Guild Wars 2

I bought GW2 when it launched but never got into it properly. Now I am back and find myself actually enjoying the game itself quite a bit. I can easily imagine sticking around casually playing the game for a longer period of time.

What I miss however is the social aspect, people to talk to and play with. So I figured that I should probably look around for a casual guild or something, just to have someone to talk to while playing. In lack of a better option I asked in the map chat if someone would take a casual noob into their guild. The only replies I got were from a couple of people who advised me to not join guilds, one of them even used the phrase “guilds will just abuse you”. O.o The following day I did the same, and got the same result. So, what’s up with the warnings about joining guilds – is it some sort of common knowledge around here that you should go solo and not in a guild? Or have I just had the bad luck to bump into a couple of individuals with a bad experience?

Might add that it was a bunch of very friendly people. So friendly that I got – mildly spoken – confused, I had barely replied before they told me to just drop them a whisper if I needed any help at some point.

You were trolled by some people, as far as I see it. Or you worded your question wrongly. Don’t ask in map chat what kind of people would or would not get invited to guilds. Just do it instead. Just look for a guild and describe yourself to the point in chat.
“looking for a pve guild, I’m a beginner” or something like this could be a proper line.

A guild is not a pact that is sealed with your blood and lasts until death and beyond. If, after some days, a guild doesn’t suit you, leave and look for another one. Nobody would be angry about this. Inviting, joining and leaving a guild doesn’t cost anything, so just try it until you find “your” guild.

Silmar Alech.4305:

“looking for a pve guild, I’m a beginner”

Which was exactly the content of what I wrote.

Join WvWvW or go to SilverWastes you will be bombarded with guild advertising. Choose the one you like.

Or check out this section of the forums and either choose one you like or post what you’re looking for and filter through the responses -

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds

It really depend on which map you are on. If you are on a map like Kessex hills, where there is not much stuff to do there other than map completion or a map like fireheart rise where most ppl on the map are just waiting to go into the dungeon, then not much ppl will answer you on the map chat. And if they do, they don’t necessary represent the community.

I’m sure that a lot of people got bad experience with guild. Its just a group of people together. Sometime ppl in a guild can be a kitten or sometime you just don’t fit with the rest of the guild.

Look on forums, talk to people, try different guild until you find one that fit you. There is so many different kind of guild. Some are small with only friend in it, some are bigger so you always have ppl to play with, some are casual, some do mostly pve, other WvW, other play a bit of everything. Some are made of young adult around 20-30, other are more familial with kids and adults, etc.

Manathail.3014:

In lack of a better option I asked in the map chat if someone would take a casual noob into their guild. The only replies I got were from a couple of people who advised me to not join guilds, one of them even used the phrase “guilds will just abuse you”. O.o The following day I did the same, and got the same result. So, what’s up with the warnings about joining guilds – is it some sort of common knowledge around here that you should go solo and not in a guild? Or have I just had the bad luck to bump into a couple of individuals with a bad experience?

Misery loves company. Some player probably felt that their guild owed them something for contributing influence and/or helping to earn merits for the guild. Since this perceived reward was withheld, they were “abused.” My advice is to just go out and level, keeping an eye on the chat. I see guilds advertising for players like you all the time. When you see an ad that catches your eye, send a PM. As long as you don’t make unreasonable demands like 24/7 guild buffs across the board and full guild vault access for everyone I think you’ll be OK.

You were probably talking to some people who recently had guild drama. My best advice is to join a larger guild for guild missions and any other large group activities. If you have a few good friends, make a private guild with them which you can rep and talk when you aren’t doing something with your large guild.

rhapsody.3615:

You were probably talking to some people who recently had guild drama. My best advice is to join a larger guild for guild missions and any other large group activities. If you have a few good friends, make a private guild with them which you can rep and talk when you aren’t doing something with your large guild.

Can you join two guilds at once? O.o Or did you mean joining on different characters?

Manathail.3014:

rhapsody.3615:

You were probably talking to some people who recently had guild drama. My best advice is to join a larger guild for guild missions and any other large group activities. If you have a few good friends, make a private guild with them which you can rep and talk when you aren’t doing something with your large guild.

