Guild experience no longer earned via guild achievements
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 7th 2010 at 5:45PM
NethaeraWe have decided to remove the added bonus of gaining Guild Experience from Guild Achievements earned. This change will realign Guild Achievements with our philosophy held for normal Achievements, which are intended to be predominantly their own reward (barring the rare exception of special achievements that grant an additional reward.) Previously, the experience reward had been seen as an additional side bonus and not something that should have been significantly skewing the advancement of guilds. During the beta, we greatly increased leveling speed across the board and since most characters were copied from templates, guild experience from Achievements didn't seem imbalanced. It has become clear that an imbalance does exist and should be addressed to ensure that guilds progress at the rates expected within the daily Guild Experience limits.
For guilds that are currently above the normally possible experience limit, we will be readjusting it back to the expected limit once more. This will not affect Guild Reputation gains at this point in time.
For guilds that are currently above the normally possible experience limit, we will be readjusting it back to the expected limit once more. This will not affect Guild Reputation gains at this point in time.
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Michael Dec 7th 2010 5:51PM
Well, this sucks. I was using the achievement [We Are Legendary] as an excuse for guildies to help me get Shadowmourne for the Tabard of the Lightbringer for my Paladin....
Boo-urns.
Dreyja Dec 7th 2010 6:19PM
So, again, they've screwed over things that would help with guild cohesion... thanks so much bliz.
Ray Dec 7th 2010 5:52PM
This seems harsh. My guild has not gotten any guild achievements, were a small guild, and as of this morning only two people had gotten to level 81, and yet we were already at our max daily guild xp. This looks like it's going to make it so every guild levels at the exact same rate with little to no effort.
Rai Dec 8th 2010 6:58AM
I must agree. The guild achievements have been bringing my guild closer and we've been working really hard making an effort to co-operate more, resulting in the environment becoming more involving for everyone, rather than just a few same people doing things together.
Oh well. We'll still chase the achievements because we can.
Kuckuck Dec 7th 2010 5:53PM
Probably something about guilds that horded people with legendary weapons already being level 25. Because they totally didn't have at least six months to catch this one...
DaShiVa01 Dec 7th 2010 5:54PM
On the note of guild achievments: In order to contribute to them with your characters, you will require a certain guild reputation level - I don't have the exact levels, but it's along the lines of: Revered guild rep required to contribute your exalted reputations to the guild count.
Evelinda Dec 9th 2010 10:38AM
i'd have to assume that's only for some though; for example, i was contributing to the fishing achieve, and the critter killing achieve, before i was friendly with the guild
DaShiVa01 Dec 9th 2010 12:26PM
Oh, yeah, the killing stuff/fishing/crafting - anything that simply counts up - that requires no special rep. It's the things that require a certain amount of effort to attain individually, with the idea being that a guild can't just recruit someone to get a guild achieve, then have that person leave and whore themselves out to multiple guilds, so to speak.
I'm not sure which parts that is, but I'm pretty sure that if you think of it as such - could this cheve be easily attained by recruiting the right people quickly - then you'll be able to figure out which ones require guild rep.
amasen Dec 7th 2010 5:56PM
Terrible Change.
Given how easy it is to gain guild XP, at this point there seems to be no purpose for the guild leveling system. They might as well gate the system. This also removes the need/desire to do many of the achievements (that do not specifically reward items).
There is now no way for any guild to excel over any other guild (using this system). All guilds that have more than a handful of active players will level at the exact same rate. Where is the fun in that? What is the point of this system now? Imagine if leveling on your Toon you were limited to 4 bubbles of experience per day? That's exactly what this system is doing to guilds.
amasen Dec 7th 2010 6:40PM
I am going to add something I saw another user (on the official forums) write that so clearly explained why I am upset by this change:
Etheron of Garona wrote:
"Guild Achievements giving XP was a great thing. It actually let the members of the guild get involved and shape their own collective destiny, rather than just individually do their own thing."
In the end, leveling a guild has nothing to do with doing things as a guild and everything to do with leveling your own characters/professions. To me, removing the ability to grow your guild as a guild is a very big mistake.
DaShiVa01 Dec 7th 2010 5:58PM
Actually, from what I understand, guild level 2 is the max they want achievable on day 1, it appears, as a level 3 guild member stated on teh forums their guild was bought down for being too high, however I do see some rank 2 guilds around.
On the other hand, our guild has a handful of level 82 people and is still rank 1, with no achievments, so I don't see that the levelling is that fast.
Even so I don't see how this could have been such a big issue, the most guilds could have gotten were small handful of achievments out of those available, as most counting achievments start today, and the pvp ones are based around level 85, etc, so I don't see how this became a sudden ugly suprise as compared to the beta servers.
Cure4Living Dec 7th 2010 11:07PM
My guild was rank 2, then somehow it became rank 1... odd since they actually still how the message that we've achieved rank 2.
Jamie Sawyer Dec 8th 2010 6:21AM
I actually had the same experience as Cure4Living before. We got to guild level 2 at some point Wednesday morning, then through my half-asleep eyes, I noticed it was back to level 1 later. Even in the news feed it said that we'd hit level 2, and yet we're at level 1. I assume it's because we lost the guild xp for the 1 achievement we've got :( Ah well, as long as I got 5% bonus XP for an hour or so, i'm happy :)
easypeasy Dec 8th 2010 7:43AM
Yep my guild "ashes reborn" on draenor eu got nerf batted down from level 2 to 1 within the first day of cata release. Blizz giveth, Blizz take awayethethethetheth.
Talia Dec 9th 2010 4:24PM
How on earth are some guilds hitting levels 2 and 3 already? Or is it just from the achievements that have now been taken back? My guild has hit the daily XP cap both yesterday and today, and we're still only 2/3 through level 1. Is the XP cap determined by your guild size?
LegionofLight Dec 7th 2010 6:00PM
I think this change is just stupid... what is the purpose... so what if people want to focus on a certain area of the game. Wow... good job Blizz... NOT.
Avatar Dec 7th 2010 7:06PM
I am laughing right now, I assume this was "utilized" by power guilds, who probably had an inkling of it being a bit of an exploit.
I am glad that Blizzard addressed it so quickly and made it retroactive, a lot of the bigger guilds were talking about how little guilds should not have any concern about achievements and guild experience, and then turned around and abused the fact that they were larger guilds.
Or am I being just a bit judgmental? Does anyone else agree with me? OR do you have a completely different opinion?
wutsconflag Dec 7th 2010 6:37PM
Actually, I think I agree with you.
amasen Dec 7th 2010 7:13PM
You do not need to be a "big" guild to gain these guild achievements. You need to be an organized guild. There is talk on the forums from people in small guilds that 2-3 people are able to reach the daily cap. As for these achievements, all you need is 4 people to do a 5man and 8 for a 10man dungeon/raid. What does that mean? It means you do not need to be in a big guild.
So who does this change punish? It punishes organized guilds who work together. This change punishes guilds who work as a group and puts guilds who are simply a collection of random players leveling on the same level for doing absolutely nothing as a group.
beaglesan Dec 7th 2010 8:00PM
The problem with your analysis is that many, MANY guilds of any consequence on beta were doing this. Sure there was 5x leveling, but even so, there was a cap. As soon as guilds realized achievements would accelerate guild leveling, it was off to the races - guilds were running everything, and doing everything to hit achievements. The legendary weapons? Reputations? Tabards? Etc., etc.
I simply don't buy Blizz legitimately underestimating and calculating the impact of achievements: Blizz has no legitimate excuse for letting this go live like this and then deciding to change this.
My own guild? We had gotten to level 2. Blizz negligently dropped the ball here.