In my last blog entry on the current situation of raid recruiting, I proposed that guilds who are struggling to build a full roster should make alliances with other guilds for the purpose of raiding. Instead of having three or four guilds all with empty spots that prevent them from raiding, these guilds could join together and build two or three raids to work together so that everyone can keep raiding while still maintaining their individual identities.  Raiding alliances may be the future of small guild survival.

Creating and maintaining a raiding alliance can be a daunting task — but ultimately very rewarding — so I thought I would offer my insight from my experience from MCA.  I use MCA as my example because not only have I raided with them for years and am a member of the leadership committee, but because as my server’s oldest and largest raiding alliance, I think MCA’s system and policies have been refined over the years to become a truly successful model.   [further reading: The MCA wowpedia entry]

Why You Should Form A Raid Alliance

The biggest advantage of a raiding alliance in the current climate is that it allows small guilds who might not otherwise be able to to raid to do so again.  If your guild is unable to build a full roster but you want to maintain your guild tag rather than disbanding or folding into another guild, an alliance may be the only solution for you to keep raiding.

On a deeper level, a raiding alliance can fulfill a lot of needs, even for guilds that are mostly self-sufficient for their roster. One obvious example is that a raiding alliance gives you a place to find subs when there are absences, and houses a pool of people that you know and have played with before, and are usually of higher quality than random people one might pluck from /trade. These people may be alts of skilled players, mains who didn’t raid that week or who raided a different instance than your objective, or players who want to raid but cannot commit to a regular schedule. Sometimes they are great players who prefer to be unguilded, or even raiders from “hardcore” guilds that can no longer make their guild’s schedule but doesn’t want to leave their guild. A raiding alliance also benefits from shared resources and knowledge and the insight of dozens of experienced raiders.

Equality and Fairness

Setting up a raiding alliance that has the potential for success can be a very big project. You will need to attract like-minded players to join, establish a solid leadership, set universal policies and create a shared chat channel and webforums. The foundation upon which you build all this is equality and fairness to your members.

Standardised rules and universal policies are extremely important to raiding alliances on two fronts:  First and most importantly, it allows members to always know what they are getting into regardless of whose raid they join. It allows the information readily available to everyone and known in advance when building new raids or pulling subs.

Fairness is a critical component for success and you cannot have a happy raiding alliance without it. Having all members operate under the same rules and held to the same policies, regardless of guild affiliation, friendship, or reputation ensures this. As a result, it greatly limits drama (because who needs that) by putting on players on equal footing, making everything transparent and pre-established by the leadership.

Finally, when the rules are accessible and reasonable, you will gain loyalty from your members and trust from your subs.   When we have a stable roster in a guild, we might not care about keeping the people who sub for us happy (since you may never see them again), but in a raiding alliance — especially one that is built for the purpose of allowing small guilds to raid — it is extremely important that you make sure the non-guildies that run with you are treated equally and are happy. Those loyal subs are what will keep your raid together; we all support each other.

Getting Started

Your first step for building a raiding alliance is to approach other guilds on your server that seem to be “on the same page.”  Don’t just advertise in /trade or the official realm forums when you are first starting up.  Raiding alliances rely on a degree of exclusivity to be successful, otherwise they are no different than a random PuG.  You may choose to open up later once you have an established core of good raiders, but don’t do this during formation.

You need to find guilds that are very similar to your own in terms of skill and progress. Approaching guilds that have good players means that anytime you pull from channel, you know you have a quality player who approaches raiding in a similar way, even if you have never played with that individual before. You want skilled members who want the same things out of the game and don’t expect too little or too much of each other.

It is also very critical that the alliance has a shared attitude about raiding, progression and atmosphere. You can’t have a successful alliance where half of members want to raid 20 hours a week and the other half wants to raid six. You can’t field successful raids if you mix people who like to take things slow with raiders who are fast-paced and aggressive. You need players who have a similar mentality with regard to their seriousness, pace, and expectations.

Finally, you need to make sure you recruit guilds whose schedules can actually merge with yours. If your guild primarily raids weekends, you need to look for other weekend guilds. If you raid late evenings, seek out others that do the same. In the future, a successful raiding alliance may be able to field a variety of raids scheduled at all different times, but when you’re starting off, it’s more important to get your raids off the ground by finding people that can raid with you.

Leadership

Once you have some guilds on board, the next step is establishing your leadership. These will be the people that set the policies, quell any drama, and manage the alliance. Unlike a guild, a raiding alliance functions far better with an egalitarian committee of leadership rather than a hierarchy. It may be tempting to make your guild the “boss” since you started the alliance, but this approach will spell your demise in time. Instead, you should pick a handful of people (depending on the size of the alliance) that you think are capable of being reasonable and will look out for the interests of the group. The people who intend to lead raids are probably the best place to start, while guild leaders (unless they are one and the same) can sometimes be the worst since they are not only overwhelmed with other responsibilities but may not always be able to see past their own guild loyalties.

Each member may have a unique role (forum management, recruitment, etc), or they may split all jobs between them, but the important part is to value each person’s opinion as much as the next.

