Guild and Raid feedback

[Sierra SeaSong]

I am curious as to what everyone's experience with guilds and raids have been so far.

I can sum mine up in 1 or 2 words, miserable and frustrating (extremely frustrating).

Hopefully someone's positivity will rub off on me

[Happy Fun Ball]

I joined a guild early on (the first day even), but I haven't been in a single raid. Why?

1. Scheduling conflicts mostly. Whenever there was a raid, I was either at work or it was the middle of the night when I was asleep. It was very difficult to even get 12 guild members online at once, much less get them to participate.

2. Soon after that, interest waned, probably because it was near impossible to beat without the absolute best team and a lot of luck. And even if a team did manage to beat it, the drops were not worth the effort.

3. Now there's barely anyone online (usually < 3 online at one time, including myself).

4. We don't even have all of the basic things and almost no higher level things unlocked because azoth collection has come to a complete standstill. We do have access to crafting class azoth (mostly because I collected enough azoth to upgrade to the next level, but even then, it took a few days to find someone else to hit it with a cantrip to unlock it), but no one collects it anymore, if they're even online.

Closing down raids for about a month or so certainly didn't help. In fact, it might have all but killed guilds in general, since raids was about the only thing to do in a guild. And once raids was opened up again, there was no one left around to be interested.

[Dylan Windwalker]

Guilds: It's been a slight benefit now I guess. It was more of a very strong beginning since I had lots of ideas for decorating and our Guild would do key bosses together. But now everybody's doing their own thing, I've done that decorating to the point the only items I need are the ones either nobody wants to donate or is rare to find in the bazaar (I'm always looking). I want to do Key bosses again but nobody ever has the time (I want to fully upgrade Spiritual Tribunal). I'm guessing it's always going to be like this, the popularity of the Guild is going to be high in the beginning of whatever updates Guilds will have and then it'll slowly fade away with time. But I still think it's better to be in a Guild than not, like it's an optional benefit but it's not at all significant or game-changing, you'll be fine without being in a Guild (which is also great because that's what Guilds are intended to be). Nobody ever hangs out in the Guild because Azoth is legit an endless grind and there's no point in chilling if there's always that need to get more.

Raids: Not a good opinion but I can't speak entirely bad about it since there's so much I don't know. I didn't participate in the first Central Raid because it was awfully disorganized in the start to determine who was going and who wasn't. Lots of Raid Jumpers (temporary Guild Members who join solely for the Raid and immediate jump ship when the Raid Portal closes to repeat the process). The thing is, learning what to do and how to do it well requires a lot of context and experience to fully comprehend, you won't get anything fully unless you experience it first hand and even then the Raid itself is still incredibly difficult (well every time I see the Discord Chat, I'm very much confused on what they're talking about). I don't think personally that I will ever find Raids enjoyable even when I join them specifically to help my teammates get their badges/pets/gear since the requirements are so difficult to organize and I'm online/available/willing to help.

[1234]

I can only comment from a non-raid, non-combat perspective. The shared housing options have been interesting to work with. Our guild is pretty laid back; we are making slow but steady progress. I haven't seen a loss of interest in collecting Azoth, perhaps because we're using scout pets efficiently.

My main concern is the number of members required to unlock some of the portals. It's pretty unreasonable to expect that 50 wizards, especially, can manage to be online at the same time!

[ValdusWildheart]

My main concern is the number of members required to unlock some of the portals. It's pretty unreasonable to expect that 50 wizards, especially, can manage to be online at the same time!

What on earth requires that? I don't think I've been in a guild that's gotten that far with azoth yet.

Guilds seem to have waned for any where the primary focus was on raids except those who have a steady supply of wizards to recruit from. Guilds are hard simply due to the game requirements and the social requirements. It doesn't seem to be a formula for success.

Even the ones where decorating was the main focus -- how long does that last? And that's really only a couple people given permission per guild. All the rest you can do from a house (meeting up to hang out, meeting up to farm key bosses, etc. -- you really don't need a guild for that).

