Guild Wars 2

Back story on myself:
I have played over 20+ MMOs in the past 15 years, have raided in two of them for about 10 years straight ranging from hardcore 8 hour 5 day a week schedules to casual 3 hour twice a week schedules. I have been Gold in LoL, Legend in Hearthstone, Ranked 2400+ in 5 seasons of WoW’s arena, state champion in MTG type 2 once and was on a sponsored cal-i team during the days of CS 1.6 among other things- and I don’t really mean to get into all of that but the point is I am no stranger to competitive play in video games on both the action and strategy side of things.

The problem:
My current guild leader.
3 weeks ago he had started rebuilding his guild that had died about 6 months ago. 3 weeks ago is also when I joined up. WvW was the focus and I was entirely about it. Things started off good, we had a solid group of about 8 or so, and we would pick up a new person every so often. Often times these were new players and he would make them reroll to something “useful” which was kind of odd, but I understood we were developing, need to get the core classes first, makes sense.

During this time he kept expressing a complete and total disinterest in anything that was not Warrior, Elementalist, Necro or Guardian. It got worse with each day. Tonight he called off wvw because a few guild mates stood up to this and said they did not enjoy it. They wanted to stay with the guild but he called them names and changed the motd to “Play what I tell you on WvW nights and you will get on Team Speak as soon as I tell you to or you will be Gkicked.” This caused several people (of a community that had grown to about 15-20) to leave because of this ridiculous aggressiveness on the topic.

During casual conversation he often repeats to our 3 Mesmers that they are useless in groups, he won’t allow rangers to join us in WvW, he has told an Elementalist that he was wrong for running a proper full Nomad support build intended purely for zerging (without any knowledge of how the build was or how it functioned, in any capacity) which sure might be possibly questionable but that was how this person wanted to play and he made him feel terrible like he had just made the ultimate sin, he has told Engineers that they have no capacity to help the guild in any way when it comes to WvW and has in a sense made everyone feel as though they are playing the game wrong because it is not in his image.

I have played across so many games, so many competitive scenes. I understand that metas do exist and that is what he is touching on but surely, this can’t be standard for guilds in this game. Being that this is my first guild in the GW2, I come to you looking for clarification as I have never seen a 100% completely useless class, set up, build or what not that was so detrimental to your group that if you had one they would single-handedly prevent you from being effective at any level and would be the sole reason for a loss. I play Dan in SF4 and even though he is weaker in some regards, a player having fun with him and learning him will be infinitely more effective than say the same person being forced into playing a charge character like Bison. I know it’s not the same game, but that’s just an example. So much of that exists in other games, sub optimal characters that can work to a degree.

If THIS is how all serious and or successful WvW guilds are, I’m probably going to quit the game for good this time. Something tells me he is a power tripping stubborn person with not much knowledge of the game as a whole. I refuse to believe that these other classes are USELESS. I have also never encountered a guild leader like this before so, I’m not sure where I stand.

At any rate, I will still try and look around for another guild on Sea of Sorrows that I would be compatible with before I consider leaving, so for right now, this is what I have. I am not mentioning what I personally play as I don’t want that to be a point of topic, it’s about the guild leader and the situation he is forcing on other players. Sorry for the long post, I tried to space it out. Comments and insight are appreciated. Thanks guys.

No not normal.
I recommend that you cut your ties, give helpful feedback to the people the leader trashed and move on.
I hope you find an enjoyable guild.

If u r on guild raid and not on ts = kick
If u r on guild raid with 20 players and 5of them are rangers, 3 mesmers, etc. = kick most of them
If he says he wants u all to go his builds(uniforms) and u dont want to = kick
if u dont like his leading = leave
If u dont like his personality or uniforms = also leave

If u dont like it and dont enjoy even guild raid with hardcore guild where u try hard, just leave

Just advice but if the leader cannot communicate in sentences don’t join the guild.

Depends on the type of guild. Larger guilds tend to be more accommodating, while small “hardcore” guilds tend more to want to micro-manage everything. You’ll also notice that guilds which are more involved in the server community effort tend to be better than guilds which are all about their own private raid.

Your guild leader, quite frankly, doesn’t sound like he’s cut out for running a guild. I’d suggest you look around, and maybe try and spend some time playing with different guilds on your server, before deciding who to join.

Class composition and builds in “hardcore” wvw guilds are very important, and unfortunately for rangers and engineers, other classes do their roles better, which is why they are left out from top guilds.
I think the main problem was that he wants the guild to be more serious than the other members and although he was right when saying 3 mesmers, rangers, engies and nomad eles are not optimal, he did that in a totally wrong way.
Seems like a more relaxed wvw guild would suit you more, i would suggest talking to the guild leader before joining another guild and seeing what he wants the guild to be.

