Raiding 101: Guild Recruitment
Welcome to Raiding 101!
In the previous chapter of this series, we offered tips on how guild leaders can set effective and sustainable goals for a guild. In the next several chapters, we will offer even more advice for running a guild, which can range from guild leadership duties, to raid leading, to growing as a player.
Now that you’ve decided on your progression goals and developed some plans for your guild environment, it’s time for the next step: filling the guild and raid team with people! Today, we’ll talk about how to set up your guild’s application and recruitment materials.
Read on for some tips on how to create an effective application and recruitment profile to attract the players you’re looking for.
Table of Contents
The Guild Application
The first step for recruitment is deciding whether or not you’d like to filter recruits with an application process. Using an application isn’t the right choice for every guild, but developing an efficient recruitment strategy and utilizing even a short application can help recruitment feel a little less scattered and more manageable.
Application questions vary dramatically between guilds, and will often depend entirely on the type of raiding you’d like to be doing. Because each guild’s requirements and goals are so unique, it’s difficult to build a one-size-fits-all application, but below are the must-have sections:
Required
1. Guild Values
If you are at all concerned about your guild environment and community (and you should be!), include some mention of your guild’s rules and values right at the top of your application. This may appear in the form of abridged guild rules, a short statement about community values, or even a statement or code of conduct to which the applicant must agree to before proceeding.
2. Identifying Information
Be sure you ask for Discord and/or Battle.Net usernames, Raider.IO profile, and an armory link.
3. “Why are you applying to our guild?”
You’ll want to recruit players who want to be raiding with YOUR team specifically, not throwing applications at any guild who will take them. Bonus points to applicants who specifically mention your guild values or environment as a reason for applying; this is a great sign that they’ve read your recruitment materials and share similar values!
Now, let’s look at some highly recommended application questions:
Recommended
4. Guild and/or Raiding History
If raiding experience is important to you, this may be a mandatory question for your application. Knowing whether a potential trial has experience with end-tier boss progression, for example, is important if you’re recruiting as a guild raiding at the CE level or higher. Recognizing an applicant’s previous guilds, for better or for worse, can tell you a lot about the person’s experience and even their personality.
5. Bench Disclaimer
I recommend this section for any guild aiming for Mythic-level content. Let your raiders know right off the bat what kind of cooperative attitude you expect from them. Many players say they are happy to sit out for a fight to provide an ideal comp, or even for a stronger raider to come in, but often this ends up not being true in practice. Having this statement on your application can support you later on in a discussion with a raider who is unhappy they have been benched for progression.
6. “Can anyone in the guild vouch for you?”
While players who apply with a friend are generally applicants you should avoid (we will address these “package deals'' in an upcoming article), it’s very helpful to know that your raiders are happy enough with your community to recommend the raid team to their friends later on. If you trust that particular raider and the type of person they would vouch for, you may end up with another excellent team member! Word-of-mouth is a wonderful way to fill your community with people who have already been recommended as a good fit. However, ensure that you are not filling your team solely or primarily with people from the same friend group in order to maintain diversity and minimize cliques.
7. “Is there any additional information you’d like to share about yourself?”
This is a great question to learn a few personal details about your applicants, like their age, career, and hobbies, for example. You may get some early ideas about whether a potential trial’s personality is a good fit for your team based on their answers to this question. A popular alternative or additional question is asking for information about their pets! (Because, of course, every good community Discord definitely has a pets channel).
Finally, let’s look at some questions that many higher-end guilds like to include on their applications:
Expanded
8. “Why are you leaving your current guild?”
This can be a contentious question among GMs. Some feel it can be unnecessarily inflammatory and encourages applicants to dump on their previous guild. Others feel it’s important information that can reveal some hints about an applicant’s personality, goals, and values. Be aware that this question may be an uncomfortable or awkward one for members of marginalized communities; many women, for example, have been driven out of guilds because they were repeatedly sexually harassed, or because they were unfairly stereotyped as “dramatic,” “difficult,” or “hysterical” for speaking up or defending themselves. If you choose to include this question, ensure you’re being sensitive and compassionate in evaluating the answers.
9. “Do you have any raid-ready or relevant alts?”
This may not feel important to your team’s goals, and that’s fine! However, if you’re running a bit of a smaller team, or are raiding on a short schedule, it’s always helpful to know which other classes and specs you may have available to you in a pinch.
10. UI Screenshots
Some guilds like to know that their applicants have a workable UI to help process information properly in the midst of stressful end-tier fights. Be aware that a question like this may feel unfair for disabled or neurodivergent players who need larger text, different color settings, etc. Neurodivergent players may also have their UIs set up in a way that feels most ideal for their brains, even if the UI itself doesn’t look great from your perspective.
11. “Where do you go to get information about your class?”
An applicant who uses outdated information, or relies solely on one source for all their information, is a sign that they may not be all too invested in improving their characters or their gameplay, or that they’re not yet familiar enough with character preparation at a higher level.
12. “How do you prepare for a new encounter?”
This question may be important for raiding guilds looking to push higher content, or those who raid on a limited schedule. Having raiders who are self-starters and work a little bit harder to prepare themselves for difficult bosses is a huge benefit once you start moving into content that is more challenging for your team.
Setting Up Your Guild Recruitment Profile
One of the most crucial parts of standing out as a guild is developing your recruitment profile to demonstrate the team’s personality and character. Remember that your recruitment materials are your only chance to make an exceptional first impression on potential recruits, and furthermore, remember that recruiting is always a player’s market. Raiders looking for a guild typically have countless options, so put the time in to really sell your community and attract the right players to your team!
