Guilds - do I really need to be in one?

spookymoo · July 2016

I have 2 lv l 70 toons on Xbox and purchased the Early Start pack on PS4 as I have been waiting for ages for it to come out on this console and I have two level 50 toons on ps4 thus far. So here's the thing. I have been in at least 5 guilds on Xbox since I started. I have always done my dailies, contributed loads of gear, ad, gems and so forth. Run Heroics (often solo) to keep the influence going in. I have never been kicked from a Guild. I have left (often reluctantly) due to drama within the Guild, usually between individuals arguing over whose build is better, or demanding x-y- z is done or donated, or criticizing other people. I got into a great guild on start-up on PS4 - or so I thought. This guild has imploded and leader has left, lots of other people have left, not quite sure what has happened but it was major and involved serious stuff (death threats !) So now I have really had enough of the whole "be a part of a guild and a community''. I know that the Dragon flight gear can only be acquired through the Guild running dragonflight . I always seem to miss these runs due to the Times I am on line. So I am thinking do I really need to be part of the whole guild system at all?. To be honest the stuff that went down on ps4 has put me totally off playing on there anyway. I would come off Xbox but I still have 6 months VIP which I would probably lose. So one question I have - is there anyway I can stop people inviting me to join their guild? I don't want to be rude about it. I just want to solo for a bit and not have to deal with constant drama and in-fighting (and yes this is coming from the adults of the game!) Sorry rant over - jeez neverwinter is a grind but it used to be fun. Not so much anymore!

zaknafyen · July 2016

Our guild ended up moving on to other games a year ago. We were 50+ strong then with over 90% active members. We came back a few weeks ago, but we're only 4, maybe 5 members now. Completing the Dragonflight events or even getting our Stronghold rank up is pretty slim, at this point. Unless we start recruiting, but doing so (again), would prove difficult this late in the game.

I can't really answer your question. Most I can do is provide you with questions to answer, yourself, which might help with deciding what you do from here.

- How important is it to you to to min max your stats?
- How important is it to you to min max your gear, obtaining BiS pieces for your build/class?
- Is not having every boon from every campaign a problem for you (including those from Strongholds)?

If any of the above aren't a concern, then I'd say forget about joining a guild. For us, we would like to opportunity to complete the above. So, our major cross roads is do we join another guild, so that we can see do this or do we recruit? As of right now, we're mostly trying to play catch up with the Underdark, DR, Shar and Maze Engine campaigns. Until those are complete, we're not too concerned with it right now.

rebb · July 2016

No you don't have to be ...the guild boons and items whilst beneficial aren't going to be essential unless your in th emin/max crowd really. I don't think there's a way to block invites though.

What i will say is there's no getting away from drama in mmos ..especially at launch when your ramming a bunch of people together that don't really know each other well enough yet. fallouts will occur and its better to just not pay to much attention to them. In a few weeks things will have calmed down and settled a bit.
I have played many games and been in many guilds, iv even run a few to ...to me its to much hassle to get that involved anymore, so i try and stay out of the limelight lol, I play at my own pace and when i get to 70 ill put some more time and effort into building the stronghold up of whatever guild im in

.

Rebosi

kuero21 · July 2016

zaknafyen said:
Unless we start recruiting, but doing so (again), would prove difficult this late in the game.

I dont think its that difficult to recruit. While most people probably only would like to join LGPG, JHSF or such top guilds, guilds in general are limited to 150 Members, a feature which prevents such guilds to become as big as Apple or Microsoft and hire the majority of players. There are enough players out there seeking for a guild.

masterwolf56 · July 2016

It's beneficial to be in a guild especially one that plays at the same time that you play. Theres a pool of people to run content with and to make good virtual friends with. Yes Strongholds can be a pain but it's fun to get everyone to work together to build your guild so you get better gear, boons, builds or whatever. Yes fallouts can happen if leadership doesn't see eye to eye on big decisions and drama can happen as a result. It's about what you can do after these things happen that matter. There's no such things as drama free guilds when you play with 150 different personalities.

armadeonx · July 2016

I've played the game for about 14 months now and I've been in maybe 5 or 6 guilds. It isn't essential to be in one and pre stronghold boons it was a real take it or leave it thing.

To me, the reason for being in one is the social aspect. You should look to be in one where people talk to each other and run things together but of course where there's people, there's going to be drama at times.

The introduction of Strongholds has created a situation that is both positive and negative. Everyone wants to be in one that offers decent boons and this can mean staying when normally you would've moved on for whatever reason - staying where you don't want to be can by itself be a source of arguments, as can differing expectations or, as you say, demands from leadership for you to take time out of your gaming to supply the SH with donations - the bigger the demands, the more you're going to resent it.

