How do you FIND a guild?

At the moment, I'm in my own guild, to keep away the guys who advertise in Kaineng or Lion's Arch for hours on end. But I'm reeeaally dying to get into a real guild. Something interesting, with spontanious PvE incursions. I need something that'll remind me of my old World of Warcraft guild, where we'd just pick up an area and run through it at night.

But in WoW, it was easy to find a guild. Servers had 40 or so big ones to choose from, and you could track a guild's progress and activities by /who'ing it's members. In GW, I don't know. Everything is piled together, and there are so MANY guilds that I can't get a grasp on who's good or not. I don't know how many members there are and how active it is when I play.

So, tips on finding the right one?

Reading this thread is a startfor finding one:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10021765

Also you can post in the LFG thread and wait for people to respond to you about their guilds.

But really there is no way to accurately judge a guild, especially a PvE one, before you join it.

Sometimes it's just trial and error, and some guilds won't necessarily represent their activity level well.

One option is to find a guild that's already active, but another is to take one that's moderately active and help out. There are a LOT of guilds out there, and that makes finding one pretty hard.

You may also want to ask any friends you have on GW and see if any of them are in a good guild. It helps to go in and have some friends already.

Generally, some of the best guilds are ones that work together to help each other out. Good guilds tend to gather good people around them as matters of best practice and habits tend to ripple outwards.

Try out pugs and try to find people that you like to do things with in the game. Once you know those people, you may find yourself being invited to their guilds as you've established a relationship.

You may also do well to create a checklist of the things that you want to see in a guild. That will help you to identify when you have found a good group to stay with.

I hang on fan forums like this one for long enough so I can see which guilds get commended or mentioned most and I know they're stable and reputable. Those are usually worth a try.

I did a few PUG HA runs with my current guild.......and got an invite.

Just do what you like to do.....and if you consistently see others from similar guilds doing it.......there ya go.

I have the same problem, Lyphen. I took myself off my one-person safety guild recently but haven't had any luck finding a guild beyond the people screaming in Kaineng about if I sign up now, first 5 will become officers! Sounds like a real stable guild, eh?

Every time I go and recruit (which isn't often, but often enough) I try to think that same question: why do they wanna be with us? What makes US so important? So what, all just about all guilds are in alliances. They have a lot of members, big deal. But I find that what people should look for in a guild is quality of its members. Are the members helpful? fun? enjoyable to be around? experienced? There are things like teamspeak, ventrillo, websites, siding(luxon/kurzick), and other stuff like that, but it doesn't matter without a good group of people. That's what I look for. More good people to hang out with. To play with. To enjoy conversations with. All of that. So what if you're rank 11 and play every day? If you are a heartless, self-centered idiot that has absolutely no sportsmanship or morals towards others, then you aren't getting in my guild. No way, no how.

To find a guild that you will feel comfortable in you must ask, the person that is recruting, questions about things that are important to you. Almighty posted them alredy. The guy says to you ˝we own a town˝, are you willing to do factionfarming?

But the best way to know the guild and its members is to see their forum. This way you can see everything about it from first hand and most important, forum will show you the real image of guild: how active are they, are they friendly, who is guild fool ...

So before you join, make sure you'll see the forums

Guilds that are recruiting aren't typically good guilds.

Many guilds don't have forums and function well anyway.

It's much better to make friends and then make the guild than it is to make the guild and then make friends.

Also, many guilds that DO have forums, keep the majority of them private. So That's not always the best way to judge guild health...

Finding a good Guild can be one of the hardest things you will ever do in the game. There seem to be a ton of guilds that do nothing but have people sit in a town and spam over and over again that they are looking for members. The new search button allows you to see what guilds are looking without spaming, but if you don't ask the recruiters what that guild dose, you could be in and out again before you know it.

There are alot of guilds out there that are good on the other hand, but it's been said before, most of them aren't spaming, and alot of them only ask people that they have gamed with to join them.

The amount of guilds that have forums, you could read till your eyes bleed, and then you may not even get in. A lot of the time with forums, you can't read what is really going on with a group, unless you are a member. So that's not always the way to go either.

I know that I jumped around to a total of 3 guilds before I found the one I'm in now, and I love it. Yet most of the members have been in more than I can count before we met.

This is so true. It really comes down to what you look for in a guild. Do you even care if they have a website and keep it active? Do you use TS/Vents? Do you just want to do high end PVE stuff like UW,FOW,DOA? Are you looking to have power in the guild and be an officer? Do you just want to join the first PVE based guild you find? Do you care if it's a big Guild of 50+ members, or a smaller guild of people that really do like to hang out, relax and have fun? Are you looking for active every day, or just active every couple of days?

