Submitting a Killer Hunter Guild Application

The Hunter class has long been one of the most populace classes in the game, and with the dreaded “Huntard” label following us everywhere we go (though much less so these days than in the past, thankfully!) it’s important to know how to submit an application to a guild that will help you stand out from the 40 other Hunters also submitting their applications. Today, I’m going to be following up on my previous post about screening Hunter applications to give the Hunter community some tips to help submit a great application.

Application Basics

These rules will apply to players of all classes, not just Hunters. (We’ll get to the juicy Huntery center soon enough.)

Fill in the Blanks

First, nothing will get your application rejected faster than leaving questions blank. Always answer every question on the application to the best of your ability. Give each question due consideration and keep your audience in mind. A guild application is your introduction to the officers of the guild you want to join. These people probably know nothing about you and your application serves to provide a first impression — something you can never “do over”.

Leaving application questions blank, or giving overly brief (one or two sentence) answers, suggests to the reader that you’re too lazy to bother providing more information. If you’re too lazy to bother properly filling out a guild application, then you’re probably too lazy to do any of the other things they would require of you. It also suggests that you’re filling out multiple applications at once, meaning you don’t have any real emotional investment in the application you submitted. If you don’t care, why should they?

Leave Your Fetish at the Door

Your application should reflect not only your knowledge and skill, but your personality as well so these people can get a feel for how you’ll fit into guild life if your application is accepted. However, no one wants to hear about your weird granola fetish on a guild application.

Take the advice of professional match-maker Steve Ward, star of VH1’s new reality show Tough Love:

Rule #1: Don’t be weird!

No one wants to hear about your cat Fluffy or your addiction to erotic machinima. These people do want to get to know you, but they don’t need that much information up front. Just like you wouldn’t air your dirty laundry on a first date, leave your dirty secrets at the door when you’re ready to fill out a guild application.

No One Likes an Angry Ex

Most guild applications will ask why you left your last guild. This question is intentionally loaded to help guilds weed out the crazies. Give too little information here and people will get suspicious. Give too much information and you may shoot yourself in the foot. Honesty is key here, because it wouldn’t take much for officers of your prospective guild to get in touch with officers of your former guild and verify your story. However, if you left your last guild on bad terms, they don’t need the gory details.

As Mr. Ward so succinctly put it:

“Every guy loves a good cat fight, but no one wants to date the cat!”

If you left your last guild on bad terms, simply say there was a disagreement or difference of opinion and leave it at that. If the new guild wants more details, they’ll ask you or they’ll ask your former guild and then ask you for clarification. (This is good incentive not to be a total jerk, btw. People do check!)

Strengths and Weaknesses

You should be able to identify both your strengths and your weaknesses. If you’re applying for a raiding guild but your gear isn’t quite up to par, tell them so and explain what you’re doing to make it better.

Here’s an example:

“I’ve got the best ranged weapon available in the content I’m doing, but my boots and cloak could use improvement. I’m in the process of collecting materials to get a better cloak crafted and I’m farming Dungeon X for better boots off Boss Y.”

This shows that you’re aware of your shortcomings and doing what you can to improve on them within your means. This shows knowledge of your class and a willingness to put in the work to improve on your own. Even if your gear stinks but you’re applying to join a hardcore raid guild, you’ve shown that you’re doing what you can to get better and that you are familiar with what to look for to maximize your effectiveness.

The Right Stuff

This morning, I posed the following question on Twitter:

“GMs and Officers: What do you look for in a great guild application? What qualities stand out to you as something you really want?”

And here are some of the answers I got:

(@SlowWolf): Typically, when I was an officer, I normally looked to see if they could take criticism.

(@brajana): Knows their class, willing to put in effort, good reasons for wanting to join (and leave their last guild), patience.

(@greyseer): Humility. Reason for joining aligns with guild purpose/theme. For an RP guild: knowledge of character and some lore.

(@Arrens): Someone that can write a complete sentence with proper grammar. As an RP guild, it’s implicitly required.

(@outdps): We’ll take just about anyone who is not an obvious failure, and they have a trial period of 2 Naxx runs.

