How to: Guild application

[Steppy]

Hello. This is a guide that I wrote, and it can help you writing guild applications better, and thereby increasing your chance to get accepted to the guilds that you wish to join.

A good application will help you. Alot.
Even if you're not superskilled at the game, the chance to get accepted to good raiding guilds increases alot if you've written a good application.


Writing an application is easy, and you can be done with it in 2 minutes - but it'll take longer than that if you want to write a good one, and trust me - you do.



Okay, here we go. Obviously, you need good enough gear and enough skill for the content that the guild you're applying to is raiding. But there's more to it than that.
Even if you have good gear and know how to play, you still need good enchants, money for repairbills, and be willing to wipe over and over while progressing.

Improving your gear with enchants, gems, and glyphs

This is really important. Even if you have T8.5, you won't get accepted if you have green quality gems, the cheapest/no enchants, and the wrong glyphs.
It'll be pretty much impossible to find a good guild if you're too cheap to pay for good enhants and gems.

It's also very important that you know which enchants that are the best for your class and spec.

Keep in mind that for some classes and specs, the best glyphs, enchants, and sockets you should use, sometimes changes dedepending on your gearlevel.

I'd recommend that you read up on Elitist Jerks to find out which enchants, gems, and glyphs that you should use.


Enchants

It's usually acceptable to take enchants such as +8 stats on chest, instead of +10 stats if you have a crappy chest that you'll be replacing soon (unless you're applying to a guild that does more than XT
hardmode) - but other than that, don't be cheap.
Enchants costs alot of money, deal with it.

Sockets

Just as important as enchants.
Don't take green quality gems just because they're cheaper, even though you might "only" loose 4 spellpower/agility etc. Every little bit helps.

Glyphs

Glyphs is really important to think about - using the wrong glyphs can lower your dps by quite alot.



When all this is taken care of, and you've doublechecked that everything is fine, you can move on to the next step.



Finding the guild

Now it's time to choose a guild that you would like to join unless you've already decided it.
Read up on their philosofy when it comes to raiding. Is it a hardcore guild that will just keep on trying until the boss is downed, or a guild that only raids a few days a week, and try to keep their raids at a higher quality, with less wiping and trying?
Think for a moment which kind of guild you want, then try to find a guild that suits your needs.

Most guilds have their own websites nowadays, visit them and read.


Now that you've found a guild that you want to join, it's time for the next step:

The Application

The most important step of this guide is the application.
Spend lots of time on it, it can take over half an hour, but it's needed.

Most guilds have some kind of template that you should follow, make sure that you use that one.

Below is an example how a application could look like

Character info

Name: Steppy

Race & Class: Orc Shaman

Spec: Elemental, 55/16/0
I've replaced Convection with Elemental Warding and imp. Ghost Wolf since I don't have any mana problems as an elemental shaman.
Using a 57/14/0 spec for Vezax instead though.

Other roles you can consider: Can also join as resto if needed.
I've got most experience as elemental,  but I've got good gear for Resto aswell, and experience up to Yogg +2 Keepers on 10man as resto.

Armory link: The World of Warcraft Armory

Reputation

Are you able to buy the epic shoulder enchant from Sons of Hodir?:Yes
Which Head enchants are you able to buy (Caster crit, Caster MP5, Tanking, Melee dps)?: I'm able to buy the the caster crit, caster MP5, and melee dps one, so I have a head enchant for all of my specs.

Raiding experiences: I've raided from the beginning of TBC, and got as far as M'uru before the 3.0 nerf.
In WotLK, I've raided whole Ulduar 10 + all the hardmodes exept Algalon and Yogg +0 keepers, done a try on Algalon though.
In Ulduar 25, I've done all hardmodes exept Yogg +1 keeper, Algalon, or Mimiron Firefighter.

Player info

Name: ***

Age: **

More info about you here: My name is ***, and I'm ** years old.
I live in **City**, **Country**, and work as a *** at **company**.

In my spare time I like to ***, and of course, play WoW.
I usually spend about ** hours a day playing wow, and I PvP alot when I'm not raiding.

Other info

Why do you think that we're a suitable guild for you?: You seem like a friendly, mature guild, and I really like the fact that you try to keep your raids at a high quality.
Your raiding times really suits me aswell.

Can you make the raidtimes? : Yes, of course. I should be able to attend every single raid forever, exept for rare occasions such as my birthday, christmas ect. 

Previous guilds, and reason for leaving them: I've been in a few social guilds with my friends when I was leveling in TBC, and joined a raiding guild shortly after I dinged 70.

Randomguild1 - I was in Randomguild1 for 6 months, but it got disbanded when we got stuck at Kael'thas

Randomguild2 - Was only in it for 3 months, but I didn't feel welcome there really, so I decided that it was time to find a more friendly guild that suited me better.

Randomguild3 - I joined Randomguild3 when I left Randomguild2, and was there for a few months. It was a social guild, so we didn't raid.
But I decided that it was time for me to start raiding again, since I really enjoy it.

Randomguild4 - A great guild, we cleared a big part of the WotLK content fast, but It got inactive after a while, and we stopped raiding completely. 

