We’ve actually started raiding ZG, and have successfully downed the first two bosses, snakeman and batgirl. Even better, we did it with a group that included half a dozen members in their high 50’s….

The guild isn’t going to require anybody to spec talents in any particular way, either. How cool is that?

We’re getting lots of encouragement, everyone’s supportive, and the guild leader cares. My brother has 8th grade graduation (8th grade…WTF) on thursday, which means he and I are going to miss the raid scheduled, so the GL is going to try and change it up for us so we will be able to get in. It’s probably because we’re short on healers (no Druid except my brother has Innervate right now) and ranged DPS, but I like to think it’s because he cares. XD

Maintaining a raiding guild requires a lot of time. I don’t think many players realize just how much time the guild officers have to put into managing and organzing the raids. And guild merges to get raiding numbers often is pure drama. I have friends who have been completely unsuccessful in finding guilds that are regularly running MC, let alone BWL and AQ. They’ve gone thru several guilds all claiming to be doing MC but find after a couple of weeks that they’re not doing it and can barely schedule ZG runs.

The guild I’m in is experiencing a bit of a meltdown. We have so many of the original members without alts for so long that most have become sick to death of the raids. We had MC, ZG and Ony on farm status but of late can’t get enough ppl to show up anymore, as most are finally rolling alts and are bored with their mains. It’s pretty retarded to see us cancel raids because of attendance. And when we do go, we end up disenchanting many of the epics because no one needs them. *sigh* I’m among the guilty when it comes to being bored with my main and the raids.

Seems like the WOW end-game can definitely be a tale of two cities.

I have actually come to realize what you say is true, as I’m pretty much giving up on getting my gloves (the new PvP blue gloves are ten times better and my gloves just wont drop). However, I’d like to try and get my 6 piece bonus and get the 2 set PvP blue gear bonus (1.11 upgrade). I’ll have +40 AP, 4% chance to gain 200 mana per hit, and +20 AGI, as well as a 4% increase to multi-shot damage from the gloves. The chance of 200 mana will benefit my current lack of int gear for raiding. I focused on mostly stamina and agi gear pre-60 because of PvP and solo PvE. Stamina doesn’t really do much for me in instances, especially raids.

1. Get rid of the needy and the drama queens. You should be very picky about accepting people into your guild. One bad apple can tear a guild apart (I’ve seen it happen). Build your roster slowly, making sure the people you recruit are quality - including a couple of recruitment runs through instances to make sure they don’t suck.

2. Running an endgame guild is a lot of work. You’ll need dkp to provide incentives for attendance and to get your members to farm needed materials. A website with forums, dkp stats and a raid calendar should be established as well. Consider this carefully, as an endgame guild without these tools will never last for long, even with members with the best intentions.

I’ve been an officer in a guild, and I would never do that again. It’s a game, and I just want to show up and play, and contribute my share of time/mats to the guild. I joined a new guild right when it started farming MC trash, with good, professional leadership. Patience and some research is required to find a guild that is a really good fit for you.

Finally, skip the Tier 0 crap, unless you intend to upgrade some pieces to 0.5. Find out what stats you should be concentrating on (read the forums for your class), and use Allakhazam to make a list of non-rare drops and which bosses drop them.

I did this for my mage to get pieces with +spelldmg and +spellhit - and I continue doing this to get some minor upgrades as I wait for my dkp to build and mage set items to drop in MC.

It sounds like you guys are off to a great start…. just don’t let petty loot squabbles get in the way when you do get to raiding!