The Importance of Guild Levels
How important are guild levels to you? In most games levels don’t mean a great deal. In EQ2 however, they become things to treasure. At guild level 30 you unlock the first (also known as Tier 1) hall. You also unlock 5 room housing in Qeynos and Freeport (the newer towns don’t have these guild level restrictions). You gain 5 amenity for your hall, and other items open up on the city merchants.
At level 50 you unlock the T2 hall, and have the option of many more amenity. You also unlock rows to the guild bank as you level up which gives you much more space to deposit items that everyone can make use of.
I like the way that this works, but I don’t enjoy the length of time it takes to get anywhere. If you’re a large guild with dedicated players (and especially raiders) you may not even blink at the amount of status required to level your guild. But if you happen to play in mostly casual smaller guilds, or even have a guild of your own, you’ll realize the incredible amount of work it takes for one or two or even three people to level a guild. Reaching 30 is not so bad, and the grind from 30-40 seems to speed up some. Once you hit 50 it crawls by, and beyond 53 I have personally never seen in my own guilds (the ones I run) so I can’t really speak of it. Of course I’ve been in guilds of higher level, Iniquity is closing in on level 58, and Paradise Lost is almost 86. You can purchase some neat titles and fun house items the higher you get, too.
So what do you think, are you a fan of this ‘leveling up a guild’ idea? Do you like to make use of what comes with the bonus of working towards a common goal? Let me know below!
I haven’t been playing EQ2 that long (7 months or so), and it’s my first MMO ever. That said, I’ve quickly picked up the basics of the game (or was told so), and have risen through the ranks of our guild to the point where I’m now a co-guild-leader. When I first started, the guild was very young, and I was still very clueless. Over the last 4-5 months, I’ve watched and contributed as the guild has grown, and we’re now level 63 or 64. I thought I was just missing out on some very heavy status-gathering days, but hearing now that some levels are more difficult than others, I think it’s all starting to make more sense, because I could swear I’ve seen exactly that behavior.
The guild itself is very laid-back, although we’re starting to put together more organized mini-raids and such. We require nothing from our members, but always encourage writs and HQ’s to help us level. We’re well over the 600 member mark now, but a majority of those aren’t that active, if at all. We have organized a few “leveling days”, where a bunch of us just sit in the guild hall and do rush order writs until we level the guild (I think we did this between level 54-55 and between level 59-60, and about time to do it again). We’ve also organized contests at various levels, giving away plat to those who contributed the most to a certain level (most number of HQ’s, most number of writs, and the guy who actually caused the guild to level).
As far as the amenities go, we always choose by popular vote/demand. The high-ranking officers gather all the comments and in-game messages, count them up, and pick the amenities based on what members are requesting most often. Amazingly, we’ve found that the majority of the requests actually mirror our own personal needs as well (except the portal to member housing, which I want, and no one else seems to want =).
I’m also one of the very first members of a fairly new guild on another server. This one I actually have helped build from the ground up, and did a lot of writ-grinding in the city tradeskill shops to get us up to 30. Now that we’re there, progression has slowed considerably. We only have a few members, and I think we all got a little burnt out getting us as far as we did. I miss playing on that server, and look forward to spending more time there, probably not for a couple of weeks though. I’ve paid much closer attention to the progression of that guild, I guess since I’ve been involved since it was formed. We’ve all been using our previous (or current) guild experiences to help shape this new guild, and I hope to see it do well. Unfortunately, starting a new guild on a server with so many high-level established guilds is difficult, and recruiting new members is proving to be extremely hard. I’m sure that as we level, we will grow and attract more members. Until then, I see a lot of tradeskill writs in my future. And I miss all the amenities I have in the guild on the other server. =)
I *love* the idea of guild leveling, something to work for that unlock shinies for everyone in the guild. I think it’s a great way to get guild projects going – writ groups, heritage questing groups – ways to allow even little members of the guild help out. I *hate* that they put hell levels in – hell levels were a stupid idea in EQ1 and it’s stupider that it got carried over into EQ2.
I think it shouldn’t take so long to level up a guild. Sure, the reality of a guild might indicate that it would take years to get a guild up to its most powerful place, but I think a game should have some kind of allowance that scales towards the total number of players in that guild. :)
Upkeep isn’t a problem even for smaller guilds, at least not that I’ve seen with my side-project tiny guild (where I’m currently the only active player and I’m not exactly shaking the walls with activity there either). The levelling xp, however…
I found guild levels25-30 to be pure hell, but maybe that’s because I was the only one contributing anything and that not particularly frequently, so it felt like an insanely long slog. Interestingly enough, since I’m levelling some of my 80 crafters to 90 and have been mostly doing writs for that, the guild hit 31 a day or two ago and suddenly level 85-89 writs started giving, not 0.6% as they had been at 30, but 2.5% — the same writs! It was nuts.
Some friends in the larger guild (shoutout to LDL- Halasian Empire! :D) *had* said that there are “hell levels” in guild levelling but I’d never really believed it — 55-60 was tough in HalEmp but again, it’s not a huge guild and people all have real lives, so when it seemed somewhat easier after 60 I was never entirely convinced it was because we actually *were* suddenly contributing more xp for the same activities. From 30-31 the difference was really visible though, so now I’m convinced.
I’ve been pondering why it’s not a simply linear (or other, regular) progression, and I can’t really figure it out. It seems almost unnecessarily sadistic to make the levels just before the guild hall tiers be so comparatively difficult — or rather, the levels right after them so comparatively easy. I’m still puzzled.
On the bright side, it means my occasional writ-burns might actually someday get the mini-guild to 35, which will let me purchase another couple of harvesting types… or even get a broker… or… so many amenities, so few slots! (Thank god I have a *real* guild with real amenities to go home to when I get tired of slumming it with my alts. ;) )
I’m in one of the bigger casual raiding guilds on AB in EQ2, and I enjoy all the perks that come with an 80+ guild level. Fast travel has spoiled me to the point to where simply getting a new toon to the guild hall to ind annoys me. As you said, the amount of status a raid force brings in makes the status upkeep go unnoticed, and I merely drop 25 plat into the hall every so often to feel I have done my part. Our escrow balance is high enough to keep us running for a LONG time.
As for smaller guilds, I agree it is tough for them to level. At this point, I don’t think I would want to join a smaller guild unless it was a new progression guild, but even then, I’d have ties to my current guild. A T1 hall and 5 amenities seems good for a small group of people with a specific focus, but recruiting a larger force could be tough with limited options.
It’s an interesting question. I do like the idea but I’ve seen strange side effects from levelling guilds.
In LOTRO, we had a lot of fun levelling our guild and getting new functionality when the game was new. But it wasn’t THAT hard to level it to level 10 and after that, every other guild had the same stuff anyway. Anyone joining after the guild was levelled would never have known anything different.
In WAR, we also had fun levelling the guild, but being in a higher level guild made such a difference to gameplay (ie. having a convenient teleport to capital city ability) that it became quite tricky for smaller guilds to recruit. I think there probably came a point beyond which it didn’t matter quite so much — not everyone would have been that bothered about the guild cloak or mount but the teleport made a lot of difference and convenience.
in WoW, I’m intrigued at the idea of being able to have guild talent points, so we can tailor which special abilities our guildies get. But then again, how many people actually get the fun of choosing that? Just guild leaders, and everyone else just carries on as usual. It’s tricky. The idea is fun, but it just sounds so much more fun if it’s /your/ guild.