Is there anyway to transfer guild leadership of inactive leader who demoted everyone to rank 5 and below?
A little backstory, I formed this guild with a group of friends back in TBC and played periodically with them all since then. I lost guild ownership due to inactivity along the way. The current guild leader is inactive and has demoted everyone so they won’t lose ownership.
As a side question, is this what was intended when Blizzard implemented these rank restrictions?
Thank you.
Unfortunately no. If the guild leader made it so no one could take over, by being the proper rank, there is no workaround or exceptions that can be made.
Yes, as Blizzard is entirely hands off when it comes to guild management. They put the power in the guild leader’s hands as to whether they wanted the possibility of someone else taking over the guild or not.
As it’s been asked before, a ticket will not result in an exception being made.
No, there is not.
100%. Regardless of back story, the Guild Leader is the owner of the guild. The rank restrictions were set in place so a GL can protect his ownership in the event of a long break from the game.
Yes. BUT here is the back story so you understand the current system.
Vanilla allowed you to ticket for GM access if a GM was absent for more than 30 days. GMs handled requests personally and not a lot of folks even knew it was an option. Usually GM rank was given to someone already an officer, if the GM agreed to the request.
An automated system was put in place to mimic what the GMs manually did. If the GM were gone more than 30 days the automated system would offer GM to the next rank down when they logged in. This continued until someone accepted the GM rank. ALL ranks were eligible. As you might imagine, this led to some guilds being taken over by unsavory sorts.
The third iteration is the system we have today. The system offers GM to the next rank if the GM has been gone for 90 days. Only the top 3 ranks are eligible to be offered the GM role. This allows a GM to set the ranks up so that no matter how long they are gone, the guild stays in their hands. This is especially important for family guilds and social guilds.
My guess is you were knocked out of the GM slot during the second phase of the system. This is currently how they intend it to work so that a GM can retain their guild forever if they want.
All of the information you’ve received here is for the most part correct. However, if you were previously the Guild Master then go ahead and open a support ticket with the details:
https://battle.net/support/help/product/wow/181/187/solution
It may be possible to make an exception if you created the guild and were dethroned by someone who is now also inactive.
Hold up. What does this mean? Can’t guilds create ranks? I know the Officer rank is default but I wasn’t aware of another two.
By default, a guild can have 5 ranks but only a person in the highest three highest ranks can assume the abandoned guild leader position.
If the GL demoted everyone to rank 4 or 5 before leaving, that would reserve the GL position for him until he returns.
A guild belongs to the GL. They can do whatever they want with it. People on military deployment, school, or work assignments may effectively hold their guild until they return by lowering peoples rank.
If you don’t mind me asking: When was this added? Last I’ve heard from the other blues, the current guild leader and has all right to do with the guild as they see fit - even placing everyone in lower ranks to stop them from being dethroned. So hearing this is…a bit weird to be honest.
I don’t recall specifically, but that has been a thing for quite a while now (at least a couple expansions).
As far as I’m aware, it’s only possible if it’s a previously dethroned guild leader who remained in the guild and is seeking to re-take the mantle from the current inactive guild leader.
Teufelgott is correct, it has been setup this way for a while. It doesn’t come up much here on the forums because most of the requests we see are from players who were never in leadership of a guild they want control of. It’s a rare exception that only applies to the previous creator/leader of the guild.
Otherwise, you are correct and the current Guild Leader is given control and authority to do what they want with the guild.
We will not make this exception for someone who was never in control of the guild.
Another notable exception we might make is if the current inactive guild leader submits a ticket and request leadership be transferred to a specific character. So, if you’re in touch with a guild leader who is inactive we often recommend asking them if they’d be willing to do so.
There are 5 default ranks and up to 9 total ranks in a guild. Nok covered the basics already. You can read a ton of info here
Hmmm. Does that include the GM rank? Or is it GM plus the next 3 ranks below GM?
Guild leader is rank 1, judging by the armory. Ranks 2,3 and 4 could then dethrone once the notification is sent. You can set ranks 5-9, and those ranks won’t get to dethrone.
I see. So if I set everyone else to rank 5 or below, they can never dethrone?
In retail that is correct, Only rank 1 , Rank 2 and Rank 3 can dethrone in retail. Anything else your stuck or you can try reaching out to the current guild leader and see if they will let someone else take the guild.
Hold up. According to that link from Mirasol, only the top 3 ranks can dethrone. If the GM rank is rank 1, then that means dumping people into rank 4 of a guild would be sufficient to stop anyone from dethroning. I.e. The rank immediately below Officer rank (assuming default Officer rank is rank 2) is the lowest rank that can dethrone (in retail). Anyone rank 4 and below would be barred from dethroning.
Depending where you are reading, Guild leader is considered rank 0 or rank 1. In either case, it’s the three ranks directly under guild leader that are eligible to dethrone an inactive guild leader.
Both the in-game guild interface and the Armory denote the guild leader as Rank 1. Ranks 2-4 are eligible to dethrone an inactive leader.
Common sense dictates that when considering which ranks can dethrone an inactive leader, Guild Leader isn’t one of them.
Ah. I see. Yes that makes sense now that I think about it. So first 3 ranks below GM. So that would equate to default Officer rank plus 2 ranks below basically.
The name of the rank is immaterial. Rank 2 is named ‘Officer’ by default, but can be changed by the GL. Ranks 2, 3, and 4 are the ranks that could dethrone. Ranks 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 could not.
Likewise, the guild leader could name Rank 9 ‘Officer’. That wouldn’t mean that Rank 9 was eligible to dethrone.
Thanks for the clarification. Yes I am aware the Officer rank as rank 2 is just a default setting. Upon looking into this further, the in-game UI classifies the GM/GL rank as rank 1. So ranks 1-4 can dethrone. But I take your point about rank 1 dethroning itself as non-sequitur so to speak. So in reality, the only ranks that can dethrone are ranks 2, 3 and 4.