The leadership should establish a private area where they can set policies and discuss issues, and should set up a ratification plan for making suggestions become official rules. Allow the leadership to round table discussions, put them to vote, and gain a consensus with what works best for members.

In MCA, the leadership team is made up of the raid leaders, but also has included active players that put in a lot of time helping the alliance. We have found that a “set the policies, then hands off” approach has worked best for keeping our members happy and the atmosphere relaxed.

Chat Channel

Set up an in-game channel for members to join. This channel will be used to recruit for raids and fill spots due to absences. It can also be used to create heroic groups, legacy runs, trash farming groups, find crafters, and make Baradin Hold PuGs so players can get familiar with playing together. It also is a good avenue for social interaction to build friendships. Encourage members to join on their alts and also to invite raiding friends and good players they may encounter in PuGs. This has the advantage of not only being accessible even outside cities (unlike /trade), but is much more inclusive than a guild channel that can’t communicate with alts or allied guilds, but still exclusive enough to weed out the morons. This channel will be the foundation of your success.

It is very important to establish some ground rules for the channel regarding raid recruitment. You do not want people creating spur-of-the-moment PuGs for current content raids in your channel, as this will mean players who might have otherwise made viable subs will get locked out, hurting your legitimate raids later. In MCA, our channel rules permit only recruitment for established MCA raids (or new ones that are being built) for all current tier instances. Regularly scheduled PuGs are allowed and function like normal raids except with a fluid roster. Making legacy raids, five man groups, raids for prior tiers, or PuGs for things like Baradin Hold are permitted, and many members enjoy grouping together for these things. The one caveat is that when an established raid is doing invites for their regular run, no recruitment for anything may occur in channel until they either fill the raid or until it is 15 minutes past their usual start time.

You may also wish to set rules regarding language, spam and channel content, and even age restrictions, to prevent your raiding alliance channel from degenerating into /trade or making your members uncomfortable. Your guild may be used to bawdy jokes, but your new friends may not and you don’t want to scare them away.

Shared Forums

A shared webforum is also a necessity for a raiding alliance. It gives every member a place to meet, have access to rules and policies, and to socialise. Every member who wishes to raid with the alliance should be required to register with the forum, and individual raid leaders may request that their members check the forums on a regular basis for updates and details about their particular group.

The alliance leadership should give each raid its own subforum, and give the raid leader moderation privileges so they can create stickies, make polls and control the flow of discussion. Each subforum should include that information on its raid including roster, schedule, rules, leadership contact information and can be used to communicate absences, strategy ideals, or current goals.

MCA requires that all raids utilise the MCA forums for raid-related communication instead of their guild forums. This makes sure that all members of the alliance — including potential subs and new members — have equal access to rules, information, and communication without having to register at a guild’s personal website. It keeps all the data consolidated and available for all members.

The forums are also a necessary tool for building rosters and hammering out schedules among members who may not share a guild. It will also allow you to advertise new raids and raids that are seeking new members, drawing the attention not only of players who are seeking a raid, but those with alts who may wish to help out.

Finally, shared forums bring the benefit of inter-raid communications. It gives you a place to share strategies, resources and help one another. Your alliance may choose to let other members know when they got a rare in-demand crafting pattern, post a useful macro or to ask advice on that final end boss.

Loot Policy

The next critical policy your leadership must set is the loot rules. The loot policy for a raiding alliance should either be a standardised system used by every raid in the alliance, or there should be a requirement that each raid to publicly post its rules in advance so that everyone may have access to them and to prevent spur of the moment changes. If you use a points-based system like DKP, the points should be unique to each raid (not universal across the alliance) and they should be posted for fairness.

A very important factor to consider when setting up your raiding alliance’s loot policy is sub raiders. Although it seems counter intuitive, it is necessary for your raid’s success to institute a policy that is at least somewhat favourable to subs. If subs do not have a chance at loot, they will not raid with you, and a raiding alliance — more than anything else — relies on these players to keep raids running in times of player shortages. Your policy does not need to shower these players in loot, but they need at least a chance to benefit. Remember, they are helping you out by being there. Consider implementing a policy that allows them to win loot, but limits them to one item a night, or something that allows them to roll but permits reserved raiders to lock them out on critical pieces.

The simplest system, and the one most of MCA uses today, is a simple need/greed with minor limitations or custom tweaks. In my raid, for example, every reserved player is allowed to win one item by ‘need’ a night, but greed rolls are unlimited. Subs are allowed to roll ‘greed’ on anything they will use but can always be locked out by a reserved player’s ‘need roll.’  Special loot items may be established ahead of time to be separate from these rules (fun items, tier tokens, etc).

Your alliance will also need to set up a universal system for handling BoE drops. Unlike a guild, which may use these to fund their guild bank, these items are earned by a multi-guild roster with no clear way to share the bounty. You may choose to open roll these among members to do as they desire, or you may choose to distribute them like regular loot to the characters that will use them. You might even offer to share them with other raids in the alliance, or to sell them and distribute the profit equally among all members who were present at the time of the drop.

In MCA, we allow people to request BoEs for personal use (raiding characters only) provided they equip them to prevent selling. If no one present in the raid wants to use the BoEs, we allow other MCA raids to request them for their members (sometimes we trade if they have a BoE we want and vice versa). If they are unneeded within the alliance, the BoE is sold and the profit goes to the raid members.