It is far less attractive these days to go off and start your own guild due to the cost and time implications.

People above have been saying that high guilds are about being in the 'max crowd' but it's not really about that. Getting 4-8k extra power & defence (for example) makes a huge difference to your game play, you really feel like you're being effective - but to get a guild to that point does require dedication and sacrifice from all members.

There are quite a number of relaxed guilds where this really isn't the focus and they have a 'we'll get there when we get there' approach - which is nice, especially if they are focusing on the really important stuff such as making sure everyone feels included and is having fun. But finding such groups is never an easy task - often there's a lot of trial and error.

Things to always look out for:
Do people actually talk to you without being prompted
Does the leadership team make sure you and the rest of the guys are being included in what's going on
Are they reasonable with their expectations in terms of coffer donations and game time

These are the signs of a guild that will last the test of time and not suffer from wave after wave of leavers.

sundance777 · July 2016

The way to stop the guild requests is to be in a guild, go find 4 people willing to help you start a guild and remove them after and be a guild of one. You could even use that as the name if you like, lol

speedokillz · July 2016

Our Stronghold has only level 3 Stables and that provides 2400 Defense and 1000 Armor Pen. Than could be an entire Campaign's worth of Boons for those two stats. My point is: it is worth trying to be in a good guild with some Boons. There will always be some drama when you throw a bunch of strangers who will maybe never ever have to see each other in person, imo so don't let that get you down.

** [Edit] was typing this out, saved, and read Sundance's post... so yeah, what he said

I do have a way to not get any more invites... Start your own guild where you are the leader and let everyone know that you do not want them to stay. That is how I started my own guild on Xbox1. I even offered a rank 7 Azure to help start and 2 just wanted to help, didn't want to stay, and even politely declined the Rank 7's.

If you plan on playing this game for a very long time, start your own Stronghold and be the only one in it... If you're on Xbox1, my guild mate's Alternates will meet you in Protectors, start your guild and leave so you can be the only one in it if you like

SpeedoKillz

indylol · July 2016

Joining a guild often gives you a reason to play. You will find yourself excited to get home and party up with a few of your regular friends. Some guilds will appear early on in PS4 and they won't last a week. Others will be around next year. Its hard to distinguish which guild is worth sticking with, but try to get to know the leaders and if they seem like people you think you want to spend +1000 hours with, then you may have found a good fit.

spookymoo · July 2016

Thanks for the comments. I really do enjoy the social aspect of being in a guild. The first one I joined on Xbox was really amazing, full of great people, lots of laughter and fun. Then people started arguing and sniping and getting serious and heavy about things. I completely get that you are going to have big personalities who often don't get on and I am prepared to accept that you sometimes have to make compromises. And I don't mind donating stuff either because I think that's what we should do to work together. It's just recent events have made me question - is this a game or a battle of who can be the best with the best gear, best build, best guild, best SH and so on. I think your suggestions about starting my own guild, just to not have the worry, are good so thank you for that I will have to have a think about things. Maybe I should just chill out about it and go back to running some dungeons or something. Thanks everyone for the good advice

bozgreen · July 2016

Good topic, good thoughts, good discussions.
Get some empathy on me. And some inspiration.

At this point, do I need a guild?

I only started early Jan. 2016, now half a year later, I have a 3.5K GWF, a near 3K GF, and three other chars waiting for cumulated RP to advance. And I start to seek a purpose of keeping playing.
It's been a solo 6 months. And a fairly huge spending 6 months, for lack of patience as well as the how-to knowledge.
Have got invitations, quite a few. Interestingly both GF and GWF were invited by the same guild at different times, and for whatever reason, I at the time decided to accept. The first involvement didn't last for an hour. The guild was just so dead. The second time, I did quite some donation using the Packs, and daily stuff, seeing 3 buildings through upgrades, but still, felt the guild was so dead to an unbearable point. So I left again after about a week.
That brief guild experience brought me some thinking, which is, is this a game that I'll enjoy, or a competition of group fame?
It sure makes some players feel flattered with a strong guild's name appearing underneath the character's name.

