WoWGrrl's World » guildmates

Raid Bonding Agent: Chasing Achievements

Valdesta — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:00:16 +0000

My guild is one of those 25 player raid guilds who are still working on our first boss kill in Heroic Trial of the Grand Crusader.

It's a BIG leap to go from "Normal" 25-player ToTC to "Heroic 25-player ToTC, and we've steadily been chipping away at the gearing requirements and raid attendance requirements, getting closer and closer to victory.

We've gotten to phase three of Heroic Northrend Beasts (25) quite a few times, but with our limited raiding schedule (three nights per week) and some troubles with Farm night vs Progression night attendance, we've done a bunch of recruiting over the past month, and the result is a much stronger team ... that needs a bit more time to "gel".

It won't take long, we're back up to having a solid enough group of attendees on Progression nights that we don't have to break into 10s. It's all good.

Sometimes, tho, it's a lot of fun to take a step back from the Trial of the Crusader raid and head back into Ulduar - even though most loot is disenchanted because everyone's primary and secondary specs are pretty well set.

Guildmates Cheering On Guildmates

One of the best things about being in a Guild Raid vs running with a PUG is that there's a "team feel" to the environment, instead of the feeling of a bunch of individuals coming together to accomplish a task and then go about their own business afterwards.

Going back into Ulduar was not only a fun adventure because we hadn't really been there for a couple of months, but also because we had picked up a sizable number of new recruits to our guild over the past two months and as a result, Achievements that the core raid team had gotten long ago were ones that still brought advancement to the newer folk.

So, we trounced through the raid up to Kologarn doing Achievement after Achievement for our newer guildmates, and then were stopped cold by Auriaya in our attempts to do the Crazy Cat Lady achievement.

Before being stopped by Auriaya (and we progressed quite well during our attempts, the achieve will come soon if we keep at it), however, one of the most fun achievements we got - and one that took a few deaths to get there - was the Razorscale achieve Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare. That's where this entry's picture is from.

Trying New Things When Wiping A Raid

An Odd View of Razorscale

The picture, you might notice, is an odd view of Razorscale.

She's still firing on people (in fact, the previous entry in this blog has one where I'm watching as she's firing on me in a previous attempt).

Well, one of our guildmates decided when a wipe was called (en route to our Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare achieve which required that we not actually kill Razorscale until we got the achieve) to test whether one could actually jump off of the edge of the cliffs that surrounded the area.

One guy went, and at least 7 of us followed, me included. Sounded like a good idea to me!

You know, like the whole "If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?" question that parents used to give to us as kids - turned on its ear like gets done in fantasy games with unlimited lives. ;)

And do you know, it took a LONG time for us to fall far enough to be jettisoned down into the abyss to our official deaths? I mean, I used to jump off of the Netherwing Ledge for a quick ride back to Shadowmoon Valley's Scryer Inn, and I swear it didn't take that long to die.

Laughter Bonds The Team

I think it was a great idea for us to have headed into Ulduar the other night, when our raid team was full but not quite the right configuration for progress on Heroic Northrend Beasts.

It gave a chance for the team to romp and play together - for us to pair up to take on Flame Leviathan (and it's odd how that teaming up in that fight helps new guildmates connect with their new raid buddies), for us to cheer each other and pat the new folk on the back for achievements they've picked up, and for us to all get a chance to laugh at death, knowing it won't make or break the attempt for one person to die early in a fight.

I don't think it's a good idea to put Ulduar onto our schedule every week, however - this bonding agent works partially based on novelty, and novelty is easily worn off by repetition.

But for a growing, morphing, advancing progression raid team, I think it went a long way to refresh the team :)

Tanking Practice in Hellfire Ramparts

Valdesta — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 01:59:07 +0000

Life has been pretty busy over the last while with a lot of family visits, so I haven't been playing very much and thus, not writing very much either!

But, now that I'm back home on my high speed connection, I'm back playing a bit here and there. Truthfully, the weather is so beautiful that I've been enjoying that a lot more than I've been interested in playing, but with how short our summers are, I know that's not a permanent affliction.

Scheduling Play Time

As a person with a Life[TM], I don't have all day to sit in front of World of Warcraft to advance my toons, nor do I really have any interest in playing that much, really. So, I've decided that especially since I haven't been in an organized dungeon group with my guild friends for a couple of months now, I should make some kind of specific effort to schedule a run or two and follow through with it.