[Shadow Slayer]

Haven't even gotten a chance to join a guild honestly.

[1234]

What on earth requires that? I don't think I've been in a guild that's gotten that far with azoth yet.

I was referring to the Guild Manor, but you know, I might be misunderstanding the message. Just checked and it says we need to have 50 members in the guild; it doesn't specify that they all have to be present at the same time for casting cantrips. Can you (or anyone else) confirm that for us? I think you are in the Central guild, which has unlocked a lot of the housing.

Even the ones where decorating was the main focus -- how long does that last? And that's really only a couple people given permission per guild. All the rest you can do from a house (meeting up to hang out, meeting up to farm key bosses, etc. -- you really don't need a guild for that).

It's probably an individual thing. Some of us get a sense of satisfaction from contributing to a long-range group effort, whether or not we're all on at the same time.

[bluedreamer]

I'm only in a Guild for the crafting and contributing for that end. Given you open up the alpha crafter, then the one with recipes, you would think that would be enough to start crafting. No! You then have to open up the next part of the alpha crafter. Just so you can craft school Azoth. Honestly I think KI are taking the juice. It wouldn't be so bad if more people were contributing but who can blame them. That is the problem with KI's grossly inflated numbers. They expect the entire guild to give up their entire wizard time to farm Azoth. They are basing their figures on unrealistic numbers of Guild members also doing this. Unless you're a streamer and have near 50 members. It's not going to happen. KI knows they grossly overestimated the figures, but since when have they ever backed down on a bad idea? Or at least the current generation running the game.

Not that I'm encouraging anyone to do what I'm about to say, however, I would love to see those making Wizard 101 today locked in a room until they had to achieved the various targets of questing, crafting, guilds, farming the various gear at each point in the game Etc etc. Until they live the game they have no business running the game. I think it's pretty clear that since the end of the second arc those in charge have become more and more out of touch with wiz and the player base… And since the end of the third arc, clueless comes to mind.


I would love to see the official statistics on Guilds. I would bet their participation in most Guilds is down several hundred percent at least compared to the first couple of weeks, maybe even thousands of percent, as the realisation of what is being asked to do hits home.

- - - Updated - - -

3. Now there's barely anyone online (usually < 3 online at one time, including myself).

Yep 3 is usually the most I see and 2 of them is me LOL ....out of 50+

[Happy Fun Ball]

Unless you're a streamer and have near 50 members. It's not going to happen. KI knows they grossly overestimated the figures, but since when have they ever backed down on a bad idea? Or at least the current generation running the game.

The guild leader that I'm in is a streamer with 75 members in it. I'd be lucky to see even 2 more people (neither of them is the leader), and just about all of the time, those two are off doing other things like pvp or whatever. I do collect azoth sometimes, though not like I used to, ever since I upgraded the main crafter to level 2 (like I'm going to get it to level 3, it takes hundreds of balance azoth). Though nowadays, azoth is mostly used for trading in place of empowers, since as of now 1 azoth = around 7-8 empowers.

Also, shortly before raids was shut down, the leader would do a lot of "raid jumping", but never have any raids in his own guild.

[Sierra SeaSong]

Guilds/raids were put in place for the 1% (you can even get the badge). KI was fairly clear on this point. What they missed was their promise to allow non guild people to be involved, or how we would lose out on nothing if we chose not to participate.

Then they put 7 exclusive no hatch pets, and 17 badges in there to taunt all collectors.

A mercenary system can address a lot of this. It lets you hire on to another guilds raid without leaving your guild. Much better then all this guild hopping nonsense going on where the same 30 people do all the raids. I have never in a guild where there was not a cool down on leaving and joining another.

Even the guild leaders are taking off to raid elsewhere and just leaving their members hanging. If someone does not want to support and grow their own guild why did they even make one?