had a good conversation last night with someone in the mid-forties levels who joined our guild just after we launched the ‘big push to Kara’ effort and the conversation centered about life in our guild when all the toons 60+ are on strict focus to prep for Kara (incl get to 70, rep grind, gear grind, and complete Kara as a guild). obviously, with everyone 60+ focused upwards, there are significantly fewer times that they are looking backwards and helping the lower level toons. also, there are simply fewer lower level toons than before – when I log on now, I tend to see the bulk of the toons being at least 50+ and typically 60+.
understandably, it can feel like you are not getting legendary guild support if you are below level 60 right now. you aren’t. and that is a conscious decision we took. the good news is that it is a very short period of time that is affected. the sooner we are in Kara raiding, the sooner life returns to normal – so to speak – and lowbies get lots of offers of run throughs and help from higher level toons. if you look at things only with eyesight extending to the immediate, yes, there is a shortage of help. if you look further forwards, you can see that not only do you get help, but now, you can go to Kara, too (and beyond)!
the guild needs to progress as part of its transition to raiding and with it comes some sacrifices. the 70s have to sacrifice personal immediate individual progression to help the 60+ reach their levels. the under 60s sacrifice getting as much help in order for the 60+ toons to ‘do their thing’ and meet the progression goal. we are not an individual-focused me-me-me guild – thankfully – we are a collection of individuals that are guild-focused (for the most part and for most of the time!). this is one of those times where the lower levels need to band together to help each other rather than rely on the upper levels.
it is a good time to get to know other lower levels in the guild and forge those relationships. it is a good time to look backwards yourselves and seek out the toons that are moving up towards you and help them so that you now have several toons your level to level with. e.g. I pointed out 3 toons in the 30s that the mid-forties should help because then they would have a foursome with all the key roles in it already – they’d be able to do any group quest, quest or instance at level together instead of neither the 30s being able to without some pugs and neither the 40 be able to without 4 pugs.
for now – dig deep into our guild culture and help each other so that you have enough peers at level and progress in a similar wave upwards. it is after all part of the essence of our guild. i know it can be frustrating seeing all the 60+ toons online and none of them helping you with Duskwood or Tanaris. but for now, for just a short while, i have asked them to focus on getting to Kara – bear with them for a short while and you’ll find that you get all kinds of help again and instead of a VC run through right now, you get a seat in Kara with 9 other well-geared guildmates or you get help doing Heroics to get geared for Kara — and we cannot position ourselves to do that if we do not currently go through this growth pain.
as always, i do see higher level toons offering to help (they need breaks from hardcore leveling) and i do see run throughs and i do see counter-gank-assistance happening – it just is less prevalent than usual for right now.