Consider also how you will distribute legendary weapons, crafting patterns and materials, and raid gold.  You may choose to provide maelstrom crystals from sharded gear for your raiders free-of-charge. This is not only a nice perk for your members, but also encourages people to use the best enchants (which in turn helps your raid). If your raid is financially successful, you may also choose to distribute gold to your members or give people a repair “allowance.”  You may handle these things on a per-raid basis, or you might require all your raids to pool their crystals and other resources so that all raiding members may request them.

My final word of advice in this area is that I highly recommend against using loot council in a raiding alliance. Loot council can be a great system when used among a tight team, but it is a nightmare and a drama magnet when used with PuGs and players outside your guild. In the MCA, the only time loot council is ever utilised is for legendaries, to ensure they stay within the alliance, and this policy is established in advance and made clear to all members.

Roster & Attendance Policy

In a guild, it is always clear who has priority on a raid spot when inviting players from outside of the guild: your guildmates, of course. However, things are not this simple in a raiding alliance, both due to a multi-guild roster and the fairness requirements. Because of this, it is necessary to establish an attendance policy to allow people to “earn” their spot in the raid.

The policy should be clear how many raids need to be attended in order to be considered a regular, and should set rules regarding finding subs for players who will be late or absent. For fairness, it should be accepted that once a spot in the raid has been filed for the night (either because a player was late, missing, or failed to accept their invite), their sub cannot be removed from the raid should the original raider show up later or should a more “desirable” option log in (like a guildmate), unless you establish that plan with their replacement ahead of time. Sub raiders should only be removed from the raid for behavioural (or connection-related) reasons.

In MCA, attendance of four out of every six raids is required to earn and maintain reserved status. However, just meeting this requirement does not automatically grant a person reserved status; the final say is always with the individual raid leader. A raider leader may choose to keep a spot open because they need a particular class for balance, or because a regular raider is expected to return after an extended absence or for a number of other reasons. However, raid leaders must publish their reserved roster on their subforum so raiders players know where they stand in the raid. This is to prevent a raider from subbing for a number of months without knowing they are not considered reserved, and then being replaced unexpectantly by someone’s guildmate or friend. However, raid leaders should be aware that if they hold a spot for too long without offering the player a reserved spot, that that member may lose interest in the raid and they may lose the player they have been gearing and training for weeks.

Lastly, it is important to consider that an 80% guild roster can earn guilds achievements and experience and because of this, lot of guilds will try to maintain this ratio even in a raiding alliance. It is important that these raids be allowed to do so, however it is paramount that these raids still understand the premise of equality among members. Your leadership must establish policies to make sure that the other 20% of the raid is treated equally, with equal access to loot, funds and other advantages you offer to your raid membership.

Raider Responsibility Policy

Another universal policy you may wish to establish is regarding what things each raider is individually responsible for. In a raiding alliance, this usually extends far beyond what might be provided by a guild raid with a shared bank.

If each raider is expected to bring their own food, flasks, reagents, and gold for repairs, this should be clarified in the form of official policy. The rules should also be explicit if raiders are expected to keep their gear enchanted and gemmed proactively and on their own dime. Consider unique situations like resistance gear, too.  If a raider is expected to maintain the spec, talents and glyphs that he or she signed up with (you might never think that your main tank would show up one day spec’d Retribution and demand to DPS, but it can happen!) or if a raider is expected to change talents or roles at the demand of the raid leader, this should also be set as official policy.

These rules can be set alliance-wide or by each individual raid. If each raid takes its own approach, you should require the raid leader to post their policy on their sub forums.

Summary

The basic message your small guild should take from all of this is:

• Approach guilds with similar skills, attitude and schedule to raid together.
• Use a shared chat channel and web forums for recruiting and communication.
• Treat all members equally, regardless of guild affiliation.
• Reward subs and encourage them to keep raiding with you.
• Establish standardised rules and policies for all raids to follow.

If you think your guild or server can benefit from a raiding alliance, don’t wait for someone else to start one.  Get out there and work with friendly guilds to make it happen!  Good luck!

As Tier 11 raiding rolls along in the new Cataclysm expansion, it has been noted by many players and guilds that recruiting is becoming an increasing challenge, more than ever in the past. Although well-known, highly successful, and/or very large guilds might not face this issue, the average small guild is struggling to stay afloat. Although multiple factors are surely at play, I think the biggest culprit is the [otherwise-awesome] new guild system.

When the new system was announced and Cataclysm dropped, players scampered to create new guilds or align themselves with an existing one in order to take advantage of the new advantages. However, this may have been done haphazardly, because the landscape now looks like there are too many guilds with too few players. Instead of a hypothetical fifty guilds with solid rosters of active players, most servers ended up with a hundred guilds that all needed additional members to succeed in their goals. In an ideal world, or at least one without repercussions for moving guilds, this probably would correct itself in time as players who wanted to raid but couldn’t with their current guild would shift allegiances, and failing guilds would collapse or merge into others to create a sustainable amount of guilds that matched the demand of the players who wanted to raid.

