The Rebuilding Phase

So far, so good - almost a week later and we haven't lost anymore members, got a few applicants, and even have a potential guild merger on the table.

what!?

Guild mergers are scary. Recruiting people is one thing. Starting a new guild is one thing. But taking two full guilds - two websites, two GMs, two entire officer teams, four tanks, too many healers - and smushing them together is an entirely different thing. However, we are one boss away from hitting mythic and, being behind the general populace of mythic raiders, recruitment might end up being tough. Merging might be a necessity rather than an option.

After our implosion, we have on our roster about 15 people. I was shoved into a recruitment officer position, we have a new GM, and the four of us on the leadership team have been working diligently to get our guild together and ready for mythics. Ideally, we only need 5 more people to make up a mythic raiding team, obviously with some people on the sidelines.

Merging a full guild with us includes getting some healers and tanks to play offspecs or alts, some potentially bad news for the worst players of the two guilds when we have to start making benching decisions for mythic, deciding who gets to stay officers - and most importantly, GM - along with which rules to use, what loot system to use, and many other issues.

our guild tabard should be blue and red not red and blue!

I was approached by the recruitment officer of their guild while posting messages in trade. So far, it seems like an amazing opportunity. It would instantly solve our recruitment woes. However, as we stand, we don't like the idea of being swallowed up by another guild. We are not attached to our name, but we are attached to our core team, especially after all the work we have put in just this last week in light of the implosion. I was on the brink of taking a break from the game, but after seeing how well we all worked together to keep our guild tied together, I was putting more effort than I ever had been before into tidying up and recruiting new members. It would be hard to turn around and give up what we have been working for.

I've only been in one guild merger before, and it was more or less a rescue operation than a merger. My guild was splitting 75/25 with the majority of them all transferring to the newly opened Oceanic servers, since I had been raiding with an Australian guild for some reason. All of our members who weren't Aussies needed a new home, and my first ever real progression raiding guild, Elysian, was friends with some of us and offered to take us in as refugees. My experience with mergers is limited, but from what I can tell, all of us feel similarly about the situation. I'm hoping for the best, as a successful merger could be a huge deal for us on the progression front.