Breakfast Topic: Guilds and WotLK preparation
by Amanda Miller 
Jul 26th 2008 at 8:00AM
With all of the juicy information trickling down daily about the Beta, it does seem that everyone has Wrath on the brain. At the very least, it must make it difficult to focus on other goals. For example, do you really want to start farming to make that epic crafting set, when Northrend is around the corner?
Players have already been noticing a decrease in raiding activity because of summer vacation, but how is the preparation for the expansion affecting your guild?
Are you losing players to other raiding guilds, or beginning to realize that many people are spending more time soloing to gear up or level their alts? Is your guild working together to reach specific pre-expansion goals?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Expansions, Alts, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
SilentDave Jul 26th 2008 8:20AM
We hit the typical quiet spot when summer hit, instead of raiding ingame half our members we're raiding beer gardens or some sunny costal retreat in xyz country lol. Add to that WotLK imminent and a chance at beta = our more seasoned members are just trudging through dailies and doin a bit of pvp.
On the few occassions we have raided, its been very half hearted to say the least although a couple of our members are very motivated, the majority feeling is we're waiting for a bus to arrive with no actual idea of the timetable for the bus.
The amount of new guilds being formed suggests this is the case for quite a few guilds on my server
dotorion Jul 26th 2008 8:50AM
We have seen s slight drop in sign-ups for T5, but we're not sure if we are to contribute it to summer, WotLK or just the majority people not needing anything from T5 anymore.
People are on alts more often, though.
Patrick Jul 26th 2008 9:33AM
Guys, it is simple. You want to be a hardcore raiding guild and you forget about the human factor. Your members don't fell part of community. Well they will leave. You need to make them fell part of it. Don't force people to do raid and they will come. Don't yell on ventrilo. Be kind and polite and they will enjoy the game as you do. Pushing people like they are nothing don't work.
I am in a raiding guild that is made of friends or friends of friends. It really work and we are moving in the game content one steps at a time. We don't care about doing mount Hyjal at the moment. But we are at the steps of Black Temple and almost ready to do more. There is no rush this is a game. Might enjoy it and have fun. Do you pay the game to play or have a second job? That could be a topic on this blog.
Taivor Jul 26th 2008 9:34AM
Our guild has been all about leveling alts lately. We still try to sneek in a few heroics a week, but everyone remembers what happened to our epics when BC launched...
SilentDave Jul 26th 2008 10:31AM
Yep thats pretty much the mood in our camp also
Selvon Jul 26th 2008 3:50PM
Yeah, our situation is both the same and a bit different. Alot of people are levelling alts but we still have been getting some raids. However its been difficult to get everyone to turn up and focus.
Jack Spicer Jul 26th 2008 9:48AM
I don't really find that too surprising. Unless you're desperate to see the current raid content before the expansion hits, because Wrath is on the horizon, the only things really worth putting time into IMO are leveling alts and tradeskills.
MDS Jul 26th 2008 9:54AM
My guild is designated casual with some progression - while we have a solid number of people, we're more relaxed about how people sign up for raids, so we predominately do 10 mans - since we're newer, mostly Kara, but we're getting our feet into ZA.
LK's 10 man friendliness will be a godsend to us.
SilentDave Jul 26th 2008 10:31AM
Yeah, we suffered a few losses due to reduced raiding during summer, we was 25man raiding on a regular basis over the winter/early spring, given the 10man aspect of WotLK we're currently debating to simply stay as a smaller "family" guild and stick with the 10s in WotLK.
Atm, like stated above, those that are active in my guild are working on alts and tradeskills.
Iwanttobeasleep Jul 26th 2008 10:27AM
My guild is leveling alts on a alliance PvP server. I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work, since we're all raiders and want to go back to raiding (with our horde PvE), but it's been fun!
Amenadar Jul 26th 2008 11:13AM
My guild is still progressing rapidly thought early T6 content. We still haven't got Vash or Kael, but we're working on MH (2/5 so far) and about to start BT for a while before going back to Vash/Kael (we could get Vash now within a week or two if we tried, I think).
Basically, I'm just hoping to get T5 finished up, and see more of MH and BT. I'm optimistic about gear scaling and I think I'll keep my T5 two piece set bonus until level 80. We'll see.
azri Jul 26th 2008 4:33PM
My guild is much the same as yours. We are 4/5 MH and about to start BT next week.