However, this is complicated by the second major factor: Guild Reputation. With the new guild system providing lots of minor perks, rewards and advantages to players, Blizzard also introduced guild reputation to require individual contribution and to encourage guild loyalty. Unfortunately, what “encourages loyalty” also discourages moving on when appropriate. Players who might have otherwise been more open to seeking other opportunities and investigating new guilds now feel locked into their current one because they will lose their reputation level, which took months to earn. While there are probably far less fickle guild hoppers out there, there are now also swarms of people who feel pressured to remain in guilds that are not a good fit for them or that they have little personal attachment to (or are even downright unhappy with) or guilds that simply don’t have enough members to raid successfully.

This makes recruiting extremely difficult for these guilds. Guilds are petitioning players who don’t want to leave their existing guild because they will lose their reputation and potentially many of their perks and rewards. These recruits take a big risk to surrender all of these things for a new guild that might not even work out for them long-term. And if existing, established guilds who actually have things to offer new members struggle to be appealing enough to justify this risk, then for new guilds looking to start from the ground up it is arguably impossible to recruit. On top of all of these roadblocks, all these guilds are recruiting against dozens and dozens of other guilds in the exact same situation

A year ago, I would have told a good guild struggling to fill their ranks to keep trying. Today, I am not so sure this is good advice. All around me, I see guilds full of awesome people and great players who were extremely successful in prior expansions but are unable to even get a raid off the ground now. These are the kinds of guilds that would have been swimming in recruits before but now are only stagnant or worse.

So what can guilds do? Unfortunately, although there are some options, there are no easy solutions.

First, both guilds and individual players need to really heavily consider if what they have is worth hanging on to. A lot of players are so enamored with their reputation, guild levels and perks that they haven’t considered what they are giving up to keep them. Are they worth never being able to field raid? Are they worth being grouped with players you don’t get along with? Are they worth an empty, inactive guild?

Second, I think a recruiting paradigm shift is needed. Guilds to stop recruiting players and start recruiting other guilds. There are tons of guilds out there who are dying because they don’t have enough players. The remaining players may want to stick together, and they may be enticed by the opportunity to merge with a similar guild, especially if the immediate results are enough people to be raid viable. If you can find a like-minded guild or two, sit down with your remaining players and work out a position for absorbing new groups into your ranks, and how you will handle bank permissions and leadership. It won’t be easy, but it may be necessary for your survival.

If a merger isn’t appropriate for your guild for whatever reason, consider forming a guild alliance.  Approach other small guilds who are trying to recruit and see if you can combine forces to make raiding progress together.  Although your guilds will not be “credited” with achievements with less than 80% attendance, this can actually be an excellent way for smaller guilds to stay in the raiding game.  A shared chat channel and standardised rules and loot policy can help pave the way for a smooth allegiance.

Good luck to all those out there fighting to keep their place in the game world!

Although it is hardly news by now, Cataclysm is bringing a world of new guild features and guild support. Although still in beta, where things can and do and will change, I’d like to put out a solid overview of everything we are anticipating so far, based on announcements, blue posts and beta posters.

Watch out, this is a hefty post!

Guild Experience & Leveling

Much like players, guilds will earn experience points in Cataclysm and earn levels. Each level earned will unlock rewards for guild members (see “Perks” below). Guild experience is earned by all members of the guild by achievements, questing, doing dungeons and raids (boss kills), and successful rated battlegrounds. In the case of the latter two, groups must consist of 80% guild members to generate this bonus.

There is no cap on how many people in the guild can contribute to guild experience, but there is a cap on how much experience can be earned per day. This allows smaller guilds to keep up with larger guilds with effort.

Right now, feedback on the beta forums seems to indicate that guild experience is easy to earn and that guilds are leveling at a pretty swift pace.

Guild Reputation

Guild reputation is something earned by guild members that grants them access to particular rewards, advantages and impacts their contribution towards guild achievements. It is earned in a similar way to experience points – through questing, boss kills and rated battlegrounds — but on an individual basis based on a player’s sole contribution rather than by a guild group (although rep gains will be increased if this is the case). Reputation levels affect the player alone.

This information is not publicly available to other guild members or officers, nor can higher ranked players (including the GM) grant additional rep to other players.

Right now, feed back on the beta forums indicates that guild reputation is fairly difficult to earn.

Guild Achievements

Some of these may be redundant from various incarnations of the achievement (names and numbers are always being tweaked). I’ve sorted them and cleaned out duplicates as best I could, but I’ve left achievements that had the matching names but different numbers or vice versa, as I’m not sure which version will go live. I’ve included the rewards where I know it.

