home:  –noun

• 1. The usual residence of a person, family, or household.
• 2. the place in which one’s domestic affections are centered.
• 3. an institution for the homeless, sick, etc. (a nursing home.)
• 4. the dwelling place or retreat of an animal.
• 5. the place or region where something is native or most common.
• 6. any place of residence or refuge: a heavenly home.

Everyones’ experiences vary from my own, depending on what server you play on, which faction, and a host of other possibilities that affect your “lifestyle” in WoW. In no way am I suggesting that everybody feels comfortable enough with their guild that they can call it “home”. Like it or not when you’re socialising with people in your guild as often as most of us are, you can’t help the feeling of comfort that grows as you get to know them better.

Recently my guild of 2years decided to call it quits. With the addition of badge gear and the alleviation of Black Temple & Mount Hyjal attunements it became too hard to tell between the good players and the bad. Unfortunately my server has an abundance of the latter, and a massive shortage of good players. With expansion on the horizon it was the best idea to give everyone a break from raiding, rather than continue to blunder through BT regearing handfuls of randoms and relearning all the encounters again. A lot of the core raiders were very much burned out, and happy to take a break until Wotlk, as we had just spent the entirety of TBC busting our asses to clear current content (we killed Illidan the week after Sunwell was released.)

Over such a long time in my previous guild, I had grown very close friendships with both the officers, and the other core raiders. Even the non-raiders who were friends of guildmates had become close friends of mine. I have since moved to a new guild and have lost touch with some members of my previous guild who I held close to my heart, but was only able to contact them via Guild Chat. Now that I can’t speak to them freely in guild chat I miss them quite a lot more than I had expected.

My new guild is more progressed, and are generally better players. A lot of mathcraft is spoken in guild chat, and the players are very quick to let you know that your spec may be off, or that you could do something better with your current playstyle. As elitest as this sounds, it can only be expected when you get a guild full of players who know their shit. Both the DPS players, Healers, and tanks are great players in this guild.

I have noticed that I am a lot more reluctant to chat casually in guild chat, for fear of saying something out of line, and incase I say something wrong. I trust my own abilities and knowledge about the Priest class, and stick by my belief that with equal gear to their raid healing Shamans, I can perform better, both in HPS and efficiency.

After a couple of weeks in my new home, I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with my position in the guild. I have gained a regular healing position for our guilds ZA bear runs (we have completed the last two resets with 7mins to spare, with two Warrior tanks mind you). I am raiding BT with them weekly and have seen my share of Sunwell so far, and am yet to see Muru. I am communicating with the other Priests in the guild about bossfight strategy and other Priestly information which is GREAT. One of the things I missed about my previous guild is that there was one Holy Priest besides myself, and we rarely had a chance to chat about anything relating to our class together.

If you have recently joined a new guild and are feeling a little unsure of yourself, or whether you are being accepted by your new guildmates, keep the following in mind:

1. Get involved in any conversations that interest you. If you become more vocal in guild chat and put in your 2cents (as long as you aren’t causing arguments, or being over-opinionated on subjects .. you should be in the clear). Put simply, be vocal.
2. Get involved in any guild runs that you can. Whether it be Karazhan / Zul Aman, or 25man instances like Gruuls. Whether this be an alt run or not, any opportunity to run instances with your new brethren should be taken. It’s a good opportunity to prove your worth, and get to know the people you’ll be raiding with a little better.
3. Re-hashing on my recent post regarding a new member to my previous guild, be prepared. Make sure that you have all your consumables ready and you’re prepared to raid when invitations go out. This is relative to the new guild that you’re raiding with naturally. The more hardcore raiding guild they are the more that they’ll Soup-Nazi you for not taking consumables. DO NOT BECOME ANOTHER STATISTIC of sub-par applications who trial for good guilds with the false pretence that they can survive without being prepared.

With WotLK approaching quickly, I’m sure that plenty of other people will find themselves in the EXACT same situation. If you’re looking to continue raiding until WotLK comes out, do what you can to make new friends and leave your options open. If you’re joining a new guild this close to the release of expansion, it would be advised to become as close with them as possible, to firm your place in the guild after you have levelled your character to 80.

Whatever situation you find yourself in as we wind down in preparation for WotLK, I wish you all the best