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Guildus Astartes
If you are in a guild that is organized to the tee and things
are thought out, this thread is not for you. If you play 4 hours
a week and wonder where molasses comes from, this thread is not
for you. If you are a level 60 in an "ok" guild or a guild
leader seeking advice, this is for you.
The Issue:
Guilds need structure and objectives. Otherwise its random ppl
playing random alts, randomly playing once in a blue moon with
no reason to play except hit 60....WEEEEELLLLLL lemme tell ya
somethin, 60 sucks. Yup, i said it. Your goal blows goats in the
pale moon light, but there is salvation.
Once you hit 60, questing is just 'o-k'....no real reason
anymore unless its for cool gear or does something productive to
your character rather than 50 silver or some crappy piece of
equipment thats meant for another class. So from there, you
start lookin at your guild and the thought will hit your mind
like 'wtf have these ppl been doing the last 2 months???' and
you'll realize that you kinda sorta don't have anyone to share
the joy with.
Now i know ppl are like 'HELP TEH GUILDIES!', 'GO DO HIGH LVL
INSTANCES!', 'GET UBER ARMOR!'....Seriously, helping guildies
gets very boring after you've ran through deadmines the 100th
time and you'll soon find out what the terms 'pick-up' parties
and 'ninja looting' means. Unfortunately there are idiots that
play this game and they actually make it up to 60. When they do,
they are the bread and gravy of every pick up group you will do
and they will loot things according to their needs or their
guild's needs.
The Resolve:
First of all, rules. It sucks to be the leader because your
judgments can piss ppl off and nobody likes a bad gaming
experience, but if you are in a casual guild some order will
need to be set in place.
The Ranks- You can make all sorts of ranks but the premise is
usually 4: Newbie, Member, Veteran, Officer. This ranks are
given to you to use to grant privileges to ppl, not just bump
everyone up w/o thinking things through. There has to be rules
to each rank or obtaining each rank such as a person has to be
level 20 to join the guild, the character joining cannot be an
alt, and the person must be sensible and mature, for example.
Then your next step is the full member. What does a person have
to be in order to be full member? Well, if you have a website
for the guild, they must register. Everyone in the guild must
like the person and got along with him or her. The person might
have to show that he/she is resourceful in certain combat
situations are have good knowledge in guild chat.
What about a Veteran? I would say a player post level 40 that
logs in at least once a day, and occasionally helps lowbie
guildies do instances is a great start, but really, is the
person a good decision maker? Did he/she boost the right stats
when leveling? How did they perform under a tough situation
either in the guild or out on the battlefield? - These are
things that make Veterans. You might think its stupid to have
such requirements, but good players with a decent head on them
can turn a bad guild around in a heartbeat when the going gets
horrid.
Officers are usually 50+ members that are just fun to have in
the guild, log in once a day, and always have great advice to
equipment questions, build questions, and game info. These are
the guys that set things up and help ppl out in desperate need
while being very reliable in making or helping with decisions.
They're experience with the talent tree and what gear to use is
often very helpful to lwbie members as well. I don't how many
times i've asked in guild chat what a great talent build is for
my class, to get a good answer from an officer that has 50+
levels in the class and knows what works.
Those are the ranks, and as things go, they are privileges, no
handouts. When a person reaches a new rank, find someway to make
them feel important, such as list them on the front page of the
website saying so'n'so became a Vet today or maybe some piece of
gear they like from the guild bank�.speaking of guild
bank�
The Guild Bank- The Guild Banker is thee most important position
to hold in the guild. This person is the most trusted in the
guild, therefore a RL buddy to the guild master or someone that
you�ve known for a long time online�you get the
idea, NOT Joe Schmo. A bad guild banker can start all sorts of
drama for your guild, can cause it to break, and can cause the
ppl in the guild to get a very bad reputation. This is why the
banker is held in the highest and most trusted regards.
This persons responsibilities are to keep track of all the
guild�s items and who contributed the item to the guild
� I would advice keeping an excel spreadsheet with dates
on when the item was received, where it went, and why. The
reason for having a guild bank is to simply keep all the
crafting items, good green, blue, and purple drops � as
well as quest item drops in some cases.
