Breakfast Topic: Rebuilding
by Matthew Rossi 
Mar 15th 2010 at 8:00AM
It's really hard to watch good people suddenly find themselves lacking that role they'd grown accustomed to and not really be able to do much of anything. I've been there myself back at the end of Vanilla, as a move and real life commitments took me away from the game for four months, and by the time I returned everyone had moved on. It's hard to feel like you don't have a place in game anymore, as WoW is such a social experience. At least now there's the Dungeon Finder and raid PuG's that didn't exist before, and most of them are geared enough that they'll find a home eventually, but it still seems so discouraging to be in the position of trying to get back to where you were while everyone else moves forward.
So now it falls to you to tell inspiring tales of overcoming a similar difficulty or share your tales of guild breakups and recoveries.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Escrima Mar 15th 2010 8:13AM
I can't imagine what you're talking about.
Hakkai-Lethon Mar 15th 2010 6:35PM
Yea Completely vague
Kaisti Mar 15th 2010 8:15AM
In early BC, I too took a break from WoW. A guild I had grown attached to decided to call it quits, eventually disbanding after leadership bounced around a bit..I figured a break would be for the best, let things flow over..When I came back, it felt like I was on a brand new server, I knew no one..but I ran into an old friend I met back in Vanilla while questing out in Tanaris, and they helped me get back into the game, inviting me to their guild and assisting me with practically anything I needed..It's nice to have people like that in the game..
But, on the contrary..I'm currently being "forced" to take another break from the game until I can coerce my ex to give me the information to my account back after they changed my email/password..Sold their account and is trying to sell mine for a bit of money too..:( Maybe I'll have to start all over again..I can never get in touch with Blizz via the phone..Always get "We cannot take your call"..Hopefully if I do have to start over I have a few nice people to help me get caught up and back into it..
Erzfiend Mar 15th 2010 8:42AM
Totally sucks, but that's why you never give your info to anyone.
Kaisti Mar 15th 2010 8:45AM
Meh..They didn't have my info exactly..They changed my stuff having lived with me, knowing the answer to my not-so-secret question now.
Alexander Mar 15th 2010 9:28AM
I actually had this happen to me too. you need to send an email to blizzard (there is a link to account security on their website, I can't remember the exact address atm...) and they will reply with how to get your account back, the things you will have to fax to them (there is a long form to fill out, and you'll have to provide a hi-res scan of your ID and such) and they usually are able to get it taken care of within a few days. I actually hadn't played in a while, logged on (before I got my authenticator, natch..) and logged off, and the next day, when I logged in, I was greeted with the inability to log into my account... turns out my ex had keylogged me and changed all my info.
Good luck, and I hope that this is a life-lesson to you as it was to me.
Give her everything she wants, except your account info.
blizzardsprules Mar 15th 2010 1:35PM
'Totally sucks, but that's why you never give your info to anyone and buy an authenticator.'
fixed.
P.S. or if you have an Ipod touch/phone like me, get it for free
jbodar Mar 15th 2010 11:09PM
Well, the only solution now is to burn his/her house down and drive his/her car into the nearest large body of water. That sounds about fair. Kidding, mostly... :)
Cooter Mar 15th 2010 8:35AM
I was in a guild; invited by a good friend who was an officer, yet I had an issue getting into raids cause the raid times didn't fit my schedule. I hit up a few more guilds with crappy raid times too. I finally got into one that raids on weekends. I love these guys. They are a little on the potty mouth side but always funny and I love the banter and comaraderie that has been established. LFG also helped me get geared and up to speed; able to jump in with their ICC 25 man group. Since Blizzard implemented the LFG cross server tool, it has opened my game up like I never imagined. Best idea they've had so far and helped me find new friends and a new home guild.
velutina Mar 15th 2010 8:40AM
I currently going through something like what your friends are going through. For the past couple years I've been in a raiding guild with about 15 good dedicated raiders, and about 10 fill ins. It's broken and reformed several times in that 2 years, always with the same core group. Now the the core group has just merged with the top guild on our server and although I've been brought along, they don't really need or want me (now we have one too many tanks).
What I would like to see is a Looking For Guild tool. It would have check boxes and text boxes for things like "druid tank," "RP guild," "raid times," what achievements you have/don't have etc. I play on a low population server and there just aren't that many options for raiding guilds on my server. I don't want to go back to a guild that is less "progressed" than my old one, and with the combination of raid times and class needs there isn't a place for me on my current server. I'd switch servers to raid, but how to shop for a new guild home?
Craft Mar 15th 2010 8:43AM
I've had to at least partially rebuild a number of times. Never a full rebuild as there's always been a good core of players dedicated to the guild. It's been frustrating from time to time as real life and just regular attrition seem to come out of no where and hit us hard.
If not for the people, I'd probably have given up long ago. My guild members make it worth the effort (and occassional frustration)
Samutz Mar 15th 2010 8:47AM
I've gone through 3 separate guild break-ups now, right when we're starting to raid and progress as a guild, and they always lead to the same thing.
First, I try to find out where the others are going and follow whoever I considered my friends in the guild, however, sometimes the break-up causes them to disappear. Either they transfer to another realm or just don't play their character anymore.
