Project Lore

So, have you found a guild to join yet? If that's the case, then you might be wondering how to make yourself a bit more attractive to the guild leader and/or recruitment officers. Of course, there are several ways to do this. I mentioned yesterday that applying for a guild is a lot like applying for a job. Well, gearing up would be the equivalent of building your resume. Before I give you some suggestions, though, let me point something out: in theory, player skill is infinitely more valuable than gear. You'd be hard-pressed to find a top-level guild that doesn't agree with that statement, so learning to play your class is the number one, most important thing you need to improve. There are plenty of sites you can go to in order to find out how to perform like the best, but two of the most popular are TankSpot (as the name implies, chiefly for tanking classes) and Elitist Jerks (for just about everybody else). Elitist Jerks, in particular, has even been praised by World of Warcraft's Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler for their approach to theorycrafting (hint: they create their ideal builds from what exists in the game, instead of whining about what they think their classes deserve). So click on over to their site, scroll down to the class forums, and find the one that applies to you. They also have a handy Guild Recruitment forum for you to browse if you haven't found a suitable one to apply to yet, and considering the types that usually hang around Elitist Jerks, I'm willing to bet that many of them are top-tier choices. Of course, all the theorycrafting in the world means jack if you don't have the experience. This may seem like a bit of a Catch-22 -- "how do I learn about raiding if I can't find a guild to raid with?" -- but the game has different tiers of content for a reason. Whether you're a tank, healer, or DPS, run as many 5-man dungeons as you can. Is someone asking for help with the Amphiteater of Anguish in Zul'Drak? Go lend a hand. Sure, most groups, even PuGs, steamroll through these parts of the game these days, but that doesn't mean you can't test yourself. Take the things you've learned online and apply them as best as you possibly can to these encounters. Something else you might consider engaging in, oddly enough, is PvP. I wouldn't rely too heavily on this option, since specific strategies and class specs are going to be different in a raid environment, but its a good way to prepare yourself for the more chaotic encounters in the game. Being able to keep on your toes and respond well in a crisis is key to defeating many bosses later in the game. In fact, Faction Champions in Trial of the Crusade is basically a mock PvP battle. Those of you out there who play DPS classes may also want to check their level of damage against target dummies that can be found in every major city, but for any class looking to place a value on their play skill, I'd recommend downloading the Recount add-on. I can't emphasize enough how important knowing your class is. If you think you're already good enough, I guarantee you that you're not. There's always room for improvement, and people are rarely aware of their own shortcomings. I've encountered far too many people who acted like they knew what they were doing, but couldn't raid their way out of a wet paper bag. They'd stand in the fires or void zones, their dps barely broke 2000, and they often weren't where they were supposed to be in any given battle. Repeated wipes will quickly show which players aren't pulling their weight. By "gearing up," we didn't mean to level Engineering! So keep that in mind. Good guilds won't recruit you based on your word. They're going to look for bonafide proof that you know what you're doing. How about that gear then? As much as I've rambled on about experience in the past few paragraphs, the suit you wear is still important. An insightful recruiter might still pick up someone who shows potential (and they should if they want to increase their potential pool of applicants), but don't think you're going to be a first-, or even second-, stringer if you haven't got the right equipment. There are certain bosses in the game that some of us like to call "gear checks." These often exhibit relatively simple, predictable mechanics that taxes players to their limit. Think "target dummies that actually hit back." Of course, the most notable of these is Patchwerk in Naxxramas. He's kind of old news now, but the massive amount of damage to tanks pushed both them and the healers to do their absolute best, while a strict enrage time required damage-dealers to take him out before he wiped the entire raid. "Gear checks" and other tough encounters ensure that you need a minimum level of gear to compete. And unless they've opened their hearts and plan on giving you a little charity, any guild you plan on applying to is not going to feel very good about carrying your under-geared ass through a dungeon. At that point, you're reaping all the rewards while they're stuck with the dead weight. As for obtaining the gear that you need, following is a list of viable options:

