Adjusting To A New Guild

The Old Guild

Recently my guild decided to call it quits until the expansion. Not everyone was ready to put more time into hardmode Lich King, and that's fine. However, a handful of us also weren't ready to give up quite yet, so many of us have server transferred to find a new guild, myself included. The last week has been my first with a new raid group in about a year, and it's been quite an experience so far.



Finding a New Guild

I was unable to find a guild of the progression level I was looking for on my server. As it's a smaller server, I wasn't surprised. So, I headed over to the cross realm guild recruitment forums to see what was out there. I also checked a couple other resources, such as Plusheal and Tankspot. I was still on the fence about transferring, so I didn't post anywhere, just lurked. A few websites caught my eye, but most of the guilds just didn't stand out to me as being a good fit. I knew what I was looking for, and there's no reason to settle for less. Eventually, I stumbled across one that seemed like a decent match, and shortly after I found out that a couple friends from my old guild had joined up in the same spot. I still wasn't completely sold, so I made a character on the server to talk with an officer, and see what the community there was like. I know trade is a cesspit, but it gives a good idea of the progression of pugs there, which is something that's important to me. I'm a healaholic so I need a good community for my alts. After scoping it out, it seemed like a good match, so I decided to apply.

Applying

Any decent raiding guild is going to have you fill out an application. It's just standard. If you are looking for top end progression, and the guild you're looking at doesn't require an application, you probably can't expect much out of them. It doesn't have to be complicated, but some sort of screening process saves both them and you from wasting your time and, in the case of a server transfer, money.

As someone who spent over two years guild leading, applying to a guild is easy for me. There really isn't a trick to it, and that, in itself, is the trick. What I mean is that if you just fill it out completely, and professionally, you're fine. Don't leave anything blank, if they ask for something that you don't know what it is, such as a WoL report, look it up. Don't say you don't know. Some of the worst apps I've ever seen were people who just blatantly did not understand what kind of guild they were applying to. Anyways, I'm getting off topic...

Adjusting

Acclimating yourself into a new guild can be almost like throwing yourself into a new culture. I came from a fairly quiet guild. We talked and had fun, but guild chat was never all that busy. The new one is completely opposite. Sometimes it's scrolling so fast I can't read it all. Add in not recognizing any names, and it's a little bit of an adjustment. I'm not a very outgoing person, so maybe it's just me.

The first order of business when I join a new guild is to learn names and voices. Well established guilds often call each other something other than their ingame names. Sometimes it's a real name, sometimes it's a nickname, and sometimes it's an old characters name. As a healer, it's important to learn this quickly, as people aren't going to be used to having a new guy there and often call things out with "me" or "I" and leave you guessing. I cleared out a spot in my ui and turned on Ventrilo's overlay feature. In the past I've set up a second monitor to acheive the same effect, but either way works.

Guilds are going to do some fights differently as well. The easiest way to pick out differences is to find out if anyone in the guild has filmed their kills. Because I transferred somewhere where a few old guildies were as well, all I had to do was ask them what the new guild does differently. Worst case, step up and ask for an explanation. Most guilds will be happy to if there's new folks in the raid. The worst thing you can do is say "Well my old guild did it this way, and we should do it like that". You're there to raid with them, not the other way around.

Spend some time reading the guild website. Get a feel for how they do loot, and any required addons. Sometimes they don't update this as frequently as they should, but it should give you some basics. At the very least it will give you some questions to ask.

The roughest thing for me so far has been adjusting to the new healing team. I'm used to a high communication environment where assignments are spelled out before every fight in healer chat, even though we all know them. It made things simple. These guys all know what they're doing and haven't communicated it to me, which is a two way blame street, because I haven't really asked. I suppose the fear of looking like an idiot for asking just needs to be balanced against the fear of looking like an idiot for wiping the group.
 
Here's my plea to heal leaders out there: Your recruits are nervous. Talk to them. Explain how things go, and do assignments before fights for awhile to get them comfortable. Even at high levels of play, it can help make adjusting less awkward! The worst thing you can do is tell them how the person they're replacing did things. Instead, tell them how the team does things and where they fit in. When you say that their predecessor did things a certain way, it comes off as you wanting them to play just like them, and that's not reasonable. Your recruit is not the former member, don't expect them to be, and don't treat them like that. Explaining things from a team standpoint will make them feel a lot more welcome. Even if they have big shoes to fill, you shouldn't keep reminding them. It will only stress them out, and in turn you will probably see sloppier play.

It's been a rough transition, but it's too early to tell if this will be a good fit. The people seem nice, but it's always intimidating coming into an older guild where everyone knows eachother well, and you're just "the new guy". Anyone have any tips to make the transition smoother? At the end of the xpac, I can't be the only person trying to adapt to a new guild for Cata.

/bubblehearth