If you aren't already doing this, I would suggest paying attention to players you see while running GF pugs. You will

a) Notice players that are really good, and what guild they're in.

and

b) You can demonstrate your own competence by doing really well in the pug.

Just look over the "wacky group finder experiences" thread to see how often pugs end in disaster. When I see an excellent unguilded player in a group finder pug, it makes me stand up and take notice.

Be a great player yourself, and notice the others that are also great. Then ask if you can raid with them.

http://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=309

Always a ton of progression guilds looking for people in the Server forums. Not many look at them, though. You of course, actually have to be a good enough player and have a stable enough schedule to get in one in the first place.

Use complete sentences with correctly spelled words when interacting on the forums or with other players.

If you can't be bothered to type in functional English, you probably aren't good material for a progression guild.

Use complete sentences with correctly spelled words when interacting on the forums or with other players.

 

If you can't be bothered to type in functional English, you probably aren't good material for a progression guild.

Although I'm all for the use of complete sentences and proper grammar (see my post history if you doubt me), I have seen plenty of top-end raiders who have no clue how to do these things. I don't think that will stop anyone from guilding him if his parses are high and he doesn't stand in the fire.

That said, have you seen what posts from people like this look like when they try to pay attention to grammar and spelling? Awkward, at best. Still, I guess it's less painful to read than text-message-speak.

Although I'm all for the use of complete sentences and proper grammar (see my post history if you doubt me), I have seen plenty of top-end raiders who have no clue how to do these things. I don't think that will stop anyone from guilding him if his parses are high and he doesn't stand in the fire.

 

That said, have you seen what posts from people like this look like when they try to pay attention to grammar and spelling? Awkward, at best. Still, I guess it's less painful to read than text-message-speak.

Fair enough.

Most of the guilds I've been a part of in MMOs over the past ten years have catered to the 25+ crowd, and thus the frequency of seeing grammar obliterated in guild or raid chat was pretty rare.

first of all i don't agree with all this grammar nazi BS (make sens when you read rest of my post lol)

many of the ppl that play this game have English as 2nd/3rd language any rational person knows that

and its not a English paper but a forum post

if you want to find a progression group i recommend

go to your server forum and see if any is recruiting ore make a post your self

state what kind of interest and experience you have with the game

what days you can raid ore the time you want/can put into the game

ofc state what class, spec, and role you are mainly seeking a spot for

make a http://swtor.askmrrobot.com profile with your current gear

link a http://www.torparse.com parse where you are doing dps on a combat dummy

ore just doing great dps/ehps on a boss fight

i think this is the best recommendation I can give you GL and i hope you find

a guild/team that is fitting with your expectations

/w

Use complete sentences with correctly spelled words when interacting on the forums or with other players.

 

If you can't be bothered to type in functional English, you probably aren't good material for a progression guild.

Oh, you are an Linguist, aren't you ? Nice to meet you !

1. most groups are full, and if they are not full they are either looking for a replacement, or trying to start a group. if they are looking for a replacement, then there are prolly a number of canidates, many of which will come from inside the guild, although guild do typically recruit if there is no one available in guild. Being a replacement can be tricky because the group is somewhat set in stone, they know eachother, and have a schedule that works for all of them. if the group is just getting started, then its even mroe difficult because that is the point where you try to find when the group can run, fill up the various roles, and begin to learn eachothers personalities. when you go into a fresh group taht has never run together as a full ensemble, you are starting from scratch, which is often more than some people can handle, especially if they are used to farming content with another group.

2. personalities may not be a good fit for the guild or group. sometimes you want everyone in the guild to be filled with pride, but that same attitude in another guild will make you out as an arrogant bastard. if you are too vocal, or liek to play the blame game, or even try to have too much fun while others are seriously concentrating... all of those things can lead to you getting replaced simply for not meshing with whatever the raid leader, or guild leadership wants in their guild. even a story of you ninja looting a pug can surface when you least expect it and get you gkicked. if you do get into a progressive gorup, i suggest you just listen to the tone of the group/guild to get an idea of how your communication style might fit in.

3. there are only so many groups that even attempt to do nightmare ops. many guilds have not yet downed tfb or stryak nightmare. if you are trying to get into a guild that has those instances on farm, you will most likey be considered a carry, which you will have to prove yourself not to be after they have spent hours gearing you up. if you are unable to pull your weight, the guild might think they are doing you a favor, and have an understanding that you are in debt to them. On the other hand you may feel you are doing the guild a service by showing up, and sitting out, so they may gear up other new people to the guild, or having their "core group" progress through the new content so they may carry you through it later in order to prepare for 16 man or whatever the guild leadership thinks is the appropriate method of having the guild make progress.

4. just like pugs that dont want to ahve to teach people the fights, i am sure many guilds recruiting for a fill in do not want to have to slow down their farm in order to teach the new person all the fights they have been doing for the past x months.

I'm not a grammar nazi, but when people can't even be bothered to spell out the word "please", then I have no confidence in them.