I'm definitely not part of the Min Max crowd. Even though I've spent 6 hours in average each day on this game, I'm still so reluctant in topping out the other players. Any group play, I can usually see me finish within the Top 3, and that's good enough.
Story line literally finishes at lvl 60, and once all campaigns are done, what is that I'm seeking in this game?
How much better is a lvl 145 armor compared to a lvl 140? It is absolutely much better. HP alone will be 10K+ more. But hey, lvl 140 Drowcraft is good enough.
And do I seek more power? Probably not that much, especially when by the next 2x RP I'll for sure get 4K. The game is alive and evolving because it's trying to offer constant challenges to all players. Well, 4K IL will again be good enough.
Then it comes down to the social aspect. But getting a group of alike is just so rare, more or less the same as the drop rate of getting a +5 ring, or a +6 mount from the lockboxes. So how am I going to get all the motivation that will sustain the trials with different guilds until finally and luckily meet one? The answer is still unfound.
A well built guild can provide tangible benefits, but it feels like being limited to a group of players. I guess that limitation is what pulls me back from the idea of joining.

At the moment, I know that fashion sets are something that I value a lot, even has an higher priority than level or gear advancing. Fashion as in cloths, not armors. It seems that these unique combinations of civilian wears can provide my character an identity. I hope there will be more, so I can customize more combinations. And when this game is eventually done? I hope I will be able to 3D print the figures, put them on the shelf as a souvenir for the memory and all the time of my life spent in this game.

bleedinblue755 · July 2016

I have been running since launch on Xbox and I started my own guild 14 months ago my guild is still going and we still have many active players. It was said before but guilds, clans, whatever you want to call them will have drama at some point. You can't stop it... My guild has seen two cases of it. But the guild is still here and many people in my guild have been here for over a year now.

The social aspects of guilds makes it worth joining. You have just honestly had some bad luck with your guild choices. I'm not trying to tell you to come join mine I'm just saying be selective with your next guild. Ask them questions before joining. How many people do they have, how long has their guild been around? Talk to them in party chat before joining. You can usually tell a lot about someone by talking to them for a bit. And if they don't want to get into party with you that tells you something right away. Talk to more than one member ask to run a dungeon with them. See if they can pull a party together real quick if they say they have 130 members but can't put together a 5 man group that's a red flag. Our numbers are the lowest they have been in a long time we are at 80 members right now and wit it being summer time a lot of people our on family vacations and thing but I can usually hop on our kik app and gt enough to make a run. Not everytime but I can usually get enough to have the majority of a run to keep from any of us getting booted from a dungeon.

Guilds do provide the boons which like it was said before can make a huge difference in your game play. Our boons aren't the highest but the power and defense boons we have you can tell a difference. I mean 2000 power is 2000 power

The plus side to not being in a guild is the constant coffer demands and the occasional drama that does arise from putting a bunch of people together. And with the new alliance system coming believe there will be even more drama coming from that. But your guild doesn't have to do it either.

I will be in guild till I'm done playing this game whenever that day comes. I love meeting new people helping them build their toons and watching our guild grow. It's kinda cool to step back and see what has been created by the efforts of all the people who have walked thru the doors. 99% of the time guilds are great place to meet people and have a good time chatting and horsing around. And I'll take that any day. The occasional drama yes sucks but after the dust settles your true friends will still be there wanting to run with you and that is worth it to me. There have been many days we never left the fountain cause we were all chatting and cracking jokes for 3 hours and didn't get a thing done. That to me is worth it.

mordekai · July 2016

I play almost entirely solo, being in a different timezone to most of the guys in my guild.
I have completed all the campaigns except Icewind and PVP, and dont look like doing them any time soon. Our guild is new and just about ready to build the first tier of marketplace.
I have spent a lot of my time farming resources for the guild to build it up, and having that target to aim at has made my slow trudge from 1.8k to 2.4k more enjoyable as I feel like I'm not just playing Groundhog Day in Sharandar and the Dread Ring, but building something other than my own arsenal.

Guilds aren't for every one but if you find the right one it can give even the most anti social skeptic a lift in that period of post 70 growth.

zaknafyen · July 2016

rebb said:
What i will say is there's no getting away from drama in mmos ..especially at launch when your ramming a bunch of people together that don't really know each other well enough yet. fallouts will occur and its better to just not pay to much attention to them. In a few weeks things will have calmed down and settled a bit.
I have played many games and been in many guilds, iv even run a few to ...to me its to much hassle to get that involved anymore, so i try and stay out of the limelight lol, I play at my own pace and when i get to 70 ill put some more time and effort into building the stronghold up of whatever guild im in .

Rebosi

So true and a very intelligent tactic.

mordekai · July 2016

I suppose it also depends on what you are looking to get from a Guild.
If you join a young guild, there will be few, if any, boons available, but as a player you will feel part of its growth and development. If you are only after the marketplace and boons of a more established one, you'll be expected to add to the coffers on a more regular basis, but the gear will probably offset any inconvenience of having to drop weekly loads of Influence.

