Tips for applying to high-end raiding guilds

[muto]

Use big words and correct punctuation, and grammar, and avoid I's and You's, and try to talk in 3rd person.

If I were a GM, I would honestly only ask for an armory link, and do the interview through vent, and have the person chat it up with some of the raiders in the guild, to see if the person would be a good fit. A guild can have the best players in the world, but if there isn't chemistry, the guild is going to fall flat on its face.

[rennok]

1. Be cool.
2. Play to win.
3. Take criticism .

[Deleted]

I know that as an officer we've lately had applications on total ends of the spectrum, one guy had done 12/12 ICC Heroic but he used one word sentences, gave almost no personality to the application, and everything was in block capital letters. After he was declined he spammed the officers with "I'm good enough!! Why have you declined me?!?! I'm really good!!" and basically gave off the impression that yes, he might be in a high progression guild but had the personality of a wet fish and had put about 5 mins time into his application and just assumed he was so awesome that having LK heroic would immediately get him in.

On the contrary, a player who hasn't had chance to experience much of wotlk due to the timeframe that they levelled or the guild they're in but has put a serious amount of time and effort into showing that they know their class, really want to join the guild and actually have a personality is much more useful to us right now.

Guilds aren't looking for progression now - they're looking at who will put in effort come Cata so I don't think you should worry about not having the experience in wotlk if you can take the time to prove that you're a dedicated and knowledgeable player.

Right now is a prime time to find a new guild to be honest - a lot of raiders have left or are taking breaks, waiting for Cata so a lot of guilds are looking to pick people up now for a bit of fun and then they will see who levels the quickest and shows promise in Cata. My server is full of 12/12 ICC HC guilds now spamming recruitment looking for people who will be useful towards server firsts come Cata and they're looking for potential more than your actual achievements right now.

So put the time into the application, put up the logs, link your chars, your experience and your plans - even though those are not up to scratch right now, taking the time to be honest and put the time in there will count for a lot in proving that you're going to hang around till 85 and put the time into your char then.

[wayne62682]

To the OP: If you don't have any logs or anything to show either really explain your class spec, and gearing well to show the guilds you app to that you know your stuff...especially after the change many people are down right in the dark as to what to gem and crap.

I haven't kept up with my logs on my main (and not sure how much they matter since I'm a tank. Aren't logs more of a DPS thing to make sure you're putting out good enough DPS? I'm probably wrong but it's rare I'm in a guild that uses or cares about logs so I only know the bare basics, I've used WoL before but it was as Ret to compare my DPS) and of course there would be no logs on the Warrior tank (not any logs that matter, I mean. Don't think it would matter what my logs show for a typical WOTLK heroic! )

Good advice all around here, thank you all. I'm hoping with Cata coming that WOTLK experience won't matter that much as long as one has basic raid awareness (which I have) and can play intelligently (which I do; in fact I've been complemented on my tanking on my Warrior in BC dungeons because I don't just run through like an idiot but exercise caution in pulls, watch for pats, LOS pull casters, etc.).

As I see it there are two big issues that might be roadblocks, neither of which I can really fix:

1) Work schedule, since I'll be working 9-6 hours with approximately a one hour commute. This would make my ideal raid times around 8-12 (midnight is a little late, but still do-able without trouble) at night.

2) I'm a tank (on both the Pally and the Warrior, who is going to be my new main in Cata) and, while tanks are in high demand for running dungeons it seems to be the first position anyone fills in a raiding guild (and it's typically an officer, founding member or even the GM who is the tank) and very few guilds (the good ones, at least) seem to be recruiting tanks at present (I do research occasionally and look either on my own realm forums or on possible transfer realms to see what guilds are recruiting and what progression they're on). I could go DPS, but honestly I like tanking. I'll have a DPS off-spec (and I have a decent Ret spec on my Pally; I actually first got 12/12 ICC10 going as DPS) but for a raiding guild I'd want to be tank.

As to the guild progression thing, I'm not shifting blame totally as I am a part of the guild (and usually MT) so I have to bear the brunt of the failure, but I also understand that even if I'm playing at 110% I can't progress where I want if everyone else isn't (and 99% of my runs have had approximately half the raid pugged because there wasn't enough guildies online in that group, so they weren't even full guild runs). I think that almost everyone understands this, so it shouldn't be a big deal as I make sure to do my research (as well as alternate strategies and little tips and tricks) even on fights that I know like the back of my hand in case I miss something. The heroic modes I did, I researched first and asked before the pull to clarify anything I wasn't sure about, and learned very quickly.

@Dossou: Maybe you're right. I'm still relatively new to Turalyon (been here maybe 2 months, and transferred from a horrible server where until about a month ago nobody even had 12/12 in ICC10 Heroic, and nobody has 25 heroic), so didn't really know anybody here, and again had a small string of laid-back "Oh we're a raiding guild, don't worry" type guilds that either never got off the ground or just weren't doing much. I saw that Symphonia was recruiting and checking wowprogress they were consistently ranked like #8 or so on the realm, so I gave it a shot. It was just bad timing, perhaps, in that right after I joined half of the group decided to take a break and I don't enjoy pugging more than half of the raid (I dislike pugging at all, to be honest, at least for "current" content) because chances are the run isn't going to get very far.

[Kep22]

Know your class and be yourself.
Let them know what type of person you are and that you are committed to helping the raiding guild progress.
Show them you are fun, well mannered and mature.
Didn't want to make this too long. But as long as you know your class, are mature, well mannered and are a great raider i'm sure you'll have a fine time getting into a high end raiding guild.