What Guild "Tests" do you use for Raiding Applicants?

[Redpanda]

the first real raiding guild i joined made me do "the trials" this was back in bc. I had to do it with the shaman best friend of the GM of the guild who had left on bad terms. Our trail. To get ALL of the vanilla attunements. Then my trails was the kite the cenarion emissary to the gates of aq. I got to the great lift before I realized that i went the wrong way. After a few more failed attempts I was given a new trail once the GM had made his Thunderfury. Kite Prince Thunderan to Org, that trail I did. Now that I think about it I ask myself why did I even do this stuff but then again I was desperate to get into a real raiding guild.

[Deleted]

spec seems correct

Specs cannot be incorrect. Like if someone wants to play Demonology, you can't tell him his spec is incorrect and to play Destruction.

[Ghâzh]

Would be interesting to hear if someone's actually heard of a guild using one of those online psychology tests for recruiting. Correctly used that could be really nice for determining what kind of person you are dealing with. Of course most of them are just bullshit but still.

[Deleted]

and most importantly why do people(applicants) deal with these kind of bullshits?

After reading through this thread, some people obviously must be really desperate to get into a raiding guild if they voluntarily deal with some of the stuff mentioned here.

[Dasani]

My guild looks at their gear and makes sure they know wtf is going on.
Then they look at their logs to make sure they know how to actually play their class, be it dps numbers or damage done to critical targets, observing mechanics, etc. Buff/debuff uptimes.

Then we bring em in for a try and if they don't suck we keep em around.

It is foolish to look at people's UIs and presume to know how well they will play based on such things. People have different ways of organizing and viewing things you are likely to miss out on a good player because of your arrogant presumption that you know the best way for a UI to be setup.

Performance is all that matters. How much shit you have on your screen (or lack thereof) is not a factor for any guild worth a salt. Only control freaks who feel the need to utterly control every aspect of everyone has to know exactly how people's UIs are setup or people who may have heard of another guild doing it so they decided it would be a good idea even if they have no idea what to even look for. It's all silly really. You can either do your job or you can't, it's that simple. Logs tell the story the best, and seeing them perform in person is the best (and next) step. All the other shit is just fluff.

Funny thing is i've never had to app to a guild because all the guilds fight over me instead lol. I have an entire folder of screenshots of whispers and in-game mails of guilds trying to recruit me for their progression every single expansion. I started collecting them because I find it amusing.

Other than performance, only other thing we ask of applicants is to draw a picture that represents them as a person.

Reason for this is just to get a feel for their personality before we ever even talk to them. Some pictures we get are quite hilarious as well which is reason enough to keep it in forever. We also don't want to raid with douchebags and like people with a sense of humor.

[Kraineth]

Specs cannot be incorrect. Like if someone wants to play Demonology, you can't tell him his spec is incorrect and to play Destruction.

Sure they can, even now some talents are horrible for one spec and good for another.

Up until MoP the talent spec system was much more than picking 1 out of 3 arbitrary talents, you could most certainly have a bad talent spec.

On Topic: One of my older guilds used to require trials to make a post after every raid week assessing themselves, it is important for people to understand that they made mistakes without having to have it spelled out to them.

I had a guild back in BC that used a little multitasking minigame where you did things like balance a ball on a platform and avoid spikes flying at a square at the same time. It wasn't something we took seriously but we enjoyed making them do it at least once.

- - - Updated - - -

Teamspeak Interview, 1 Month Trial.

Making people do Maths, or forcing them to be funny is stupid. You recruit them to do a job, you recruit them to perform at a certain level within the guild, not to do your maths homework.

If i'm going to spend 4 nights a week playing video games with someone they had better be at least somewhat interesting to talk to. I would never use to word "Job" in regards to raiding, that is silly. I raid to have fun and enjoy myself, not to be super serious 100% of the time.

[Pabzi]

Other than performance, only other thing we ask of applicants is to draw a picture that represents them as a person.

I Love this so much

[Independent voter]

We used to invite people to raid with us. I think they looked at their gear to make sure it met the minimum ilvl.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I value guilds that put their raiders to the test in an actual raid instead of relying on obscure tests, or UI screens. Performance should speak for itself imo and every person sets up his/her UI to his or hers specific style and preferences.
My current guild let me in and brought me to raids and I was later accepted. Lovely bunch of people!