I’ve never joined a hardcore WvW guild myself but from what I’ve heard this is not at all normal.

There certainly are elitists in this game, and demanding or uncivil players (including guild leaders), as there are in any game, but they’re not so common that you can’t avoid them, even within the hardcore WvW crowd.

I think this is more an issue with the guild system than anything else. It’s possible for anyone, even a brand new player, to create a guild and there is no system in place to make sure they’re actually a suitable leader or recruiting the right type of people….well, except for the fact that everyone will leave sooner or later if the leader is horrible. (In general I think this is a strength, as it allows guilds a lot of freedom to define how they function, but this is the downside.)

If you don’t agree with his rules or how they’re applied I would definitely recommend looking for another guild. You can be in 5 guilds at once so you could even try out a few before leaving if you wanted to.

Out of interest do you know why the guild died 6 months ago? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was the exact same issue.

Don’t quit GW2 because you ended up the wrong guild and an (likely misguided and ineffectual) elitist tried to micromanage your (and others) game. Just leave and find a guild that’s more befitting how YOU want to play the game.

Alchymista.8192:

If u r on guild raid and not on ts = kick
If u r on guild raid with 20 players and 5of them are rangers, 3 mesmers, etc. = kick most of them
If he says he wants u all to go his builds(uniforms) and u dont want to = kick
if u dont like his leading = leave
If u dont like his personality or uniforms = also leave

If u dont like it and dont enjoy even guild raid with hardcore guild where u try hard, just leave

This might work with established guilds out there that have always worked with this, sudden changes in attitude / behavior however don’t.

He won’t have a guild left if he continues this way.

Not normal, you should leave (most likely you can create your own guild by all that left it)

Alchymista.8192:

If u r on guild raid and not on ts = kick
If u r on guild raid with 20 players and 5of them are rangers, 3 mesmers, etc. = kick most of them
If he says he wants u all to go his builds(uniforms) and u dont want to = kick
if u dont like his leading = leave
If u dont like his personality or uniforms = also leave

If u dont like it and dont enjoy even guild raid with hardcore guild where u try hard, just leave

Im going to assume you’re the guild leader.

Have some grace about you, you’re a guild leader. You should feel privileged to have your members, not the other way around.

As for the OP. Its your decision, but I think you should leave this guild. They don’t sound very skilled if they think only a handful of professions are useful, and their attitude towards how they treat members just indicates they’re not worthy of your presence.

I guess you found out why the guild died the last time?

Several different pts here.

- You gleader seem to have some social interaction issues. Searching for specific role or asking that your member play a certain way is one thing, but not being able to listen to what other ppl say and acting like a autocracy isn’t a good way to go. He clearly have issues and in the end its a game and there is no fun in that kind of atmosphere.

- On the other end it depend on what was the focus of the guild. If it was a casual guild from the start and he’s trying to change that it will create clashes between members. If it was a hardcore guild from the start then he’s kind of right (even if the first argument would make me quit the guild in your place even if I agree with him).

- As an hardcore guild there is some specific things that need to be enforce for it to work at a certain level of capability. Why ppl would go into a raid guild if they don’t come into TS is incomprehensible for me. As a raid group you need a balance between profession depending on how you gonna play it. You need enough guardian for melee party to have stability, you need enough necro to have a useful burst, you need enough ele to have sustain, etc. As a raid guild you work as a unit and if someone want to play their way and don’t change how they play to better fit the group, then they have nothing to do in that raid guild.

- Finally, I think that your gleader think a little bit too of himself and his knowledge of WvW raid. Yes in essence he’s right that GWEN are the most important profession in a raid guild. But saying that Mesmer are useless in a 15-20 group is just stupidly ignorant. You can choose as a guild to not use Mesmer, but they are used by a big majority of raid guild. He seem to preach about meta without really knowing it fully.

Ject.9856:

snip

If your guild leader’s attitude is a problem for you, you should probably leave the guild.

He does sound pretty unreasonable and I have a hard time imagining his guild growing very large for as long as he maintains such an attitude.

Still, its your responsibility to decide whether that community is right for you or not. If it’s not right for anyone, every member will eventually leave and the problem will correct itself.

This post does not make sense.

It begins with this:

Back story on myself:
I have played over 20+ MMOs in the past 15 years, blahblahblah

and asks this:

Is this “Normal” for a GLeader in GW2?

with the following clarification:

Being that this is my first guild in the GW2,

So I’m wondering what bloody use is all that “experience” in games and game communities when you’d go mentally stereotyping the GW2 community based on ONE person.

