Guild Server Transfers
 

I'm in a guild on the Dunemaul server, a relatively backwater place(93rd on WowJutsu: World of Warcraft Guild Rankings: Ranked US Realms, despite being an old server). We've been really struggling recently. Like a lot of guilds, we have a core group of skilled, dedicated raiders, and then some fluff. We don't try to present ourselves as "hardcore" (we raid 4 nights a week) and we try to stay "family-friendly" (i.e., you don't have to be a raider to be in the guild, our #1 recruiting rule is "no dicks," etc.) Our biggest issue seems to be not getting enough people to come to raids-- we have our 15-20 core raiders, but then the rest comes from our semi-active population. It's very frustrating to wipe on farm content because 3-4 people are doing the fight for the first time and aren't quick learners to start with. (We killed leotheras for the first time last week but weren't able to down farm content karathress to see Vashj). We've been attempting to recruit for a long time, but it just seems like most of the people on Dunemaul that are unguilded are unguilded for a reason (mages with +spirit gems, warriors who don't have thunder clap on their bars, etc.) It feels like we're tapping a dry well. Long story short, we've been thinking about moving to a different server. So now the question is, which one (and is it really a good idea?)

I've tried to come up with logical rules about picking one. I decided a non-launch server that originally opened to xfers only, with multiple alliance guilds in a similar place progression-wise would be the best place for us to move (which led me to suggest Dalvengyr). My thoughts were people who had been on that server had a high chance to have paid $25 to be there, meaning probably pretty dedicated players; and the other guilds being in the same place progression-wise means that that pool of players wouldn't need a lot of gearing up(and wouldn't snub their nose at our nothing-special progress). The trouble is, I don't know if my reasoning is sound. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is there a guide to picking a good server to move to? The worst thing that could happen would be to transfer someplace, end up losing some members(though our entire core will likely have no issues with moving), and then end up with the same dry well or worse.

Best Practices: A Beginner's Guide to Beginning to Start a Guild Server Transfer

Now that the snide shot at your thread title is out of the way, I can't say I have much information to offer on realm selection. Your current criteria sound pretty decent, though.

However, have you considered simply recruiting cross-realm instead of moving cross-realm? My guild is only a hair ahead of yours (we're working on Kael'thas, and occasionally struggle with attendance on farm content) and we have picked up some absolutely phenomenal recruits lately from the WoW Guild Recruitment forum. And amidst those absolutely amazing applications, we've hit an absolute deluge of pretty decent applications as well; an order of magnitude more than we ever got restricting our recruiting messages to just the Icecrown forum.

You may also want to try listing your guild recruiting information and guild progress on BossKillers if you haven't already. We're far too lazy to get that done ourselves, but I've heard great things about recruiting there, too.

Coming from a GM of a guild on Korgath (one of the top PvE progression servers) I can tell you the guild recruitment forums are the only source of our recruits. I actually don't even bother to read most of the apps I get from my own server as they are always inferior to the average app off the wow forums. Moving your entire guild to a new server in hopes of solving recruitment woes is a total waste, and won't really help you at all in my opinion and more then likely you'll lose quite a few people in the process.
There is another thread somewhere here about quality guild leader or something along those lines which discusses recruiting in detail that you might want to look for.

Our guild is unfortunately in a very similar situation, perched on a server at the high rank of 196 on WoWJutsu. While we haven't had any serious discussions about the possibility of transferring at this point, our recruitment pool is virtually nonexistent outside of the rare cross-server recruit who is willing to move to a barren server.

I think the real problem in trying to make a decision under these circumstances is that virtually every guild is unique, as is every server. I would think the main questions that you need to answer are as follows...

1. Will the majority of your guild be willing to move?

This may simply come down to the other options available to them on your server. If they have another place that they can go and be in the same type of guild then they may not want to move at all.

2. If the majority of the guild is willing to move, are they loyal enough to remain in the guild if presented with other options.

If you are in a top position on an unprogressed server then it's hard for people to leave, but once you present them with new options you risk losing people to what may be perceived as more successful guilds.

3. Is there anything about your guild that is unique enough to attract new members in a new environment.
Moving to a new server with a higher population will no doubt provide you with a better recruiting pool, but being the new guys on the block may not be enough to buy quality applicants, and if you're taking on people from similarly progressed guilds, you may end up setting yourself up only as a stepping-stone guild in the long run.

The biggest fear in moving forward with something like this has to be the possibility of transferring with only a core group that isn't able to raid without additional recruiting. You may get lucky and find some quality players to help you get onto your feet, but if you don't then you either have to break up the core group, or find a guild that will bring you all in (which in many cases is going to be a guild that is in trouble).

Ultimately, if you're preparing to make this kind of decision, you need to be prepared to go forward with whatever you choose even if you are on your own or only with a small group of friends. This kind of transition will put a huge strain on any guild and you should be prepared to deal with whatever unanticipated situations may arise.

Being a former member of your guild I highly doubt transferring completely would go down well if it is anything like it was when I left (somewhere between October and December 2006 if I remember right). Theras's advice is seems pretty sound and is definitely worth a shot. Taking a look at the progression thread on Dunemaul's realm forums there are a couple guilds around your level, but I don't think anybody in Shinigami would want to ninja people. Though my guild is only just starting SSC; recruitment seems to ebb and flow. I would try to stick it out. You have (at least a couple) awesome players and good leadership, good luck.

Except that new recruits from the general Guild Recruitment forum are possibly more likely to transfer to a progression server like yours "one of the top PvE progression servers" than a backwater. So even if the local recruitment pool isn't much better, they'll at least be able to get a piece of the global recruitment pool.

