Countdown to Cataclysm: Guild leveling and progression
by Mathew McCurley 
Dec 6th 2010 at 2:30PM
One of the coolest new features of Cataclysm is the ability for guilds to level up, unlocking all sorts of cool items, mounts, heirlooms and much more. Also new to Cataclysm are guild achievements that groups of players can work for that open up even more rewards. Blizzard has crafted a really awesome guild reputation system, so get your buddies together to hit the ground running when Cataclysm launches.
Guild advancement requires players to earn experience for their guild by doing various activities. Completing quests, earning achievements, learning new professions, completing boss kills, winning in battlegrounds and arenas and much more contribute to your guild's advancement.
Guild groups
To qualify for guild experience in groups, a certain number of group or team members must be guild members. Here is a quick guide:
- Arena teams All members of arena teams must be guild members.
- Rated battlegrounds Eight of 10 members must be guild members in 10-man rated battlegrounds. Twelve of 15 members must be guild members in 15-man rated battlegrounds.
- Old raids Previous tier 25-man and 40-man raids from WoW, The Burning Crusade and Wrath require that at least 8 of 25 raid members must be guild members.
- Dungeons Four of five members of the dungeon or heroic dungeon group must be guild members.
- 10-man raids Eight of 10 members of the 10-man raid group must be guild members.
- 25-man raids Twenty of 25 members of the 25-man raid group must be guild members.
Guild reputation
Players in a guild will notice a new reputation bar in their reputations window showing their current reputation level with their guild. Players earn reputation with their guild by completing or engaging in various activities. This reputation bar acts much like any other faction's, allowing new abilities and items to be purchased as your guild unlocks them and you achieve the necessary reputation level.
Gaining guild reputation is easy -- completing quests, earning guild achievements, participating in rated battlegrounds with a guild group and participating in a guild group raid boss kills will all earn you guild reputation. So play as normal, and you should be unlocking stuff left and right!
Those stalwart databasers over at Wowhead have created an amazing guide for guild perks and rewards that I would be a fool to try to replicate, so I shall point you over to their guide for the whole package. Check out Wowhead's guide to guild advancement here.
Our very own Scott Andrews has crafted some great guides and tip sheets for getting guild perks and rewards faster, as well as a review of the various guild perks part 1 and part 2. I highly recommend giving them a read for some more in-depth analysis.
Here's a quick rundown for you of some of the cooler things guild advancement and levels will bring your guild.
Heirlooms Two new heirloom slots are available to guilds that advance far enough in levels, allowing guild members to purchase these new head and cloak heirloom items. To unlock new heirloom cloaks, your guild must be level 10 and your personal reputation with the guild must be honored or higher. Each cloak costs 1,200g. To unlock the new head slot heirlooms, your guild must be guild level 20 and, again, your personal reputation with the guild must be honored or higher. Each head slot heirloom costs 1,500g.
Pets and mounts Guild advancement is also opening up new mounts and pets for players in high-ranking guilds. The Armadillo Pup companion pet is unlocked for all guild members honored or higher to purchase once the guild completes the achievement Critter Kill Squad, requiring the guild as a whole to kill 50,000 critters. The guild achievement United Nations, requiring the guild to raise 55 reputations in the game to exalted, will reward honored or higher members the ability to purchase the Dark Phoenix Hatchling.
Guild pages and heralds are available to members who are friendly and honored, respectively, after completing certain achievements. Horde Slayer/Alliance Slayer unlock the Guild Page, a non-combat pet on an 8-hour cooldown timer that allows you to purchase guild rewards from anywhere and access your guild vault for 5 minutes. The Guild Herald is the same as the Page but has a 4-hour cooldown and is gained by completing the achievement Profit Sharing.
Let's talk mounts. Upon reaching guild level 25, exalted guild members unlock the Kor'Kron Annihilator or the Reins of the Golden King, based on faction. These ground mounts are going to be especially awesome in PvP, as flying mounts are still verboten in rated play.
Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider, upon completion, will award guild members the ability to purchase the Reins of the Dark Pheonix, an awesome mount in the style of the famed Ashes of Al'ar. This elite reward will be most prized by guilds on the cutting edge of Cataclysm content.
