How hard would it be for a returning player to join a solid progression guild in WoD?

[Sandrillan]

If you want to raid in WoD....now is the time to get started.

Still plenty of time for people who are raiding right now to drop out (for whatever reason) and if you're there every week up to the expansion, that should say something. IMO, people are working on earning raid spots for Tier 17 right now. For most guilds they've got at least 14/14N down on farm if not well into heroics.

I think at this point the best credential you can have on your "resume" is at *minimum* a normal mode Garrosh kill. There are plenty of people making groups on places like Openraid and oQueue and all raids at all difficulties are cross-realm so I wouldn't say that would be super difficult. Heck, you could probably join in on a run and get asked if you're looking for a guild

But again, now is the time to start showing GMs and raid leaders who you are as a raider and person.

[Bigbazz]

Quicker than Timeless > LFR > Flex is... Timeless > PVP/Flex. The fact is that you can gain honor extremely quickly and conquest just the same, To put into perspective my buddy just geared up recently on his priest using Timeless > PVP gear and he was ilvl 520 within 8 hours played at 90. And it's not the case that PVP gear isnt suited to PVE either, aside from socket/set bonuses they are exactly the same. With this kind of gearing you can be sure you will get the items that you need, the only slot PVP can't provide excellent offerings is with Trinkets. If you go down the LFR route then it will probably take you a lot longer to gear up, many times over.. Not to mention that the Prideful gear is in a different league to the LFR gear, a lot stronger.

Its not gonna be easy to get into a proper raiding guild with no real experience since TBC though, the game has become a lot more complex in terms of the boss fights and especially playing each class, not to mention the fact that you will be lacking your legendary cloak. But nothing is to say you cant do it, you gotta start somewhere. Get back into the game now to prepare yourself for WOD, try to make connections, do what you can to gain some experience so you can give it a proper go in WOD.

[Dangg]

Do you have any connections or a good reputation or did you burn bridges when you quit?

4 year retired with Reputation & Connections >>>> Cata/MoP XP

I'm just going to say that most guilds don't look at information from further back than a year TBH.

Bollocks.

[Trickname]

May be a bit easier since they can check you out in heroic mode without benching their current raiders and current 10 man teams will be expanding to 20 man for mythic mode.

[Baconeggcheese]

I'm just curious... when WoD hits, would solid and active progression guilds appreciate/require MoP raiding experience for me to actually have a chance at joining?

It helps a ton as its still fairly fresh in peoples minds.

I personally had a very similar situation to you, I raided vanilla through BC and then quit only to come back at the very end of Cata before MoP launched.

What I found coming back at the very end of cata is that a huge chunk of the current player base never touched vanilla or BC. They do not appreciate those kills very much unless you were in a very high (think world) ranking guild and have some way to prove it.

When I came back and actively started looking for a guild the only guild I could get into without current raid experience or an impressive provable resume from previous Xpacs was a really mediocre 10 mans 2nd raid that was desperate for players due to having trouble keeping anyone because they could barely progress through normal modes. From there I had to climb the guild ladder the hard way, went from that guild to a heroic 10 man that valued normal mode kills enough to try me out, and finally from there having a few heroic kills under my belt and finding a guild who was struggling to find a decent warlock I skipped a bit of the ladder climb and got into my current guild.

All of that took time / effort / months of the typical guild ladder climbing you may remember from vanilla / BC. Even then I was very lucky to happen upon my current guild when I did otherwise I'd probably still be wading around in a much lower level guild. I'm not sure what you consider a "solid" group, but if you want any stab at getting into a higher ranking guild or even a guild reminiscent of the old vanilla / bc guilds you're going to need to put a lot of effort in as well as a bunch of luck so the sooner you start trying to find somewhere the better.

What was considered an average raiding guild in vanilla - bc is now considered a hardcore one. Think about the implications of how rough that makes things if you want to get into what was considered hardcore for back then.

The typical trial length of any self respecting guild is around 2 months still, and considering that many guilds even if they're decent might not be a good fit for you you're looking at potential months to find the guild you want to raid with come WoD. Now is a great time to try and find that guild as people are on farm and lots of burnout / turnover happens over the next so many months where you can wriggle yourself into a raid spot someone else gave up after farming the same raid for a year.

TLDR: If you go into WoD with nothing but vanilla / bc raid xp and you weren't in a world ranking guild back then, you're gonna have a bad time. Start the search sooner than later.

[Vaelorian]

Oh look it's you again, the most boring person on the internet - i wish you would stop with this line "As a former GM and recruitment officer for 7 years of a heroic 25 man guild"

SNORE.
Infracted

It merits a reaction although your attitude does not.

I tell this to people that I was a GM and recruitment officer... because that bring value to my words. Some random non-officer player can give the same advice sure. I get that. But that player was never in a management position. Does not know what is truly expected of recruits/applicants.

So these words give meaning. I can stop with saying it, but I only try to make sure that what I am saying is actually how it is for a lot of heroic type guilds. I can only give advice on heroic 25 man guilds really. I cannot give advice on casual guilds or 10 man guilds. You won't find me commenting with that line in any other topic unless it has meaning to the discussion.

Just saying that: I am not particularly proud or anything that I was GM/recruitment officer blablabla. I was proud of my guild sure.

Lets say that you ask a question on some random forum about how to carve meat from a cadaver right? And here comes some experienced butcher along and writes to you what you should do. He also mentioned that he was a butcher before retiring. Wouldn't you take his words more serious? As opposed to someone random, who might give the same advice all the same?

That said: I do get annoyed with it myself that I write that. I was just thinking about it before posting this very sentence YET AGAIN. But I do not do it for my own sake.

[Deleted]

Well written advice is spot on, this is the internet you could be anyone , Apologies mind you - I was a bit of an ass.

[Ikik]

Wow! All I gotta say is that I really appreciate all the advice. I would have never thought that I'd receive so many awesome posts in this thread!

I understand that starting now is best. I've already almost cleared flex and will be starting normals soon and I've been logging a crap ton of fights to attach to my future apps. I've also been theorycrafting a lot about Shadow Priests in WoD and believe I have a firm grasp on what is happening there.

Anyways! Thanks so much for all these awesome posts. You guys are beauties!

[Callous1970]

If you want to be a progression raider you need to know your toon, and odds are it'll need to be a class/spec that the team needs. If you're a tank or healer and know you stuff, you'll probably make it. If you're DPS its a crap shoot whether your spec will be one of the top dogs next expac, and stay there for more than a patch.

[Shockzilla]

It kinda goes like this, no one really cares if you have ever raided before. Saying that you were a hardcore raider back in Vanilla won’t get you much credit, and it shouldn’t. All that matters is this, can you play your toon now, dispel, interrupt, spot heal, use your CD’s at the right time, be in the right place at the right time, these are the things guilds are looking for. What is your learning curve like, do you have to see something 6 or 7 times before you get it down? Are you dependable, are you on time with your gear ready (enchanted, reforged, gemed) and have potions and flasks and food for yourself? Did you research the fights prior to the raid? Do you have all the required add-ons and do you keep them updated?

Are you the type that has to say something every few for attention, gets pissy when your asked to change how you are doing something, or the type that whispers the raid lead every 5 min with a better way to do the fight?

If you are a good player who is personable and polite you will find a place to raid. Are you the type that has to say something every few for attention, gets pissy when you’re asked to change how you are doing something, or the type that whispers the raid lead every 5 min with a better way to do the fight? If you are an obnoxious distraction that requires the raid team to wait for you to log in and then to get your shit ready then I think you will be spending a lot of time in LFR.