Setting up Your Own WoW Raiding Guild

When starting your own raiding guild you must first think about what kind of people you want to be a part of your guild. Is your guild a serious or hardcore raiding guild? Will your guild rules be strict or more like guidelines? Do you want members who are more dedicated and skilled or are friendship and teamwork more important to you? Ask yourself who your target audience is and then make sure you fit your guild around that concept.

Getting a Website

When building your own guild for raiding you will need a website for members to communicate with each other even when they are not always online at the same time. It will also help you to organise your guild more effectively and manage different guild aspects more effectively such as DKP, raid sign ups and applications. You can either obtain a pre-made guild website or make one yourself although this method is much more time consuming. There are many different available web templates to choose from including:

www.wowstead.com – free guild website template and hosting.
www.guild-o-matic.com - paid guild website template and hosting.
www.guildlaunch.com - optional free or paid website template and hosting.

Advertising your Guild

You can advertise your guild in a variety of different ways to help improve application traffic. The most common guild advertising method used in WoW today is in-game trade adverts such as:

/2 <Guild Name> is now recruiting Shamans and Resto Druids for our 25 man team. Current progress ToC 10 4/4, TogC 10 2/4, ToC25 3/4. We are looking for dedicated hardcore raiders visit www.guildname .wowstead.com for more info or w me

Generally adverts like this include brief information on some key focus areas such as:

Name of the guild
What the guild is currently working on in raids
Times and days of raids
What the guild is recruiting
What type of people the guild is looking for
How players can find out more

Make sure you adapt your guild advert to suit your needs and who you want the advert to attract. For example, as a casual raiding guild you may want to remove “We are looking for dedicated hardcore raiders” and replace it with something like “We are a casual and friendly guild”.

Other advertising methods include making posts on websites such as the official WoW forums or unofficial guild recruitment sites such as:

Guild Rules

Make sure you have worked out all of your guild rules and procedures before you begin recruiting. Write down all the guild rules in detail and in a clear and concise manner on the guild website so that all potential applicants can see the guild rules easily. Make sure you work out key issues such as:

How loot will be distributed
Is there going to be a DKP system in place for certain raids?
What happens to BoE items
What happens to material found in raids such as ore or leather
Does the guild have a designated dis-enchanter?
What are the gear gemming and enchanting requirements?
What is the guild hierarchy?
Who has access to the guild bank or how to obtain items from the GB
What rewards or incentives are in place for members
What is the procedure for signing up to a raid
What is the attendance requirements for raids
How players should conduct themselves in-game
How are grievances handled
What is the punishment system and how is it carried out
Who receives crafting patterns from raids
What will happen to GB goods if the guild disbands?
Who are the class leaders/raid leaders and what are their job roles?
Which strategies and tactics does the guild use for raids?

Guild Bank

Try to fill your guild bank as much as possible before you start your guild. An empty guild bank can be very dis-heartening for guild members and can deter some people from joining. Members often need help with gear and items throughout their raiding experience so make sure you have all the relevant items available to them. It’s a good idea to prevent members form having direct access to your guild bank, assign an officer to handle guild bank item requests instead. This prevents fraudulent activities against your guild and protects against most hacking attacks by reducing your vulnerability.

Conversely, do not fill up your guild bank with everything you find. Only fill it with items that will be useful to your guild members such as Northrend gems, enchanting materials, Northrend buff foods, Potions and Flasks. Having a messy and useless guild bank will not help you to attract long term members into your guild.

We recommend using Zygor's Guide to be the master of your raiding party. His guide will level you up quick and show you all the tips and tricks to be the best raider out there.