I'd love the boons and armour, but I really enjoy the gameplay of building the coffers up.

destrowod · July 2016

Ah the guilds.... let me tell you a story.

At first i joined a random guild, you know those invites you get from randoms. At first i tough it was cool, i had my own clan on PSO in early 2000s so i was done to meet new people etc. But then the reality is, i never played with whese peoples, i was a noob, they where already 60(cap back then), it was before SH by the way. Honestly all i did was use some items from there bank wich did help me. But beside that? Oh yeah i spoke to leader by mail a couple time, thats about it lol. In any case down the road i left.

Then i saw advertisement by "Relax its Just a game" . I joined, at first all was good. Then i started to notice a couple people didn't like me cause of my nationality, being a french seperatist from Quebec. (They where english canadians) and well i didn't made a big deal out of it... The first couple days they helped me run stuff but it stoped very fast. I was at the time a fresh 70 GF(in a pally dominated world lol) and had no idea how a tank worked, i never played MMO before. Remember before that it was questing solo and there ain't no real strategy etc for that. Anyway i could talk a lot about it but more or less they didn't want to carry me trough dungeons to gear up too much, and they treated me like an idiot when i asked question etc. A couple of them did help me, but always in a pushy way. Not very fun. When SH dropped, they started asking for a lot of stuff. Well at the time it looked like a lot of stuff for me, remeber i am not very geared, i barely make any diamonds, im starting to learn how my character play out...

Then the real trouble started. They where anything but relax, everytime i would ask questions or wonder why some stuff was what it was, they would say i "question autority" and other HAMSTER like that. I have a curious mind as well as i like to understand why something has to be done a certain way. Every time i would ask a question about why we had to do something on the FB page they would act like i was questioning autority publicaly... hey oh its the guild page... lol, not a general NW page. In any case i was booted up in a very disgusting way, they kicked me without talking to me or anything, while i was running heroics to gather influence. I saw the countdown then bam i was out...

So to that point if my first guild was a rather "meh" experience as in nothing happen, the second one was a very bad one.

After that granted i started understanding how this game work, my character etc, i also made a GWF as i felt it was more my style of play. I then joined Dread Legion and Dragonsbane with each character. I don't have much to say on DB, good folks, but most of my time was spent on my GF wich was in Dread so i rarely played with them. Eventually i left it to put my secondary in Dread Legion. There is a bit more to the story but the post will already be long so ill stop there. Lets just say i left on good term with them.

So DREAD LEGION, at first i had so much fun there. I mean they asked for coffer donation just like Relax, but the difference was they always brough me on run, i was making so much Diamonds it was insane, donating was perfectly fine. They already had high pallies so runs where super easy. I will say this guild did help me a lot to rank up.

But sadly there was a problem in it. THE LEADER. I am not allow to say too much in here as it would be considered personal attacks, but lets just say he is the sole reason why the guild became a mess. It lost so many good members, i was there 4 months total and the last 2 i swear the roster changed every week by at least 20 people. By the time i was out of the guild there was barely just the core group of the leader's friend that where still in it. When you see your friends leave cause of the guy and he basically HAMSTER talk on everybody that left you realize something is wrong. One day he could send a super cool encouraging message, the next day it was "im tired of you lazy people that don't work for this guild"

Anyway, lets just say at some point i was thinkig of leaving, i had made some good friends in my current guild and i was not running as much with dread at the end.. the guild was failling appart despite being a (then) GH13 guild, wich was pretty good at the time. The leader and his friends tough where very big P2W, there characters where maxed out, so they paid a lot to raise the guild.

So at the end, when i was thinking of leaving, i started confronting more the leader, as at that point things had to change or i was leaving anyway, i didn't care about getting booted. But its what happened. Dude booted me overnight too, justd dropped a couple messages in my box and thats about it. What bothers me is i was really invested in that guild. For a free to play dude i donated a damn lot, i was doing my part, and the reason why he booted me in the end was when i made some critisizing messages here on the pay to win concept... Oh did i said he actually once said to me "i don't care about people leaving, i can replace them anytime" He had no care about peoples, he just wanted there donations.

