I didn't really mention it before, but I figured I'd go ahead and outline some guild-related changes that my characters have undergone in the past few months.
Mage, Hunter, Priest Make A Move
I've been raiding with a decent group since the beginning of January, and finally decided to make the official guild change-over on my raiding toon, the 70 Frost Mage, on February 21.
As for the rest, I moved my 70 Hunter over shortly afterwards and a few days later, brought the 51 Priest/Jewelcrafter over, but have left my "parked" 61 Warrior in my social/levelling guild along with my 58 Rogue, 30 Druid and a bank toon.
Why The Switch?
There's many reasons why I made the switch with my best-geared toon... the new guild is larger, more active, and since they are raiding regularly at the 25-man level (currently working on Al'ar), there are more players who are geared for heroics. The first day I was guilded, we went through 4 Heroics!
So, my badge count has gone through the roof, and my need to turn to the LFG line has toned way down. Most of the time I don't even have to look around for a party, because the limited times I'm available to run something, there's a guild group forming, and they love my Magely skills! It's awesome.
And as a bonus, because I had been raiding with these guys for nearly 2 months already, I only stayed as an "initiate" in the guild a couple of days - until I could get to the next 25-man raid at which point, at the end of another great raiding night, I was promoted to Member by the GM/RL and received many nice comments and welcomes from everyone present.
Oh, and I moved the Hunter across because our guild is actually LOW on quality Hunters - recruits with attitudes as big as their DPS (and we all know some Hunters can dish out the major DPS) have come and gone, and a lot of our members are on casual raiding schedules, only making 1 or 2 on a week that they can actually make it to any. So, I brought my keyed-but-not-really-geared-for-Karazhan Hunter across and have been on 4 or so Karazhan runs so far, after the Mage is already locked out with a different group.
And the Priest, I moved mainly because she's now a 375 Jewelcrafter with a mess of rare gem cuts, and I felt the raiding guild environment could make better use of that Professional skill than a social/levelling guild with less than a handful of people who pay enough attention to their characters to even gem up.
What About The Old Guild?
One of my old guildmates applied to the same raiding guild I'm in, and was accepted, and he occasionally attends raids when his schedule permits, but I haven't had a real chance to talk to him lately since my gaming schedule has been strained for time.
As for the rest of the folks, I still have some of my characters in that guild, and since I log into my bank toon every day, I tend to still chat with the folks and see how they're doing. I've also continued to trade favors with friends from the old guild, running through their lowbies in exchange for BRD run-throughs for my 50s Priest and the occasional rest-bonus-burnoff run for my 30 Druid.
And of course, some of us hung out on Ventrilo while we played, and I still do that regularly.
Was The Move A Good One?
In short, yes it was definitely a good one. I was getting frustrated with having to turn to strangers in the LFG line all the time, and doing a /who [guildname] to find folks from that guild I had been raiding with for two months. My levelling guild was indeed just a social/levelling guild and had no aspirations towards organized recruitment or coordinated efforts except on rare occasions (ie: 1-3 guildie dungeon runs a week, most below Outland level), and I really did want to do more, experience more, challenge myself more.
Of course, I wouldn't have made the switch if this new guild didn't also show some very good qualities in terms of behavior during raids, dealing with mouthy players, having equipment requirements, encouraging each individual to do their best to help the team, scheduling raids on a website with sign-ups... all sorts of great things. Sure, there's some crap that goes on too, and it's clear the GM/RL is a key part to holding the guild together cohesively, but all in all, I've really enjoyed the environment and lucky been able to remain distant from any potential drama.
I am quite surprised I was able to find a cool raiding guild like this so soon... Before Christmas I went on a couple of Karazhan raids with an ex-guildie's raiding guild only to find that the ranged DPS tended to attack from up-close (and subsequently die a lot), that the Raid Leader swore in all-caps on the Raid line (I don't recall him freaking on Vent tho) when yet another wipe occurred, and that I was the top damage of all three mages despite only being at +450 frost damage and them being better-geared. When I wasn't re-invited to their raid groups, I wasn't disappointed. I kind of expected to run into more of those before I hit the guild I'm now raiding with!