Poaching in Raid Finder. Yay or Nay?

[MrExcelion]

Yeah, going for guild only runs is definitely shady, and you might get some unloyal/short-term players on your roster, which could be the real drawback against it. If you're wondering whether or not it's bannable, there's zero threat of it.

To be honest, I hadn't even considered this, and I don't think it goes on that much, but now that it's out here on this big public forum...you might see it more from now on, or at least attempts to.

[Lessthanzer0]

congrats, you're a human bean.

I don't know why but this made me laugh too much to not point it out.

[RyanEX]

It's a dick, yet common and accepted, move.

Least that's what the people who do it say until it happens to them, then they're up in arms over "how DARE THEY!!!".

Several things to keep in mind that I've seen happen

1)If there's one thing GMs remember, it's a poaching. So basically you've just put yourself on someone's shit list so you better hope you don't need said person in the future.
2)Unless you're the No.1 guild on your server it can happen to you as well.
3)I have personally seen the result of GMs who had players poached in TBC, go out of their way to ensure that just about every high ranking player in the poaching guild had to server xfer when their guild fell apart in Wrath in order to get into a competent guild.

Personally I avoid poaching. If someone's that easily swayed by a guild's numbers he's not going to stay with you long if he even gets a whiff that an even more advanced guild is looking for someone of his/her class.

[IntellectuallyChallenged]

I've had this happen. Someone came to one of our raids and tried to poach me into their guild. Offered me a guaranteed raid spot and all that stuff. Their raid nights were not on the same nights that my guild raids, so I told them I could run with them any time they needed me to, but I prefer to stay in my current guild. My guild leaders had no problem with the idea, as long as it didn't interfere with our raids. The other guild, predictably, were not enthusiastic about that idea. It would have been no different. I would have had the same dedication to their raids as I do with my own guild, if not more for the sake of doing tougher raid difficulties. I know what most of you will think. To that I say this; My loyalty is to people, not to the things we invent to divide ourselves. That may seem strange to some, because it's just a video game, but I treat everything the same. Whether it be in real life, or in a video game that involves other real live people.

[Issalice]

I guess I don't see the problem with it as long as you aren't just leaving or aren't putting any effort whatsoever...not that it requires effort, but it's crappy to just sit their and recruit in my opinion. There are other people there that couldn't care less about your plans and really just want to finish the instance they are in. You should respect that. If you are recruiting and participating, then waiting for the run to end before starting your run I see no problem. If you aren't participating, just recruiting, then taking the people that want to join your group out of the LFR instance before it's over....that's a shitty move. Use the LFG tool instead.

[Carathen]

I don't really like it, it sounds disruptive to the run.

I'm fine with people doing stuff like this in my raid though, as long as they are fine with getting removed a few seconds later.

[Daedelus]

Depends.

If it's a genuine pug of people from many different guilds then it's open season, although it would be much better to speak to individuals in a whisper and/or after the raid ends than say anything in raid chat.

If it's mostly everyone from one guild then a) it's pretty rude and b) I'm surprised you don't get kicked as soon as you say anything

[Deleted]

I see no difference between approaching a player who hasn't overtly stated their desire to change guilds and taking to someone who has. If they are happy with their current guild they will reject the approach.

[Rekrul]

i didnt realize this even happened wtf

[Polarthief]

No I want to see people opinion on people like myself who just going into random raids to look for members even at the cost of offending the current raid group that person is in. I want to knows people opinion on it. Because recently twice a raid leader has made many threats and such to me actively poaching.

You said "Raid Finder". Did you mean "Premade Groups"?

If you're going into an actual guild raid (alone) and telling them "hey you're good, join us", that's kinda fucked up. If you whisper them and are like "hey, my team's so and so out of 10 mythics, we think you'd be a good fit", etc., then I'm all for that.

Telling the entire guilded group that you want to poach a member is really fucked up.

[unholyness]

Correct and in alot of cases like I have done. Do it out in the open in raid chat. I have gained a great rogue and shaman this way so I know it works it may just cause issues later in that raid

We have always done this and like yourself, it has worked well. Most good players want to progress more but arent much into putting in apps. so they goof around in bad/casual guilds. Also guilds shouldnt expect good players to stick around if the guild is doing poorly, and not much is being done to help things. It is a lot funner to progress than to wipe on simple content lol.