Do you have Ventrilo?: Yes, and I've got a mic and everything aswell of course.

Anything you'd like to add?: I hope that I can be a part of your guild, and I'll always come prepared to
raids.

Keep in mind that this is only an example how a Application can look like.

Other Notes:

Remember to spend lots of time on your application. I didn't actually write that much, you can make your application alot longer.
If you're applying to a hardcore guild, you might want to make sure that you also have the "correct" professions. Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, Blacksmithing, Inscription, and Leatherworking will give you the biggest statboosts.

Another thing to think about is that some guilds want you to post a screenshot of your UI. Make sure that you have a good UI with everything (Raidframes, threatmeter, bossmods) showing, and show your keybinds. You should have everything keybinded, if you don't - keybind it.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed reading my guide - Good luck with your applications, and I hope that
you can find the right guild for you - I know I have atleast.

[tottelol]

General section if any, but a guide to applying to a guild is rather...dull

yes, everyone trying to contribute should be shot on sight

[Pthaos]

+rep for your effort, although it seems mostly common knowledge... "Make sure you're the best you can be then follow the given template with good english."

[brisingr15]

I think you missed one of the more important points which I always found important when applying to guilds. You need to be proactive and show you have a lot of initiative and are attempting to get into their guild. Posting an application and waiting works, but wait around their raid times and make sure you are online and are ready to raid what they are raiding, aswell as knowing everything for what they raid. If one of their raiders don't show and they are in LFG, message them saying "Hi! I recently applied to your guild, and I noticed you are also in LFG. Do you need a <class/spec/role> at the moment?" If they do then they'll most likely take you to test you out and fill their raid slot. Even if you don't get accepted, hey you got to raid with a good guild.

Most of this is common knowledge, but I think you went out of the box and gave a good solid effort so +rep to you ^__^

[Gotowneds]

Common sence. :/

[Wastrel]

A for effort, but my "philosofy" is to always use intelligent conversational English. Your post reminded me of preterm ninth grade rhetoric assessment essays. You attempted to write something eloquent but only succeeded in appearing arrogant and undereducated.

Advice: Check your spelling, apply proper grammar, and never post a guide on how to apply to a guild by using proper English that does not, itself, use the same.

Still, this was a contribution, and was far above the average "Guyz her's how 2 make goldz fast, uze teh awctun hause and buy cheep gems and cut them and sell them 4 more! LoLz nut repost cus i didnt say whut gems, lulz." garbage posted in this section. I press my +rep button, and may god have mercy on your soul.

[7itanium]

This is a pretty lame attempt at rep farming

well writen though

+4rep

[Steppy]

Thank you for the feedback, and yes, this is pretty common knowledge for players that have played this game for some time, and raided with a good guild.
This guide might not be needed for those who already know how you apply to a guild correctly, but rather for those who are somewhat new to applying, and have been casuals until now.
Although, I don't quite understand exactly what you mean, Wastrel. My grammar might not be perfect, and I might have misspelled some things, but I would still like to consider my grammar to be decent, and above the averange for someone that doesn't live in a country with english as their mother tongue.
The thing is, that your grammar and spelling is indeed important when you're applying to a guild. But it doesn't have to be 100% perfect really.
Some misspellings should be okay, aslong as you don't sound like a total retard (hai guyz, me want to join guild kk?).

[Wastrel]

Steppy, I disagree that a spelling mistake in a guild application should be ignored by the guild.

As a recruitment officer I run across a large number of apps in a given month, and while I reject all apps that use "leetspeak" immediately, I have learned to thoroughly investigate those that use improper spelling or grammar.

A guild application, at least to a server-leading raid guild, should be checked and double checked for accuracy. If an applicant cannot be bothered to use spellcheck what makes you think they will be bothered to read raid strats, or follow instructions?

I apologize for coming off as a dickweed, at four am my brain-keyboard filter is on downtime. Your English is respectable for a non-native speaker, so kudos to you.

[Steppy]

I agree that people using "leetspeak" shouldn't even be considered (I wouldn't consider them atleast), but a small spellingmistake (such as saying wich instead of which) shouldn't result in an instant denial of the application (atleast not in my opinion).

[KingYoshi9]

ROFL spelling even being an issue just surprises me..This is a application to a "GAME" guild. Now I understand if this is an application for the leading "Hardcore" guild on your server, but otherwise spellchecking seems pointless.

And NO, just because a person can't spell does NOT mean that they can't follow directions etc... (Not to mention that spell check misses a large number of grammatical errors)

[Steppy]

KingYoshi9, the reason that grammar and spelling words correctly is important, is to see if the person have spent time on the application (if he hasn't, why would he spend time on reading tactics or learning more about his class?), it's also important to make sure that the person will understand what you're saying and are telling him to do for a bossfight.
I agree that one little misspell doesn't matter that much, I think it's fine.
However, it's not hard to use a spellchecker, it only takes a few seconds, and many people are far more negative than me when it comes to small mistakes like that.

Getting in to a guild can be much like getting a job. When you're writing your job apply, I'm sure you would spellcheck that, wouldn't you?