Can you join two guilds at once? O.o Or did you mean joining on different characters?

You can join 5 guild totally, but you can represent only one at time. When you join a guild your all characters in your account can represent that guild, you just have to make it manually. When you are making new character it is not automaticly in the guild, you have to choose what guild that character is representing

I hope you will find good guilds with you.

In the mean time, you might want to start your own guild with only you as a member so you can build a personal storage bank.

I don’t see why you wouldn’t try. Go ahead and join guilds, just keep your expectations in check.

The common story with casual guilds is that out of 30 people, 7-10 log on daily and you usually only see 2-3 others on at the same time. Roughly 15 of the non-loggers have either quit without saying so (or knowing, sometimes a break becomes permanent) or just log on once or twice a week.

It’s somewhat rare to find a guild that can help you fill a dungeon often (for example) if you’re going for casual. It is possible though.

However, these guilds will not often “abuse” you.

A good casual guild does not:

1. Say: “Oh you don’t have TS, that’s fine.” Then the next night: “MANDATORY TS MEETING NO EXCEPTIONS!”

2. Say: “Oh we’re just throwing extra crafting mats in the guild bank.” Then the next night: “EVERYBODY NEEDS TO PUT 10 SILK IN A DAY AT LEAST! WE ARE LOW ON SILK!”

3. Completely fail at dungeons.

4. Randomly transform into a serious PvP guild only to later fall apart.

OR

5. Allow harassment to get out of hand. (And yes, 40 year old women treating your 19 year old guys like babies DOES count as harassment too.)

Like I said though, that’s no reason not to try. I ran a casual guild at launch, it’s pretty much dissolved now, but many of us still keep in contact and play other games together. I’m also a member of another casual guild which is currently going strong, and one slightly more hardcore guild.

I don’t have a reason to leave any of them.

I’m a member of

• a guild of 4 “guild wars BFFs” that share resources to some degree and just play together a lot

• a guild of a couple hundred people, so I always find players to run dungeons or achievements with. Lots of friendly people, open door policy, beginner-friendly, minimal drama, I would wholeheartedly recommend YUM.

• a guild the specialises in Dry Top runs (because I want to craft more Ambrite weapons) that I represent on Fridays

I’ve also been a member of TTS (Tequatl and Wurm fights) and a few more specialized guilds.

Another thing to bear in mind is that different people have different perceptions and expectations.

I’ve spoken to some people who seem to resent the fact that guilds gain influence for anything you do when you represent them – they seem to think this means influence is the only thing guild leaders care about and refuse to represent a guild any more than absolutely necessary because of it.

Whereas I quite like guilds that ask their members to represent all or most of the time, no matter what their reason is, because one of the main reasons I want to be in a guild is so I have a regular group of people to talk to while I’m playing and that only works if people are representing and can see guild chat.

There are a lot of people and a lot of guilds in this game and no two are going to be exactly alike. It’s well worth having a think about what you want from a guild and looking for but as other people said it’s also worth joining one (or more) that sound interesting and seeing how it goes. If it doesn’t work out you can leave any time you like.

Don’t join 100% Rep requirement guilds or ‘elite’/hardcore guilds. Those can often be a bit abusive and expect to be front and center during your playtime. Understanding guilds are a good idea, though, and make much of the game more fun.

Operation: Union / Legion of Honor is a casual guild focused on having fun (disclaimer: I’ve been in LoH for a long time). We’ve got a wide range of people and experience levels. Mostly PvE, but people also do WvW groups from time to time. You can post in the forum thread to get added, we also have a guild site:

http://operationunion.enjin.com/
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Operation-Union-Bringing-Players-Together-2

I just want a guild that doesn’t stress on the meta and helps with stuff that matters to me with no ifs, ands, or buts.

I never had a good guild since gw 1 when my guild, Falling Angelz [FAZ] fell apart. I been guild hopping ever since.

Either they only want you for rep points, or they are elitist/ hardcore and once they done something they never wish to help or give stupid comments like, “The game is easy and soloble. Do it yourself!”, or “who maps areas anymore as groups?” “I don’t do living story its stupid.” “I did it already. I don’t want to do that again.” “That achieve is stupid to get! Stay with the EOTM farm train or go back to PvE and play with the stupid casual scrubs.”

