We are in a similar position, on a fairly low population server.
The guild over time has gotten split over all 5 timezones (4 continental US and Hawaii) but we still really enjoy the tight knit community. We only raid 2 nights a week for a total of 6-7 hours each reset, and are 10/14... just starting on Mimiron

We are finding it hard to get any applicants it seems, but beyond that because of the limited number of raid spots and nights... we work very hard to not add extra people for classes where we already have good representation (do we really need a 4th raiding mage) and are always looking for that exceptional player that is the right combination of specs (would kill for a feral tank who also had gear and experience as a boomkin, recently started looking for a shadow priest with strong disc gear and their UI already set up to heal in a pinch, you get the idea)

We have moved past the limited recruitment of the past in part because while having 4-5 people on the bench on a raid night sucked... taking 2-5 weeks off when you were a couple short or someone left the guild/game sucked more.
I agree with the author... you have to pitch the things that make you unique and then wait for that right match. For the players we have recruited and kept, the 2 night raid schedule (wednesday and Saturday) has been a huge plus. We also pushed to get some of the achievements done early and the new 'strict' 10man rankings will be helpful in the future I think (my opinion is that they could be dialed back from 9 25man progression points to 8 and you would get a cleaner break between 10man focused guilds and 25man geared guilds that ran out of steam, but that is another topic)

best of luck!

Reply