To set up your Recruitment Profile, login to Raider.IO and click the Recruitment tab.
Both GM and officer roles can develop the guild’s Recruitment Profile, but leadership ranks can also designate any other guild member as a Recruiter, granting access to the Recruitment Profile without giving them access to other guild settings.
For more info on setting up Recruitment Profiles on Raider.IO, please click here.
While making a profile too wordy can be a concern, it’s more important to ensure you’re sharing the most relevant information about your guild. Raider.IO allows the use of Markdown for formatting your guild profile; make use of this to structure your profile in an organized and readable manner!
Below is some information you should always include in your Raider.IO Guild profile:
Profile
1: Community Values & Rules
By putting your community values upfront and center, you will hopefully discourage applicants who aren’t a good social fit for your team. Just as on your application, there are many different ways to include this information on your recruitment materials. You may want to give an abridged list of guild rules, or write a short statement about your community goals and values (or both!). This is also the place for any hard and fast rules your guild may have, including minimum age levels, language requirements, etc.
2: Raid Schedule
Often this detail is made obvious by your Raider.IO recruitment profile, but it’s helpful to include it in your guild’s base profile as well as any specific recruitment posts. If you run multiple teams, be sure you’re distinguishing between them and making their separate raid times clearly visible.
3: Current Progression
This is also obvious on Raider.IO’s recruitment and base guild pages, but if you’re making forum or Discord posts, it’s necessary to include your current progression. If you feel you’ve made meaningful progress in the past several tiers, or you’d like to demonstrate your guild’s consistency in meeting its tier goals, you can also include past progression. Unless you’ve earned notable world ranks or region Hall of Fames at multiple points, aim to include JUST the current and previous expansion’s progression at most.
4: Recruitment Needs
Be specific here! For example, don’t say you just need “ranged dps,” unless you really don’t have a class preference and you’d take any ranged spec. Phrases like, “always accepting exceptional applications,” may indicate that your recruitment is generally open even if no specific needs are listed, but this wording can be a gamble; some players choose to avoid guilds using these phrases because it can be a waste of time to fill out an application to a guild who isn’t really recruiting. In general, however, most serious progression guilds should aim to always be recruiting. Mythic progression, in particular, is demanding and can lead to some attendance rot as a tier drags on, so ensuring you have enough players at all times is of the utmost importance. Update your profiles frequently to show potential trials that you are seriously recruiting at all times.
5: Recruitment Contact’s Information
Even though Raider.IO will display your leadership team on your base guild page, it’s a great idea to include at least one Battle Tag and/or Discord username somewhere on your guild profile. You do not need to give applicants access to your entire leadership team! Only provide the information for the officer(s) who handle(s) recruitment, and provide the info for the platform on which each officer prefers to operate. For example, I prefer to speak with interested applicants on Discord, so that’s the information I provide.
6: Application Link
If this is applicable, and you prefer to have interested players go through your own recruitment application, ensure it is linked and clearly visible on your profile!
EXAMPLES
As you fine-tune your own materials and set up your Recruitment Profile, you may wonder what others are doing. The following guilds are all good examples of the different ways you can go about setting up your guild’s public-facing profile:
As you may notice when checking out the guilds listed above, they have all described themselves in very different ways. Developing a personalized description for your own team will help you stand out and draw more players who are truly a good fit both socially and for your progression goals. Don’t create a standard copy-paste message that you spam on any potential recruit’s profile; instead, develop personalized responses both for reaching out to players AND for the descriptions you write on your own recruitment materials. Guilds who put the effort into personalizing their recruitment materials stand out as dedicated and personable communities who are serious about recruiting and about developing healthy, welcoming teams.
Check your recruitment profiles frequently and ensure they remain up to date! If you are urgently recruiting, update daily – particularly for forums – so your recruitment page or advertisement remains near the top of available results.
BOOST YOUR GUILD RECRUITMENT VISIBILITY
Want a little more power in your punch to get your guild noticed by prospective applicants? Boost your guild recruitment visibility on Raider.IO by becoming a Patron! Guilds will receive Patron status if enough members are Patreon subscribers.
By supporting us on Patreon, your guild advertisement will appear more frequently in our carousel of guild ads on our front page as well as displaying on our Recruitment section of the website.
Key Takeaways
Setting up your recruitment materials properly can be a lot of work, especially if you invest the time and effort to stand out from the crowd with more personalized profiles and recruitment messages. While having a more thorough and descriptive recruitment profile may amass fewer applications overall, the resulting applicant pool may be higher quality, as you are attracting players who are searching for a guild with an environment that is as wonderful as its progression.
If you take nothing else away from this article, remember this acronym: ABR! Always be recruiting!
Links
- Raider.IO Recruitment System
- Set up Raider.IO Discord Alerts
- Download the Raider.IO Client
- Follow Raider.IO on Twitter
- Join Raider.IO on Discord
- Support Raider.IO on Patreon
About the Author
Gogogadgetkat has been playing WoW since late BC, and has been the GM of her guild Propaganda since its creation in 2014. As a career healer, Kat has a number of CEs and old-school heroic kills under her belt, all on a variety of healing classes and specs—she’s a serial altoholic! In addition to Mythic raiding and a little Mythic+, creating safe, inclusive spaces in gaming is her longtime passion; Kat has been an admin for the Perky Pugs community since late BfA, and is also a founding council member and the community manager for the DEIBAJ initiative Liquid Women in Warcraft. She is excited to bring her wealth of experience and love of writing to the Raider.IO team.
