I’ve touched the subjects of both applying and trial periods for people looking for new guilds, and there are plenty of outside guides written on how to recruit in general. Rarely do people mention how to evaluate a trial and to make him/her feel comfortable in your guild, though, and that’s something I feel is just as important as recruiting and applying efficiently.

Every Sword Has Two Edges

The biggest thing that bothers me with a lot of raiding guilds is their self-righteous attitude when recruiting. They act like applying to their guild is an honor, and being accepted is an even bigger honor. “You’re applying to us, not we to you!,” they’ll say, and then add, “And we don’t owe you anything.” While it’s very true that the recruit is applying to your guild, and you’re busy judging to see whether or not he* will pass the trial, he’s assessing the guild just as meticulously. He’s watching how you handle loot, issue raid invites, discipline people for mistakes, and how well he fits in. He wants to know this guild is for him just as much as you want to know if he’s for your guild. Officers never seem to remember that it’s just as important to make sure he’s happy. Treat him with respect, answer his questions, and don’t make him feel like he’s wasting your time when he asks you questions, simply because he’s a recruit. Remember, without recruits, your guild would never be successful.

In the end, treating new members with respect and making them feel important right from the beginning is also good for your guild’s growth. A lot of the members of my guild are with us today because how at home they felt initially, and it definitely helps contribute to the overall feel of our guild.

Make Him Feel Welcome

Joining a new guild is scary, especially if you transferred servers. You don’t know a single person, you don’t know how things are done, and you don’t understand all the nicknames/inside jokes that are unique to every guild. What’s worse is when you join a new guild it feels like people are ignoring you, as if you cease to be a person until your trial period is done. Believe me, I’ve been there, and it’s an unpleasant feeling.

Instead of doing all the work yourself, take initiative and encourage people to make him feel at home. When he first joins the guild, be sure to welcome him in guild chat; people are sure to follow suit. If half the guild is chatting in vent, invite him to join. He might feel like he’s intruding or annoying if he joined on his own volition. He also might be a little shy and not talk at first, but if it looks like the guild is making an effort to get to know him, then he’ll warm up pretty quickly.

Run Activities Outside Raids

Heroics, 10-mans, alts, old world content, PvP, achievements… there are so many things you can do. When you’re organizing these things, be sure to ask him if he wants to join, and make sure to get everyone on vent. It’s good to see how he interacts with other members outside of raids because:

• He’ll be less nervous and under pressure than he’ll most likely be in raids, so he’ll probably actually play better. Do you play your best when you know everyone is waiting for your mistakes and watching your every move? I know I don’t.
• He’ll warm up a bit because he’ll feel like he’s being included.
• You probably don’t get to see how he fits in with other raiders during raids because that’s generally a time of focus. Running off night activities gives you a chance to really assess if he meshes with your other members.

Assess

Does he show up on time, late, or early? Is he at the summoning stone, or is he always begging to be summoned? Is he fully repaired or is he the guy crying for an early repair mammoth? Does he take afk’s during trash? Does he need to be told to buff (if applicable), or does he take initiative and does it without being told? Does he come prepared with consumables, and does he need to be told to use them? All these little things really make a difference when I’m assessing a new member. We’re too busy handling other things to babysit people. If he needs to be told to do these things, privately approach him after the raid and explain it’s required.

How does he play? Does he die to everything? Do you suspect he’s a tunnel vision player? Is his dps comparable to the others of his same class, and if not, is it a gear difference? If you know little about his class/spec/role, be sure to make sure you’ve assigned another officer or someone who understands the role to watch him. Be sure to look at recount during the raids if you have any questions about what abilities he’s prioritizing to see if his rotation is what it should be. If your guild uses WWS/WMO, be sure to look at his play in depth after the raids.

How does he take instructions? Does he understand the first time, or do you have to repeat yourself? Is he a quick learner for bosses he’s never done before? Does he need to be told when he makes a mistake, or does he learn from it the first time? To me, this is one of the most important things in a new raider. Gear can be obtained, and if it’s a matter of numbers, you can teach him to press buttons better; but you can’t teach someone to learn faster.

Communicate

Make a list of questions and concerns for him. It’s very important that you explain your concerns and give him constructive feedback. He probably wants feedback of some sort, but it’s also a good test to see how he responds to your criticism. Watch him the next raid to see if he’s made any improvement, and if he hasn’t, make note of it.