A guild I applied to years ago though, required UI screenshots, a certain list of addons used (even if you didn't need them yourself) + a run through a HC dungeon for them to see how the applicants performed in a team. The GM was of the opinion that his UI was the ultimate form of UI so if you didn't want to change yours to look like his, you weren't allowed in. A loooot of jumping through hoops to join a guild with average progression and a history of weird treatment of members. Glad I decided to not bother beyond initial contact since it split 5 months later. <.<

[Deleted]

I agree with the maths bit but putting people on the spot by saying something off the cuff like "tell me a joke" lets you see a lot about how a person reacts under pressure and if they will be a decent social fit.

You clearly have no idea! This is why you need to know how to solve math problems:

Well, nevermind.

[hlx]

I am really surprised no one focuses on cultural fit in new recruits. We are constantly recruiting people for both social spots and to fill in any raiding needs our teams have and we focus really on what kind of person we are letting in. raiding performance and logs don't matter until later.

[pateuvasiliu]

My guild used to pit applicants against eachother.

They had to explain why their application was better than the others we already received and pointing out flaws in other people's applications.

And then they had to perform against eachother in raids. We usually only recruited the person with the highest DPS or healing and told the others we were sorry but they weren't what we were looking for.

Jesus fuck, it's a WoW guild not a NASA job.

[Matt0193]

Never been an officer in a raiding guild but the 3 I've applied to were standard apps.

Personal details (Name/Nickname, Location, Role you're applying for ect)
UI Demonstration
How do you feel you can contribute to the guild, other than filling a raid spot?
For WoD: Of the changes to your class, which changes are you most looking forward to and why. Also, what changes are unhappy with and why?

Last one was probably the most insightful question I've had to answer. It shows exactly how much you've researched into your class for WoD, a good indicator that you can actually back up a smart app. Personally I've seen apps just automatically declined because they lacked any kind of formatting and any effort and if I was an officer I'd agree. If people can't be bothered to put half an hour into an App they're probably not going to bother putting that extra bit of effort into preparing for raids.

As for tests, in my first 2 applied guilds I was just thrown in at the deep end and it was great. For my current guild I sort of knew alot of the players already so it's not a big deal. But since joining I've got involved with CMs and Alt runs (I've not raided seriously for most of MoP so my main is about on par with their 3rd-4th alts) to start gelling with them.

[Lemons]

Putting extra "tests" on a guild app or interview is just stupid, especially if they determine whether or not you get into the guild. I want to join a guild not a fucking fraternity.

[judgementofantonidas]

Teamspeak Interview, 1 Month Trial.

Making people do Maths, or forcing them to be funny is stupid. You recruit them to do a job, you recruit them to perform at a certain level within the guild, not to do your maths homework.

this, but not with crappy team speak.

[Pabzi]

this, but not with crappy team speak.

Shots Fired.

[Zogarth]

I would ask them:

"What is the colour of night?"

If they answered wrong, trial time, if answered correctly, instant promotion to raider. Yes I actually did that once.

[judgementofantonidas]

Specs cannot be incorrect. Like if someone wants to play Demonology, you can't tell him his spec is incorrect and to play Destruction.

sure you can if the spec in question sucks.

[Grummgug]

I see lots and lots and lots of fail here.

You are NOT looking for the most skilled applicants. You are looking for people who give a crap. You want guildies who are tough. There's plenty of raiders who know what to do but can't take a punch. The guild wipes one or two times and they quit for the nite. What separates an end game guild from a crap guild is the ability to run back QUICKLY after 15 wipes for the 16th attempt without complaining about it.

The Question I would ask is:

1. What is the most times your previous guild wiped on an encounter and what happened?

I'm looking for a high wipe count and I want to see what kind of attitude they had about it. We're they still enthusiastic about taking more shots? Give highest marks for saying they something like "we wiped 15 times and I was upset we didn't try the 16th attempt".

When I trial them in a raid, I want to see if they run back quickly after wipes. That's it.

[Alvito]

This is your opinion as long as you have data to back that up. I applied two guilds in my wow career and that was when I was a novice player. I prefer finding guilds in game and never apply because whole "online application" thing is just taking the game too seriously. Yet, I am a dedicated raider.

If you wont or can't spend 5 minutes to apply then it does bring up some questions of how much time you will put into raiding. I find people see the application as a waste of their time and fail to realize the guilds/raids want to do what they can to weed out the people that will waste theirs.