General Achievements

• Everyone Needs A Logo – Create and purchase a guild crest.
• It All Really Adds Up – Spend 100,000 gold on guildmember repairs.
• That’s a Lot of Travel Time – Complete 50,000 quests as a guild.
• A Daily Routine – Complete 25,000 daily quests. Reward: Battle Standard of Coordination
• You’ve Been Iced – Figure it out.
• Working as a Team – Obtain 525 skill points in all professions and secondary professions. Reward: Banner of Cooperation
• Critter Kill Squad – Kill 50,000 critters Reward: Armadillo Pup
• Profit Sharing – Loot 50,000 gold from creatures.
• Time To Open A Savings Account – Loot 1,000,0000 gold from creatures as a guild.
• Extended Storage – Purchase the 7th guild bank tab.
• Guild Vault (wip) – Purchased all 8 guild bank tabs.
• We Are Awesome – Obtain three of the legendary weapons listed below.
• We Are Legendary – Obtain all of the legendary weapons listed below.
• Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros – Guild Edition – Wielder of Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros.
• Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker – Guild Edition – Wielder of Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
• Warglaives of Azzinoth – Guild Edition (WIP) – Wielder of a set of Warglaives of Azzinoth.
• Thori’dal, the Stars’ Fury – Guild Edition – Wielder of Thori’dal, the Stars’ Fury
• Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings – Guild Edition – Wielder of Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings
• Shadowmourne – Guild Edition – Wielder of Shadowmourne
• Guild Level 5 – Reach guild level 5.
• Guild Level 10 – Reach guild level 10.
• Guild Level 15 – Reach guild level 15.
• Guild Level 20 – Reach guild level 20.
• Guild Level 25 – Reach guild level 25.
• Realm First! Working as a Team – First guild on the realm to obtain 525 skill points in all professions and secondary professions.
• Realm First! Nefarian – First guild on the realm to defeat Nefarian in Blackwing Descent on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
• Realm First! Al’Akir – First guild on the realm to defeat Al’Akir in the Throne of the Four Winds on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
• Realm First! Sinestra – First guild on the realm to defeat Sinestra in the Bastion of Twilight on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
• Realm First! Guild Level 25 – First guild on the realm to reach guild level 25.
• A Class Act – Reach level 85 on each of the classes listed below. Reward: Shroud of Cooperation
• Stay Classy – Complete the classy achievements listed below. Reward: Guild Vault Voucher (8th Tab)
• Classy Humans – Reach level 85 of each of the Human classes listed below.
• Classy Night Elves – Reach level 85 of each of the Night Elf classes listed below.
• Classy Gnomes – Reach level 85 of each of the Gnome classes listed below.
• Classy Dwarves – Reach level 85 of each of the Dwarven classes listed below.
• Classy Draenei – Reach level 85 of each of the Draenei classes listed below.
• Classy Worgen – Reach level 85 of each of the Worgen classes listed below.
• Saving For A Rainy Day – Loot 100,000 gold from creatures. Reward: Guild Herald
• Guild Cataclysm Dungeon Hero – Complete the heroic Cataclysm dungeon achievements listed below while in a guild group. Reward: Standard of Unity

PvP

• Are You Not Entertained?! – Earn a 2200 rating in the arena with a team composed entirely of guild members.
• Now That’s an Achievement – Earn 5000 guild achievement points.
• Kill Squad – Get 500,000 honorable kills.
• Guild Gankers – Get 1,000,000 honorable kills.
• Creepjackers – Get 2,500,000 honorable kills.
• City Attacker – Kill 500 enemy players in any Horde home city.
• City Attacker – Kill 500 enemy players in any Alliance home city.
• Active Duty – Win 500 Battlegrounds while in a guild group.
• Call of Duty – Win 1000 Battlegrounds while in a guild group.
• Tour of Duty – Win 1500 Battlegrounds while in a guild group.
• 5-Cap Crew – Win 10 Arathi Basin matches while controlling all 5 flags in a guild group.
• Alliance Slayer – Complete the slayer achievements listed below. Reward: Guild Page
• Orc Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Orc races listed below.
• Human Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Human races listed below.
• Night Elf Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Night Elf races listed below.
• Dwarf Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Dwarf races listed below.
• Draenei Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Draenei races listed below.
• Worgen Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Worgeni races listed below.
• Tauren Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Tauren races listed below.
• Undead Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Undead races listed below.
• Troll Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Troll races listed below.
• Blood Elf Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Blood Elf races listed below.
• Goblin Slayer – Get an honorable kill on each of the level 85 Goblin races listed below.
• Tol Barad Brigade – Win 500 battles for Tol Barad while in a guild group.
• The Peak of Perfection – Win 100 rated Twin Peaks matches with a score of 3 to 0 without dying while also getting at least 1 killing blow while in a guild group.
• Guild Gankin’ in Gilneas – Win 100 rated the Battle For Gilneas matches with a score of 2000 to 0 while in a guild group.
• Storming the Beach – In a rated Strand of the Ancients match, capture the Titan Relic in under four minutes 100 times while in a guild group.
• Guild Commanders – Earn the Commander title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Champions – Earn the Champion title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Marshals – Earn the Marshal title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Generals – Earn the General title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Field Marshals – Earn the Field Marshal title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Warlords – Earn the Warlord title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Grand Marshals – Earn the Grand Marshal title on all of the classes below.
• Guild High Warlords – Earn the High Warlord title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Battlemasters – Earn the Battlemaster title on all of the classes below.
• Call of Battle – Win a ranked arena match while in a guild group.
• Guild Rivals – Earn the Rival title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Duelists – Earn the Duelist title on all of the classes below.
• Guild Gladiators – Earn the Gladiator title on all of the classes below.
• Now That’s Teamwork – Win 1000 Rated Battlegrounds while in a guild group.
• Stick Together Team – Win 2000 Rated Battlegrounds while in a guild group.
• Stick Together Team – Win 2000 Rated Battlegrounds while in a guild group.
• The Perfect Guild Storm – Win a rated Eye of the Storm match with a score of 1600 to 0 while in a guild raid.
• Guild Gulch – Win a rated Warsong Gulch match with a score of 3 to 0 while in a guild raid.
• The Buddy System – Win 500 arena matches with a team composed of guild members.
• Killing With Friends – Win 1000 arena matches with a team composed entirely of guild members.

