American Raiding

[DaTruth]

Dear active and knowledgeable American raiders,

Hello for the sake of this thread you can call me Truth. I have been on this server since 2012 and have seen the history of guilds and realms (mostly old Lordaeron and Deathwing, partial Ragnaros experience). Like many of you I have achieved and farmed all endgame WOTLK raids on multiple classes and specs. Unfortunately over the years I have found a disconcerting lack of successful American guilds (those that farm LOD and RS 25 HC without exploits) and hope that my experience and wisdom can help rectify this phenomenon.

That being said here are some typical pitfalls of American guilds that I see (it hurts us more than Europeans as their numbers are greater and they can be more selective)
1. Terrible/jokey/not serious guild names
-People like to think perception doesn't matter, but it does, a solid/serious guild name encourages more serious and dedicated raiders to apply and join. It's great your guild name is funny, its not great that it will be dead in 3 to 4 months.
2. Lack of forum and global chat advertisement
-Everyone wants to do 25 man raids, that's the goal, everyone wants to be part of a community, but a community doesn't sustain itself without raiding success and loot. Please if you make a guild advertise it both in the forums and spam global at appropriate American hours. Quit making 10 man guilds and thinking you will just grow without strategic effort, there is not that many of us and therefore we need to be aware of each other and combine our efforts.
3. Time zones/raid times/factions
- I understand there is a west coast and east coast and not all people can come together at the same time because of it. However if you can pick some middle ground time between the west and east coast you can practically double your guild numbers. Then of course there is faction, but once some guild management gets their business together most Americans will flock to whatever faction is successful at that time slot. That being said however, you might want to consider making an Alliance guild if only to let your guildmates benefit from your PVE success in PVP as well, you can attract and retain PvPers easier.
4. Inexperienced/unreliable leadership
-If your experience is from retail, please stop thinking your ready to guild/raid lead in Warmane. You don't remember everything from 8 years ago, its a private server, you have stuff to learn. There are Warmane veterans who will teach, half of them are arrogant though and you should replace them after you learn from them, if they continue to have an elitist attitude. Finding the guild membership between fresh and eager vs jaded and veteran is the key. Fresh and eager show up to raids, jaded and veteran are unreliable when your a new guild trying to prove itself.
-If you plan to lead a guild please know that you will probably have to raid at least 4 nights a week to be successful, ICC core run, ICC rerun, RS night, and ICC alt run. Anything less then this will cause poor results and membership fragmentation to other guilds.
5. Progression raiding
-It's great that you want to slowly progress through Naxx/Ulduar/ToC before farming ICC and RS, relive the nostalgia for your own sake but realize by doing this you also limit yourself to membership much like raid times/time zones/ and factions cause. Everyone thinks they are going to be that progression leader that gets it done, but chances are you + 2 other guys think that at the same time and therefore have different guilds and not enough raid membership. Once again its about being vigilant of your environment. We must work together. Not all guilds are for all types, but when content has a fixed final finish point, realize that's where most people want to end up, more often sooner than later.

I'd like to conclude this post with current American guilds that exist in order to help organize the American raiding community. However my immediate Horde knowledge may be lacking as I do not play the faction currently and rely on their forum posts for progress and consistency.

Clockwork [Horde] (currently top American guild farming LOD and RS 25 HC, but west coast raid times limiting their membership)
Prestige [Horde] (second tier American guild, significant heroic progress, with consistent normal clears, east coast raid times)
Impure [Alliance] (fresh guild, looking to grow, 8 PM EST raid time)
Blind Evil [Alliance] (fresh guild, seems more South American based, 8 PM EST raid time)
Advanced Player [Alliance] (recently fell apart due to poor management but had 10/12 25 HC progress, meaning there are now available heroic raiders to be gathered)
Parabellum [Alliance] South American based

If you are an American raiding guild and wish to make your presence known feel free to state your name, raid times, and progress in the comments. If you have any more common pitfalls to add please comment as well. Lastly I understand most players do not read the forums, but if you are a member of an American guild please point your GM to this post if only to help them avoid the things that cause many to fail in their endeavors.

