Resubbed Wanting to Raid, Here's My Question...

[Alesandra]

Hey everyone,

I recently resubbed to the game eager to raid again, and since I am a competitive player this definitely includes wanting to join a semi-hardcore guild that has several heroics down already. My issue is this, obviously my gear is rather behind (523 iLevel currently) but I am working towards raising it everyday and working on the legendary quest line. On the other hand, I am confident in my ability to join a good guild having had prior heroic experience:

5/5 Heroic Trial of the Crusader
11/12 Heroic Icecrown Citadel
5/5 Heroic Bastion of Twilight
2/2 Heroic Throne of the Four Winds
6/6 Heroic Blackwing Descent

I am somewhat familiar with guilds in the past accepting lower geared applicants (knowing that they are skilled/valuable/dedicated players) and gearing them up quickly through quick clears on non-progression nights which would be desirable for me but I am unsure whether guilds nowadays still consider applicants like these. Basically, is it still worth it to apply to guilds with 6+ heroic bosses down currently with the gear I have now and hope that they see me as a serious applicant or will I have to wait till my iLevel is higher before I even consider it?

[crunk]

you might be able to find a 25m since lots of progression minded guilds are looking to expand from 10s to 20s for WoD.


real talk though, ilvl inflation of the last two tiers has made it so gear > skill. you can be the best player in the world but at 523 ilvl the worst LFR scrub rogue will outdps you with white hits. that makes it hard for guilds still trying to progress to make the investment.

[Deleted]

Yes it's still worth it. Here's my success story (if you're not interested skip to the end): I joined my current guild as a lowly 534 hunter with no raid experience past Firelands (outside of flex 1-3 and lfr) and when most of the guys were already at around 568-572 ilvl. What I did was write a rather nice application (spelling, formatting, links, screenshots) on the guilds forum, pointing out my past experiences (starting with vanilla in my case.)

Afterwards I was invited to have a talk with the guild master where he poked me with questions as to why I quit, why I wanted to raid again and what I expected. I plainly told him that Firelands simply sucked and I wasn't happy with my past guilds raid schedule (my current guild only has two days of raiding, something I was specifically looking for). I pretty much "won him over" when we started talking about other games and I brought up my somewhat competetive FPS history in Quake and Unreal Tournament. He said: "Anyone able to do rocket jumps and dodge incoming fire already knows how to move, that's good enough for me. If you do decent dps for your ilvl I see no problem pumping gear into you". He also liked the fact that I was playing pvp heavily in the past as dedicated pvp players tend to be good at special duties like quickly nailing that healing stream totems on galakras.

Next I did a test raid where I had one major screwup, namely passing the mark at protectors to the wrong person because I wasn't familiar with the names yet. Thankfully I also had one moment of glory: I led the overall interrupts statistic at the end of the raid as a hunter. Not only did I interrupt everything I could without being asked to do it, I often did it faster than the guys who were supposted to do it. And as it turned out the ranged dps in our guild are notoriously lazy at using their interrupts, especially the hunters, something the guild master was trying change for quite some time. Other than that he was also happy seeing me alive at all times outside of wipes.

Over the next couple of raids I was not only allowed to clear the farm bosses and get pretty much all the items, but I was also used on progression (and bosses not quite on farm yet) for special duties like interrupts, banners and totems, soaking mines, stunning shit etc. So while I started out rock-bottom at the damage meters, I made up for it by doing jobs without much of a hazzle that other people often fail at. And by now I've caught up with the ilvl of the guild and I'm back at my old spot near the top of the damage meters (below those damned Warlocks)


As for how you might find a guild willing to take you: The higher to go in guild progression, the better the chances are to find a raid leader who's not only able to spot a good player outside of looking simply at damage done, but who also knows just how valuable a good player is, even after 10 years of wow when everyone should have picked up on mechanics by now.

The one big thing holding you back will be your legendary cloak, depending on how far you are along the questline. 523 ilvl can quickly jump to 550+ after two weeks since no one will need anything on normal anymore outside of very specific drops (trinkets). But it doesn't matter how many drops you get, you won't be able to compete with anyone until you get that cloak on your back, and raid leaders know that. No one will care if you grab items that would have gotten sharded anyway, but it's a whole different thing if you simply won't be viable for anything until 10 weeks from now. Yeah, the cloak is that good. I held off on applying to my guild until a week before finishing the questline

To sum it up:

- good guilds should always be on the lookout for exceptional players
- show effort in writing a nice application
- brush up on normal/heroic mode tactics
- show iniative in raids. be willing to volunteer for special duties because otherwise you simply won't pull your weight. make your willingness to prove yourself also a point in your application
- outplaying their core raiders always helps
- get that cloak ASAP

[Alesandra]

Hey Gabe,

Thanks a lot for posting that. Regardless of how long it was, I read the whole thing because I was intrigued. However, the mention of the legendary cloak hindering me is a bit disappointing, although I understand it is a mandatory item, I really am hoping to apply sooner than I'll be able to get it. I'm glad you were able to allow your skill and dedication to shine when applying to your guild. Hopefully I will have a similar success story!

- - - Updated - - -

you might be able to find a 25m since lots of progression minded guilds are looking to expand from 10s to 20s for WoD.


real talk though, ilvl inflation of the last two tiers has made it so gear > skill. you can be the best player in the world but at 523 ilvl the worst LFR scrub rogue will outdps you with white hits. that makes it hard for guilds still trying to progress to make the investment.

Yeah I can definitely see how nowadays the gear makes a player more valuable, upsetting really!

[Gliff]

We have picked up "project" trials in the past. People who were well progressed in the past but have no gear or experience at the time. Some have ended well, but more have disappointed and not passed their trial even after being geared up.

I would say you have a better chance of getting into a guild that has cleared the content and will take a chance on you rather then a guild mid progression that need raiders that can help them NOW.

I'd look for a 14/14H 10 man guild expanding to 20 mans in WoD if I were you.