We don't make the same mistake twice

We have acquired a mage, a fury warrior, a resto druid, and a shadow priest. We rejected a prot paladin without professions or enchants and a resto druid that tried to play the "I'm a girl so I should get special treatment" card. We are raiding. Things appear to be going well. So what is the problem? We are stagnating at this stage.

Right now the people that we can find are all super casual or super bad and we only have about six of the ten raid spots filled by regular raiders. The rest of the spots are dragging us down. We have spent hours wiping, kicking the bad players, and finding replacements only to find out that those replacements are also bad.  Our regulars are getting frustrated, and rightly so. The server is filled with guilds, all in a similar situation. The sensible thing to do is to get some of those guilds together and fix everyone's problems. That tends to create other problems though.

Usually there are more members than raid spots when bringing two partial raid groups together. Leaders have a hard time deciding to take a back seat and feeling comfortable with someone else driving the boat. Then there is the biggest issue in the minds of your guildies. They like being in your guild. They like who you (as a guild) are. Leaving that behind and going somewhere as a group makes you feel like a group of outsiders in someone else's guild, at least for a while. They may not be able to articulate this concern, but it is there.

So, now we are faced with a few options. We can keep trying to recruit while also trying to hold on to what we have, we can disband and go our separate ways, or we can find somewhere to go. The most attractive option is finding somewhere to go, and there lies the mistake that we don't want to repeat. The guild merger.

Hardcore raiders are expected to make a minimum amount of mistakes, and never the same mistake twice. When you do make a mistake you step back, figure out how and why it happened, and then take direct action to prevent it from happening again. The first time I fought Magmaw I ran away from the Pillar of Flame about one second before the cast, thinking that I could be well out of range and not worry about getting hit by it. Of course it spawned under me... and I was positioned directly in line with where the ranged group was going to run. Now they had to recognize what happened, run around the Pillar of Flame instead of through it, and kite the adds at the same time. It didn't go well, but I was able to step back and look at the situation. The problem got fixed and I have never been out of position for the Pillar of Flame since.

What does that have to do with anything? The same is expected of guild leadership. Make a minimum amount of mistakes and never make the same mistake twice. Well, I made the merger mistake once already. Guild mergers do not work. The newly formed guild always ends up as less than what it was supposed to be, if not outright failing. I have had a lot of time to step back and look at that situation, and I know how to not do it again. Guild acquisition is the way to go.

One guild acquires the raiders, guild bank, FnF members, etc. of the other guild. There is no merger, no blending of the rules and customs, no officership granted to the old GM. One guild makes the decision to disband and transfer control of everything to the other guild. This is smooth, efficient, lacking in drama and lengthy discussion, and best of all it works. Players have it made clear to them that they are not infusing their new guild with the old one, they are leaving the old one behind and joining the new.

Why is that so important? It rallies everyone under the same banner that is already in effect, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel by mashing two guild cultures together and splitting hairs over making policy for future eventualities.

Well, now. What to do with all of that info? A decision still needs to be made. What are we to do? I, for one, am going to work at being the guild that does the acquisition, not the one that gets acquired. The truth of the matter is that I like running things my way. It is smooth, it works well, I don't get complaints, and I get to filter important decisions through my years of experience instead of hoping that the 20 year old college student who has never been outside of his home town and has the life experience of a horse fly gets it right this time. The other side of that coin, though, is that I need to be able to recognize when it is time to let go and move in with the neighboring guild. Will that time come? I hope not, but if it does I will not be drowning in regret. I will be looking forward to the possibilities ahead.

Bigger is Better

We are moving servers. I know... big shocker, right? Honestly, the only thing I didn't see coming is that it took us this long to do it. I came to this server to raid with a friend, cannot raid with him due to R/L commitments, and instead of leaving I stuck around to try and make my own guild here. Bad choice.

The server I am leaving has a medium sized population. The only problem is that 80% of it is Alliance. That leaves a very low population on the Horde side, which has all sorts of awful effects. The economy is in disarray to the point where all crafting materials are a minimum of twice the price that you pay for the crafted item they create. It is bad enough that making 1k gold a day gross income is a good day; the supply of things you need are low across the board, even having gaps at times; and players are almost impossible to find. Notice that I said 'players', not 'good players'.

Let me paint a picture for you. It is Tuesday evening, prime time on reset day. The Horde just won TB for the first time of the day. What is trade chat filled with? Silence... even the crickets have left the server and aren't around to chirp. I form up a BH raid with the tank and healer spots already taken care of, as well as a couple of DPS. I decide to PuG the last four spots and advertise in trade. Please remember, my group has geared and accomplished players in it that already include the tanks and healers. I am asking for DPS... I get nothing. Not even some low level asking, "what BH is and can I come?" After 45 minutes of trying to get some DPS I finally get a retarded Ret Paladin that has half of his gem slots empty, the other half filled with crit gems, and a green AGI polearm asking to join us. Terrible, just terrible.

I did manage to recruit and impress some very skilled players (the only good thing to come out of this server). These players have also equally impressed me. They are sticking with me and following me to Area 52. They came to this server for the same reason that I did and want to leave for the exact same reasons. Why Area 52? It is huge, and bigger is better. Population size isn't the only thing that counts in a server; not by far. It is a great indicator of where to start looking though, and heavily influences almost every other important aspect of a good server. On Area 52 the Horde outnumber the Alliance by extreme amounts. The extremity of the faction imbalance is not necessary, but having your faction in the lead is... even if just by a little. The economy is stable and exactly what you would suspect. Demand for crafted items far outstrips the demand for the materials and creates a way for people to use their crafting skills to make gold. 20 of the guilds on the server are in the world's top 200 ranking, making raid drop BoE's and epic enchanting crystals much more available. Those guilds also draw players. Lots of players. Finding people has never been so easy, and we can afford to PuG our remaining spots while we wait for the awesome players that we actually want to recruit.

