), check for the members of your class and spec who have higher numbers of achievement points (not alts). Check their gear and compare to yours. Does the guild have other members of your class that you can compete with?
9) Loot Distribution System
Dragon Kill Points (DKP) are points that are tracked and awarded to members for each boss kill. There are various DKP systems, each should be understood and one must be comfortable joining a guild with such a system. Another popular loot system is Loot Council, wherein the officers decide. Regardless of the system it should be one you are ready to accept and under no circumstance create any drama if you do not get what you want, after all you signed up and you understood the loot system.
So I compiled a spreadsheet to track all of these, based upon my research and to aid my research.
The spreadsheet tracks:
- Realm
- Online
- Type
- Language
- Alliance
- Horde
- Ratio
- Overall
- Guild Name
- Tier 10 10m Achievement Ranking (from wowprogress)
- Tier 10 25m Achievement Ranking (from wowprogress)
- Website Link
- Class/Spec Needed
- Loot System
I hope this helps others in their search.
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