Khisanth.2948:

I guess you found out why the guild died the last time?

Pretty much the same thing came into my mind when i read OPs post ^^

find another guild

Sasuke.2573:

Khisanth.2948:

I guess you found out why the guild died the last time?

Pretty much the same thing came into my mind when i read OPs post ^^

Yup, that.

It’s perfectly normal. Leave if you disagree, don’t come here and complain.

why join this type of toxic people?

There are about as many sorts of guild leaders as there are grandmothers who think their way of baking a pie is the best.

A hardcore guild needs hardcore members. Those willing to submit to strict rules and mentality. It appeals and is acceptable to some but obviously not to you or your departed guild mates.

There’s nothing to be sad about. Just accept that this type of guild isn’t for you. Leave and find another

Simply tell him to lighten up or you and the others he is alienating will simply leave and start your own Guild (I’m not sure you shouldn’t do that anyway).

Guy sounds immature and power hungry….maybe give him a chance to realize what he is doing is wrong and change or not (and you guys hit the door). Just let him know who is being the Yoko in the band breakup…..

I would leave. He is making you uncomfortable to the point you are thinking about leaving the game. Think about that for a second. One person’s actions are making you think about leaving the game. Shouldn’t the game be the thing that makes you consider leaving it? Or real life/game balance?

No, this isn’t normal, nor is it okay. Yes, guild leaders try to “lead” for effectiveness, but there is a strong difference between leading and dictating/alienating people. One steers a team towards results, the other is little more than beating people into submission. It sounds like someone trying to beat you into submission is bothering you – good for you. So leave. Having fun in a game matters.

Oh, and by the way… “normal” doesn’t even equate to “right” either. Lots of people behave really poorly which may make it seem normal. If they are being cruel and calling teammates useless, still isn’t exactly right.

I appreciate all the responses that you folks left in regards to the problem I had faced and I understand that composition is important but even in the hardcore guilds I had been in with prior games I had never experienced that level of “Get off this class or get out of the guild.” type of demand. It was just really gross, and I get that nomad may not be optimal or that you may want to limit classes which is completely reasonable but he went about it in the wrong way by forcing people to switch from their main class to something he approved of. In the past guild I had been apart of would just go “Do we have someone that plays this class? Can we find players willing to swap on their own accord? No? Ok, we need to go recruit for that specific class and spec.” Instead he just used his weight to force it on people. I’ve come to terms with the fact that this was very much the wrong way to lead a guild which is why I had asked if it was normal and to the communities credit, the very first guild I joined with my alt was already leagues better and more effective at what they wanted to do without the classism and extreme bias.

I was kicked today from that guild because I was AFK on my alt in a different guild. He never even gave me a chance to speak my peace and in all honesty I feel like a weight was lifted. I don’t usually put up with people like that to begin with but things have gotten better. Thanks everyone.

Ject.9856:

I appreciate all the responses that you folks left in regards to the problem I had faced and I understand that composition is important but even in the hardcore guilds I had been in with prior games I had never experienced that level of “Get off this class or get out of the guild.” type of demand. It was just really gross, and I get that nomad may not be optimal or that you may want to limit classes which is completely reasonable but he went about it in the wrong way by forcing people to switch from their main class to something he approved of. In the past guild I had been apart of would just go “Do we have someone that plays this class? Can we find players willing to swap on their own accord? No? Ok, we need to go recruit for that specific class and spec.” Instead he just used his weight to force it on people. I’ve come to terms with the fact that this was very much the wrong way to lead a guild which is why I had asked if it was normal and to the communities credit, the very first guild I joined with my alt was already leagues better and more effective at what they wanted to do without the classism and extreme bias.

I was kicked today from that guild because I was AFK on my alt in a different guild. He never even gave me a chance to speak my peace and in all honesty I feel like a weight was lifted. I don’t usually put up with people like that to begin with but things have gotten better. Thanks everyone.

Glad things are working out for you. Id reccomend if your still interested in a WvW guild finding one that runs regularly and also allows “militia” palyers to follow them around as long as there in TS with them. This means that while theyl usually have a core “team” there run is based on they don’t mind people running other classes or builds as long as those people themselves are reliable IN those builds. (full healing focused water ely that your ex guildy was running? Thats fine. Just make sure you know how to maximize the build and “public” guilds wont have an issue with em usually.)

Always quit a guild if you don’t enjoy it or suspect the leadership to be idiotic or mentally unstable.

Even if it was normal, don’t run with some kitten who tries to control you. This game isn’t the army unless you enjoy that environment and are willingly choosing to be a part of it.

There are plenty of successful guilds that aren’t led by strange stunted personalities.