What is 'mandatory' to get back into raiding?

[ruuBEN]

To sum it up: Played CS competitively a majority of my life. If I wasn't active in a sponsored team, or going to LAN's, I would still work hard in a high-end division on an online league while playing CS competitively. I raided every single minute of TBC from beginning to end, and only the first month of WotLK before I quit. I wanna get back into it now, after not raiding seriously since late firelands/early Dragonsoul.

What is mandatory to get into a high-end guild, not some casual guild?
I haven't done a single daily quest and don't have a huge desire to.. :\ Could I possibly get by, by doing a ton of LFR, dungeons to get the absolute best gear suited for me, best upgrades/enchants/etc, and eventually transfer myself to a higher-end guild, or is getting exalted with all these reputations a 100% absolute requirement?
p.s., holy paladin if it helps. Could do ret, but holy paladin for now.

[Aquamonkey]

You need daily quests for Elder Charms of Good Fortune.

[Deleted]

If you can pug normal or better then between that and raid finder, reputation can pretty much be skipped entirely. Just use your valor to upgrade your gear instead of buying items from factions.

[IRunSoFarAway]

Don't most "high-end" guilds have their requirements posted on the recruitment part of their site?

I would expect that you'd either need to have been an amazing player in the past with a way to prove it, or you need gear and some heroic experience.

[Alltat]

The reputations aren't very useful, but some guilds may expect you to do dailies for charms to gear up faster. Not sure how many actually require it though.

Unfortunately, gearing up can be rather annoying at the moment. Think TBC. Unless you're very lucky in LFR, the only way to really gear up for 5.3 is to be in a guild that farms MSV (and preferably HoF+ToES too). Trying to gear up from valor gear is going to take you forever, and you'll be left with no valor for upgrading.

[RandomGamer]

You need daily quests for Elder Charms of Good Fortune.

Not for 25m guilds, loot is so readily accessible for them. You have to be hated by RNG.

Most high end guild will disregard your current gear (as in, not asking you to be geared enough for their current content) if you have a lot of experience on previous tiers.

First thing a high end guild will ask for is availability, you need to be able to attend every raid on time and stay as late as they all stay. Also be able to attend more days per week while progression advances.

Second is your performance, if you don't perform up to par to your peers, you will not make the cuts, and will populate the bench.

Third would be how prepared you show up for a raid, consumables, enchants, best reforges, AH/reputation gear (if your performance is par, this won't be an issue), knowledge of the fight, be outside of the raid instance, be on vent/rc/ts/etc beforehand.

[Aquamonkey]

Not for 25m guilds, loot is so readily accessible for them. You have to be hated by RNG.

It does happen. When I was doing 25m in T11, only 1 dps wand dropped the entire tier.

[Dracodraco]

Not for 25m guilds, loot is so readily accessible for them. You have to be hated by RNG.

That comment is bull, to be honest. A 25 man guild has the same loot issues a 10 man guild has - the only point where a 10 man guild is worse off, is when the guild has build around a wicked-stupid setup (say, a feral, a rogue, a monk dps and a guardian tank all sharing the same gear).
In either case, coins are *extremely* important for both raid sizes. Every single item gained from a coin, is an item you can give to another member who wasn't as lucky as you were. At one point, I was using:
Head
Neck
Back
Wrist
2x Rings
2x Trinkets

From coins. At once. I'm down to 6 as of last reset and this reset (got a ring each reset, upgrading galleon/feng heroics to the 509's).

Thats HALF my gear that went to guildies instead, because I bothered to do dailies.
Do also remember, that a single item upgrade in a 10 man, is much more significant than in a 25 man - say you have 6 dps in a 10 man, and 18 dps in a 25 man. Each DPS does 100K damage. thats 600K, and 1800K. An item upgrades your DPS by 6K damage.
That's a 1% raid dps increase for the 10 man, but a 0.33% increase for a 25 man.
Gear really, really does matter. And coins really, really does matter for both raid sizes.
As an example, http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...3%A9n/advanced is our resto druid who rerolled Shaman - he uses coins every week, and even after four and half (not done MSV+Ambershaper yet this reset, christmas = slacktime) resets, he's still sporting blue legs. Thats after prioritising him with shittons of loot that our other healers could use, because we needed him geared up, mind you.