• Run 5-Man Heroic Dungeons: If you've been building your experience through 5-man dungeon runs, then you've probably already picked up a few pieces of epic equipment just from defeating their end-bosses.
• PuG A Raid: This isn't my favorite option of all, but if you act smartly, it can be a viable resource. I'd warn against joining PuGs for the current tier of content (Ulduar or Trial of the Crusader), but Naxxramas should be fair game now. Both Sartharion and Malygos are fundamentally easy to kill, but the mechanics of their respective encounters are still too complex for some people to follow.
• Spend Your Emblems of Conquest: Well, thanks to the new badge system, gearing up is easier than ever. Each boss in a Heroic level dungeon or regular difficulty raid will cough up Emblems of Conquest. While they won't get you net you the latest tier of gear, you can still pick up a few pieces that are equivalent to what drops in Ulduar. So hop on over to your faction's badge vendor (they're both located in Dalaran).
• Craft Your Gear: Gather materials and make your own or have someone else make them for you. Some crafted purples are actually far better than the average dungeon drop and they're handy for filling in those empty spots when a potential recruiter looks up your Armory profile (speaking of which, always log out with your best PvE gear on when attempting to apply for a progression raiding guild).
• Pay For A Run: This may seem like cheating, but many top-tier guilds out there will allow you to pay for a spot in their raids. You're probably not going to get to run ToC this way, but you might be able to score a trip to Naxx or Ulduar. This might seem to conflict with my advice of PuGing above (since that's free, unless you put a price on time, and I do), but there are some advantages to paying -- you'll be running with an experienced group, which more or less guarantees success. The people running with you may already have better gear, reducing competition on drops. And, if you prove yourself to be a good, consistent performer, who knows? They might just invite you to join them permanently. Of course the limiter here is your own, personal gold reserve. If you're an industrious player who works the Auction House and spends a great deal of their game time doing dailies, it might not be a big deal, but for the rest, it can get quite expensive. The top Horde guild on my server (Anvilmar) lists a raid spot at 1k, which only buys you the run itself (and whatever else is given out to all players, like badges). If you want a piece of equipment or a tier token, you're going to have to shell out even more. But, hey, if you can afford it, they're happy to have you along. It funds their guild bank, while you get a quality service in return.
• Shop On The Auction House: Another option for the wealthy player. Just buy gear. Some bosses drop Bind-on-Equip items that guilds will then sell on the Auction House in order to help fund their own banks. Some of them are quite good and there's nothing shameful in purchasing them if you've got the money.
• Get Creative: If you've got a crazy idea for obtaining loot, make use of it. Propose an offer to a guild recruiter and see if they'll take you up on it. Maybe they're willing to help gear you up if you can, in turn, help them in one way or another. You scratch their back and they scratch yours. If they get kickbacks for bringing in quality new members, then it would be in their interest to make you improve. Don't be afraid to get a little dirty, as long as you aren't stealing gear from other people (progression guilds tend to frown or  black list known "ninjas").

If you need a guide to gear, LootRank is a good general resource. There are also some class- or spec-specific pages out there like ShadowPanther (Rogues) and ShadowPriest (speaks for itself). The class forums at Elitist Jerks often provide Best-In-Slot gear lists if you can sort through the rest of the information. The last piece of advice I have for you today is this: once you've got your gear, gem and enchant it. And do it is much as you can possibly afford. If you can buy epic, purple gems, do it. If you can buy the best enchants, get them. It will show a recruiter that you mean business and that you're willing to be one of the best if they allow you to join. If you don't have the money, earn some. At least load up on blue-level gems, and make it known that you're poor right now. Having under-gemmed and under-enchanted gear is one of the top reasons why people get turned away, so don't fall into that trap. All of these options can and do work for people who do not yet have access to the latest tier of content. If you want to get there, then yes, you're going to have to work your way up the gear ladder. It can take a few days or it can take a few months, but I hope I've proven to you that it's not impossible. And, as always, experience and knowing your class are key. On the next edition, I plan on addressing issues of guild etiquette and why no matter how hard you try to get into them, certain guilds might just not be for you.

