Taking the next step, joining a guild

What's the best way to get into a good guild? I've been playing WOW for about 4 months. I've created two characters, both warriors, and have taken them both to level 60. I've learned to use the auction house and am pretty good at making money...both my characters got their mount as soon as I hit level 40. At this point, the game has started to get a bit boring. So, I guess the next step is to join a guild. Problem is, I have no idea how to go about that. I often get invitations to join guilds, but they just seem to come out of nowhere and I don't have any idea whether it a guild I'd want to join or not. What's involved in selecting and getting into a guild?

If you're just 60 - you got a major problem because all guilds today is 70 =)
HINT: The Burning Crusade .

You deffently should ask around your realm about the guilds there to learn more about them .
When done so - start appyling to the guilds you would like to be in - depending on PvE progress or how active PvP they got =)

Have fun .

all guilds today is 70 =)

untrue...you can join a guild at any point (if they'll have you), and there are plenty of low lvl guilds...my guild has some 70s, and some people that are just starting out in the teens and 20s...

just look around, talk to some people, if you get help with a quest, or do an instance run with some folks, like the way they play, or think they're nice, ask them about their guild afterwards, and see how to join if it's possible...

That's sort of part of my question...I've built up both characters without ever being in a group or doing an instance with anyone else. I'm not really sure how to get into a group or join a party doing an instance. I've just played the game as though it was a first person shooter, just doing the quests as they come up and ignoring the ones that absolutely require a group to complete. How do you get into a group to do an instance?

There are many ways to find groups for quests/instances, or to find a guild. Many of these ways are very annoying to other people and therefore not super successful.

My first suggestion is to start a new character and treat it the opposite way you treated your two current characters. What I mean by that is try to level them with as much group content as possible. Sure, do solo quests that give you good reputation or good gear upgrades, but as soon as you hit lvl 12 or so, start looking for a group to go to RFC (if you're horde). Read up on how to play your part in an instance, or in a Battleground (they're PvP, but also a group activity). There are lots of insights into this sort of thing at wowinsider.com. The low level instances are designed to ease you into the group aspect of fighting.

My second suggestion (only if you really don't like the idea of my first suggestion), is to start PuGging Hellfire instances (Ramparts, and Blood Furnace mainly at your level). PuG = Pick-up-Group. This means join the LFG channel (by default, the "I" button on your keyboard, or type "/LFG" to bring up the LFG window), selecting the instance you want to run (you can choose up to 3 at a time, to increase your chances of finding a group quickly). With luck, you'll get 5 people together (don't do any instances that require more than 5 people for a while, as those are generally harder and more confusing to the uninitiated), and they'll be forgiving as you try to figure out how to run an instance when they've probably been doing it for the past 50 levels or so.

Really, the best way to get into it is to read up on it some, and dive right in. Don't expect it to be easy (or even fun, necessarily) at first, as you might just get your ass kicked for a while. But if you pay attention and find a good group of people who will encourage you, point out tips on how to improve, and really focus on figuring out what you should and shouldn't do, you'll end up a good addition to any instance run, and you'll have lots of fun doing it!

Another thing you might want to try first, is to use the "General" channel (usually "/1 <message>") to look for people to group up with for basic questing in Hellfire Peninsula (if you're in Outland, which I assume you are at lvl 60, but maybe you don't have the Burning Crusade yet), or EPL, or Silithus, etc. Getting used to working with other people and their class's abilities is important, and group questing is faster than solo questing most of the time.

OK, I just realized I ignored your very first sentence of your very first post in this thread. However, by doing what I talk about above, you're likely to run into lots of people who are in guilds. By talking to them and figuring out what they're like in the random encounter group, you might get a feel for what their guild is like, and at that point, ask about what is involved in joining them. I find the best guilds (not necessarily the furthest along in end-game) are the ones that don't recruit heavily, but instead lead by example, and draw recruits to them by their actions and behavior in PuG situations.

Hope this helps some.

Wow! Excellent post! This is really helpful. I'm headed to wowinsider.com right now and I'm going to start building up a new character tonight. One good thing...having built up my other two characters and done a bit of grinding and working the auction house, I've got plenty of gold available (1000+) to get good equipment.

Thanks for the help, frumpyandy; I really appreciate it.

All guilds are not created equal. Some are simply groups of people without rules or commitment whose members want company and little else. This may be what you are looking for and, if so, that is fine. Such guilds tend to be 'open enrollment' and easy to find. Other guilds offer support, information, and varying degrees of instancing. At higher levels (in particular) you often find guilds whose primary purpose is PVP or Raiding. Guilds of this type generally expect you to have both group-skills and equipment when you join. It may take some experimentation to find a guild that meets your needs. Some people change guilds once or twice as their interests change. This is most often some time after they've reached 70 and want to explore the larger raid instances.

Because you've built two characters without the benefits of a guild, you won't have any idea what a guild can offer. You also won't have the skills you need to act as a team when questing, or to play a particular role in an instance group. Since other posts have responded about the group skills, I'm going to stick to the 'people' part of guilds. For example, are you interested in spending an extra half-hour collecting ore or herbs in a area because you know another guild-member needs them? Will it bother you to spend 90 minutes in an instance with someone trying to learn how THEIR character works best in a group?

In all but the most casual of guilds, you are welcome to use the items and benefits they offer. This can be significant! A guild can give you materials, equipment, recipes and items that are impossible for you to get on your own. Help for a boss (or maybe the missing mat u need to make an epic item for your character) is only a whisper away. The flip-side of the coin is that you are one of a group. If a fabulous drop occurs in an instance, you are NOT the only possible recipient. As part of a supportive guild, you will also be expected to have a role of some sort in the guild--some way to give to other members who supply those items you enjoy so much.

Personally, I find it a challenge to give at least as much as I receive from my guild. It is not easy to do! I have a guild that suits me and that I think is wonderful, but it wasn't the first one I joined. It also isn't perfect and I don't have a heart-warming relationship with every single member. I don't have a problem with those aspects of it because it is just like real life. There are other points of view. <lol> I know those who have the philosophy "This is My Game, I am not going to do ANYTHING that I don't enjoy 100%." Some individuals feel that they should get every drop that comes along and that the assistance other people bring is not worth sharing the profits.

The bottom line? Before joining a guild, you need to figure out what you really want from one....THEN you can start looking. People are certainly important by the time you reach 'end-game'. While Blizzard states on the WoW site that you can solo your way through the game, they certainly weren't talking about end-game dungeons! You need groups to get the best equipment. This assumes you get Burning Crusade and GET to end-game (I'm teasing you a bit here, but it is true. The end of the game has 'moved'. You will want to follow it, I think.)

Another good reply!

It brings up another question that I have: What kind of commitment is required to join a guild? I typically play for 1-2 hours, 3-4 days a week, sometime more on weekends. Sometimes, though, business comes first and I go a week or two without playing. Would this be acceptable to a guild? The things you mentioned, grinding for someone or staying in an instance while another guild member learns a skill...I'm not hypercompetitive or particularly impatient so these kind of things wouldn't be a problem (as long as my fellow members were willing to help me in the same way.)

there are plenty of guilds out there that would be okay with that kind of time commitment (including mine). it depends on the guild. they're all a little different...it's basically like any group of people you might meet outside the game...some are more serious about getting stuff done, some less so...some will hold it against you if you don't show up often, some won't.