After that i immediately joined Rebel Souls wich i am still into now. I think im in it since April or so... I would lie if i said things are 100% perfect, cause its not the case, but the difference with that guild is people care about people, the members do not change every week, people join to stay and we rarely loose people. We know each other for the most part very well. I can't say i go perfectly along with every members, there is a couple ones that im not there biggest fan lol, but thats normal stuff, thats bound to happen in groups like that that meet on the internet. The main leader take really good care of the guild and is a very down to earth person, compare to the dread legion guy that more or less only wanted grunts to fill his coffer.

I had a GH13 in dread legion in april, and there was always runs going on. In Rebel Souls, we are GH10 now, and sometimes i don't have people to run, we are not full. But despite that, the environement is so much better than in dread that its worth it by far. I prefer to work over and build a guild i care about than fill the coffer of a higher guild just cause i have to.

So moral of the story is, it may take some time before finding a good guild, but when you do its worth it. If you prefer to stay a lone wolf, i guess you can always join guilds for dragon flight only (some open there doors for that cause they need extra guys) You will also be able to pug dungeons etc especially if your already high yourself.

But whats cool is if your close to 4k, you can be picky, so why not try some guilds and see for yourself? Just stay away from the ones that ask stuff up front and you will be fine. This way if they don't fit for you, you just let them know nicely and you can quit without remorse.

In the end i will say this. SH expension is really a double edge sword. Part of it is cool because its fun to build together something in a way, i think if i was not in a guild i would get bore of the game faster, but then on the other side its harder for the players that are not fully geared yet etc. They are thorn between upgrading there char and having to contribute, also running influence daily is not fun... im super tired of this. Too repetitive. Buts its sooo needed, no choice. When the leaders push you to do stuff you don't want to, its not fun either.

I would say SH is good for end game players, it gives something else to do, while a fresh first character to lev 70 will struggle to meet requirements etc, but then being in said guild can help him a lot to run stuff etc. So its really just a gauge you have to adjust...

Personally i enjoy being in a guild that do play regulary, that is active and upgrade SH often, but at the same time i would not want to be pushed hard to run specific stuff each day and be "commanded" or having to mandatory make it to guild runs etc.

Take for exemple, my guild know im a GEARS OF WAR player, i have a team on that game, and it happen sometimes my team contact me to play while im on NW in a guild event (like dragons etc) I will leave then right in the middle of it. They don't get mad, they thanks for what i helped and thats it. Thats good spirit. While some other guilds would be mad i leave to play another game im sure. But for me its hard to gather my 3 friends sometimes for GOW, they have family/kids, they don't all work at the same hours, so when we can be the 4 of us and do team stuff, hell yeah we do.

So yup for me a casually serious guild is best. lol.

draco16 · July 2016

I have also had interesting experiences while being in and out of guilds. The way the game is set up the guild memberships opens up boons that would otherwise be unavailable but at the price of cooperating with other players. My current guild/friends are an eclectic group of folks but in their actions they are trying to work together to get the goals accomplished. I don't particularly like to run influence but it is critical in order to get the guild built up. I like the relaxed atmosphere and the understanding of folks that have life situations so they are away from the guild as a result. I am proud that we were able to bring the guild to level 12 and still have interested fun folks that want to continue building and helping new members to improve in a dignified manner without insulting their intelligence.

Overall the experience has been a positive one and I encourage everyone to find the people that fit them to have fun in the game. It is a game and even as we strive to improve the guild we don't lose sight of the fun we all have in our group.

xrawcarnage · July 2016

Just keep testing guilds and see how the leaders and guild members are. You'll go through bumps and bruises but eventually will find the right guild for you.

You will always have drama when you throw together 150 people in one setting. Not everyone gets along which is fine. You just need to know when not to stick your nose in other people's drama. A guild is like anything else in life and it's up to your own personality and how you approach said drama/situations. Play to have fun and if that means being part of a smaller guild, then so be it.

Tbh if you have a good group at the top of a guild, they should easily be able to squash all drama that occurs.

To answer you if you need to be in a guild or not, no you don't need to be in one to get through content. Yes the boons are nice and you will not be able to compete with players who are part of a big guild. So either deal with a little drams here and there or role solo and deal with the fact that you won't always be tops.