I also am an RPer, so I can’t be in 100% rep anyways and since I’m living with parents, teamspeak/ventrillo/mumble is not for me to use as that can be annoying to everyone.

At this point. I might as well just only RP and be guildless, as I’m not a good player and I can’t do any content alone.

Manathail.3014:

rhapsody.3615:

You were probably talking to some people who recently had guild drama. My best advice is to join a larger guild for guild missions and any other large group activities. If you have a few good friends, make a private guild with them which you can rep and talk when you aren’t doing something with your large guild.

Can you join two guilds at once? O.o Or did you mean joining on different characters?

Your account can be in up to five guilds, but your characters can only represent one at a time. So if one character joins a guild, they all do. Representing a guild will display that guild’s tag on your name, earn influence for that guild, and view guild chat. You can only view the chat of the guild you are representing. Switching between guilds is a quick click in the guild UI. Many people have several guilds for different areas of the game, such as one for wvw raiding, general pve, and other specialized guilds who organize tequatl, wurm, and dry top events.

Gilosean.3805:

Don’t join 100% Rep requirement guilds or ‘elite’/hardcore guilds. Those can often be a bit abusive and expect to be front and center during your playtime.

Nothing wrong with 100% Rep Guilds or Hard Core Guilds….

From a new player perspective, I would suggest that you join a Priority Guild, one that requires 60%-100% Rep of your online time. That way you can learn the mechanics, learn how to interact with guildies and see the different aspects of a guild. Joining secondary guilds is something you should consider doing after you’ve become comfortable with the game and the community.

Example:
My Guild is a Priority guild; however, I’m also part of TTS, a sponsored PvP Guild.
My priorities are to my guild mates in my main guild; however, I’m comfortable enough to switch between guilds and not make my self look like a fool. The main problem I’m noticing is that new players join five guilds and never rep the other four.

From a Guild Leader Perspective, It’s hard to advertise and sell your guild to someone as an active friendly guild when out of 200 guildies, only 20 are online and out of that 20 only 5 are repping, out of the 5 that are repping, only 3 know how to type in guild chat.

Just as you don’t roll all 8 classes and try to figure out the game, you shouldn’t roll all 5 guilds and expect to optimize your experience.

I would suggest trying one guild at a time, try from one extreme to another. See which one you like, who knows? maybe the one that you think would be absolutely horrible may be the one that matches your play style.

There’s a lot of really bad advice in this thread. Guilds are not for everyone. Finding the right guild can be challenging. There’s some tips we left in a sticky in the Looking for Guild forum, but basically:

1) Think about your goals. Do you want to find similar-minded players? That’s pretty common. Do you want to improve/learn/grow/do content you don’t currently do? You may need to find a guild a little bit more serious than you are as a player.

2) Be picky. There are hundreds of guilds. Guilds only exist and survive because they have players in them. YOU ARE THE FUEL OF A GUILD. No guild is doing you a favor by letting you in. Make sure a potential guild courts you and explains how they can help you, not the other way around.

3) Understand the impact of guild size. Small guilds and large guilds are fundamentally different things. I’m guild leader for a small guild, for example, and my members have my phone number, email address, etc in case they need me. It’s not unusual for me to have extended conversations with members 1-on-1 about their goals, issues, stuff going on in their life. But because of that, we have very little tolerance for people who don’t “fit in.” If you don’t get along with us, you’re not welcome.

4) Be very mindful of a guild’s recruitment methods. Are you trying to join a guild that spams mapchat and invites everybody who shows interest? What kind of players do you think are in that guild? (Hint: the kind who join a guild based on a few lines of advertising in chat.) That may or may not be the kind of guild you want to be in. If a guild isn’t selective, you have no guarantee that you’ll find the type of players you want. If they are selective, are they using the right criteria for selection? Are they filtering out players you wish to avoid and letting in the players you’d like to play with?

Hopefully that helps. I’ll try to watch this thread, but if anybody wants more advice or has follow-up questions, I’d be happy to help. Feel free to PM me or /w in-game.