Above all, though, communication is the most important part of the trial period, for both sides. If the officers don’t communicate with the applicant, then he’ll never know what he’s doing wrong. In a perfect world, people fix their own mistakes. The reality is, though, that things don’t get better on their own. There have been plenty of times where the officers in my guild and I groaned and put off talking to an applicant, instead hoping he would magically improve over time. If you don’t tell people when they need to improve, then you’re really being unfair when you take disciplinary action (or worse, telling the applicant he didn’t pass his trial) for not playing well. From his perspective, he may think he’s playing fine because no one’s given him any sort of feedback, and then out of nowhere, he’s being told he’s not meeting your expectations. What expectations? If you didn’t lay any out, how does he know to meet them? Communicate, people.

Give Him Time!

I’ll admit, some of the best raiders and funnest personalities within my guild were people we almost judged too early. It’s called a trial period for a reason, so don’t make your final judgment within two days or even a week. Some people really just take a while to feel comfortable and open up, and some people also don’t play their best when they know they’re being judged.

*He/she/whatever! There was no way I was going to put that every time I needed to use a pronoun, and I’m too grammatically anal to be lazy and say “they.”

This guide is meant to be a follow-up to my previous guide, How To Get Accepted Into Any Guild. If you haven’t read that guide yet, I would recommend you reading it first.

Congratulations, you were accepted into your guild of choice. Regardless of how good your application was, however, this is the real test of character. People are going to be judging your personality and skills harder than you’ve ever been judged before in this game. Can you make the cut?

Research

Before you ever step foot in a raid with them, there are certain things you need to research. If you’re jumping into a guild far more progressed than you’ve experienced, then you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. Thoroughly research every new boss encounter and the trash leading to it, read every strat available, and watch videos to understand the fight in action. Make sure you understand your role in the fights, and if you have any questions regarding how the fights are done, do not hesitate to ask someone in your new guild. The only stupid questions are the ones you never asked.

Even if you’ve experienced all the content this game has to offer, you still have a few things you should find out. Ask around, find out how this guild does things. Some of the worst mistakes I’ve made in a new guild were made because I they did the fight differently than I was used to doing. Again, never be afraid to ask questions. I would rather someone who asked a lot of questions over someone who constantly made mistakes because he/she was too proud or shy to ask any questions.

Mods

If you’re a new transfer, your mods are going to be reset. If you use a lot of mods like I do, you’re going to probably be spending 15 or 20 minutes sorting through all the crap that’s on your screen. Make sure they all work before you raid. Nothing is more irritating than for an initiate to wait until their first boss fight to say, “Crap! Sorry, guys, I need to reload my UI.” If you use fancy raid frames, ask for volunteers in guild chat to briefly join a raid group so you can sort out your mods.

And regardless of being a transfer or a server native, make sure you use the mods the guild requires. Update Omen and Deadly Boss Mods, and ask to make sure you’re not missing anything important.

Girls

This is a rather delicate subject, and one that I don’t particularly enjoy discussing, but it’s something that needs to be said. As a fellow female player and one that takes this game relatively seriously, there’s nothing that will get under my skin quicker than the e-flirt type. Most officers feel the same way, regardless of gender.

If you’re a female, you do not need to advertise your gender. You are there to raid, not to ask for dates. There’s nothing wrong with posting your picture in the guild photo thread, but for god’s sake, don’t post it the first day you join, and don’t post anything with large amounts of cleavage or little clothing. Second of all, don’t expect extra attention and leeway for poor performance. And last of all, do not flirt. Again, you’re in the guild to raid, not to provide cheap amusement to the more immature guys in the guild.

On that note, guys, do not flirt with the girls in the guild. It’s annoying when anyone does it, but even more so when you’re a new recruit. There’s nothing wrong with being social and friendly, but it reflects poorly on your character when it looks like you’re just there to flirt. Not to mention, you might offend someone. Some, maybe even most, girls don’t play for dates and attention, and are offended when guys won’t leave them alone.

Punctuality and Attendance

At least 15 minutes before the raid is scheduled to begin, make sure you are online. Don’t be involved with anything- dailies, pvp, five-mans, Karazhan, and so on. It shows you don’t care about wasting people’s time, and is deeply frowned upon. Make sure you are repaired beforehand, and that you have the proper consumables and gear you will need for the night.