I convinced two of my friend/guildmates to get Guild Event Manager running again, as we had used it when our guild was a more active leveling guild, and it was a great way to schedule events for people with sketchy and unreliable play-times... and on Monday morning we scheduled our first run, for Hellfire Ramparts, and three of us subscribed through GEM.

We chatted up a couple of other guildmate friends over the few days the run was posted, and were fortunate to round the party out to five with guildmates only (our guild is very small).

Heading Into Hellfire Ramparts

Two of us had never even been in there, and had no idea where to go, so I headed to where I thought it might be and we spent some time bonking on Shattered Hand guys on the Path of Life or whatever that road is. In the end I was in the wrong place, so we were summoned via the Meeting Stone and headed into the instance.

As a level 60 Fury-spec'd warrior, I was probably quite gimped in terms of generating threat, but it was good practice just the same. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off for the most part, but was successful in taunting baddies off of squishies enough times that I felt I did okay. I will probably respec now that we're scheduling dungeon runs into Outlands instances, and put more points back into Protection like I had originally planned - to get Last Stand and Defiance.

Priestly Loots

Our party had two Priests in it and they shared the [Heartblood Prayer Beads] and [Band of Renewal].

Warrior Loots

I picked up two rings, myself - [Mok'Nathal Clan Ring] as a Stamina ring, and [Tourmaline Loop] of Strength which has +23 str. They replaced pathetic counterparts with required levels of 37 and 44, so I'm pleased with the upgrades.

Where Is Hellfire Ramparts?

We had a couple of wipes, and one had us running back to the dungeon, but I had released later than the others who knew where they were going, and again they had to rez/summon me into the dungeon!

Fortunately the final boss in Hellfire Ramparts leaves you very close to the entrance, so we were able to quickly leave the instance once we were done, and I was able to figure out how to get back there next time ;)

The answer to that question, of course, is that it's southwest of Thrallmar, and there's a north-to-south road into Hellfire Citadel that you take, crossing a bridge to get into the tower. Entering from the Path of Glory or whatever will NOT get you there.

Begging? Or Asking For Help?

Valdesta — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:30:08 +0000

"No begging" is probably one of the most common guild rules in World of Warcraft, implemented as a necessary way to keep leveling guilds a fun place to be for players of all levels, from the lowest level members under 20, to those already taking part in the End Game.

It's true, however, that the term "begging" merits some explanation so everyone is more aware of the boundaries surrounding this topic.

Introduction

Many guilds are considered to be "leveling guilds" - social, helpful, casual, and focused mainly on players who are still "developing". There might be a solid group of senior members at 70+ and many intermediate members in the 40's and 50's, but the focus on advanced dungeons as a guild whole is limited at this point because the core membership is predominantly under level 60.

Short Version:

The more you annoy Guildmates, the less helpful they'll be when you REALLY need it, so it's important to know what is deemed "annoying".

Asking to "borrow" cash is annoying (support yourself, stranger).

Repeatedly asking for advice on class or equipment issues is annoying (look it up online, there are a billion sites - and don't complain about having to alt+tab out for the 25 questions you have each hour, it's not your guild's fault you have a slow computer).

Repeatedly asking for a "run" through dungeons is annoying (If you want to go, put together a team yourself and if there aren't enough guildmates, use the LookingForGroup tool).

Using the Guild line for what should be over Private Chats (whispers) is annoying (you've already asked 15 times in the last hour for dungeon party members, take it to private chats for that ONE person who just logged in).

Over-using exclamation marks or question marks is annoying (using more than one makes you look panicked and it's a game - NOT worthy of panic).

WHY are these annoying? Because we're all virtual strangers, here to advance our own characters and enjoy the game ourselves. Fellow guild members who depend too much on Guildmates drain "helping energy" to a point where the energy isn't there for when Guildmates REALLY need it.

What now? Read and understand this post. Ask questions on your Guild Forums and Guild chat line to get clarity. Plan on doing it before fellow guildmates start to ignore you or the Officers /gkick you without a word.

And now, the longer version...

Having said that, guild members, while helpful, are all here playing for themselves with their own goals in mind, and thus every player who joins a guild needs to have a certain amount of independancy when it comes to advancing or getting what they want.

