Who to recruit

My guild in WOW is recruiting.  Because we are doing flexible raiding this isn't a sign that we are desperate for any particular thing though.  It is just that we could use a few more regulars to make sure we never end up bashing up against that 'you must have 10 players online' wall.  Running really tight on numbers will always leave you high and dry sometimes because computers break, health fails, and families call.  I also think that there are good reasons to not go too close to 10 players that are related to interrupt rotations and such - it helps a ton to be able to reliably have 3 interrupters for many of the fights we do.

The current guild isn't nearly as choosy when letting people come to raids as Ogg Gulnath Tago was back in the day though.  I used to vet people before letting them raid and I was ruthless - if you showed up with subpar gems or enchants or without consumables you were getting laughed at.  (Also you weren't going to raid!)  Lightning's Hand is a much more casual environment though and we have some new recruits that showed up without standard raiding mods, potions, and enchants.

Those potions, gems, and enchants that I made such a big deal out of in years gone past weren't actually very relevant to performance.  As long as you weren't being completely insane you would only lose 2-3% of your dps by doing it incorrectly, and often less than that.  That 2-3% is nothing compared to the difference between various player skill levels, not to mention punctuality or attitude.  The main reason I was so picky about it was that I noticed that people who were really keen to maximize performance did all the things at once.  The players who were super aggressive in style, who knew their rotations, and who always showed up with their A game also gemmed and enchanted their gear properly.  They were ready to rock in every way.

A player who is missing an enchant that would increase their damage by 2% is rarely missing only that enchant.  They are usually missing lots of 2% improvements in both preparation and execution and usually end up doing 30% less damage overall.  The enchant is a signal of attitude, and that signal is rarely wrong.

We are more casual though, and our guild isn't aiming to be as ruthless as I was back then.  The overall attitude just isn't as focused on performance, and that is okay.  Every guild has their own standard and there isn't a right one, just one that fits the group in question.  I am hoping with a bit of nudging and training we can get the new folks up to speed and ready to push themselves to achieve more than they have before.  The only way to know is to try.