If you have to leave the raid early, let the officers/raid leader(s) know before the raid starts. Don’t wait until five minutes before you need to leave to let them know they need to find a replacement pronto. Try not to do this as little as possible. If you can’t stay for the whole raid, you’re eventually not going to get any raid invites.

If you have to miss a raid, be sure to inform them. Most guilds have attendance threads or forums, and expect you to post when you will be absent for a raid. Don’t wait until the last minute to post you will be absent, either- try to give them as much notice as possible.

Realize that as a new recruit, you will be expected to have nearly perfect attendance. Some guilds will work with you if you have to miss a raid or two, but most expect you to at least have perfect attendance during your trial period.

And on a similar note, don’t go afk during raids. If you need to take a small bathroom break during trash, that is acceptable, but always tell the raid you’re going afk. Barring emergencies, do not ever take a prolonged afk.

Invites

Be prepared to not be invited to all the raids. As a new member, you get last priority on raid spots. Don’t complain if you aren’t invited, and don’t ask for an invite if you don’t get one. Be waiting outside the instance and on vent in case they need you. Some guilds switch people in and out for different boss fights, and it could be they would prefer you to come in for a certain fight later on. Don’t log off if you don’t get an invite. It’s unbelievable how many initiates you see log after when they don’t get a raid invite, and then aren’t around when we’re ready to invite them 30 minutes later.

Don’t Expect Anything

Don’t expect summons- sign on early and get to the instance on your own. It shows initiative and effort. Don’t expect consumables or marks of the Illidari- be ready with your own consumables. Don’t expect loot- if nobody wants the loot and they plan on disenchanting it, sure, pip up and mention you’d like it. But initiates do not EVER ask for loot. This is your trial period, so you’re here to show them what you can provide them, not what they can provide you.

Don’t Complain

People who complain are annoying. Initiates who complain are even more annoying. Don’t cry about dying, your loot luck being horrible, or not getting raid invites. Don’t complain about other members. Don’t complain about your past guild. Got it?

This Isn’t Your Last Guild

Want to know what annoys people more than people who complain a lot? People who join a new guild and complain about how they do things, comparing every trash pull, boss positioning, and strategy to what they’re used to. Yes, this is a different guild. Quietly accept that things will be different. You made the decision to join/transfer to this guild, and you need to understand that some sacrifices will be made.

Mistakes

Grow thicker skin if your feelings are hurt easily. Be ready to endure people telling you everything you do wrong. You need to also be on the lookout for your own mistakes- some raid leaders don’t actively point out mistakes the first time you make them, but expect you to notice what you did wrong and fix them yourself. And do not for any reason try to justify or make excuses for your mistakes. Accept constructive criticism when given, learn how to fix it, and don’t make the same mistake twice. And take responsibility for your own actions! If you accidentally pulled that extra pack of trash and wiped the raid, don’t wait for someone to ask who did it, and certainly don’t blame it on anyone else. Be mature and own up to your blunders. It makes you look a better person.

Know Your Place

If somebody in unfair or rude to you, don’t argue. If somebody makes an outrageous mistake, don’t point it out. If someone’s spec or itemization is horrible, don’t attack them and tell them how to improve. This isn’t your guild yet, you’re a trial member, they’re trying you out. If you have an issue with a member’s behavior, approach an officer with it in whispers. Don’t try to handle it yourself- even if you’re right in the situation, being involved in heated arguments or drama as a new member makes you look bad.

Don’t try to jump in on all the jokes your first night. Yes, it’s probably funny when the whole guild gangs up the MT and mock-insults him. But you don’t know this guy yet, so it would be odd to chime in and call him a stupidmeaniepoopyface the first night you join. You’re not going to pick up on all the inside jokes in the very beginning, so don’t try.

Talk, Don’t Type

People don’t want to read raid chat during raids. If you have something important to say, especially if it’s during a boss fight, say it. If you’re personally addressed in vent, especially respond.

Loosen Up, Have Some Fun!

Last of all, don’t take it all too seriously! Run heroics or do some battlegrounds with guildmates. Talk in guild chat, hang out in vent when you’re not raiding, post on the forums. Try to get to know some people, it’ll make everything more fun and make you less nervous. Crack a joke every once in a while, take initiative to make a new friend. This is a video game, after all, so be sure to enjoy yourself along with everything else.

Stay positive and don’t be afraid to work a little hard, and you’ll do fine. Good luck, and I hope this was of some aid for those seeking a new guild.