� Crafting items � Any item that is used in
crafting any item that is dropped in any instance in which the
guild member really doesn�t want the money for the item
or can�t use the item. Guild member should be forced to
pick up all crafting items no matter what level they are or what
the item is to be sent to the guild banker. The reasoning for
this is that if a new lowbie joins and attains member, usually
bags need to be made for the person and the person should be
able to ask the banker for any crafting items they may have.
Resources are simply managed by the �two in, one
out� rule. In order to gave a stack of crafting materials
to a guildie, there has to be more than 2 in the bank to give
one out, so that you will always have 2 of everything no matter
what.
� Green, Blue, Purple Drops � These aren�t
so easily given to a guild banker because they form the meat and
potatoes of most people�s income. You should not expect
ppl to donate these items, but if they do, then there should be
a set of rules on how they are used. Guild events is a good
place to give these away, such as some activity that the
guildies must do to be eligible for them. Another way to give
them out is the reward system. A guildie becomes a member or
veteran and an item goes to them that they can use as far as,
equipping it. These items don�t just come from drops but
can be crafted as well. I�m usually a leatherworker on
most my characters so when I sit down and do a crafting session
I make a large amount of the same thing. Typically I ask in
guild chat if anyone needs the item since I�m crafting
it. One variation to this is to send maybe one or two of these
items to the guild banker if you can afford to do so. If you are
a level 60 crafter, go out and farm the low key crafting items
for levels 20, 30 , and 40 and send them to your banker. Make
one or two of each item. This can and will keep you busy at
level 60 if you stick with it. You will also find this fun to do
because you�ll find your guild bank filling up in no time
with great items that can be used to help guild members out.
� One final thing to remember is quest items. Weird gems
that are dropped, mithril casings, stuff like that. The bank
should not be overfull with them but at least have a few of each
item in stock if a guildie is doing a quest that requires it.
Also remember to make your list of banked items public to the
guild. Via a website or offer to email ppl a list of the items
if they inquire about it. How will guildies be motivated to
participate in a guild event if they don�t know the
prize?
The Guild Master- This person is the dude that started the guild
and should always be able to answer any questions about it and
resolve any disputes. You don�t have to be a Hitleristic
a$$h0le to pull this off, but you must be firm on the rules to
keep a happy guild in tip top order. Make your officers earn
their rank! Give them guild tasks such as setting up events,
being responsible for the knowledge of how to do certain
instances, to be diplomats to other guilds looking to form an
alliance to take MC, to train ppl on how to be better PvPers�.the
list is endless depending on what you feel the need to happen.
The last rule of thumb, is to stay honest to your guild. Play an
alt, help ppl out, but under no circumstances ever leave your
server to play on another and let your guild know that you are
doing so. If you let your guild know that you are spending time
on another server, it shows that you could careless for the ppl
in the guild.
Keeping it fresh- Like I mentioned before, doing the same damn
instance multiple times blows, so how do you stay busy while
helping your guild? Quest with lowbies! It sounds horrid, but
kill stuff they don�t need for skinning or tailoring
drops that you can craft green, blue, or purple items out of.
Farm for stuff to put in the guild bank while helping the
guildie not get too many adds or get ganked. Pick up everything
you can get your hands on in instances if no one needs them and
send them to the guild bank. Grab an officer and demonstrate a
PvP session to show the guildie how to beat a particular class.
Level an alt with a lower level guildie. I would even say farm
money for people�s mounts, but that�s not a
necessity and some ppl may take advantage of your kindness. But
other than that theres a ton of things that you can do at 60 to
help the guild. The strongest and most powerful message you can
display is to keep the guild motivated in leveling their
characters rather than playing 80 million different alts. Alts
are fun, but the guild should come first. Hit 60, then turn
around and try something different.
Where this all leads to- If you successfully hit 60 and your
guildies hit 60, think of whats out there. Instances, Armor, PvP.
I can guarantee you that these things are 100% funner when you
do them with ppl you enjoy being around and trust. Typically, a
good 10 man group is sound for Strat, Scholo, and LBRS, while a
well organized 15 man group is needed to do UBRS. And once over
half the guild hits 60, start looking at bigger and better
things such as Molten Core and Onyxia.
The reason I say this is a better way to go comes from being in
pick-up parties that wipe, that loot everything no matter if you
need it or not, and so forth. I�ve stopped leveling
hunter because there simply was no opportunity to do things on a
regular basis. Maybe a strat run here and a UBRS run there, but
nothing that I could see productive to my time. !
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