Professions

• Skinnin’ For A Livin’ – Skin 10,000 corpses.
• Dust, Dust and more Dust! – Disenchant 10,000 items.
• Dinner Party – Place 5,000 Feasts.
• Set the Oven to “Cataclysmic” – Cook 5,000 Cataclysm cooking recipes.
• Bushels and Bushels – Gather 50,000 herbs.
• Mix Master – Create 10,000 Cataclysm flasks.
• Better Leveling Through Chemistry – Create 25,000 Cataclysm flasks. Reward: Big Cauldron of Battle (Recipe)
• Mighty Miners – Mine 50,000 ore and rocks.
• Gemcrafter Extrodinare – Cut 25,000 gems of at least superior quality.
• Master Crafter – Craft 1,500 Epic items with an item level of at least 359. Reward: Cloak of Coordination
• The Pen is Mightier – Create 25,000 glyphs.
• Making History – Complete 500 Archaeology projects.
• That’s A Lot of Bait – Catch 10,000 fish from fishing pools. Reward: Seafood Magnifique Feast (Recipe)
• That’s A Lot of Bait – Catch 50,000 fish from fishing pools.
• We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat – Catch 100,000 fish from fishing pools.

Classic Dungeons & Raids

• Ragefire Chasm Guild Run – Defeat Taragaman the Hungerer.
• Deadmines Guild Run – Defeat “Captain” Cookie.
• Wailing Caverns Guild Run – Defeat Mutanus the Devourer.
• Shadowfang Keep Guild Run – Defeat Lord Godfrey.
• Blackfathom Deeps Guild Run – Defeat Aku’mai.
• Stormwind Stockade Guild Run – Defeat Hogger.
• Razorfen Kraul Guild Run – Defeat Charlga Razorflank.
• Gnomeregan Guild Run – Defeat Mekgineer Thermaplugg.
• Razorfen Downs Guild Run – Defeat Amnennar the Coldbringer.
• Scarlet Monastery Guild Run – Defeat the Scarlet Crusade within the Scarlet Monastery.
• Uldaman Guild Run – Defeat Archaedas.
• Zul’Farrak Guild Run – Defeat Chief Ukorz Sandscalp.
• Maraudon Guild Run – Defeat Princess Theradras.
• Sunken Temple Guild Run – Defeat Shade of Eranikus.
• Blackrock Depths Guild Run – Defeat Emperor Dagran Thaurissan.
• Lower Blackrock Spire Guild Run – Defeat Overlord Wyrmthalak.
• King of Dire Maul Guild Run – Defeat each wing of Dire Maul.
• Scholomance Guild Run – Defeat the leaders of Scholomance.
• Stratholme Guild Run – Defeat the evil masterminds inhabiting Stratholme.
• Guild Classic Raider – Complete the classic raid achievements listed below while in a guild group.
• Molten Core Guild Run – Defeat Ragnaros.
• Blackwing Lair Guild Run – Defeat Nefarian.
• Temple of Ahn’Qiraj Guild Run – Defeat C’Thun.
• Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj Guild Run – Defeat Ossirian the Unscarred.

Burning Crusade Dungeons & Raids

• Guild Outland Dungeon Hero – Complete the heroic Burning Crusade dungeon achievements listed below while in a guild group.
• Heroic: Hellfire Ramparts Guild Run – Defeat the leaders of Hellfire Ramparts on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Blood Furnace Guild Run – Defeat Keli’dan the Breaker on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Slave Pens Guild Run – Defeat Quagmirran on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Underbog Guild Run – Defeat The Black Stalker on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Mana-Tombs Guild Run – Defeat Nexus-Prince Shaffar on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Auchenai Crypts Guild Run – Defeat Exarch Maladaar on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Escape From Durnholde Guild Run – Defeat Epoch Hunter on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Sethekk Halls Guild Run – Defeat Talon King Ikiss on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Shadow Labyrinth Guild Run – Defeat Murmur on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Opening of the Dark Portal Guild Run – Defeat Aeonus on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Steamvault Guild Run – Defeat Warlord Kalithresh on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Shattered Halls Guild Run – Defeat Warchief Kargath Bladefist on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Mechanar Guild Run – Defeat Pathaleon the Calculator on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Botanica Guild Run – Defeat Warp Splinter on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Arcatraz Guild Run – Defeat Harbinger Skyriss on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Magister’s Terrace Guild Run – Defeat Kael’thas Sunstrider on Heroic Difficulty.
• Guild Outland Raider – Complete the Burning Crusade raid achievements listed below while in a guild group.
• Karazhan Guild Run – Defeat Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan.
• Zul’Aman Guild Run – Defeat Zul’jin in Zul’Aman.
• Gruul’s Lair Guild Run – Defeat Gruul the Dragonkiller in Gruul’s Lair.
• Magtheridon’s Lair Guild Run – Defeat Magtheridon in Magtheridon’s Lair.
• Serpentshrine Cavern Guild Run – Defeat Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Cavern.
• Tempest Keep Guild Run – Defeat Kael’thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep.
• The Battle for Mount Hyjal Guild Run – Defeat Archimonde in The Battle for Mount Hyjal.
• The Black Temple Guild Run – Defeat Illidan Stormrage in The Black Temple.
• Sunwell Plateau Guild Run – Defeat Kil’jaeden in Sunwell Plateau.