Then I try to find another raiding guild that's close to the same point of progression and apply. I join them and start raiding with them, but after a week or two it just doesn't feel right because my friends from the last guild aren't around and I'm not making friends right off the bat in the new guild. Eventually the game just feels depressing and I quit for several months.
Now the situation has changed a bit. I'm stuck in a leveling guild that wants to start raiding, but realistically, it's not going to happen anytime soon. We're over-saturated with plate dps (seriously, like 20 80s). We have plenty of tanks and only one healer (a druid who hasn't been online in a few weeks, I think he's leveling a hunter), 2 or 3 hunters (including my own alt), 2 enhancement shaman (including my own alt), and ZERO ranged casters dps. And I'm leveling a resto/balance druid to be a healer so that I have that option, however my main and favorite character is still my tank, and I feel like I'm a great tank. I want to raid with my tank, not my druid. I want to eventually be able to say that I tanked and defeated the Lich King.
I've hit the point where the only thing worth doing heroics for is the daily frost emblems. I am geared to start raiding, but I feel like this guild is holding me back. At the same time I hate to ditch my friends for another guild. I'm worried that I'm gonna be stuck in the guild until it eventually falls apart and the cycle continues.
Verit Mar 15th 2010 2:03PM
I'm in the same sad situation really. Not quite sure what to do - because I wouldn't mind seeing the end of this expansion before I leave the game, but it is really hard to find a guild that is just perfect for me for some reason :/.
Doesn't help that no-one wants elemental shamans for anything anymore.
Feralis Mar 15th 2010 8:48AM
I was in a guild that was had been around for the better part of 2-1/2 years, had 1x a month 25-man, and 3x per month 10-man progression raids. ICC came out and we struggled big time with it, and so low and behold our core raiders up and left in a coup d'etat: 80% of our main tanks, 60% of our Raid leaders, 50% of our healers, 20% of our hard-hitters (DPS), all gone. So guild leader said he would take a back seat, and wouldn't allow the Guild Council run the guild, and would no longer be running regular raids.
So ended a guild w/ 100+ accounts, and 160+ 80's all in about 2-weeks after announcement. Most of the people that left either joined another guild (most of us went to the same guild), or are freelance.
jleech92 Mar 23rd 2010 3:50PM
was a Feral tank in TBC, spent months working my way up my guild (which was still the funnest guild ever imo) and then eventually was one of the most important people in the raid, with the due respect etc. We progressed through SSC and TK, had just killed Archi and some of early BT and then I had a two-week holiday, followed by major internet problems for two weeks after. By the time I was back I had lost out on much of the T6 drops, leaving myself with still only one piece, and the only way I could get back into the raid after the gap in gear that had been made was to farm and become a flame tank against Illidan. Losing that much of a position eventually led me to quite as I couldn't be bothered to work to regain my position again.
Shethornclaw Mar 15th 2010 9:59PM
My 25 man raiding guild that I joined in TBC content broke up during Ulduar content in Wrath. Some of our main players left including the GM. They moved on because raid attendance was lacking and people were being half @$$ed.
Fast forward to now most of us are in different guilds but we have a core group of about 15 people that created a guild for our alts. We Clear On Alts now does weekly ICC 10 man runs. We also have our own chat channel for when we are on our various characters.
SarahTyler Mar 15th 2010 9:10AM
I am actually in the same place as the "deserters" in this post, and it's not an easy thing to do. I had been playing in a 10-man guild with several RL friends for about 4 years. We merged with another guild that we had run with casually around the arrival of ToC. It simply didn't work out. My friends were frequently unhappy with organization and decisions and felt they didn't have a voice at all. It went from a great casual relationship to one where I didn't even want to log in because it felt like a chore. We needed, for our own sakes, to go back to our 10-man ways. My fiance quit wow not long before our merger and he was beginning to get upset at the amount of time I was busy raiding. Leaving the larger guild was important for my relationship as well.
Do I feel bad for the people that I left? Yes, I feel terribly guilty. I wish them all nothing but the best and hope that they will forgive me and continue to be friendly. At the end of the day I had to make a choice that worked for my professional and personal commitments without quitting WoW entirely. Sucks.
Ross Mar 15th 2010 9:09AM
I was in a nice 10 man guild for awhile late last year nice group of laid back but focused people we got up to Yogg and then the GM decided to quit Wow. Tried a few other guilds but just didn't click. Right now just doing the 5 mans and VoA runs on my 80s and leveling some Horde toons since I played mostly Ally.
Enzzo Mar 15th 2010 9:14AM
Lately, my guild's been struggling with attendance issues. We formed right as Lich King came out, and we've been steadily growing. We've been able to keep up our 25-player raids throughout, although sometimes we run them with 20 to 23 people. Seems like we have around a dozen or so people who are focused on progression content. We've always been more of a casual guild, which has worked out well for us overall; however, lately, people just haven't been logging on, so we haven't had the focus we need to get past Saurfang in ICC-25. Our 10-player raids have had much more success; however, many of our players are becoming discontent with those people who just aren't logging on for raids.
Deb Mar 15th 2010 9:15AM
I was in a nice guild that fell apart just before the end of BC. RL issues took out our GM and RL. New content came out and people moved to other guilds and then other servers. I never did get to see end game and eventually left the guild and the server too. I expect I won't see end game for Wrath either. Guilds are so fickle.