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I've never played World of Warcraft without being in a guild. When I first started playing way-back-when at the games launch, I joined a starter group with a few people from a forum I frequently post on. Since those rarely last long (and this one certainly wasn't breaking the trend), I eventually hopped servers and fell in line with my roommate's guild.  They were focused on end-game raid progression and we had some wonderful times fighting through Molten Core, Onyxia, and Blackwing Lair, but by the time Burning Crusade rolled around, the leadership started to crumble. Our guild leader got fed up with the drama and quit, while I had my own sort of "falling out" with my own roommate. Needless to say, I had to find a new home in more ways than one. In real life, I finally moved in with my girlfriend, but the lack of viable options in WoW meant that I was taking a hiatus from the game for a little while. Several months later, I decided that I wanted to get back on the wagon and found out that several of my female friends were actually playing together. One had hooked up with a group of players she had met through playing Final Fantasy XI previously, so I figured it wouldn't be a terrible idea to throw my chips in with them. I started leveling a Warlock and eventually pulled my level-capped Rogue (which is still my main character) over since I so dearly missed playing her. We were a small, close-knit guild, but we hungered for more. Several mergers, and a complete take-over later, and I find myself in a fairly dedicated progression raiding guild once again, with a fair group of people that I generally enjoy interacting with. So what's the moral of the story? That I've been exceedingly lucky in my choice of companionship so far. The reality of things, though, is that most people have trouble finding a guild, let alone one that they actually enjoy being a part of. Joining a guild can feel a lot like applying for a job, and much to the chagrin of most of you out there reading this, I have to admit that this is not an empty comparison. But don't fret! It's not quite that dire. Unless you're seeking a spot in one of the guilds at the absolute pinnacle of raiding in the game (almost every server has at least one or two), you're not going to have a whole lot of competition. In other words, while a lot of progression guilds can be picky, they're willing to take on just about anyone who makes themselves an attractive addition, and in a series of articles over the next few days, I plan to help you do just that. WoWProgress is a wonderful resource for scouting out the perfect guild! Where do we begin? Well, people are starting new guilds every day, making empty promises of "one day hoping to raid" and hawking their "sweet tabards" and "two bank slots" in an attempt to swell their numbers. If you're at all interested in becoming a progression raider, you need to avoid these guilds like the plague. So, the first thing you need to do is educate yourself. Figure out what the serious guilds on your server are. The easiest thing to do is ask around in general or trade chat, but the top groups often require you to apply at their websites for consideration. If they're openly recruiting, chances are that they'll have posted something on your realm's official forum. In general, that's a good place to look when figuring out who is prominent on your server. If they maintain an active presence, this also allows you to figure out whether or not your personality is going to conflict with theirs (this is something I'll get into in the future). But if you're looking for pure stats, sites like WoW Progress can help. Simply find your realm and it will give you a ranked list of guilds on it, based on level and speed of progression, as well as any special achievements they've earned. Some guilds even list the classes or specs they're actively looking for and provide a link to their individual websites. If you think you're already geared and experienced enough, I'd suggest aiming for the top. If you don't make it in, then they're likely to give you a few tips as to why you weren't up to snuff. At that point, it's up to you to follow their advice and try again at a later date, or start working your way down the list to find a guild that will accept you as you currently are. It should go without saying that most top-tier guilds have extremely high standards, but you'd be surprised at the kinds of people that end up applying. Something else to consider, and you should come across it at some point if you're doing your research, is whether or not you can make the raid schedule. In my guild, we have three core raiding nights a week, and each one generally lasts three hours. Now, due to the nature of our guild we don't technically enforce attendance (even though we do encourage it). However, what we require is often the bare minimum. Stone-cold serious proression guilds may raid four or five days a week and they may ask you to put in longer hours. Chances are good that they also make many of their raids mandatory, meaning that if you can't make it, or you don't have a reasonable excuse for missing a given night, you won't find yourself in the guild for very long. At the least, you'll be put on the second or third string, at the worst, they'll toss you right out the door. Keep in mind that a lot of guild officers take their job setting up and running raids seriously. They want you to be successful. They want you to get better gear and become a star player. If you can't show them the appropriate appreciation or respect, then they won't want you around. But I'm getting ahead of myself now and, looking at my word count, it's about time to wrap things up! Shopping around for guilds is one thing. Making yourself a top candidate for admission is another completely. In the next edition, I plan on covering basic gear requirements. Any questions or thoughts, readers?

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[caption id="attachment_4468" align="alignright" width="186" caption="Ensidia"]