The diversity of the responses above illustrates a key point we haven’t touched on yet: Part of submitting a solid guild application is making sure the guild you’re applying for is right for you. If your wants and needs from the game don’t mesh with a guild’s mission, officers can tell that from your application and will reject you. However, this kind of rejection isn’t a bad thing! They’re saving you the trouble of joining the guild only to leave later on because they’re not what you were looking for. Don’t take that kind of rejection personally!

The Hunter I Want

Now that we’ve covered the basics of any good guild application, let’s jump into the specifics that every Hunter should know.

Yeah, I Can Trap

This is something that I’ve seen on a lot of applications and have mixed feelings about. Years ago, you would be considered a Hunter Super Star if you could chain trap and use Feign Death effectively. It was never supposed to be an outstanding quality, but a basic assumption. Unfortunately, the wrench in the works was that most Hunters couldn’t do it. Now, the majority can. If you’re asked to list your skills on a guild application, then fine, include this fact. However, don’t regale your audience with tales of chain trapping 14 mobs simultaneously. They don’t care. As long as you can trap a mob, that’s all they need to know.

But Can You Kite?

Few encounters these days require this skill, so it’s a nice gold star on your application if you’re good at it. Again, don’t go on and on about how you can kite a Fel Reaver to Netherstorm. No one cares, unless you’re putting a video of it on YouTube and using it as a guild promo video. It’s worth noting: this skill is likely more important to PvP guilds where the ability to kite a melee opponent effectively greatly increases your chances for survival.

What Else You Got?

There are several other key skills that every Hunter should have in their bionic Batman tool belt that you’ll want to mention on your application:

Can you quickly execute a Misdirection on the fly?

This is particularly important to raiding guilds. Sure, you can set one tank as your focus target at the start of a run and spam your Misdirection macro when needed, but can you select a completely different player from your raid UI, find your regular Misdirection button, and find a completely different mob to fire at? And can you do it quickly? It’s not really hard, but it shows planning. Lazy Hunters can’t do this. Can you? The key to this isn’t so much that you can do it, but how quickly you can do it. Often times, on-the-fly Misdirections are called for because something went wrong and needs to be fixed NOW! Fumbling with your UI for even a couple seconds could spell doom. You want to be Jonny On The Spot, not The Hunter That Dropped The Ball.

Do you watch Omen like a hawk?

We all know how to do it and how important it is, but how many of us do it consistently? Can you watch for void zones, fire, slime, keep track of your stings and cooldowns, watch for buff procs, and execute different phases of a fight and still keep a weather eye on your threat meter? Sure, this is basic stuff, but it’s easy to forget. If you’re keeping an eye on Omen (or your threat meter of choice) at all times, you can also pull off pre-emptive Misdirections or Feign Deaths. Taking initiative like that scores brownie points (if people notice — which, if you’re doing it right, they never should).

Do you have a pet for all occasions?

We’ve got enough stable slots now that there’s no excuse for not bringing the right pet for the job, and the Call Stabled Pet ability coming in patch 3.1 will make this even more true. Every Hunter should have at least one Ferocity pet and one Tenacity pet, and they should be specced appropriately for the content you could conceivably be doing. For example: raiding Hunters should have a Cat or Raptor specced for maximum damage output. PvP Hunters should have pets with high survivability and slowing, DoTing, or interrupt abilities. Casual Hunters should have a pet that can serve as an effective off-tank should the need arise.

Raiding has become much less complex than it has been in the past, so it’s becoming increasingly difficult to identify areas or skills that will set you apart from the crowd. One DPS class is frankly just as good as another these days, and as long as you can stay out of “poop” on the ground and maintain 3500–4000 DPS, you’re pretty much set.

Yes, you need to be familiar with the content you’re doing. Checking online resources like WoWHead, WoWWiki and Bosskillers can tell you what you need to know. Yes, you need to be prepared for the encounters you face. Making sure you have the best gear, gems, enchants, ammo and consumables you can will get you there. Executing strategy properly, following directions, and being situationally aware and patient will see you through. Find the right guild, submit a solid app, and you’re on your way!