Like someone mentioned, get to know the leaders and the players and see if you'll fit in. That's probably the best advice.

spookymoo · July 2016

Thank you for the advice xrawcarnage and draco 16. It sounds like you have had mixed experience from being in various guilds but that the positives outweighs the negatives. Thank you too destrowod for your informative and inciteful post. I too have come up against similar problems with similar personality types in the guilds I have been in similar to yourself. Luckily I have not had the experience of being kicked, without a discussion or notice. Like yourself I am usually an active contributor to any guild and its coffers. I also make an effort to help other players out, especially those levelling up. I just find, with having limited time on my hands, I only end up running sh heroics (usually solo) to get the 400 influence which by the time i have done that, I have very little time left to progress my character running for the gear I need. Whenever I ask for help it is never forthcoming for one reason or another. So I guess I just feel a little frustrated. I have been stuck on the same gear score for ages now and its probably because I am not running what I need to be. I understand what you're saying about getting the boons. I know I will never be able to compete with the high end players who are above 3K IL. I can't get the gear and I won't get the boons. Guess I need to find the right guild I am sure they are out there somewhere.......

destrowod · July 2016

Honestly man i don't know how people that have more of a life than me actually manage to run all they need to run in a day lol. Unless maybe they never play any other video games... Still. I have lots of free time and yet i never find the time to do all i want to do in a day.

Now i have a 3K GWF so running influence is a quick thing. But when i go to my GF damn it take some time to run this... i usually do the first 2 or 3 and thats it. Pretty much on my GWF i run the first 4 so i get 380 and usually gather 270 to 345 on GF. Its a pretty good contribution but it takes me a while to do that. If i had just 1 or 2 hours of play per day, no way i could do this everyday... I couldn't do anything else.

So this is why i think its important to have a guild that understand your style of play. We don't have all the same time, possibilities etc.

And no your wallet does not have to compensate for the lack of time you have lol.

mahburg · July 2016

Sadly one of the ongoing problems in the concept is Influence, its where most of the friction lies (certainly has been in our guild). Yes it is boring but its a vital requirement, the Devs could help (and they are aware of the issue), however other than stating at the target revisions, they were aware it was an issue, nothing has really changed. Why not let us have the Jubilee stall as a permanent option guys! It would be a start.

Even if you have a guild that places very little demand on its members (like ours) you still need influence and due to the caps there is no option but put pressure on members, add that to the fact that Targets are generally insane as you get higher, then it becomes pretty obvious friction will increasingly occur as the guild ranks up. As a guild leader I never kick (one exception due to personal abuse) folk, however my Founders do and will if guys don't invest some effort in helping the guild. Frankly you cant have the benefits they bring (boons etc), but not expect to have to play your part.

Most notably its because those who have put in a ton of effort getting the guild to where its attractive to others, begin to resent those they see as freeloaders, now whilst that's not my view I do see where they are coming from.
Also Nerfing Toons puts more pressure on Guilds to rank Boons up to compensate for the reductions in stats as a result of the nerf, basically a vicious spiral that helps no one in the long run.

destrowod · July 2016

Well this is exactly a big issue. The problem is, the target are made in expectation that 150 gamertags will run influence on 4-5 toons everyday. So because of that its expected that people run AT LEAST 400 influence per day. Most guild i seen will ask this, as having multiple characters is not the case of everybody so they ask for 400 total, like if you did the 5 on one toon. Personally i hate running 5 on 1, getting only 20 for the last one is so insulting for me, i never run that one pretty much, lol. I mix my characters as i said above and usually gather around 600 to 700 wich pretty good. But sometimes i wish my secondary was another class lol. GF = SOOOOO LONG to finish an HE even the easiest one compare to my GWF.

But to get back to what i said, normally people, not only guild leader, expect you to run these 400 influences on days you play. Of course if you don't play on a day, then obviously you won't and its not everybody that play everyday. But then there is another problem. What if you only have an hour to play on week evenings? By the time you done with influence you will have only 30 mins or so playtime left... thats like one dungeon and 2 or 3 dailies...max.

That the problem... And i can relate to what i am gonna say cause i felt it. I play every day, cause i can, exept on rare ocasions and even these days i won't play ill load up the game and get my daily key, pray and do professions to get my ardent coin etc. Even on days i know i won't be able to play, cause for exemple i leave town shortly after waking up, i usually prepare influence to just open up and donate.

So because of that, when people don't run more than 2-3 times in a week, i do feel like they don't contribute as much as me, especially when the coffer requirement needed is only influence and we are waiting on this to upgrade. Now i know its a bad feeling and im guilty inside of having it. Those people may have kids, work that ask for a lot of time, they may want to spend time with there family, or maybe then just want to play another game too, thats perfectly fine. Deep down i know its ok. But i can't help but to have this dirty feeling of "they should contribute more" even if i know its a bad feeling.

And for that i feel the game is dirty on us. Its like you said one of the cataliser for problems that shouldn't be there. They did a pretty solid part already by fixing the AD and Gems problems (and surplus to an extent) by allowing us to make the crates. AD has almost become a breeze lol. I have over 200 crates ready to drop when needed in my bank right now... just to tell.

