Armory Applications

So, it's time to return to the subject of applying to guilds. Tonight, I'm going to talk about what I look for on an armory profile.

I guess the first thing I look at is gear. Gear can tell a lot, but at the same time can say very little. Ideally, a good applicant for our guild should be equipped in Kara epics or above. However, that is not to say that blue gear is not a positive thing to see, so long as they are well-chosen items. For instance, seeing 2/5 of the Beast Lord Armour or Bladefist's Breath on a hunter would be perfectly acceptable, showing evidence of the hunter's understanding of the class. Any greens are a bad sign, indicating that the character either has no instance experience, or hasn't bothered to complete any of the end-game quest-chains in Blade's Edge, Netherstorm or Shadowmoon.

As for PvP gear... well, anyone can log off in PvP gear after a night of arena or mark-grinding. There are other signs that a character is a PvP-head or a raider on an off-night.

Next up is the spec. Now, I know my Hunter specs, and there are certain things that I look for. Gone BM and not taken Ferocious Inspiration? Specced MM and taken Concussive Barrage? Gone SV and... well... stuck there for PvE? You'd better have a very good reason for mis-placing those points, and be very open to a gentle re-spec before standing side-by-side with us in a raid. This may sound arrogant, but in a raid it's your responsibility to maximise your damage, and putting points in talents that don't increase your damage/increase your health/increase your mana pool, thus staving off Viper/provide a handy buff to the raid or group, then you're failing at that responsibility.

Having reviewed your spec, I then move onto your tradeskills. I have no snobbery towards which crafting skill you have taken, so long as you have one. Each skill can provide powerful lvl 70 BoP items, many of which are as good as boss drops. Farmbots, characters with two gathering skills, had better be putting their money to good use by buying good equipment or mats for good equipment. But the main reason why I like to see a fully levelled crafting skill is that it shows a level of commitment to the character. It takes time and patience to reach 375 in a crafting skill, and people who achieve this are less likely to drop their character if they don't get taken on a raid a few times.

Finally, I'm off to take a gander at the reputation screen. As a general thing, I would expect to see exalted with Violet Eye and Aldor/Scryer, along with at least revered with Honor Hold, Cenarion Expedition, Lower City and Sha'tar. Notice any connection? Yes, they all get rep from instances. Hitting a high level of rep with these shows that you have grinded like crazy in instances, hopefully heroics, and have a good level of experience with different encounters. Turn in an application promising Kara-level raid experience, and then have a rep level of 275/1000 neutral with VE... well... we'll look elsewhere, thank you very much!

(Yeah, this happened recently, the same guy who CBA to link his armory profile...)

I hope this reassures potential apply-ees to guilds that the people on charge won't just gaze at their gear and make a decision based on that. I also hope it warns potential apply-ees that there are several ways that their application bullsh*t can easily be seen through.