Wrath Dungeons & Raids

• Guild Northrend Dungeon Hero – Complete the heroic Northrend dungeon achievements listed below while in a guild group.
• Heroic: Utgarde Keep Guild Run – Defeat the Utgarde Keep bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Nexus Guild Run – Defeat The Nexus bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Azjol-Nerub Guild Run – Defeat the Azjol-Nerub bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom Guild Run – Defeat the Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Drak’Tharon Keep Guild Run – Defeat the Drak’Tharon Keep bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Violet Hold Guild Run – Defeat Cyanigosa in The Violet Hold on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Gundrak Guild Run – Defeat the Gundrak bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Halls of Stone Guild Run – Defeat the boss encounters in the Halls of Stone on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Halls of Lightning Guild Run – Defeat the Halls of Lightning bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Oculus Guild Run – Defeat The Oculus bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Utgarde Pinnacle Guild Run – Defeat the Utgarde Pinnacle bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Culling of Stratholme Guild Run – Defeat the Caverns of Time: Stratholme bosses on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Trial of the Champion Guild Run – Defeat the bosses in the Trial of the Champion on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: The Forge of Souls Guild Run – Defeat the bosses in The Forge of Souls on Heroic difficulty
• Heroic: The Pit of Saron Guild Run – Defeat the bosses in The Pit of Saron on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: The Halls of Reflection Guild Run – Defeat the bosses in The Halls of Reflection on Heroic difficulty.
• Glory of the Lich King Raider – Complete the Northrend raid achievements listed below while in a guild group.
• The Twilight Zone – Guild Edition – With all three Twilight Drakes still alive, engage and defeat Sartharion the Onyx Guardian while in a guild group..
• Alone in the Darkness – Guild Edition – Defeat Yogg-Saron without the assistance of any Keepers while in a guild group.
• Just Can’t Get Enough – Guild Edition – Defeat Kel’Thuzad in Naxxramas while killing at least 18 abominations in his chamber while in a group group.
• You Don’t Have an Eternity – Guild Edition – Defeat Malygos in 6 minutes or less while in a guild group.
• He Feeds On Your Tears – Guild Edition – Defeat Algalon the Observer while in a guild group without any raid member dying to Algalon at any point during that raid lockout period.
• Call of the Crusade – Guild Edition – Defeat every boss in the Trial of the Crusader while in a guild group.
• The Twilight Destroyer – Guild Edition – Defeat Halion in The Ruby Sanctum while in a guild group.
• The Frozen Throne – Guild Edition – Defeat the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel while in a guild group.

Cataclysm Dungeons & Raids

• Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider – Complete the Cataclysm raid achievements listed below while in a guild group.
• Blackwing Descent Guild Run – Defeat the bosses in Blackwing Descent while in a guild group.
• Throne of the Four Winds Guild Run – Defeat the bosses in Throne of the Four Winds while in a guild group.
• The Bastion of Twilight Guild Run – Defeat the bosses in the Bastion of Twilight while in a guild group.
• Guild Cataclysm Dungeon Hero – Complete the heroic Cataclysm dungeon achievements listed below while in a guild group.
• Heroic: Blackrock Caverns Guild Run – Defeat Ascendant Lord Obsidius on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: Throne of the Tides Guild Run – Defeat Ozumat in Throne of the Tides on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: The Stonecore Guild Run – Defeat High Priestess Azil in the Stonecore on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: The Vortex Pinnacle Guild Run – Defeat Grand Vizier Ertan in the Vortex Pinnacle on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: Grim Batol Guild Run – Defeat Erudax in Grim Batol on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: Halls of Origination Guild Run – Defeat Rajh in Halls of Origination on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: Lost City of the Tol’vir Guild Run – Defeat Siamat, Lord of the South Wind in the Lost City of the Tol’vir in Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: Shadowfang Keep Guild Run – Defeat Lord Godfrey in Shadowfang Keep on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: Deadmines Guild Run – Defeat “Captain” Cookie in Deadmines on Heroic difficulty.
• Heroic: Shadowfang Keep Guild Run – Defeat Lord Godfrey in Shadowfang Keep on Heroic difficulty.
• Baradin Hold Guild Run – Defeat Argaloth in Baradin Hold while in a guild group.
• Heroic: Cho’gall Guild Run – Defeat Cho’gall in the Bastion of Twilight on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
• Heroic: Nefarian Guild Run – Defeat Nefarian in Blackwing Descent on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
• Heroic: Al’Akir Guild Run – Defeat Al’Akir in the Throne of the Four Winds on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.
• Heroic: Sinestra Guild Run – Defeat Sinestra in the Bastion of Twilight on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.