But influence... being capped like that mean you can't do more than a certain extend. Its obviously a way to make us make more toons and then gear them up, i know... $$$ everywhere. But i wish they would at least let us do influence crates like the rest. I think its a good compromise, it take a profession slot, thats refinement i can't make for exemple if i run this, and therefore when needed for big upgrade we could use those. It would also help the smaller guild that don't have 150 members upgrade a bit faster. They could be only 20 or 35 a crate... it would still help.

armadeonx · July 2016

Ruthless have a 2k per week requirement, which obviously is 5x400. If the member has alts in the guild they can run this over the course of a day or 2 (depending on the number of alts) and be free of it for the rest of the week.

Our guys don't resent new players coming in, because apart from influence, all other donations were voluntary. We'd rather have a full guild of good people who join for the right reasons.

It's fair to say our longer term members take pride in having actively contributed to the guild reaching GH 20 but we just see it as a means of attracting and keeping good people - as well as giving the best boons to all our members.

I believe that viewpoint is an extension of our decision to not charge new members or make quota demands on existing members. Members will get resentful if they are told they HAVE to donate campaign currency/AD etc - especially with new people coming in. But when it's case of "guys we need gold (or whatever), please donate if you can", then they don't have a problem.

They know if they don't donate then they aren't going to get demoted or kicked, they just won't get the boon upgrades as fast as they would like.

destrowod · July 2016

But quite frankly who ever came with this influence idea should be fired lol. I mean its one thing to run heroics for stuff, like fearzness or whatever its call etc. I run some demonics in the well of dragons usually to get key components but not only can i make other type of keys too with the fearzness but i can use the ichor to eventually buy purple items. Some demonics gives me ring too and AD is a good motivation... And yet i don't do those everyday...

But influence... some enchants yes wich is good but i feel its not enough... Sometimes vouchers for other currencies drop but there pretty small. I think they should increase the heroic encounter rewards. First for running 3 you get 3000 AD, that would be a good source of motivation for people and since its one time only it wouldn't break the balance of AD. 3000 on a 36 000 cap ain't a lot either...

Secondly, every completed HE gives a green voucher, and not labor HAMSTER ... some needed stuff.

Third, ring could be rewarded sometimes, at a drop rate like in the Demonic ones. I get rings on ocasion but sometimes i can go 3-4 without having one. It would also motivate people.

Four , this one is optional, lets just its another possibility to replace 1 of the above, it could drop a gray res stone.

Anyway more or less it would be more worth it for people to run them, wich would help guilds.

sundance777 · July 2016

destrowod said:
Honestly man i don't know how people that have more of a life than me actually manage to run all they need to run in a day lol. Unless maybe they never play any other video games... Still. I have lots of free time and yet i never find the time to do all i want to do in a day.

I feel your struggles and this is what I decided to do to minimize the stress. I have 4 toons and I only have about 4 good chunks of time each week, so I focus on one or two toons max per session. I do the invoke and professions on all four, run two of them through the SH heroics, then run one or two of them to dailies for boons then go have some fun, dungeons or edemo or flight of the dragons, event stuff or whatever it is that is enjoyable. The game is much more enjoyable for me this way.

armadeonx · July 2016

See if you can get guys together and run 15 man heroics, you sometimes get purple items to use or salvage and they are more fun than soloing the smaller ones.

spookymoo · July 2016

I agree with Destrowod's comments. I only have one hour, sometimes two max, most days. I work and have family and other commitments. Sometimes I have all day on the weekend sometimes not at all as I am out or doing other things like life stuff.So a typical day might go like this. I have two PvP 70 toons. I usually only have time to play one a day. I log on - usually in the map I left before hand. So, say for example it's Well. I might still have a few quests left there from the last time plus I picked up more so maybe I have 5 to do. Give or take. Dragon runs pop up in my instance. So I have to do those. That takes 10/15 mins then I might do a few dailies (if it's sh daily then I have to stay and do 3) that might take another 15 mins, or more. Then I go to the SH turn in stuff, pick more quests up. Try and run my SH heroics that can easily take 15 mins plus. I have also invoked to get my ardent coin and done my professions so add another 5 mins on. So at the very best I have spent 50 mins at least of my precious one hour . I have not yet run any dungeons to make AD or farm for gear. I have not run Demo or tiamat. I have not done any event stuff or skirmishes. So here's how it goes. I don't want the Guild to kick me or think bad of me so I have to go and run the sh stuff first. So I have very little time left to do what a) I need to do and b) what I want to do, which causes me resentment. Especially if I am in a guild where no one talks to anyone, or helps me. Now I know there are guilds that are more sociable which is great. But bear in mind I often only have an hour or so. These guys play all day, or so it seems If I go and run castle never that is at least half an hour of my time that I lose. So I think shoot I better go and get my sh stuff done, am I going to get it finished, what if I can only get 300 in influence today? Can you see my issue? Destrowod -thank you for seeing it. I am not having a go at guilds or other players. I am just saying it's really hard when you don't have hours and hours - you have to be brutal with your time and invariably someone / something loses out.