[Sunjoh]

I think you're missing one thing - some of us, like my self, don't want to join an established guild farming the hardest content currently.

some of us want a guild with no cash shop bull**** gear and want to start from scratch, aka Naxx. I know this is a nerfed server, but the 7x leveling rate is too good to pass up when you're burnt out on leveling the old fashioned way and just want to get to end game asap.

i guess you could make the argument that "well if you want the challenege of old WotLK, go join Lordaeron where it is." i can agree with that. BUT, like i said, the 7x leveling rate on Icecrown is way too appealing when all you're really chasing is the old school END GAME content, not the ACTUAL blizz experience from 2008-2010 or whenever WotLK was where leveling took weeks to about a month (depending on hours/day you put in).

that's why when I hit 80, i'm gonna be looking for a guild thats starting at naxx 10 or 25 and progressing the old fashioned way.

doesn't seem like much guilds do that, so i'm either going to have to hope that by the time i do hit 80 i can find a guild like that, or i'm gonna have to make one my self.

either way, you do make some good points i think you over looked that one thing :)

[dike]

don't want to join an established guild farming the hardest content currently.

want a guild with no cash shop bull**** gear and want to start from scratch, aka Naxx.

I know this is a nerfed server

brain lag, neuron cell activity not detected

[Sunjoh]

brain lag, neuron cell activity not detected

i mean, i addressed that exact conundrum in the post though.

going out of your way to be an edgy **** just shows you're miserable with your life. it's ok boss, things will get better :)

just try to be a bit more positive and you will get it back in return :)

[Deathsmaster]

I think you're missing one thing - some of us, like my self, don't want to join an established guild farming the hardest content currently.

some of us want a guild with no cash shop bull**** gear and want to start from scratch

be greatful for the cash shop guys, they let you play here for free sir.

that's why when I hit 80, i'm gonna be looking for a guild thats starting at naxx 10 or 25 and progressing the old fashioned way.

I do wish you luck, however I feel there aren’t that many players that feel this way for very long, catching like minded people at the same time as you is rare, but good luck!

either way, you do make some good points i think you over looked that one thing :)

I agree, good points!

4. Inexperienced/unreliable leadership
-If your experience is from retail, please stop thinking your ready to guild/raid lead in Warmane. You don't remember everything from 8 years ago, its a private server, you have stuff to learn. There are Warmane veterans who will teach, half of them are arrogant though and you should replace them after you learn from them, if they continue to have an elitist attitude. Finding the guild membership between fresh and eager vs jaded and veteran is the key. Fresh and eager show up to raids, jaded and veteran are unreliable when your a new guild trying to prove itself.

This I think, was the most important point in your post. Although I do think it’s possible to be both, I consider myself to have a decent knowledge base, be geared to the teeth, as well as eager to play, raid and have fun with people that are just here to play the game as well as raid end game content. There are a few of us that fall into that category. It is extremely fun to help new players to discover the game again, and help them along the way.

5. Progression raiding
-It's great that you want to slowly progress through Naxx/Ulduar/ToC before farming ICC and RS, relive the nostalgia for your own sake but realize by doing this you also limit yourself to membership much like raid times/time zones/ and factions cause. Everyone thinks they are going to be that progression leader that gets it done, but chances are you + 2 other guys think that at the same time and therefore have different guilds and not enough raid membership.

Another valid point. It has been my experience, that these guilds typically last a few months, and fizzle out. Guilds have a shelf life, and it is rare to find one that lasts more than 6 months unless your constantly bringing in new people, and new people won’t always want to wait for your guild to progress to ICC through the old content, and those that do, you have to redo old content to get them up to par. Things fall apart there. It’s better to do an 1 old raid per week, majority picks, and do it with a comparable geared toon, to give you that nostalgia feel.

[Subtracting]

As an American I could never join American guilds for that long because most of the time its populated with people that don't act their age at all , thus creating drama / unfocused during raids. I'd rather be in a European guild with a much more professional atmosphere.

[Sunjoh]

Another valid point. It has been my experience, that these guilds typically last a few months, and fizzle out. Guilds have a shelf life, and it is rare to find one that lasts more than 6 months unless your constantly bringing in new people, and new people won’t always want to wait for your guild to progress to ICC through the old content, and those that do, you have to redo old content to get them up to par. Things fall apart there. It’s better to do an 1 old raid per week, majority picks, and do it with a comparable geared toon, to give you that nostalgia feel.

damn, that 's just unfortunate. right now while leveling, all i see is spam for ICC/RS/TOA. doing this content over and over will get boring extremely fast. i already raided ICC for months when it was relevant content.

how long have people been raiding this stuff? from what i've heard, ICC already has the 30% damage buff, it sounds like this content would get burnt out extremely fast nowadays. do people really just level to 80 as fast as possible to raid 2-3 things for a few months and get bored?

i'm just in a weird position where i've leveled the regular way about a hundred times over the last 12 years, i can't do it anymore man. i started a prot pally on Medivh and I can't bring my self to play it anymore and i'm only level 14. so it's like, icecrown is really nice, because i can get to 80 fast, but then ALL i have to look forward to is running those catch up dungeons, icc, voa, and rs. kind of makes me not want to continue....we'll see.