Asking for help on occasion is something we all do as Guildies, and that's definitely what the guild line is for. However, repeatedly asking for help on the same topic or subject gets tiring for Guildies to answer for you, and as time moves forward you may find your repeated questions go unanswered for the most part. Wouldn't that be frustrating?
For our purposes, let's define BEGGING:

Asking for something without offering anything back.

Regarding "Borrowing" Cash for Skills, Repairs or Equipment

Surrounding the topic of cash for equipment, repairs or skills, even if you intend to "pay someone back", you're still begging, even though you'd like to call it "borrowing". Why? Because unless you've been active and regular within the guild for many months, you're a complete stranger to us, even if you're a Guildie.

Just being in the same guild together doesn't mean much in terms of sharing hard-earned cash and equipment. Find some friends you've been playing with for months or who know in real life who can lend you cash, because too often, guildies end up not getting their money back from the plethora of new guild recruits (strangers) who wish to "borrow".

A BETTER QUESTION TO ASK the guild would be "how do I generate enough money for myself that I can afford [insert something you want here]?" And then USE that advice to improve your financial situation even if it seems a little "boring" to do!

Regarding Dungeon Activities

Occasionally, high level members of the guild will offer to take lower level folks through dungeons such as Wailing Caverns, Van Cleef, Razorfen Kraul, Scarlet Monestary, etc. If you get into one of these runs, consider yourself lucky. If your guild schedules runs with an addon like GroupCalendar or Guild Event Manager, download the software and get it working, or log into your guild website to sign up. When I do this in guilds that support Guild Event Manager and the likes, all my parties are booked full through the calendar, a day or two in advance.

Most of the time you are looking to go into a dungeon, you're going to be needing to build your own party because high levels are working on their own high level things and won't come along. In this case, you'd probably do better to look at the guild who list (/groster) and send whispers to specific people who are within the correct level range to ask them if they'd like to join you in the dungeon party, instead of asking over and over on the guild line every time someone logs in.

It's the act of asking over and over every time someone new logs in that is labelled "begging" in this dungeon context. If the 15 people online on the guild for the last hour aren't responding to join your dungeon group, sending another message to the guild line when one new person logs in (instead of sending a whisper to the person who logged in) will only serve to annoy them and reduce your chances of them partying with you in the future.

Regarding Asking For Advice on Equipment

Asking questions on the guild line surrounding the topic of "which is better" in terms of equipment is fine on occasion for someone who is low level and new to their class. However, I'd like to make a statment on this topic as well.

In short, LEARN from what advice you're being offered by guildies when you ask for it. It's okay to ask for that advice once or twice a day, but you should be striving to be able to review equipment yourself without needing anyone else's advice, in time. If you don't learn what stats are best for your class, for example, you may find that less and less people answer your inquiries on the guild line about equipment, specifically because you've drained them of their helpfulness towards you through regular questions.

Why The Concern About "Begging"?

Why? Because the forms of begging I mentioned above all do one thing within a guild: Drain the energy members use to help others. The result is apathetic guild members who don't help each other because they've spent all of their energy helping overly NEEDY people.

But I Need Help!! What Do I Do Now??

Use websites outside the game (like Thottbot.com to help answer your questions more often and don't rely so heavily on guildmates specifically. Become a member of one of the many active World of Warcraft discussion forums online, read what other people ask about, what answers they get, and ask your own questions as well. Here are a couple of good forums I've found:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com - the Official World of Warcraft forums managed by Blizzard

http://forums.worldofwar.net - with over 100,000 registered forum members!

You'll learn an AMAZING amount about your class, the game, and many other things, while also allowing folks outside of our guild to share their "helping energy" with you and letting our guildmates use their "helping energy" for more productive things like quests, dungeons, bosses, etc.

Moving Forward... In Summary

Now that this post is here, you're welcome to point guildmates towards it and you're welcome to ask questions to clarify any concerns or confusions. Needy guild members who cannot get the hang of relying on other sources in addition to guildmates may be removed or asked to leave.

I know this sounds extreme, but it only takes a handful of overly needy guild members to have a strong impact on attitudes of usually helpful members, and in the developing levels (ie: under 60), many guilds value independance in its members over dependance or even interdependance.

Thanks for reading this article, please do post notes if you have any questions or concerns.

PS: Regarding Words I Use

If you don't know what a word means that I use in my posts, look them up in www.m-w.com - please don't drain my "helping energy" until you've read the definition, thought on it for a few minutes to understand it and can start to see how it applies in the gulid situations above. THEN we can talk.

