looking for information on something…?

… use the ‘useful links’ to wowhead thottbot and allakhazam to find where that thing is, who drops it, what the rate of drop is, what it has, where that place is, what zone to quest in… etc etc.

i am seeing a lot of requests for basic information in our guild chat channel and i’d like to encourage everyone to learn to fish rather than just give you fish. besides, if you look it up, you get a generally accepted answer to your question that is reviewed and commented by the overall wow community rather than the opinion of whoever is online in our guild at that time.

not discouraging questions – encouraging that you ask interesting ones that are not simple wowhead.com lookups.

Be *Selective* When Recruiting – Your Recruits Are Your Care And Responsibility

It should go without saying that when you offer someone an invitation to join our guild you have taken a few moments to ‘interview’ them as to ‘why us’ and ‘why them’. Find out what their definition of ‘a good guild’ is. Everyone has different expectations and definitions of what a good guild is and just because ours is ‘according to our expectations’ it does not mean that it is according to theirs. Find out what they expect. If you do not have the time to find out, do not invite them into the guild. If they do not have the time to explain or answer, do not invite them into the guild.

When they leave the guild, either if I see it when I am online or by checking the log that I see as guildmaster, I follow up with them to find out why they left.  What I am finding more times than not, is that they have left because we did not meet their expectation of giving them run through after run through and leveling them up, giving them all the gold they need and giving them withdrawal privileges from our guildbank. These departures are entirely avoidable by simply not inviting them into the guild in the first place. Most recently, I watched Heinkel (70) spend an hour helping someone (23) in Duskwood only to watch them quit the guild once he helped them finish their quests and he logged off.

Do not be too shy to ask them if they expect to be leveled, run through instances non-stop, funded, and given our guild bank keys. If they say ‘yes’ to any of those, there are perfectly good guild matches for them and we are not one of them – so do not invite them to join us. It just means that our folks waste time and resources on them which could easily have been used to help you instead. i.e. When Heinkel was helping that person in Duskwood, he was not helping someone else, who is likely a good match for our guild, simply because he cannot be in two places at the same time. Let’s use our resources and time wisely by not wasting them on poor recruiting choices.

Be *selective* when recruiting. Take responsibility for the people you recruit into the guild. Ensure that they are introduced to the membership and officers, that you tell them to read our website and the guild message of the day (and guild information). Find out if they need anything and ask an officer to help them with it – in case they are shy or do not want to ask themselves having just joined. Certainly if they are significantly below you in level, consider yourself on “run through” duty if they ask for one and you were their recruiter.

We are not trying to curb your recruiting drives! We are trying to reduce the revolving door syndrome and the waste of resources that can go along with that.

Finally, this is a social ‘club’ just like any other in RL and I would expect you to take responsibility for anyone you bring into the guild in no less a manner than you would in any RL social club. I expect you to help them and support them to the best of your capacity for their first several weeks until they become full rank Members. While they are Initiates, you are the first and most familiar person to them – do not just “drop them off” into the guild with an invite and then leave them to find their way in our culture or on the doorstep of officers to take care. It *is* one of the duties of Officers to assist Initiates as needed and reasonable; however, it is first and foremost the responsibility of the person who extended to them the offer to join our guild.

This will foster a stronger guild community and by extension a stronger guild.

gratz to all Initiates promoted to full Member rank

by later tonight, many of the initiates will have been promoted to the rank of full Member. you have all earned your place long term in our guild and we are glad to have you! if you have not yet fully explored and read through this website (namely about culture and rules), do so now. future Initiates will rely on you for guidance with respect to our guild and what is posted here is the foundation of that guidance.

Tackling the touchy subject of asking for “run thrus”

It seems to be about that time again when we should review the subject of asking for run thrus through instances. The subject is a touchy one that some folks feel particularly attached to – probably because it is more work to level and quest at level than to be power-leveled and run thru. Probably also because in starter guilds there is a lot of running thru going on. Mid-range guilds and [certainly] high-end guilds typically do not and tell you that up front. So how do we handle it?

We are not a starter guild and we are not a high-end guild; if anything, we are on the smaller side of mid-range – which means we have a lot of toons that are still under level 50 and need help. The problem comes as a two-edged blade. If lowbies ask higher levels non-stop for run thrus, we have experienced many high level toons departing to guilds where they can focus on getting things done – and trust me, the higher level toons get A LOT of requests for run thrus. If the lowbies don’t get run thrus, they say our guild is not “a good guild” and gquit leaving us with a succession problem.

