As a former guild officer and class/raid lead, I’ve often been asked to help screen Hunter guild applications or offer suggestions for what to look for in a “good” Hunter application. Because this is something I’m frequently asked but have seldom taken the time to discuss here at THM, I’d like to spend some time today offering those very same tips to all of you.

The best place to start is to design an application questionnaire that will be most likely to give you the information you want without necessarily having to contact the applicant a second time for clarification before actually considering them to join your guild. This may mean designing different forms/versions for different classes or roles, but will give you the most bang for your buck in the end. Auzara from Chick GM posted a great article about crafting a guild application to help you weed out the undesireables a while back, and I’d definitely suggest reading it: Anatomy of a Guild App. It’s a great place to start!

The Armory is Your Friend

We’ll start with the most basic information available to you: an applicant’s Armory page. By viewing their Armory page, you can determine a few things right off the bat:

• Their level of progression in current content
• Whether or not they choose a talent spec that is designed for min/maxing
• Their knowledge of the class as a whole (based on gem, enchant and gear choices)

Now I’d like to point out, however, that the Armory can be a double-edged sword here. While a player may not have cleared every raid instance, or may tweak their build certain ways, or may not have the best enchants possible doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t know what they’re doing. They may have poor loot luck, they may not have the resources (read: gold) to get the best enchants, or any number of other perfectly reasonable explanations. The Armory should be used simply to get a very basic idea of what you might be getting yourself into, and the rest of the application should serve to explain any oddities.

Points to Ponder

Here are some things to look for on a player’s Armory page to help give a basic idea of their level of knowledge:

1. Not quantity of gems/enchants, but quality
2. Not the spec they’ve chosen, but the individual talents
3. Not the level of gear they have, but the quality of the items themselves

Here’s what I mean by that:

1. They may not have every gem slot filled, but are the ones that are filled using the proper gems for their spec?

If you’re not sure what gems a Hunter should be using, check here. You’ll want to be looking for Attack Power, Agility, Intellect or Hit gems primarily, but that may differ depending on the stats inherent in the gear they’re wearing.

2. Depending on the type of guild you are, this may be something you care very little about. However, for “hardcore” raiding guilds you’re checking to see if they’re using the flavor of the month min/max spec. For PvP guilds, you’re looking to see if they’re using the best BG/Arena spec. For casual guilds, you may not care at all. However, there’s one thing I can tell you: few Hunters are willing to exactly copy a cookie-cutter spec for their style of play.

There are tons of reasons for this. For some, it’s a matter of simply wanting to play a spec they enjoy the most regardless of whether or not it’s considered “the best”. For others it can be a matter of trying certain tweaks hoping to improve upon the general standard. That being the case, it’s always a good idea to ask the player to explain their talent choices, either in the initial application or in a follow-up interview. The answers you get will tell you a lot about the player.

For PvE builds, you want to look for talents like: Careful Aim, Aspect Mastery, or Thrill of the Hunt, to name just a few. For PvP builds, look for talents like Barrage, Scatter Shot or Intimidation, as an example. It’s usually fairly easy to determine a PvE talent from a PvP talent in Hunter trees, so just check to make sure the player isn’t trying to mix builds, especially with the dual spec feature coming up. There’s no reason for a PvE Hunter to take PvP-oriented talents and vice versa. Watch for things like that.

3. This one can really be a no-brainer, and only takes a brief glance to get a feel for what you’re dealing with if you know what stats Hunters should be gearing for. Regardless of spec, there are certain key stats Hunters need and ones we can do without. Strength and Spirit are almost worthless to us, and there are plenty of options available at even the earliest gear stages for Hunters to be able to avoid taking items with these stats on them. If you’re looking at an Armory page for a Hunter with +Strength on anything… go ahead and move on to your next applicant. If you’re looking at a Hunter stacking Attack Power, Agility, or Intellect, that one might be a keeper.