To the OP:
If you want to raid high-end, you buckle up, and you work for it - there's no shortcut. You'll have a hard time as it is finding a guild without proof of major achivements (no dates on sunwell kills cos achivements wasn't a thing back then), so you are in no position to be picky. From the recruiter of a top 100 guild (assuming thats what you mean by high end guild):
-A player that I have no proof can sustain him/herself in a high end raiding enviroment.
-A player that I have no proof can actually play his class, assuming (s)he's raided hardcore in TBC as supposed (the game is extremely different compared to TBC, and even WOTLK).
-A player that is not willing to put any effort into his/her character by doing dailies and getting VP items that are direct upgrades, because stuff might drop from LFR etc.
-A player that's going to need handholding, getting boosted through all the heroic farmcontent of the guild, and spending a few weeks being fed gear that we could throw on our stable, long time members, before we can actually evaluate ANYTHING.

However good you think you are, I'd never accept you unless you had substantial proof, or people I trusted recommended accepting you, considering the above factors.

[Joshdatroll]

Don't most "high-end" guilds have their requirements posted on the recruitment part of their site?

I would expect that you'd either need to have been an amazing player in the past with a way to prove it, or you need gear and some heroic experience.

Not all of them. I've raided in a couple of top 200 guilds that simply say things along the lines of "Be well versed in your class, know how to play and don't be a jerk."

Gear-wise, try and run LFR every single week, cap your valor every week, run regular pugs and get ready to break off some money to get weapon enchants. Top end guilds generally don't accept parses from LFR, either, unless it's MINDBENDINGLY good. Get into a regular pug, parse well and make sure you aren't standing in dumb stuff.

Best of luck to ya!

[Raxxed]

Different guilds have different requirements.
Most guilds would expect you to have elder coins every week.
Some guilds like my own require you to have a raid-ready alt (or two)
Generally standard for any good guild is to have reputable logs showing your ability to play your class
Notable experience in previous expansions/tiers will help you.
Gear is a huge factor.
Experience in the current tier is a huge factor.

[Vanamman]

If you mean to join a guild to be competitive for World Firsts, than you will most definitely be required to do your dailies. If not for reputation, you will have to do them to get your weekly coins. You will also be required to do LFR and anything else to get your gear up to par before the next raid releases. That means, dailies, LFR, normal/heroic raids with the guild, and buying any crafted gear that is BiS or is a major upgrade. You will also be required to have the best enchants for you gear and be reforged correctly. As well as always having potions, flasks and possibly food buffs (if raid doesn't provide tables) for raids. All of this is required on top of knowing your class and being able to perform at a world class level.

Something else that is also required of top world guilds is to not only do this for your main, but to also have 1 or 2 alts prepared to raid and geared just as well as your main.

[Raxxed]

If you mean to join a guild to be competitive for World Firsts, than you will most definitely be required to do your dailies. If not for reputation, you will have to do them to get your weekly coins. You will also be required to do LFR and anything else to get your gear up to par before the next raid releases. That means, dailies, LFR, normal/heroic raids with the guild, and buying any crafted gear that is BiS or is a major upgrade. You will also be required to have the best enchants for you gear and be reforged correctly. As well as always having potions, flasks and possibly food buffs (if raid doesn't provide tables) for raids. All of this is required on top of knowing your class and being able to perform at a world class level.

Something else that is also required of top world guilds is to not only do this for your main, but to also have 1 or 2 alts prepared to raid and geared just as well as your main.

Offtopic but.. I wrote that sig! ^_^

[Vanamman]

Offtopic but.. I wrote that sig! ^_^

Well then, I thank you for the sig. I saw it a while ago and loved it! It was too true to not copy and make my sig.

