Excited noob seeking guidance

[kingmrglmrgl]

Hey guys - glad to be a part of the community! This is going to be long, describe my experience with retail thus far and why Nostalrius. And I am sure I am preaching to the choir. But bear with me.

I bought retail at the tail end of draenor and have been playing through legion. It's been fun, it made me fall in love with the game, and of course it made me want to experience all the end game content. I main a brewmaster monk tank which seems to be the least desirable class on retail at the moment. After the endless struggle to actually get in a group, I said fuck it and started leading my own parties. Dungeons, raids, you name it... and it turned out that - much to my own astonishment - I'm pretty good at it. I studied the raids, I studied how to call tactics, cleared the content, my friends list grew, and a multitude of people comes back every week to party up again. It's a great feeling. I love the community interaction, chatting with mates while doing anything and everything and just having the MMO experience. Single player games bore me.

So what's the problem? Naturally, someone in my position would want to form a guild. Get my newly found gaming mates in there and truly push the end game of the end game - mythic raiding. But wait, I now have 50 friends on my list from 50 different servers. Will that work? Well i happened to choose a high pop server, 5 friends transferred. 2 weeks later after endless hours of recruiting/trying to pull more people/leading raids under the guild name, the same 5 folks remained. And also clearing heroic at that point was not a big deal as it was those weeks back, so people wouldn't be as excited to join a good group or communicate on a "speed clear".

The incentive to transfer server, help make a guild? Ask people to have some guild loyalty? Run a reward loot system? Forget about it. Personal loot is where it's at, and in fact, I've had folks join the guild, get in on a run, get the loot they wanted and leave the guild. There is little guild loyalty and even less camaraderie.

Why Nostalrius and Vanilla in general - It's a challenge. It's a tough environment. Lots of grind. Lots of inconveniences. Leveling can be tough. I believe that helps to form loyalty, camaraderie, excitement. And also I want to experience the content! Anyway, that's how it comes across but I could be dead wrong.

TL;DR - So here is my question for you - Given my background, and maining a raid leader/tank on retail, is the same role here somewhat viable? (I don't know the content, but eager to learn). Could I find a guild with that mindset? Are there guilds that are "semi-casual" (play almost daily - 2-4 hours a day) that are capable of clearing end game? I don't care about being 1st or 1000th or Nth but I want to progress at a steady pace and have fun with people who talk. The bar is low guys.

[zaptorque]

Remember that end-game content is 40 man (ZG and AQ20 are 20man), so endgame isn't really "casual". If you have a raidspot you are responsible for farming mats and bringing along the appropriate stuff(potions/elixirs/food that gives temp. buffs).

Also the raids definitely have a gear check. You won't get a raid spot if you're not BiS, which can be a bitch to farm. It's not the the content is super difficult, it just requires good gear and coordination.

Some guilds take it more seriously than others, if you want to play end game content just find a guild that suits your play style. Good luck and see you in Azeroth!