What we have found is that a common sense – no stress – approach seems to work out fine. No one I have asked has ever joined any other kind of leisure “club” or association (e.g. soccer team) and expected them all to give them power-leveling and “run thrus”. The more advanced members might offer to help out a bit or share some techniques with them, but they are not called a “bad soccer team” because the team did not level the newcomer up to World Cup level. By the same token, higher level toons need to not take lowbies asking in guild chat if anyone wants to do XYZ instance as a run thru request.

If you want to do an instance, ask if anyone else wants to do it. If there are no takers, a higher level toon might need a break from grinding out the 500,000 xp or the 5,000 gold they need and want a diversion like running you thru an instance.

Let the high level toons offer to give you a run thru, don’t ask them for it. It’s one of those social norms that it is polite to wait until someone offers. And offer they do. I see offers *every single day*. It’s not like there is a shortage of them. You may have missed it, been offline, in a battleground, doing something else. There is tomorrow.

One thing that almost guarantees a high-level to not offer to run you thru something is if as soon as you join the guild you ask for a run thru. One thing that almost guarantees that a high-level WILL offer run thrus is when they see you putting in effort to level and quest without asking for run thrus and ESPECIALLY is we see you helping others – including giving others run thrus. It makes sense. If you are committed to yourself and to the guild, the guild is committed to you too.

Help and run thrus are not the same.

Now let’s get something straight though – for both the high-level toons and the low-level toons. Someone needing help is not someone asking for a run thru and that we absolutely need to try to make happen. It could be that they were right before the last boss and their tank had to leave or that they simply cannot do it. Stepping in to join their group and help them clear through is very much in culture for us. Helping someone complete all of their gnomer quests in one shot because there is no one to group up with them is also helpful. Asking for VC run thrus when you aren’t high enough level yet to even get the quests is straight out “run thru request”. If you have completed the quests and are at level to do the instance and ask for a high level toon to take you through even though there are 30 people on the server at your level is again a run thru request.

The subtle difference lies in whether you need help or not.

Asking for a run thru and offering to give their lowbie a run thru on your high level is different and should be done privately.

We’re not saying “don’t ask” nor “we won’t”. Asking someone who has 500,000 xp to grind out over several days to level to come all the way back into the mainland to run you through an instance so you can get 15,000 xp and level borders on selfish when you are offering them nothing in return (i.e. you can’t help them level). More so if you ask them every time they log on. Even more so if you ask every high level every time they log on. Sooner or later, we end up with 10 level 70s that have not logged on in 2 months because they are leveling their alts waiting for us to get up to 70 before going back on their main. Or worse, they leave the guild to get away from the 6-12 run thru requests a day.

It’s not an exaggeration.

Yes – we are here to help you. No – we are not a bunch of selfish jackasses that don’t want to help lowbies.

More importantly, not everyone has had the experience in a high end guild or with a high-level toon and therefore may not have any basis to know how many run thru requests come through in a day nor how distracting it is from the huge amount of work at hand to level, gear and key up.

In short, we are a guild – not a power-leveling service. Our high-level toons are individuals with the same gaming time limitations we all have and are not individually a power-leveling service either. We will help you – we will not power-level you.

I’m not expecting this post to go over like free beer at a happy hour; however, I am expecting that it will provide guidance to those that might not have had any basis for knowing the ’social norms’ in our guild about run thrus.

Guild Bank

A quick note so that I can point members to this blog rather than type it all out each time in game to each one that asks (happens more than you think!). The guild bank (gb) is a device located in game next to your normal bank window. In Ironforge, it is the large vault doors opposite the bank tellers on the inside bank wall closest to the mail box and auction house. In Stormwind, it is the brown wall devices either next to the bank tellers or on the walls closest to the exit.

You can open the gb by right clicking on it in the same way that you access your own private bank. However, while you can see what is in it (right now we only have one tab paid for – that cost 100g) and can make financial deposits and material/item deposits, you cannot make withdrawals. At this time, only the guild master can make withdrawals. All current funds in the bank (and subsequent deposits) are slated for buying the second tab (250g) before gb funds become available for other guild needs.

Look in the bank and window shop! Tell me (Ironhelm) is there is something you want. It helps, if I am not in a major city where I can access the gb, to send me an in game mail message with what item you want.

Make deposits – especially financial (so that we can buy the second tab); however, please refrain from depositing anything low level (under level 20 and green, grey, white) so that the bank does not clutter up. If you have low level items to donate to the guild, ask in guild chat, look up characters using the guild listing in game, or mail them to either one of the enchanters listed on the professions page on this blog site or mail them to Ironhelm.

Newcomers & Potential Newcomers to the Guild

Refer to the Pages listing section, specifically to the ‘Recruiting’ page. Welcome!

Do give the ‘About Legends Reborn’, ‘Rules & Regulations’ and ‘Required Addons’ a read.