Another New Guild, learning about skills, Ruling the WC

Valdesta — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 21:25:47 +0000

New Guild... Already!

Well, I sure didn't stay in my second guild very long. Long enough to party up and kill my guildmates over and over in a dungeon instance (SFK I believe), and then the next time I logged in, my buddy Jkoll had switched to a "new and great" guild which he invited me to as soon as I dropped the old one.

So, now I'm in a guild called The H E R D. Instead of saying "hello" when guildies log in, we moo. It's kinda fun actually.

I like this guild much better than either of the others I was in, and I have only been in this one for a few days now. I find that there is more friendly banter between guildies and less inane stuff like mouthy 11 year olds and people who like to give the play-by-play of a football game on their TV IRL.

Also, the regular guildies that are on when I'm on "get" my sense of humor. I'm weird, I like to come out with stuff that is attached to what is being said only in the strangest way. I don't have any direct examples right now but there were a few instances where I made my silly strange comments in all the guilds I've been in and this one is the only one that had someone respond intelligently - all the rest of the guilds, my humor was met with complete and utter guild line silence.

I'm happy to say that I was promoted from New to Herdsman within 48 hours of joining the guild. That was cool too, I feel more connected to the group even though I haven't even partied with any of them.

Cooking, First Aid, Fishing

A big thing I had clarified recently through this new guild and my new guildmates was that some of the Professions are skills that ALL players are able to train, and therefore I have three new professions to work on building. I had read through the Professions information on the World of Warcraft website before joining the game but I didn't seem to "get" that Cooking, Fishing and First Aid are professions that everyone is able to train by default, before they even worry about selecting their other professions.

So, I've been getting caught up with my cooking and fishing skills mostly - having to venture all the way back to beginning areas to find the Chunk of Boar Meat and Stringy Wolf Meat for the first recipes, and doing most of my fishing right in Thunder Bluff (mid bluff). I find that fishing is a great time-spender while I'm in the queue for WSG, and the higher my cooking gets the more fish I can cook, and my pet likes fish... so it all works together.

Wailing Caverns

I ventured into WC dungeon last night with my lvl 28 hunter and its lvl 28 pet, with a fellow hunter (lvl 30, lvl 30 pet) who I had done some killing with before. He invited me to join him so I headed over and we tried to finish one of the quests there. We didn't get it done, we're going to go back in tonight to try to finish it off, but BOY did I come out with a lot of goodies from that dungeon.

My party partner apparently didn't clear out his inventory before heading into the dungeon, and therefore he only had enough slots free for the gems we were picking up for the quest itself. I didn't know this until he had passed on three or four Uncommon items and let me win the rolls as a result... I suggested that even if he couldn't personally use the items he could auction them and get some cash for them, and that was when he let me know he didn't have any open slots.

Okay! Fine by me! I was getting rid of anything that wasn't worth as much as those uncommon items (all greens, no blues) and taking all the Uncommon items. Then this morning I put everything up for auction and I'll see when I get home from work how many of the items sold.

Tonight we're going to go back into the dungeon to try to finish off the quest, and this morning I spent a bunch of time clearing out my inventory as much as possible again because with how many uncommon items we were finding last night and how little of the quest we got done, I know there's a lot more loot we'll be coming out with tonight. I like loot, it sells well and lets me buy cool equipment I wouldn't otherwise run into.

But at any rate, that's what I've been doing lately. :)

My first attempt at SFK, aka "Killing My Party"

Valdesta — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 20:26:20 +0000

Okay, wow.

I went on my first instance run with my new guildmates last night, and wow was it a rough time. I got us killed twice because of my pet, then still managed to get us killed AGAIN when I left the pet behind and just went in with myself. My guildmates were understandably frustrated at the deaths.

It even looked like we had a gold farmer in our guild and on our instance team (he kept rolling "need" on things he likely didn't need and wouldn't respond at all or talk at all when asked questions or talked to), and because I kept on KILLING US ALL, the focus went totally away from what to do when there's an individual like that in the group or guild.

I hope my guildmates won't be branded with my name as a bad thing, thinking I was purposely doing this. I tried to keep communicative and admitted this was my second party with more than 3 players in it, but we'll see what the future brings I guess ;)

My first attempt at SFK, aka “Killing My Party”

Valdesta — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 20:26:20 +0000

Okay, wow.