The Seafood Magnifique feast As I discussed the other day, the Seafood Magnifique Feast is poised to become the most delicious feast you have ever sank your teeth in to. And you better get used to it, because you'll be eating a lot of these for the next year or so. The recipe to cook the feast is unlocked by completing the guild achivement That's A Lot of Bait, requiring your guild as a whole to catch 10,000 fish from fishing pools.
Guild perks At each level of advancement, from guild level 2 to 25, a new perk is gained that grant an ability, passive ability or bonus to guild members. You can find the full list at Wowhead, but here are some notable perks that I found to be particularly useful.
- Level 2: Fast Track Experience gained from killing monster and completing quests increased by 5 percent. That's like an extra heirloom, so invite those alts into the guild for questing guild experience and extra abilities.
- Level 5: Cash Flow Each time you loot money from an enemy, an extra 5 percent money is generated and deposited into your guild bank. Great for repair costs and paying out for expensive items to get your guildies ready for harder content. It's free money to use on your guild.
- Level 9: Reinforce (Rank 2) Items take 20 percent less durability loss when you die. Great for nights of constant wipes.
- Level 21: Have Group, Will Travel Summons all raid or party members to the caster's current location. No more pressing 1 for summon in chat anymore!
- Level 23: Bountiful Bags Increases the quantity of materials gained from mining, skinning, herbalism and disenchanting. Need I say more? More materials equals more guild resources. Good show.
There are a bunch more abilities, so check them out in the Wowhead guide.
Guilds have received one of the best overhauls of any system in Cataclysm. So much new content is added for guilds, and you'll be working hard to get it. So group up, band together and wave your standards high. Guilds are the place to be in Cataclysm.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Mortur Dec 6th 2010 2:56PM
Wrong.
There is an exp cap. You can only earn so much, before all extra guild exp is thrown out until the next period. I believe its either a day or a week. I can't remember which. Large guilds will not earn more exp than a mid-sized guild.
Achievement exp will not count toward the cap.
Stephen Dec 6th 2010 2:47PM
I'm... REALLY disappointed by this. The cool things seem to all be guild based now. I've been working my ass off since I heard about the Dark Phoenix Hatchling to get 55 exalted reputations, because I thought it was an individual reward. Now, I know it's not and I feel cheated.
Bad show Blizz.
Scooter Dec 6th 2010 3:02PM
You're really gonna hate the fact that the achievement's aren't retro-active. Come cataclysm, you gotta do it all again.
Boobah Dec 6th 2010 3:17PM
The passive achievements, the ones of the "have x" variety, like reputations or legendaries, are retroactive. If you've got an Atiesh or exalted Zandalar rep, those will count. Chilton has said something to the effect that these achievements may require a certain amount of guild rep before you can contribute to them.
Active achievements, of the "do x" variety, like critter stomping or boss killing, won't count until Cataclysm is live.
Maccabeus Dec 6th 2010 3:31PM
@boobah
So we have to back and kill The Lich King Again???
(cutaia) Dec 6th 2010 4:11PM
"I've been [...] because I thought [...] Bad show Blizz."
As others mentioned, Exalteds you have now will count towards your guild's number. If you hit 55 yourself, your guild will be nice and happy with you. If other guild members contribute an exalted or two? Great, less work for you.
Even if this wasn't the case, though, how does you doing work because you made an assumption translate to Blizzard somehow doing something wrong?
squig_masta Dec 6th 2010 4:12PM
Yup, and every other boss too. Shouldn't take long once we ding 85 though, even if we are all in blues.
Stephen Dec 6th 2010 4:28PM
@Cutaia: "How does you doing work because you made an assumption translate to Blizzard somehow doing something wrong?" Because when the pet was first announce it was as a reward for 55 Exalted Reputations. Not as a guild reward. This is the very first time it has been connected to a guild reward.
(cutaia) Dec 6th 2010 4:36PM
"Because when the pet was first announce it was as a reward for 55 Exalted Reputations. Not as a guild reward. This is the very first time it has been connected to a guild reward."
Except when MMO-Champion announced it as a guild reward on September 18th, almost 3 months ago:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1975-Cataclysm-Beta-Build-12984-%28Codename-Puppy%29
Even if you had seen some datamining that indicated it were an individual reward...isn't that like finding a misprinted price tag in the dumpster outside of Macy's and then complaining when it doesn't come to fruition?
