We have seen the exact same issue. We were a rebuild guild from the server woes of several months ago. We ended up with a very competent group that was blazing through content - with absolutely no core identity. Lots of transfers from lots of locations. Therefore, between a performance slump, pre-BC woes, and some growing pains, we went into a self-defeating downspin of attendance which led to serious morale problems.

The point: Make sure that you develop a guild culture. Make sure you have most of your people there for skill/content progression and not only loot. Do your best to assemble a group that actually likes each other. You can glue any group together for a while. If you have incredible leadership, they can pull the group through lots of stuff through pure energy. However, the only surefire way to make a guild last is through having the people connect and build a liking for each other. Not everyone has to like each other, but you must have a critical mass.

I lol'd muchly.

On a more serious note, perhaps this is my chance to bring up a question that's been on my mind for awhile. Surely there are some players like me, that spread their raiding efforts across several characters, who have a good attitude and mindset, who know every raid encounter in the game with the exception of the last few bosses in Naxx, and who theorycraft like it's going out of style. We may not have the best gear, we may not even have anything past t2, but that doesn't mean we don't know our s@#$. We're more or less blocked from recruitment in the Naxx+ guilds at this point because of the simple equation gear = experience + knowledge + dedication. But that equation isn't -always- true.

Maybe this is the point in time where some of us can get chances to find solid guild homes for TBC and further down the line. "Vanilla WoW" loot is at its lowest importance ever due to the incoming level 61 and above gear. Have we reached a moment where the quality of the person behind the screen is significantly more important than the (current) quality of the character?

No, this isn't intended to be a 'recruit me plz gief epix' post. I'm just interested in opinions, as I'm somewhat deciding whether to play WoW at all pre-TBC dependent on whether or not it looks like I have a shot in a guild that has C'thun and below on farm. There's just no real point in farming MC and BWL with people who are still learning them when I've seen those encounters a thousand and one times. Not to be mean, it's just not a productive or enjoyable use of my available raiding time.

Thoughts / comments / beatdowns?

It happens to us probably once a week, except we only get 30 on, sometimes even less.

Yes, we're small for a Naxx guild.

Tough one, there are a lot of points to be made about that here. I don't want to derail this, but it seems to fit.

I think for most guilds, there will be a lot more people asked to play more than one character on a regular basis. Keeping your guild smallish for 25 mans will mean some nights suffer from attendance in a certain class if people are continued to be restricted to one char only. Also, if blizz continues to make fights where coordination and strategy matter more than the gear, that flexibility will be that much more important.

I've always believed people who are skilled at multiple classes tend to be the best players. Sure there are exceptions, but the fact that my main is a mage and I have a warrior alt who's tanked most of BWL means I have a really good feel for threat, positioning, kiting, etc...but I've never played a healer.

As someone who has led raids in the past and will probably do it in TBC, I'll be rolling a healer just to gain that different perspective. Having played a mage for 2 years, even now just rolling a warlock alt has changed my perception of how they do damage drastically.

Experience with many classes would help a strategist or raid leader a ton, but to answer your question, I'd personally value you as a skilled player of multiple classes. Though, staying loyal to your class, perfecting your skills with it, and maxing out your gear also helps raids a lot. As a leader, you have to value people who are amazingly good at doing their thing, you just have to know what they're capable of so you can assign tasks well. Playing multiple classes can give you that ability.

You said it yourself though, spreading your efforts across several chars means none of them have the gear to satisfy recruiters. but bleh, i've seen ppl in T2 outdps AQ/Naxx geared people on a regular basis. I can be #1 over maexxna's fang rogues on my alt warrior. So yeah, the player matters more than the gear sometimes, but not in all situations. I'd recruit someone like you, as long as you weren't trying to raid with 3-4 chars >.>

What does that have to do with this thread? IMO it means these are the people you want to keep around (or recruit more of) if your guild is falling apart because they'll give you the flexibility you need in TBC.