I live in Moscow, Russia, and I taught ESL for 3 years. Thanks for educating me though. Your vast knowledge is appreciated. People with an intermediate understanding of English are often able to communicate more effectively than the ******* who grew up in America but don't know how to say anything online without leaving out 70% of the letters in each word.

The best tip that I can give you is that, at least in my experience, finding a spot in a progression guild, and then on a progression team is analogous to a professional sports career. You start out in the minor leagues, waiting for your talent to be spotted by a scout and talking to scouts. You then make it onto the farm team of a progression guild and finally you get called up to the Majors with a permanent progression team spot when you’ve proved yourself and the opportunity arises.

As Guildmaster of a progression guild, I see it as my responsibility, along with our Council members and progression team leaders, to ensure that we consistently work to identify talented individuals who we can recruit into our guild and progression teams as needed. There is a lot of scouting and social networking that we perform. We participate in as much end-game content that we can and keep our eyes open for those individuals who are clearly performing at a progression content level.

For example, recently I identified a DF/DP HM capable tank by offering to tank a PUG Nightmare Pilgrim run. My co-tank was able to not only execute properly on the planned strategy, but also correctly executed the revised strategy that I called live partway through the fight when things (inevitably with a PUG) went off the rails. I put him on my Friends List and have run with him multiple times since.

So, in short:

1. Participate in as much group content as possible. You need to make yourself visible to people.
   
2. Play your absolute best at all times in group content. You never know who’s watching, so stand out from the crowd for the right reasons.
   
3. Take note of who the strongest players are around you in group content. Make note of them and their guilds so you can start to understand the progression structure of your server.
   
4. Always join voice chat when it’s offered in group content, even if it’s just a story mode run. You learn exponentially more about people when you add verbal communication. This also provides you with the potential to make an impression too (e.g. you’re the healer who calls “Deathmark” in the Dread Council fight in DP when no one else says a word about it.)

_________________________

Here’s my personal story in case it can be of any help.

I started playing this game at 2.0, solo on a DPS assassin, with no plans regarding joining a guild or end-game group content. I leveled that first character up to 55 with planetary missions and heroics and completed the story mode flashpoints as I qualified for them. On Balmorra, I was invited into, and joined, a social (and essentially dead) guild by someone that I was grouped with.

Once I was level 55, I wanted to get my character into a full set of Black Market gear, since that was the next logical tier of gear for me. I ground out around 40 to 50 hard mode level 55 flashpoints to get a full set. It was at the tail-end of that process that I was essentially scouted and drafted out of the minor leagues. One of the Council members of a progression guild on my server was my DPS partner in a Cademimu run and noticed that I played my character well. He saw that I was already guilded, but asked if I wanted to try running with them in an operation.

I ran TFB SM/8 with them as a guest and turned in a middling DPS performance. One of the Council members spoke to me afterwards to discuss my spec and rotation, which were correct, so I explained that it was likely nerves that got the better of me since that was my first time ever being in an operation, and though I had read guides for all the fights, there’s no substitute for firsthand experience. We agreed that I would run again the following week to see if I could improve. On the second run I managed to up my DPS by about 600, to an appropriate progression level, and they asked me to run with them in the future.

After about four or five more operation runs as a guest, I was asked to join the guild as a substitute player, which I did. I was now on the farm team of the guild, consisting of spare players who could help the progression team when there were absences. I consistently filled in on progression operation runs of TFB HM for a couple of months.

Finally, once my personal schedule was able to align with the progression team’s schedule on a regular basis, I was called up to the big leagues and joined the progression team when a permanent spot opened.

Ultimately, after many months, the original Guildmaster passed the guild’s leadership onto me and I’ve followed the same recruiting methods ever since.

Oh, you are an Linguist, aren't you ? Nice to meet you !

And a cunning one, at that.

See what I did there?

And a cunning one, at that.

 

See what I did there?

Nicely played

The best tip that I can give you is that, at least in my experience, finding a spot in a progression guild, and then on a progression team is analogous to a professional sports career. You start out in the minor leagues, waiting for your talent to be spotted by a scout and talking to scouts. You then make it onto the farm team of a progression guild and finally you get called up to the Majors with a permanent progression team spot when you’ve proved yourself and the opportunity arises.

This sums it up pretty nicely.

What people need to understand is that the jump from SM to NiM is huge. Doing TfB / SV NiM on gear level - in Underworld / 72s - is challenging; fail one mechanic / show poor raid awareness / fail DPS or eHPS checks and you wipe the group. You need a certain level of competency in order to do NiM, but with the introduction of welfare 78s (commendation bought) all sense of mechanics / raid awareness has gone down the drain.

In my position as GM I come across a lot of recruits / applicants that wants to do "Progression Raiding". When I ask them what kind of experience they have on Operations, the usual reply I get is that they've done the Operation on SM and now want to raid with a Progression Group. The real kicker is that they want me to guarantee them a spot on the Progression Group before they even join! That just boggles my mind.

What people need to understand is that you can't really jump straight from HM FPs to NiM-operations (unless you are an exceptional good player). Take your time - join an entry level operations guild, get some experience in SM / HM operations and then look around for more progression based guilds that have SV / TfB HM on farm before taking the step to the higher end guilds that do NiM.