destrowod · July 2016

Sundance : I have only 2 active one lol, i can't imagine if i had more. And honestly my GF is used only for Dungeons and gathering influence, oh and weeklies too, i can't let go that many diamonds lol. But beside that, i don't run any dailies with him as im done with the boons, i feel everything take too long to kill anyway. So i more or less run only 1 toon fully and still there i can never do all i want to do, and i play mulple hours a day lol.

Armadeon : After dragon runs or sometimes else we do multple people heroics, usually when there is some i try to do them with the guild to help and all and at least im telling myself if i run 10-15 with my GF thats 4 days or so i won't have to run any. But the fact is when i have people to play (guild or friend etc) i prefer to do dungeons... thats logic. Usually i gather my influence when im bored and alone, either in the night or early morning when nobody is on. I feel when your many guildmate connected you should go more for dungeons and stuff you CAN'T run alone, altough i do enjoy to run no sympathy and such at time.

Spooky : Yeah well i think you need to get yourself in a guild that understand those things. If i was in your situation no way i would run heroics every day etc. I think what you can do maybe is run 2 of them, those 2 will nail you more than the 3 last combined... actually the first one will nail you more than those 3 last combined. That way you do your part with the time you have.

Honestly i never run the last HE on my GWF, no matter if its super quick on this character or not. For a mere 20? forget that. I do run some on my GF so i exceed my 400 anyway, but i remember before i had my GWF and just my GF, i ran usually 3 per day and that was it. Take it or leave it guild, thats what i was telling myself lol. So spooky don't stress out cause you can only get 300 lol.

zaknafyen · July 2016

kuero21 said:

zaknafyen said:
Unless we start recruiting, but doing so (again), would prove difficult this late in the game.
I dont think its that difficult to recruit. While most people probably only would like to join LGPG, JHSF or such top guilds, guilds in general are limited to 150 Members, a feature which prevents such guilds to become as big as Apple or Microsoft and hire the majority of players. There are enough players out there seeking for a guild.

You might be right, but from what I've seen in the chat window or from others that I've ran with, they're wanting to join an already active guild with at least a decent amount of progress in their Stronghold. I'm sure experiences may vary. Either way, we decided we're going to play catch up game (getting campaigns done, queue for random epic dungeons, etc). Once we get our twisted artifact weapons and SoP gear, when we feel we're at a very decent area and gearscore, that's what we'll decide if we're going to recruit or join another guild.

speedokillz · July 2016

spookymoo#7778 said:
I agree with Destrowod's comments. I only have one hour, sometimes two max, most days. I work and have family and other commitments....

This is mine (and most, I'm sure) situation and I am the guild leader. By the time I rotate through characters for invoking and general guild stuff, I have little time to actually run dungeons that I want because I am focused on the Coffer Target. It used to annoy me, but the fact that I am in a guild at all means that I decided to sacrifice the "do whatever / whenever" for the advancement of our guild and I do like that.

For those that don't like to do Influence or avoid doing dailies in the Target Campaigns are really giving up the best Boons, imo. Stables R3 is like 3 rank 9 Darks in you Offensive PLUS the 2400 Defense is the same 7+ rank 9 Azures! Seems dumb not to focus on finding a good Stronghold and paying attention to the Target.

grandpaxxx · July 2016

I think it's a waste of time if your casual. Once the guild reaches guild hall 20 they will no longer need you and get rid of the unwanted that helped them get their. So unless your buddy buddy with the guild leader no point in bothering with it.

Maybe charge a ridiculous amount to stay in till RL takes you away and they boot you out anyways. So you come back ask for a spot but it's filled. So why waste your time in a guild. Dedicating long hours for something you won't be a part of if you take a short break or long break from it. I say hop in do a donation dump get what you need and leave.

The stat boost is nice but overkill for pve and only necessary if you pvp.

My .02 cents

Guilds - do I really need to be in one?

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