Yeah, though I was unaware of it, we actually have had a post already out there on Guild Recruitment. We got one response that I'm aware of, and I think he ended up just not responding in his recruitment thread after a while. I just went and bumped the post, hopefully that'll help. In general though, I share this thought - if we were just a bit further in progression, we could generate a lot of interest. But as is, we're a 4 nights a week guild on a backwater server. I don't know who that appeals to that would be reading the Guild Recruitment forums.

It seems the consensus opinion is that server transfers are a bad idea?

As to answer the 3 questions; yes, our core would be willing to move. Yes, they are very loyal. And the only thing we really have to offer is that we are a tight-knit guild with some very solid players. I don't know just how unique that is - certainly seems rare on Dunemaul

Thanks for the kind words Dollar- out of curiosity, who are (were) you? (I was Snowwight the paladin in Oct. 2006)

You really need to babysit the thread if you want to get results. If it goes past page 2 during prime time, bump it up to the top of the forum.

We just did a server transfer end of last week (we got our first kill on Morogrim on Tuesday, tried Karathress on Wednesday, spent Thursday etc transferring (some members are still trickling in) )

Probably 85% of our core players transferred. Some were unwilling to transfer (had a lot of RL friends on the old server who were in other guilds etc), and didn't make it clear that they wouldn't transfer beforehand (not that, as far as I know, they were asked point blank - previously there was a general "let us know if you wouldn't", but until we actually decided to do it, we didn't know we were losing some of them). I'd expect similar results. So your 20 people might drop to 16. On the plus side, we've gotten more apps in the last week than we had gotten for 3 months(outside of a small spike when another guild broke up). Some of them are cross-server transfers (at least one from the server we left - any guild that is willing to have 16 members pay to transfer is probably not going to fall apart on you after you move). Since we haven't really started going again (we did Gruul last night with a small Kara guild just to make sure we kept up raiding), it's too early to tell how things will work out - but our danger before was that every now and then someone stopped playing - and we were right at the breaking point where we wouldn't have enough people.

So... it's too early to tell, but things look promising - I already personally feel better about our chances of progressing than I did before.

Agreed. I'd suggest having the person in charge of the thread who can monitor it frequently. When we're actively looking at applicants, I'd be in there once an hour to make sure we were still on the first page.

Helpful suggestions beyond that:
Where are you in progression?
What is your servers time zone?
What are your raiding times and days?

That forum moves fast, but there are some amazing players who browse it, and more then a few who are willing to transfer servers. Highlight all the positives you can think of.

Some of the best raiders we have in our guild are those we have recruited from other servers, as Theras stated, you need to babysit your thread if you truly want results.

However, if you do intend on transferring, and transferring to Dalvengyr, keep in mind that when Dalvengyr opened up, it was not a server people paid to transfer to, it was a free transfer from PvE servers (particularly my server, Hellscream) to a PvP server, and some of the best, most dedicated people I know took that transfer, so Dalvengyr is a great place to go - if that does end up being your decision.

Hope I've helped in some way or another.

I was Flardy. I took a couple month break when we first started going in AQ40 and came back around twin emps. Transferred servers to play with RL friends a bit later. Shinigami was probably the best guild I have ever been in, should have made my friends transfer there:P

I bumped our recruitment thread every 2-3 hours around the clock (with some help from others) for about 3 weeks or so, until we filled all our positinos. Sure, more people are willing to transfer to Korgath but even if you only get a fraction of the recruits we got, you would still have more then enough. I think we got about 60 or so apps in the last month, just keep it bumped.

I'd like to echo the sentiments of others regarding the WoW Recruitment forum. It is by FAR the best recruitment method. I wasted weeks (probably months) with recruitment threads on my server forums before giving that up entirely. Then I found the WoW Recruitment forum and within a couple days we had a ton of excellent apps. The key, as others have said, is babysitting the thread (and of course having a good thread to begin with).

Tips for your initial post (in no particular order):

- Don't talk about how your server is "backwater" and sucky. =P
- Highlight the great things about your guild, but don't over-do the "family" thing. That's something that everyone grows to love about a guild, but the raiders out there aren't looking for that as their primary goal.
- This should go without saying, but I still see people screw it up: write it in Word (or whatever) and spell check it. Make sure it's properly punctuated and the grammar is sound.
- Make sure you include server timezone, server type (pve/pvp/rp), faction, and current progression. All of that should be in your thread title.
- In your case, advertise that groups are welcome. Sounds like your guild could handle a group of 5-10 players that are looking for a new home. You have to be very careful of groups as a guild leader, but if you find a good group, it makes recruiting a breeze.
- Don't forget to include the url for your recruitment page of your website. I know a guy who does this all the time when he makes recruitment threads. >.<

The other option (I suggest doing both) is to search through threads of people LFG. There's a smaller audience, but it's targetted and you do get some good apps trolling those posts, too. If you see someone LFG that you think is a fit for your guild, link them your recruitment post.

Blizzard has also said at Blizzcon they view the raiders population imbalances as a problem and want to fix it, although you may end up waiting 6-8 months until they release solutions (free transfers, merging servers, etc).

You'd also be suprised how many people are attached to their names, and more than likely you will have to rename your character upon transfer.

Being on one of the top PVE/PVP servers (go here WowJutsu: World of Warcraft Guild Rankings: Ranked US Realms for ranked US list, EU available too) does have many, many advantages though and sometimes its just good to bite the bullet and do it. More 5 mans, heroics, kara pugs, and bigger pool add up more than you can think.