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You said "Raid Finder". Did you mean "Premade Groups"?

If you're going into an actual guild raid (alone) and telling them "hey you're good, join us", that's kinda fucked up. If you whisper them and are like "hey, my team's so and so out of 10 mythics, we think you'd be a good fit", etc., then I'm all for that.

Telling the entire guilded group that you want to poach a member is really fucked up.

You are behind the times, this happens all the time. There are very few good players out there to begin with so why watch a good player waste away in a bad guild?Watching people fail on Flex and Normal, err I mean Normal and what they try to call heroic, is bad enough, at least put the good players in good guilds where they can play with other good people and progress. We have gotten 4 guys this way, hell, we even use raider alts from other good guilds, which many progression guilds do. A lot of good players will say something as well, like nice dps,gear or something trying to get a conversation going to see if they can join, asking them just makes it easier.

[Deleted]

nothing is offensive here imo, its up to their guild leader and officer to keep their guild good.

they fail to do so well, ppl might leave, or if its drama heavy or annoying ppl that act bad.

If they feel that way and want to find a guild and somone approaches them, well its the guilds fault neither is it you or that player doing any bad moves.

The guild failed to listen to the roster and keep it fun to play within the guild.

so no, i also would never call it poaching, you are giving them an oppertunity, if they take it its that player that took it, not you.

An example if somone came to you gave you an advice on a work or you get to know that guy and he tells you about another job. and it seems all better, if he decides to quit his former job, you never stole him from that company, you just gave him an offer.


Its up to him and his employer.

Same goes here.

[Arbs]

Go for it, but you may find better players somewhere else or ones who want to commit to a raid schedule.

[Delekii]

It makes you a douchebag, but you won't be alone as a douchebag in World of Warcraft.

[Rotted]

For it,

Its not really poaching because the player has a choice in the matter,

A better term would probably be a talent scount,

[Basemath]

Ultimately, it works I guess. You're not after building a community in your guild, from what I understand. Your goal is progression and nothing else.

You will garner some hate, but you obviously don't care about that. You just gotta know those awesome players you got will leave you as easily as they joined you. They're just there to get the maximum you can offer them and they're off to someone higher progressed/more organized. The term is guild hoppers.

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A better term would probably be a talent scount,

Yes! A talent scout for skilled guild hoppers.

[Nepinator]

Well it's not like you're actually throwing a net over the other player and dragging them away against their will, so I think it's fine to approach someone you're interested in recruiting. If they say no, then no harm done. If they say yes, then they're clearly not that thrilled with their current raiding situation anyway.

The only thing I'd find unacceptable if it the player is being lied to. If you want the player to join your raid team then you need to be honest about what you're selling them. If you are going to convince someone to leave their guild and join yours only to bench them half the time when they expected a more permanent raid spot, then that's a dick move.

So yes as long as you're honest with people I think poaching is acceptable, after all it's up to the player to decide what they want to do and which guild they want to join.

[Orcbert]

I would kick you from my raid. I run mostly with guild raiders and will once in a while pug up a few people depending on attendance that night. We are there to clear bosses and get loot. We are not your recruitment tool. It frankly offends my raiders and I've gotten whispers from people before about how "So and so keeps trying to recruit me for their raid. Please tell them to stop."

I've lost people in the guild before to this. They wanted to make tier own guild and try to recruit from mine. It's extremely rude. I've gotten a very nice crowd of people doing it the hard way, advertising in trade. I've geared them and trained many of the raiders personally. I would rather some random jackass not try to poach off my hard work.

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i didnt realize this even happened wtf

It's happened, we've kicked people for it. It's very rude.

*edit: One thing of note though, when you join my raid it might be 12-14 guildies with only a few pug dps here and there. If you are in a raid of almost all random people it's a lot less rude to try and grab people in that circumstance. Also if you want to go after the other one or two non-guild members that we picked up then have at.

[Deathgoose]

The title of the thread said "Raid Finder" so my first thought was "LFR", and poaching decent people from LFR has nothing wrong with it. But then I realized you actually meant using the premade group finder to join raids and attempt to poach people there. That's kind of poor etiquette.

I had the exact same everything said here when I clicked on this thread.