Lvl 26 Hunter looking for new guild

Valdesta — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:28:45 +0000

I was invited at about level 8 to join a guild, before my 10 day trial play period was even over. I've been with that guild for about two and a half weeks, but as of today I'm guildless, because I left the guild.

I find it strange that Guilds are called Guilds on World of Warcraft - they're more like Clans, and the Classes are more like Guilds in my personal experience. But I guess since you can't switch classes with a character, they're kinda not like Guilds I'm used to...

At any rate, I left mainly because I didn't really "click" with anyone. I was/am too small when everyone was doing WC and RFK and BFD, and the people who play regularly are 10-15 lvls above me, plus, there's this one kid who is very crass and mouthy but if anyone says anything to him, he's whining that he's 11 and we should "be nice"... and unfortunately he plays a lot.

I was thinking of just /ignore'ing him but I initiated a guild discussion when he mouthed off something crass (around the profanity filters of course) this afternoon and my guildmates stood behind him in support. That's okay, I'm okay with being the odd one out, but when I'm the odd one out, I'm much more motivated to try to find somewhere I fit in.

I'd rather be alone than be in a group I don't fit with.

Sooooo... Perhaps I'll tap Jkoll up and see if I can get invited to his guild. I've enjoyed partying with him and seen him partying with guild members as well, which is a good sign to me.

Finding A WoW Guild That Fits

Valdesta — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 02:49:38 +0000

Many MMORPGs that offer Player-vs-Player action also offer some type of cross-race, cross-class grouping to occur, usually in the name of Clans, or in World of Warcraft’s case, Guilds.

What Is A Guild For?

Guilds are meant to give an individual a “family” to socialize, quest and adventure with. Guilds have chat lines that all Guild members can see and participate on, and it’s a great place to meet others who play at the same time as you do regularly.

Guilds are not all benefit for the member, however - at times Guilds or Clans can be deemed to be “at war” with one another and it is your duty as a member of the Guild to avenge Guildmate’s deaths to other Guilds or participate in other retalitory actions determined by the Guild leader.

Some guilds will require you to make financial donations, or equipment offerings. Beware, as this is not a standard expectation in all guilds.

Unfortunately, Guilds don’t have guild halls, fellow guild members aren’t easy to make out when they walk past you on the street, and there’s no real “common hanging out area” for guildmates. Your connection to your guild mates is primarily through chat.

How Can I Tell It’s A Good Guild?

Even if you’re a solo player, you need access to people who can team up with you to go through particularly difficult quests or dungeon instances, etc. Guilds are a great way to find these people, as you get to know your guildmates over time and therefore your parties are more reliable and you’ll have less “people problems”.

You can’t tell if a guild is a good one from the outside, really. The only way is to join and give it a whirl yourself.

“Trying Out” A Guild

Be prepared to stay with this guild for a couple of weeks to really get a feel for whether it’s for you or not. It won’t hurt you to stay in the guild… there’s no restrictions for leaving and joining other guilds and there are plenty to join at any time.

Chat on the guild line. Ask questions, answer questions. Read what others write, and think about it. Offer yourself when someone asks for volunteers to do specific quests or dungeon instances and you’re within 5-10 lvls of them. Get involved in “team” things now and then.

After a couple of weeks, you can easily decide whether this Guild fits your needs and personality or not.

Where To Get Guild Invites

There are a couple places you can get invited into guilds from.

Friends are a great place to start - if you have someone you’ve already teamed up with and have on your friends list, ask them if they’re in a guild and if you can get invited.

Listen to the General chatline that you’re subscribed to automatically when you first login. Regularly there are people starting new guilds and looking for the first round of members.

I’m sure you could also sit in some town and talk to each person who comes around who’s in a guild and ask them if you could get an invite to their guild as well. Not my choice really, but hey, I’m sure it would work if you said it right and found the right person.

Leaving A Guild

Just so you know, if you go into your /who menu and then into guild, and right-click your name on the list, you can “Leave Guild”. I had a bit of trouble finding that myself when I was leaving my first guild.

You can also use the text command /gquit to leave your guild.

It’s not a big deal to leave guilds. If you met some people you want to keep in touch with, put them on your friends list and make an effort. Otherwise, leave the guild and go on your way, and find another guild if you left because of a “bad fit” with the last one.

If anyone harasses you about it, the /ignore command works really well :)