Reputation

• Diplomacy – Raise 15 reputations to Exalted.
• Ambassadors – Raise 25 reputations to Exalted.
• Dungeon Diplomat – Earn exalted with the dungeon reputations listed below.
• Raid Representation – Earn exalted with the raid reputations listed below.
• Classic Battles – Earn exalted reputation with the classic battlegrounds listed below.
• United Nations – Raise 55 reputations to Exalted. Reward: Dark Phoenix Hatchling

Guild Perks & Rewards

There are two primary types of rewards to guild members: those rewarded to the guild, and those rewarded to the individual. Most of the perks and rewards in the game are unlocked by the guild earning a particular level or achievement

Guild rewards include things like earning extra materials, money, rep, or honour in guild groups, or the ability to buy more guild bank tabs, stronger consumbles, or being able to summon guild members.

Individual rewards are unlocked via level or achievement, allowing interested members to purchase these rewards with gold, provided they have the corresponding level of reputation. However, there are some rewards are free to players, and some do not require rep. These include pets, mounts, guild heralds, and other vanity items.

Heirlooms earned through the new guild system will be unlocked by guild level and must be bought from the guild coffer for a hefty flat fee. Once purchased on the guild level, individual guild members can buy their own heirlooms for own use with their alts. These heirlooms are for different slots than those in Wrath, and work from 1-85.

Leveling Perks

The following are the guild perks granted as the guild levels. Some of these are only unlocked and must be purchased further for the guild to use (like bank tabs):

Level 1: Fast Track (Rank 1) Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.
Level 2: Mount Up Increases speed while mounted by 5%. Not active in Battlegrounds or Arenas.
Level 3: Mr. Popularity (Rank 1) Reputation gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.
Level 4: Cash Flow (Rank 1) Each time you loot money from an enemy, an extra 5% money is generated and deposited directly into your guild bank.
Level 5: Fast Track (Rank 2) Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 10%.
Level 6: Reinforce (Rank 1) Items take 5% less durability loss when you die.
Level 7: Hasty Hearth Reduces the cooldown on your Hearthstone by 15 minutes.
Level 8: Reinforce (Rank 2) Items take 10% less durability loss when you die.
Level 9: Chug-A-Lug (Rank 1) The duration of buffs from all guild cauldrons and feasts is increased by 50%.
Level 10: Mobile Banking Summons your guild bank. Instant, 1 hr cooldown
Level 11: Mr. Popularity (Rank 2) Reputation gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 10%.
Level 12: Honorable Mention (Rank 1) Increases Honor points gained by 5%.
Level 13: Working Overtime Increases the chance to gain a skill increase on tradeskills by 10%.
Level 14: The Quick and the Dead Increases health and mana gained when resurrected by a guild member by 50% and increases movement speed while dead by 100%. Does not function in combat or while in a Battleground or Arena.
Level 15: Cash Flow (Rank 2) Each time you loot money from an enemy, an extra 10% money is generated and deposited directly into your guild bank.
Level 16: Guild Mail In-game mail sent between guild members now arrives instantly.
Level 17: Everyone’s A Hero (Rank 1) Increases Heroism points gained by 5%.
Level 18: Honorable Mention (Rank 2) Increases Honor points gained by 10%.
Level 19: Happy Hour Increases the number of flasks gained from using a flask cauldron by 100%.
Level 20: Have Group, Will Travel Summons all raid or party members to the caster’s current location. Unlimited range, 6 sec cast / Channeled, 2 hr cooldown
Level 21: Chug-A-Lug (Rank 2) The duration of buffs from all guild cauldrons and feasts is increased by 100%.
Level 22: Bountiful Bags Increases the quantity of materials gained from Mining, Skinning, Herbalism, and Disenchanting by 15%.
Level 23: Bartering Reduces the price of items from all vendors by 5%.
Level 24: Everyone’s A Hero (Rank 2) Increases Heroism points gained by 10%.
Level 25: Mass Resurrection Brings all dead party and raid members back to life with 35 health and 35 mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. 64% of base mana, Unlimited range, 10 sec cast

Guild UI

The Guild UI is changing pretty significantly, as well. The new guild social pane will now show:

• Guild experience bar
• Upcoming events
• Recent achievements
• Your Personal guild rep

Additionally, you will now be able to use your guild members list to pull up information on your guild mates’ professions to see if they have particular receipes. You can do this even if they are offline.

Guild leaders also have new advanced control over ranks and permissions. Previously, you could only add ranks in order of their power, so if you messed up and forgot to add the Office rank before you added the Peon rank, you had to go through and add a new rank, demote everyone to it, promote the peon rank to officer and the new rank to peon, and then promote all the members back accordingly. The new interface will allow you to shift entire ranks up and down. You can now also force certain ranks to use authenticators, if you want to make sure officers are using them or to create special ranks with more bank access to reward people for their security. The option to set the permissions for each rank is supposed to be less buggy and cumbersome, as well.

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