Use the Resources Available to You

Aside from checking the Armory, you also have other resources available to you: your other Hunters. If you’ve got horrible Hunters in your guild, use their mistakes to help you avoid those same qualities in future applicants. If you’ve got great Hunters, ask their opinions on any applicants you’re unsure of. Depending on the type of guild you run, there will be certain skills that prospective members simply must have. Determine what those are, check with your current Hunters, and see what areas of strengths and weaknesses might be for the class.

Here are some examples:

Casual Guild: Members should be able to complete normal and heroic 5man content with relative ease. This includes the use of crowd control and situational awareness.

This means the Hunter applicant should be able to effectively trap in combat and be able to move out of harmful AoE effects. This may also mean that the Hunter has a pet that is able to tank for short periods of time.

PvP Guild: Members should have Resilience gear and be able to work well as a team to form and execute Battleground strategies. This includes a certain degree of survivability against certain classes and the ability to react quickly.

For Hunters, this means being able to kite melee targets, manage various stings, and use traps or other forms of CC (such as Wyvern Sting, Scatter Shot or traps) effectively.

Raid Guild: Members should be familiar with end-game boss strategies, use the spec most suited to getting the best performance for their role and be able to manage cooldowns efficiently.

As a Hunter, this would mean the player has itemized their character effectively, chosen talents geared towards providing the highest damage output and they’re able to effectively manage their aspects, trinkets and other cooldowns to result in the highest damage output.

There are so many criteria that different guilds could come up with that it’s difficult to account for all of them here. Instead, use these examples to help determine what you’re looking for in a player and how that player might meet that need. These qualities may not be obvious in an application, but you can easily screen for these skills in further interviews or initiation periods. Identify what your current Hunters are good or bad at, and look for those same things in future applicants. Ask your Hunters how they would improve their own performance, and look for those clues in your applicants.

The Checklist

Now, having said all that, here’s a quick check list to help you determine if your Hunter applicant is a diamond in the rough or just another Huntard:

• Appropriate gems/enchants? (AP, Agi, Int, Hit)
• Appropriate itemization? (No Str gear!)
• Appropriate talents for their chosen style of play? (No PvP talents for PvE, etc)
• Can they explain their talent choices? (Sound reasoning is key)
• Do they lack situational awareness? (Dying in void zones is bad, mmkay?)
• Can they kite?
• Can they trap consistently?
• Are they familiar with the content they’re applying to participate in? (Bosskillers is your friend)

If your prospective applicant has all of these things, you’ve probably got yourself a fairly knowledgeable Hunter on your hands. Other things you may want to watch out for is how your applicant responds to other members of their class (and this goes for all players, not just Hunters), and this is something few guilds seem to take into account. Does the applicant show signs of being an Alpha Hunter? It’s important for all your Hunters to be able to get along and work well as a team. Why? Well, for example, in a raid environment you may need your Hunters to coordinate on a multi-Misdirection pull. If they don’t get along, that’ll go to pot real quick. Also, no one likes loot drama so if your Hunters play well with others, they’re more apt to be cooperative when it comes to drops — especially on highly coveted items. Additionally, a Hunter Corps that gets along will work hard to help each other improve, giving you a group of folks that are always getting better.

The Cream of the Crop

Keep all of these things in mind when you’re checking out your newest Hunter applicant, and if you find a player that’s just not up to snuff, explain to them — in detail! — why they didn’t make the grade. (But don’t be a jerk!) Players can’t improve if they don’t know what they’re doing wrong. We’ve all complained about that stupid Huntard in our guild or group before, but the only way to weed them out is to help them improve. Give them examples of things you didn’t like about their application and encourage them to check out resources that will help them improve their areas of weakness. Your current Hunters can probably provide links to great articles teaching players how to trap, kite, itemize or perform better. Pass those links onto your applicants and encourage them to practice the skills they have trouble with. There’s a great article on World of Matticus that can help with this: 6 Ways to Reject a Guild App Without Sounding Like an Angry Ex.

If you’ve got tips for weeding out Hunter applications, go ahead and leave them in the comments! Tomorrow, I’ll be following up on this post and giving tips to Hunters on how to submit a great guild application that’ll help you stand out from the countless other Hunters looking for a guild. What horror stories does your guild have about Hunters that looked great on paper?