We've been experiencing more players missing raids due to summer fun and whatnot but we're still mostly all getting togetehr for the 25-mans. We are all also,however, looking forward to the flexibility that the 10/25 raid structure will give us in the expansion. Don't have all 25 on? Do two 10-mans! Win-win.
Gimmlette Jul 26th 2008 11:15AM
Because Spectacular Death is casual and retro, progression to us means getting into Naxx just to see it in its current incarnation before it gets moved. This was a guild decision so people are working hard toward getting attuned.
I schedule our regular weekend raids and, on those weekends when I'm not around, encourage members to get attuned for Onyxia, Molten Core and Naxx, as well as run instances. The biggest problem I have is trying to fit the first tentative steps into Kara amongst all the other things we're trying to do.
My main tank issued a challenge to us to get into all old world end game instances (originally, we left out Naxx until members voted they wanted to go) before Wrath and we're trying but it's going to be tight. Fortunately, I have a wonderful officer corps and a fantastic guild that is willing to do the work to get into these things.
Still, what Patrick said is very true. Unless there is a sense of friendship and fun, people don't want to come to raid.
Arcturus Jul 26th 2008 11:50AM
My guild has been slowing falling apart, but it hasn't been due to Wrath. We've been teaming up to run Gruuls with another guild, and they've insulted some of our members directly, causing a few of our guys to stop showing up any more (who can blame them?).
Also, our guild leader has been taking a break from WoW and the officers are finding it impossible to rally memebers together and get a run going.
All in all, our attrition is breaking down and half a dozen core raiders half left. Personally, I'd start looking for another guild right now, but with Wrath right around the bend, I don't want to join another guild just to have it crumble like this one.
So I've been playing on my lvl 9 human warrior =P
bigjonno Jul 26th 2008 11:56AM
My guild is still working on Kara. We have a lot of first-time/inexperienced raiders and we're totally enjoying what we're doing. From a personal perspective, I'm not enjoying much that isn't Kara at the moment. Repeatedly doing heroics/dailies isn't my bag and I'm looking forward to the new content.
The 10-man friendliness of Wrath is also a big bonus as far as we're concerned.
Eriolanna Jul 26th 2008 12:40PM
Our guild has noticed a drop in attendance for some of our raids, but to be honest, the people who aren't showing tend to be the less valuable raiders.
We've downed Vashj and just killed Kael two nights ago. Our guild goal is to kill Illidan by the expansion. I think we'll do it. We can still fill a 25-man raid mostly with our dedicated raiders. People in our guild were more bummed by other people not showing than not wanting to progress before the expansion. Sure all of your gear "goes away" (I still think of the gear as some pretty awesome trophies) but the friendships and synergy that you create as a guild doesn't. You have to be more interested in the guild and progression than gear if you're going to progress at any time, 2 weeks after the expansion or 2 weeks until the next one, so not a whole lot has changed in the attitude of many of our raiders. (Except the occasional OMG Look what we're getting in WotLK! post, but those are just fun.)
(It also helps that most of our raiders are older, so they have a longer attention span than that of a gnat. :) )
Theserene Jul 26th 2008 12:46PM
We have a lack of DPS for raids (ironically I can get tanks and healers no problem) but we are getting a foot in the door to ZA.
But yep, people are levelling alts to get them to 70 before wrath and if I want to keep my guild together I'm not about to yell at them for it.
Sydera Jul 26th 2008 1:00PM
My guild is still very much invested in raiding, and we've had an increase in signups over the summer as some of our younger members have more free time. We're 4/6, 6/9 in T6 content, and we're determined to kill Illidan and Archimonde well ahead of the expansion. That has put a bit of pressure on us, but we're enjoying it. And let me say, people are no less interested in gear! I think the difference is that we started raiding only in January and just haven't had time to work through the content yet, and so there's a rush at the end.
Rob Jul 27th 2008 6:42PM
Pretty much same boat here. Recently we tried to go from mid-way through BT/MH to downing Vaj and Kael. When that happened last week attendance took a nosedive. I think most people don't care about T5 end bosses, its all about Illidan.
jurandr Jul 26th 2008 3:47PM
My guild decided that with wrath so close, progressive content like raiding isn't really worth the effort. For now we're going back to the old-world raids and inviting the rest of the server to join us. ZG tonight!