Got guild?

I was waiting on a party the other night and killing time by watching general chat in the Harbor when someone asked the advantages of joining a guild.

I’m very lucky to have toons in two AWESOME guilds on Thelanis. Three of them are in my original guild, Emerald Dragons, while Even joined Monty’s but still quests with her Dragons buddies frequently.

Maybe it’s just because I got involved in the discussion about why to join a guild, but I’ve been noticing lately that a LOT of people are saying stuff like, “Want to join high-level guild with good airship.” That leads me to think that all they’re really looking for are buffs.

Don’t get me wrong – buffs are nice. But IMHO, buffs are a pretty crappy reason for picking a guild. I don’t think they make THAT much difference to begin with, especially past level 6 or so; they expire in an hour, which means you may be without them for the end fights on long quests; and if you die, they’re gone anyway.

I was still VERY new when I joined the Dragons – Victaurya was still my only toon – and I joined because my then-boyfriend did. Maybe some people would think that’s a stupid reason, but having friends as guildmates is a great situation to be in.

Making new friends with guildmates rocks, too. I love to solo; it gives me a feeling of accomplishment to get through a tough quest on my own, and I never need to worry that I’m holding up other people if I want to stop and break everything or run around to make sure I get every collectible (off-topic: DDO, the correct spelling is “collectIble,” not “collectAble”). But nothing beats running quests in the company of people you genuinely like. Naturally I always hope to get through the quest in one piece for maximum XP and loot, but when I’m with friends, that stuff takes a back seat. I have a core of people I love to group with because I know I’m going to have fun even if we totally wipe.

Another cool thing about being in a guild is that even if you don’t know many of your guildmates, it’s a lot easier to find people to group with. Just about all of the regulars in Emerald Dragons have multiple toons, so I can play any of my characters and find guildmates around my level to group with. I also get much better advice when I ask my questions in guild chat than when I post them on the advice channel.

So far my two Sarlona toons aren’t in a guild, but I’m thinking since I don’t know anyone over there anyway, maybe I’ll start my own. I’ll call it The Flower Sniffers, from a convo I had with a really great party doing In the Demon’s Den one night. We were talking about how frustrating it is when you like to quest for the sake of questing and get a zerg in your party. One guy said something about how it’s much more fun when you take the time to sniff the flowers.

That’s my kind of approach. Go smash all the breakables, find all the collectibles, do all the optionals, stop and admire the graphics, maybe even take a screenshot or two. Enjoy the ride.