I knew all of this stuff. I have known it for a long time. I originally left Gul'dan because the population had dwindled to such low numbers that IF was actually empty on a Saturday afternoon. Why then, didn't I move servers sooner? Because I made a mistake. Yup, happens to everyone. The good thing is that this mistake isn't going to cost me the valuable players I have gained, only a little bit of time.

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P.S. I have started leveling my Priest and healing instances on the way up. Healing hasn't been this much of a blast since vanilla! Blizzard did wonders for the healing game and it really works the way it is supposed to. With that in mind, I am heavily considering switching mains. More on that subject later.

Recruiting raiders sucks

For the past week I have been doing my best to recruit raiders. Let me tell you, it sucks. I have a recruitment post that I bump daily on three different forums; I spam trade, LFG, and the guild recruitment channel daily; and I have approached specific individuals that I know are looking for a guild. How many applications have I reviewed? None.

Why the lack of response to my recruitment? A few reasons come to mind. First off, just like it is easier to find a job when you already have one, it is easier to recruit raiders when you already have a functioning raid group. People look at my roster of two players and think, "no way. This guild isn't going anywhere." The guild could be exactly what you are looking for, but if you have to join and then stick your thumb up your butt while the GM recruits more players... you get the idea.

Second is my style of recruiting. I am not going to spam recruit players and then kick the baddies. Instead I set the standard high, very high. Most players will not even bother applying because they think I am being unreasonable. Is it unreasonable to take a stand and say that a casual amount of play time is not an excuse to be bad at the game? I don't think so. So I recruit for exactly what I want and am happy to wait for it. To top it all off I do not write my recruitment posts and application questions in the typical manner. Players that look at my post won't be able to skim for what they think is relevant info and then decide to apply or not. They actually have to read, which requires actual interest, and most of them won't.

So why do I make it so hard on myself? There are plenty of other options for grabbing players. I could at least get a raid group going so it will be easier to recruit good raiders. The answer is, no, it won't be easier. The quality of player I am looking for won't be interested in joining a fail raid to try and make it stronger. What I need are great players that want to be surrounded with other great players and are willing to start that from scratch.

Well, all of my persistence has paid off. Yesterday I recruited the exact kind of player that I want. Exactly what I need to succeed. I am happy to say that four members of the original <Death and Taxes> are now members of <Adept>. This includes a tank that has been taking hits to the head from bosses since DnT got some of their vanilla world first kills and still loves it, one of the best heal-bots I have ever seen, and two superb DPS that keep me pushing to compete with them. What can I say... these guys impress me.

So now I have six out of my ten raiders and the hard part is over. Time to finish the roster off and start kicking ass and taking names.

A new guild is formed

So I decided to make my own guild.

I have done this before... a few times, so I am not very gun shy about it. I have a vent server set up already, a functioning guild website, and a recruitment plan all set. The normal details about loot rules and such are already taken care of. Having experienced some of the best (and having personally created some of the worst) I feel I have a good grasp on what will work and what I have the means to implement. The goal is to start 10 man raiding ASAP and recruit as time goes by for enough people to do 25 mans. I know that sounds like a big gap, but having a successful 10 man makes it easier to get people. When you can attract a few more people you can make a second 10 man. From there you are only a few recruits away from 25 man raiding.

The guild is Adept - US Perenold(H). http://adept-guild.wowstead.com (Yep, plugging my own guild. Get over it.)

I have found that new guilds often recruit way beyond their means. Their recruitment posts look something like, "New Guild is now recruiting! We have vent, a website, and a tabard; as well as a couple of guild bank tabs! We do PvP and Heroics, are starting raids soon, and love to level alts. Looking for all levels and classes. Come join us!" Oh how this guild is destined to fail.

First off, if you have people that joined your guild simply because of your tabard, or the ability to use your vent server and guild bank... boy are you scraping the bottom of the barrel. Secondly, what is your purpose? What is your guild aimed at? What can I expect to do when I join you? From your recruit post it looks like almost anyone and everyone will be happy there. Want to run heroics? Join us! Want to raid? We are trying to get enough people for a raid. You could be one of them! Want to PvP? We do that too!

It goes on and on; ad nauseam, ad infinitum. In reality you don't organize any of those things. You simply have a group of people that play together a lot and have realized that you need more people to be successful at some of the activities you enjoy. So you advertise that you do all of these activities. Do you? Sure. Do you organize them and put specific effort towards achieving success at them? No, you don't.

So what happens is a lot of naive players join your guild thinking that they will find the one thing in your recruit post that they are interested in. Maybe what you really want is people to casually run 5 mans and occasionally do other things when you are bored; but what you get is PvP focused players and raiders looking for a new raiding guild. These people will be unhappy in your guild and /gquit within weeks if not days or hours, leaving you with a sinking guild that can't hold onto members.

The solution? Identify what you really want to focus on and recruit for that purpose. My example would be that Adept is a hardcore raiding guild for people that don't have a hardcore amount of time to commit. We only raid nine hours a week, so all nine of them need to count. That means that I need people who are focused on succeeding in raids. They must have raiding specs, professions, experience, and a winner's mindset. My recruit post is also tailored to that end. Very few people have asked me about joining that weren't actually suited for my guild. It works. Tell people what you are and what you are looking for. Don't fill your recruit post with fluff, thinking that you might get the wandering superstar player who happens to like all of the random things that you advertise for but still really meshes with your core group. It won't happen.

It all boils down to this principle: Say what you mean, and mean what you say.