When you answer all the questions that you have, then you go guild searching. Surf through all the guild recruitement posts on this site, most of the guilds you find here, have taken the time to have their leader use this site and others as a way to recruite, instead of having people ingame spamming the anoying list of what they have over and over.

I wish you the best of luck, I know you'll have it, because there are alot of good guilds out there, you just got to find one that suit's ya.

I have been playing this game for more than a year. I have been in 6 different guilds and even had my own. Currently not in any guild. Interviewing the recruiter does not always get you the real truth about a guild. When you join a guild, tell them up front it is a trial basis. Look at their members list, see how many are active regularly. Say hello on guild chat (GC) when you sign on, see how many respond. When someone askes for help on GC, respond. Ask for help on GC and see who and how many respond. Don't join a guild and start asking for handouts, and don't try to "buy" their friendship; eg. give away a hard earned green, put a 50k upgrade in GH, etc...

After a week or so of getting to know each other, you will know if this guild is for you or not. Should you choose to leave, (I) offer to give their 100g back.

I would 'love' to find a guild that gets together on a regular basis with ALL members, no matter their levels, just to do missions, quests or just to level. Then when someone says "Who wants to GvG?", I won't have to take a level 10 in just to lay on the ground and watch. (And don't tell me to make a PvP character, not enough character slots.)

I will now shut up. Signing off as "Still looking for a guild."

My advice is to look for many guilds as possible.. Get some information.. Some of them says that they are friendly and nice, and some of they are too. But sometimes you get into a guild that you don't like. People is ignoring you or writing wrong things to you...

Well i think you should test some few guilds..

I can't help too much with what works in finding a guild, but since GotW I've been getting multiple random "Can I join?" whispers everyday, which I can say does not work!

I've been playing for one year now, one year in the same guild. Seeing how things go I can say I got really lucky to find such a good one.
I could never trust in guilds recruiting in Kaineng/Ascalon whatever. I mean how can you have fun with total strangers who might be so different of yourself?
I would agree with some people who posted before me: go and check forums and if you find some nice players ingame try to hang out with them, you might just get an invite
But trying different guilds over and over? Well, that sounds more like mindless experimenting ending with annoyment for me.

We take in anyone through our doors - from pre characters new to the game to advanced level 11 pvpers to solo Chinese farmers.

It makes no difference to us who you are or what you like to do

Then if you like our style and chat, you stay, if not you move on

I try to always check that you move on for the right reasons though - don't want anyone leaving because they were offended or bullied.

We often have major groups of key players leaving to form their own guilds - many come back to join our alliance, or come back one by one. Some really make a good go at it or join a guild that suits their playing style better.

I guess what I am trying to say is - just give some guilds a try - if you like them you can stay, if you hate them then you can leave and try another one.

You don't have to join a guild for life (unless you join our guild then you are usually a friend for life except if you have been abusive and kicked - we are like the mafia, once in, never truly out - unless we whack you)

The key things to remember is not to beg for gold or items - a guild is there to help you with quests, farming, pvp etc - it is not there as a free charity. The longer you stay and help people the more trust you gain and then you start getting offers of free things but you are expected to make offers too. Similarly, the more active you are in the guild then the more likely you are to get help when you want it. I remember just about everyone who chats a lot in guild chat, helps people alot, posts on the website alot etc. Those are the key people in the guild - usually the ones that end up making their own guilds but also the ones who keep in touch as friends.

What Anet does also has a major influence on guild activity - after the launch of a new area then people usually become a lot more quiet as they play the area for the first time - with the occassional call for help (usually by someone way ahead of everyone else). When GW is quiet of new areas to explore then the guild tends to be more active with people organising pvp parties - I don't discourage solo-farming but I try and persuade people to do other team activities as well.

As frustrating as it gets only have 100 people in a guild and 10 guilds in an alliance, GW purposely puts the limits to stop half a dozen guilds taking over GW and dominating the game - thus stifling out smaller new guilds from emerging - which is a lot better than just having 40 major guilds. On average (but not always) guilds that balance pve and pvp tend to last longer than those that solely concentrate on pve or pvp.

Well I tried recruiting with the new search thing, but it doesn't really helps, mostly you get an inventation of a other party who isn't even interrested in joining your guild.

And about the guilds who are recruiting, I don't see any harm in it and mostly that's the only way to get people for joining your guild if you don't have a site or forum. I really hate recruiting in towns, because it's a boring and not really active work, but I feel forced in recruiting this way if I want my guild to stay in ballance.