With the arrival of Patch 2.3, one of the most exciting things to me, both as a Guild Leader and a helplessly addicted Auction Hall player, was the addition of the long-awaited guild banks. Man, oh man, I’ve been waiting for this feature. Nothing sucks more than losing a newly crafted Lionheart Helm (back in the day when that was the best) because you started playing an alt and forgot it in the mailbox for an entire 30 days after an expired auction. Guild banks will allow us to throw everything for sale into the bank, and as GL, I can buy my own stinking tab for a while to store more than my mule can handle without worrying about losing stuff in the mail.
Before I logged off Tuesday night, I got on my GL toon and went to Shattrath City to investigate the process of getting a Guild Vault going. What took me 5-10 minutes should be a breeze for you now, so thank me later, ok?
- Prance, gallop, run, or fly into a major city and find the bank. Near the bank will be a Guild Vault, each with a unique look for the city. Orgrimmar’s, for example, is a pot of gold (Lucky Charms, anyone?).
- Ensure you have 100g on yourself, because that’s what it’s going to take. Ouch, I know, but check out all the space! With each tab you buy, you get a whopping 98 slots. That’s nearly an entire personal bank per tab, so for the initial investment for a small guild, it’s definitely worth it. The next two tabs increase to 250g and 500g each.
- When you’ve got your tab, go to Guild Control and set the permissions for the guild ranks. You can customize the ability to view, deposit, and withdraw for each rank indivudually, including withdraw limits so new initiates can’t ninja the guild’s vast stockpiles of valuable raid mats. This will take a little bit of time at the beginning, but your stuff is worth it, right?
Start filling up your slots to your heart’s content. It will take a little while to figure out a system for storage for the different items based on permissions and the little details like that, but again, the time spent now is worth it.
- Log in to your alts and open the doors to the vault to your guild and start a bank party today. Drinks are served in the nearby inn, of course.
NOTE: I noticed tonight that the vault does not stack items. I think this is to trick us into buying new tabs when we don’t need them, but I digress. To get things to stack, place them in your bags (carefully if you have a low withdrawal limit) where they stack, and then re-deposit them into the vault.
NOTE: This just in from Druidr, my newly bear formed alt: the Guild Vault in Thunder Bluff is just outside the bank! Don’t go running all over the place looking for it in a tent. It’s right in front of your eyes, but it looks like a plain old totem. This makes Thunder Bluff quite possibly the best place in all of Azeroth to be a blacksmith/miner. You have the mailbox, AH, trainers, forge, anvil, AND Guild Vault all right in one area. Paladr is very happy now.