[Raxxed]

Well then, I thank you for the sig. I saw it a while ago and loved it! It was too true to not copy and make my sig.

Heheh :P Enjoy!

[Maleric]

Have good current logs and don't be blatantly undergeared. And be smart enough to explain away anything else.

[Rickarus]

A means of proving your skills, a good attitude/likable personality, effort made to have the best possible gear you can get, which would include valor capping every week, and doing at least enough dailies to get your 90 charms, but (while still gearing up) gaining rep in the right factions is really worthwhile, especially golden lotus/klaxxi for the free ring/neck for exalted, assuming you haven't gotten at least a 483 in each ring slot and your neck slot, or getting rep with the right factions to fill any slot you have trouble upgrading through other means. The 5.1 dailies are definitely ones I would suggest as they're quick, take a relatively short amount of time to hit revered with the story quests that unlock almost daily, at least a little more fun than most of the others, and give you access to 496 gear pieces. Also note that dailies also play a part in the Legendary quest chain, which gives you invaluable upgrades (Extremely potent gem -550 primary stat- currently, with a head enchant expected for 5.2, and who knows what after that). Gems/enchants/reforges kept up to max potential, using expensive enchants on anything above 489 generally. Beyond that, a thorough knowledge of your class/spec/role is key, and obviously the ability to be consistently on time, or better yet early to raid, fully prepared with pots/flasks/food and knowledge of the fights you will be doing.

If/when you get into a high-end guild, and get your gear to a good level, you can ignore dailies outside of getting your charms, though.

[-KeenaM-]

100% effort imo, including dailies and hours spent researching what is best for your class.

[Glyphtics]

I wouldn't expect to get in to a high end / top tier guild immediately. It's all about working your way up the food chain, and making yourself more appealing to the next guild you go to. The first thing you should do, is apply to as many 'middle of the pack' guilds that you can, how you define middle of the pack is up to you, however getting some raid experience, and most importantly, heroic raid experience will be paramount to getting into a high end guild.

Getting all your reputations to exalted really isn't that big of a deal, I've only got Golden Lotus and Cloud Serpent at exalted, and currently I'm just coasting off my stock of Elder Charms from the start of the expansion.

You're going to have to know your class and spec inside and out. High end guilds won't even look at an application without a World of Log parse, and getting high rankings (top 10), or getting good rankings relevant to your gear (or lack thereof) / doing good DPS will improve your chances greatly. If you're not swimming in gear, you need to be able to show that you have good uptimes, for instance as a Shadow Priest, you should have close to 100% uptime on SP / VT and have a good % of uptime on Mind Sear. Compare your uptimes and skill usage to the best players on World of Logs, to see how you shape up. Top guilds are willing to look past disparities in gear, if your mechanics are very good / perfect.

[reflection]

You have to get used to do dailies especially if you are gearing up. Those factions are the only chance to buy EQ for JP and some of them give you items for quests (golden lotus + klaxxi) at revered. You also do need 90 charms each week for your 3 extra rolls. If you don't have to much gold you should also max your farm as soon as possible, cause best bufffood is pretty expensive.

[Banzhe]

Getting Revered was a good venue for boosting your gear in the opening month of MoP, now I'd personally say it wouldn't matter at all, same for coins tbh.., I know some have extreme luck and get an item every 2nd coin, but majority of players I know / have heard of, will get gold in 75%+ of the coin rolls (including me, have had 2 items through coins since the first reset of MoP)

Coins won't make or break your ability to perform, nor will it make or break a guilds progress as you can't rely on having great RnG with them.., being the Gm of a heroic raiding guild, I could care less if my members did their dailies for coins, if someone is unable to perform to acceptable levels, there's someone else who can, coins or not!

In your case, I'd get the full heroic dungeon outfit while hoping for some items from lfr. (if you're a dps class, there's plenty of time between que's to do a few dailies and get a couple of items that way), flat out saying you refuse to do X while wanting to be in a high-end progressive guild kinda implies you're a lazy player hoping to be boosted.