Great Scott Dec 6th 2010 2:51PM
need goblin hunter name and pets names help!
something very serious!
Daedalus Dec 6th 2010 2:54PM
One thing I haven't seen answered anywhere: can the rewards go away?
For instance, there's a guild achievement for having an Illustrious grand master in every profession. If your guild's one and only engineer leaves, does your guild lose access to whatever that might have unlocked?
Likewise, if I get the pet off the guild vendor, then later quit the guild, does the pet disappear from my book?
Boobah Dec 6th 2010 3:24PM
Once an achievement is earned, it's earned. Your 525 engineer who took off will still have his name on the achievement for helping to earn it, and the guild will still have the achievement.
Once you buy an item from the guild vendor, it's yours. The only rep requirements are to buy, not to use or equip. Anything else would be putting something you spent gold on in someone else's hands, which Blizzard doesn't feel is particularly acceptable, at least not when it's that direct.
Dale Dec 6th 2010 2:56PM
I am in a small guild( 10 players or so) and we dont play as often as we would like. So I see never getting any of these perks. :( Sad.
Bynde Dec 6th 2010 3:38PM
Exactly, I have a small guild and my downrated post about being the beginning of the end of small guilds was not in jest.
As the author writes in the article the only way to get guild experience points is to partake in:
* Arena teams All members of arena teams must be guild members.
* Rated battlegrounds Eight of 10 members must be guild members in 10-man rated battlegrounds. Twelve of 15 members must be guild members in 15-man rated battlegrounds.
* Old raids Previous tier 25-man and 40-man raids from WoW, The Burning Crusade and Wrath require that at least 8 of 25 raid members must be guild members.
* Dungeons Four of five members of the dungeon or heroic dungeon group must be guild members.
* 10-man raids Eight of 10 members of the 10-man raid group must be guild members.
* 25-man raids Twenty of 25 members of the 25-man raid group must be guild members.
The only one of the above that small guilds can do is the 4 out of 5 man dungeons and possibly the Arena teams. Anything requiring more than 10 players (and even 10 is hard enough) will be near impossible for the small guild.
Worse yet, No one will want to join a small guild. And new and growing guilds will have more trouble than ever with recruitment.
It's like when Walmart comes to a small town and eats up all the small businesses until the only thriving business left in the town is the Walmart.
The end of small guilds is nigh. Like I said.
(cutaia) Dec 6th 2010 4:21PM
Bynde,
A guild of 10 or less people almost certainly has people who value each other's company more than they value the ability to type "/g LF9M Heroic Raid." If not, they would have recruited before now. In my mind, the existence of small guilds in the current game landscape is proof that they will continue to exist tomorrow.
People like Dale are ALREADY sacrificing the benefits of a big guild in order to be in a 10 person guild. It's just going to be different benefits now.
Is it really your contention that close-knit groups of friends like Dale and Co. are suddenly just gonna flip each other the bird and rush off to the server's biggest guild? I just don't see that happening. If so, how did people who care so little about eachother ever survive as a guild in the first place?
Sciarc Dec 6th 2010 4:26PM
Remember though that guild perks are just that, perks. While many of those perks are nice, none are game-breaking and it will be entirely possible to still fully enjoy the game while in a small guild. You may miss out on some conveniences (and a mount), but nothing you can live without.
node11 Dec 6th 2010 4:51PM
Here is a suggestion: Keep your small guild just the way it is, roll an alt with a couple friends and join a large guild. You will have the option run with your close friends/family or, if if it's a slow day in guild, hit your alt. This would allow you to play on both sides of the fence.
Sciarc Dec 6th 2010 4:52PM
Err... can't live without?
Bah, anyway, I agree with (cutaia) on the matter.
Bortx Dec 6th 2010 3:00PM
Are any of these perks able to be obtained immediately at Cata's launch? Take United Nation's for an example, my guild has many players with 35+ exalted reputations, will we get that achievement at Cata's launch? What about Critter Kill Squad, does it count critters killed before the expansion? Thanks for the clarification!
Scooter Dec 6th 2010 3:08PM
Far as I'm aware the achievements aren't retro-active. Even if they are you need 55 different reputations not 55 reputations total. That means combined your guild will need nearly all of the reputations available in the game. I believe there are only 60 at this point.
I have 38 myself. Who wants a Scooter?