It’s amazing to me how many folks change guilds without doing the easiest, and possibly the most essential pre-guilding step: visiting their potential new guild's website. Hell, I have been in multiple guilds where the bulk of the members never registered with the website, or they visited it once to app and never went back. Don’t be that person!!
A quick trip to the guild website is a must for a variety of reasons:
1. It will have their events calendar and raiding schedule, and often their progression notes.
2. If it is a raiding guild, it will usually have their DKP rules or loot policy.
3. The posts viewable to the public will give you an overview of how the guild wants to portray itself to the server at large. If the site is raunchy and notes that having a good sense of humor is important, and you’re offended just reading their application, it’s probably not going to work out.
The next stop is your realm forum. Once there, do a search for the guild. You should be able to find recruitment posts, plus posts by the members. Again, this will give you insight into the guild culture, and its reputation on the server.
The final stop you should make is the armory. Check out the gear and achievements of the guild leader and the officers. Although it’s not necessarily true that this tells the whole story about the guild, it can tell you how they have spent the past few months. If someone is advertising for members of a progression raiding guild, but GM and officers lack raiding achievements, you’ll want to consider your tolerance for being in a start-up atmosphere, with leaders who haven’t been there and done that. Likewise, if the guild is full of active lowbie alts, and has only a handful of 80s, you can evaluate if that is what you are looking for.
After you’ve done your pros and cons list on the guild you’re in versus the one you are considering, and have checked out the potential guild, you have to take decide what your primary goals are with playing the game, and whether or not your current guild can meet them. If you have goals your current guild can not help you reach – such as more instances or raiding, and you’ve talked to your guild leaders about it, then it is time to go. You don’t do anyone – yourself and your guild members included – by sitting around feeling bitter about what you are not doing.
/gquit
World of Warcraft is a game, which means you should enjoy the time you spend immersed in it. And only you can make that happen for yourself. If your guildies are your friends, they will keep in touch after you make the leap. And if you never hear from them again…well that speaks for itself.
Dark Lady Watch Over You!