I’ve debated writing on this topic for the last couple of weeks, but I figured since my entire WoW life is currently wrapped up in the process, I should probably come clean. I am being used, with my consent, as the test subject for the great Wrath / Cataclysm mantra:
Bring the player!
How It All Started
I’ve been ineffectively wringing my hands over here for the past month or two, bemoaning the fact that while I like my guild mates, its not the right home for me in terms of raiding. While I’ve tried to just sitting it out and waiting, I realized that I don’t ever log in when I’m not raiding — raid time is for mains, non-raid time is for achievements and leveling alts, which I tend to guild with my bank alt to make all that mat switching easy.
Friends and family members offered advice: make a guild, start applying, wait until Cataclysm and then guild shop, and even a few offers to check out specific guilds. I tentatively looked around, but I had two major obstacles: my availability, and my desire not to carry Windsoar into another cycle of raiding. For the right guild, I would consider it, but it’d have to be perfect in every way. The second causes a rather singular problem when applying, as guilds need something to look at, and for progression oriented guilds, things like parses are standard.
Into this conundrum, I received an e-mail from Gaia, a new blogger running Dedicated Insanity with Roksi, and I must say it peeked my interest. I was being recruited… sort of.
The Experiment
Gaia & Roski run a progression oriented 10-man raiding guild. Their guild is winding down for the end of the expansion after their heroic Lich King kill, and the guild is working on finishing up a few achievements that they missed along the way. From crawling through my thoughts on WoW and raiding that I’ve shared here on my blog, they think I’d make a good fit in personality for their guild, although my skill in a dungeon is questionable.
Still, despite that, they’ve issued an invitation to apply to their home. What they needed was either a dps/tank or healer/dps combo to fill out their ranks. Talking to Gaia, I learned that if they had their pick, a restoration/balance druid would fill their needs perfectly. The problem: I don’t have a druid. While I could have fit either Windsoar or Nightfall into the criteria of what they’re seeking, for a small 10-man team, meeting the exact need would be the best. Instead, I did the next best thing, and rolled an entirely new character in order to apply.
The Concerns
Of course, there are concerns on both sides about whether I will actually be a good fit once I am in a position to raid with my druid.
I have little to no proof of my ability to raid at the level in which this guild has performed throughout the expansion. Throughout my WoW career, I have had 4 different raiding mains. Listing out my guilds and progress was fairly depressing as I noted the littering of failed guilds that followed my name. My current characters that *could* potentially be considered raiding fit have not been touched since 4.0 came out. They’re missing glyphs, gems, and enchants, all of which doesn’t bespeak someone who takes good care of their character’s gear, a bad sign for a progression guild. They’ve expressed concern about my being an “alt-person” which apparently is synonymous with upsetting the roster on a semi-permanent basis.
My concerns are a bit different, but still there. While I have sat in on vent during a raid, it wasn’t progression–personalities seem to fit together rather seamlessly, however, which is a good sign. Where I will fit in is not exactly clear either. I may end up being in a second-string position, a fall-back for people who have longer ties and excellent records for showing up and doing things right. Since the guild is firmly established, it is not somewhere I can suggest that my friends apply on a whim, which can be good or bad–good because we rarely have the same schedules anyway, but bad, because for the first time in years I know that if accepted I will not be raiding with people who I know and know me and the way I twitch intimately. Even more embarrassing to think about is, what if I don’t measure up. I’ve never played a druid at end-game–although I feel confident that I can play anything well, that doesn’t mean it will be so. What would be worse than taking the effort to level up, feel all good about being a part of the team, and then getting a very polite rejection that I would then feel compelled to tell the rest of the community about. Yikes!
The Potential Gain
I can’t speak for what Production Company feels they’ve receive from the process, other than another applicant who may or may not work out. From my end, I am looking at a guild that matches exactly what I consider a raiding guild to be. The guild is a dedicated 10-man, I can meet all current raiding times, raid rules are set up to maximize time and limit distractions, such as /afk’s, needless buff asking and the like. Expectations for out of raid are what I’d expect: getting your stuff together and being prepped for raids. From my end, it’s very easy to see what I’d be getting–the raid experiences I’ve been lacking since the beginning of this expansion, and I must say, the idea of having a home again is appealing.
Despite the potential for a bruised ego, I’ve decided to talk about this application process. It’s interesting to be recruited from the pages of a blog, and even more so, to see what challenges arise from something a little out of the ordinary. If it doesn’t work out, I won’t bat an eye over the leveling process–leveling a druid with the new talent trees has been a blast so far, and deserves a post of it’s very own!
I’m also curious what others think about such a different take on the application process. Here I am, a virtual unknown to the people recruiting me, yet offering a chance to someone starting a brand-new character on a brand-new server to apply with them. Would it be something you’d ever consider, as an applicant or a guild leader?