BlizzCon is slowly creeping up on us, and this year most people expect the company's big announcement to be World of Warcraft-based.  With StarCraft 2 locked in for this year, and Diablo III looking like 2010, early 2011 is rip (if not late) for the third expansion to Azeroth.  As it stands now, people are expecting The Maelstrom (not storm) or The Emerald Dream to be the focus of the next expansion (water mounts anyone?), but World of Warcraft needs more than epic lore to pull people in and retain the current amount of users.  Like any good internet subscriber, I need to get my ideas out there before the announcements are made so I have something to point to and go "told you so!" We, the citizens of Project Lore, touched upon the idea of guild progression earlier this week.  The short quip in the post almost lead to a complete derailment of the topic.  Nearly as many commentators spoke out for guild progression as guild cohesiveness , the actual discussion.  Obviously the topic is an important one to many of us here, so here's to hoping that Blizzard is listening.  Outside of player desire, there's also another reason Blizzard needs to step up, every other game is doing it.  There is the whole jumping off a bridge philosophy to worry about, but I say the leap needs to be made.  Desperately. Plan and simple, there is absolutely no reason to stay in a guild these days.  None.  Not one single reason keeps me from guild hopping daily.  Okay, perhaps SolidSamm 'The Guild Hopper' wouldn't be a great title, but I could still get things done.  I could leap from guild to guild and still raid, still participate in Arenas, still do my dailies, you name it.  I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't be able to do these things without a guild.  Not by any means.  What I am suggesting is that your guild, and one's standing in the guild, should rise the more you contribute to it, and the rest of Azeroth. How cool would it if your guild leveled up along side you through various means?  Guild age, member count, average member length, these are just some easy ways to measure a guild's progress.  Then we have more complex, and fun things to participate in.  Complete 100,000 quests as a guild and receive a new Feat of Strength, all guild runs of Ulduar and Naxxramas award another.  A new title, "Home of Mick" if your guild contains the #1 Arena team.  "Die Hard" for guild domination (no deaths) in all of the Battlegrounds.  The creativity could be taken as far as Blizzard would allow it.  However, without player/guild housing, the developers would be somewhat restricted to what types of rewards they could offer.  We'd be limited to things like extra guild bank slots (no longer would the GM have to pay up), news titles and achievements, super tabard construction, guild recognition, guild summoning (for those Warlock-less nights), discounts at vendors...Should I keep going? One cool thing I would like to see is auto-progression in the guild.  Instead of, or perhaps in conjunction with, the current guild ranking system we'd have a ranking system based upon atoon's contributions to their guild.  No longer would a player's popularity allow him to raise the ranks of a guild, instead a toon's standing in the guild would be promoted by way of merit.  As cool as it is I doubt this idea would fly due to the loss of control by the GM and officers. A complete, and detailed, overhaul to the Guild system in WoW would be a huge boon to the community, and a great selling point on the back of The Maelstrom's/Emerald Dream's box.  Who in their right mind wouldn't want to be a part of a guild that did their best to stay together, tried their utmost to deal with the internal issues, was full of selfless and giving members, was a group of friends and not random acquaintances.  In a word, comradery.  After all, aren't MMOGs supposed to be all about the social experience? Those are just the seeds to get the greater readership brainstorming.  What other progression mechanics would you have in mind?  How about other types of rewards?  Are you fine with the guild hopping ways of today, or do you desperately want a change like I, and many others, do?

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Blizzard's raiding model has seen its share of changes over the years. First, it was raids that catered to 10-man, 20-man, and even 40-man groups. Then, with Burning Crusade, a curious mix of 10s and the new 25-man raids. And now, with Wrath of the Lich King, dungeons that can accommodate runs 10 and 25 strong in tandem. Like so many other things in the game, the idea has been to make end-game content accessible to as many people as possible. But I think they're onto something else, something beyond the mere ability to PuG the toughest dungeons in the game. You see, I think I've become addicted to 10-man raids. Forced into them due to low turnout from the membership, it's basically all our guild has been able to run lately. And you know what? I'm OK with that. I'm perfectly peachy. I've learned that the tighter, more intimate setup has led to a relatively stress-free experience. I don't think I'm the only one, either. As my server's population plummets over the Summer (and I'm sure it must have on many of yours, as well), I've found that several notable raiding guilds have fully converted to lean, mean 10-man raiding machines. It makes me think: would the whole game be better off this way? The immediate results would be obvious. Less people to deal with means less fighting over gear, less drama, and less people to round up for the nightly raid. On the flip side, if the "drama dragon" rears its ugly head, the impact on a smaller guild could potentially be devastating. But I find that, out of all the people I've actually played this game with, I feel like I could trust oh, about, ten or fifteen of them, and that means that I can deal with the occasional outburst and tense situations between members can be more easily defused. After all, the number one killer of WoW guilds isn't a raid boss, it's the "d-word." Urging guilds to operate on a more compact skill would be a long-term benefit for the health of the game, in my opinion, though that wouldn't help with cleaning up the messy business that would need to be carried out beforehand (I'm talking about trimming rosters and restructuring, which would no doubt leave many players homeless for awhile). The more people there are in a guild, the more they're going to feel devalued. When people feel devalued, they stir the pot to get noticed, and that's not good for anybody. It would be infinitely easier to understand what every person can bring to a raid when there are fewer bodies to consider. Another thing to take into account would be difficulty. With the exception of several fights (like Grobbulus, where an exponential number of targets decreases the chance of any one person being afflicted by a poison cloud), most encounters are, indeed, harder in their 25-man versions. Currently, 10-mans seem to be tuned chiefly through tweaking of "soft" numbers (reducing the min-max damage of a boss' spell) or "hard" numbers (4 adds become 2, 2 adds become 1, etc.).

If 10-man raids were to suddenly become the standard, Blizzard would have to take a more careful approach tobuilding encounters. I feel as though they could create bosses with more interesting mechanics, or ones that at least require a lot more strategic planning. With ten people, you're forced to "do more with less," but when that number goes up, raiding becomes more about "how many people can you throw at the boss." If you ever went through one of the classic 40-man raids with a full group, you'd know how often players simply got lost in the shuffle. Not to mention the problems with gear distribution. It could take ages to win a single upgrade! Besides, some of my best memories come from 10-mans. Countless runs through the atmospheric ruins of Karazhan or intense bear mount attempts (came as close as one minute) in Zul'Aman are among my favorite experiences in the game. All of this may sound strange coming from me, someone who just recommended not too long ago that Blizzard super-size their battlegrounds. While that may work for a grand melee, I feel that smaller raids empower individual players and make the experience a whole lot more fun for everybody involved. After all, it just seems kind of weird to march into a "dungeon" with an entire army. Haven't you always wanted to be "that guy," the one who just saved the world from utter annihilation? Making this sort of change, permanently scaling down the size of dungeons, would no doubt cause a temporary uproar in the community as guilds deal with shifting membership, but I honestly think it would help maintain the health of the game in the long-term. What do you think, perusers of Project Lore? My opinions on game design have historically been controversial, focusing on streamlined, semi-linear experiences. Do you agree that 10-man raiding is a viable prospect for the future of the game, or is it always better to have more options, even if that means diluting certain parts of the game (i.e. forcing the designers to effectively double their workload when producing both 10 and 25-man versions)? The comment section is, as always, open. I leave the floor to you!

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I've been playing WoW for sometime now and I have been fortunate to have been in a very good guild. I say have because they disbanded months and months ago and I'm still looking for another one that raids later on my server Frostmane. We raided everything up to BT/Hyjal and then it fell apart one weekend over... well... over some real BS that I won't go into detail about here. All I will say is that I'm not in either of the two or three pick-up guilds that formed out of respect for some of the people I know who joined 'opposing' guilds. Here's a couple rants for this post, in no particular order: 1. Why can't I see what time it is on a server compared to my local RL time zone before I make a character? Did I miss something? Is there some place that Blizzard tells you what time zone each server is in? Why is this so frustrating? Because, even though I have the gear and even though I have the experience in Hyjal and BT and even though there are some guilds that I could apply for, they all raid too early for me and my RL job here at Project Lore. Of course, later I found this fantastic link which would have saved me hours in-game looking for progression guilds because at least I would have known what RL time zone my server was in before I made my toon. I'm in LA on a Chicago-time server that used to have a guild that raided midnight NY time. Ugh! And I can hear the crys now, 'Just switch servers.' No. Sorry. I do have loyalty. That and about five alts that make up my grinding / AH income that keeps me in money to raid... if I ever do again. Damn I want to kill Vashj and Keal'thas. I was there so many freakin' times but damn if the guild didn't destruct probably a week before it would have happened. 2. What is it with the emos in WoW? For me, an emo is an emotional person who /gquits if they don't get a raid invite or, worse, when they don't get to need on a blue drop that's five levels below their gear just so they can DE it for them self and end's up leaving party after the first boss kill. Really? WTF? I'm here to play and play well. I'm here for PvP and PvE and progression raiding. I know my class. I know my roles in raid. And I know WTF to do and not do and when to do and not do it. Btw - I'm cool with Loot by Need and maybe DKP if it's done right, but what gets me is the emo baby BS that turns ppl against each other over some f'kn drop that we'll all probably see in the next week or two. Okay, okay... rares like Ashes of A'lar or Fiery Warhorse's Reins might cause a stir, but really, what's the deal with /gquitting over a Primal Nether. Yes it happened and it was before you could buy them with badges. So if you were ever in a guild that completely fell apart, what happened? How did it go down? And what was the real cause? Was it drama or just RL invading playtime? Let me know 'cause I'm sure you have some horror stories that absolutely top mine. And if your on Frostmane and are looking for a well-geared, experienced raiding mage to raid late server time, let me know. I just want to kick Vashj and Keal'thas' ass.

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