[Tiri]

I got this from the SOE webpage...

What is a Patron?
Patrons are members of a guild that have been marked as a contributor by the guild’s leadership. This means that a patron earns guild experience whenever they complete “city writs”. By completing city writs, the Patron is directly contributing experience to help the guild level. A patron also has the ability to spend their personal status points to purchase rewards for themselves and their guilds at designated city merchants. This is an ability that Followers do not have.

Does being a Patron give you a game-play advantage?
No. Being a Patron is not designed to give your character a game-play advantage. It is designed to be a fun, competitive meta-game where guilds can compete within their city. Patron specific status rewards are more for “flavor” versus being an uber item or critical quest piece.

Is there a penalty for having less then 12 Patrons in a guild?
Yes. If you have less than 12 patrons it will affect your guild’s leveling performance. This is to prevent a guild of 6 people from having a very high average and outperforming guilds in the regular structure.

Is there a penalty for having more than 36 Patrons in a guild?
No. However, it is probably wise to have a small group of patrons that consistently complete city writs. This smaller group of individuals will be able to maintain the guild level and expand on it in a much more efficient manner than 100 people doing them intermittently.

With the removal of guild decay, this old method of "a few active Patrons" may no longer apply.

What is a Follower?
Followers are members of a guild that are not marked as contributors by the guild’s leadership. A follower, like a patron, may complete “city writs”. However, followers do not gain experience for the guild – they only gain personal status. A follower cannot spend their personal status points but they can purchase faction rewards with personal coin at designated faction merchants. Followers can however participate in “Hallmark” guild raids that are awarded for attaining “Hallmark Levels” with their guilds.

What happens if I am promoted from Follower to Patron?
The following things will occur:

You will retain your personal status points.
Your guild contribution level will be zero to start.
A percentage of experience you earn from city writs will go to the guild’s total.
You will gain access to Status Merchants in addition to Faction Merchants.
What happens if I am demoted from Patron to Follower?
The following things will occur:

All experience you earned for the guild will be subtracted from the guild’s total and lost.
Your guild contribution level is reset to zero.
You will retain your personal status points.
You will no longer have access to the four Status Merchants



Another thing I read on was how writs work on how many patrons are in the guild....

Say a Writ is worth 1000 pts...

6 patrons - Guild Exp= 1000/12=83 pts given to guild
12-19patrons- Guild Exp=1000/12=83 pts given to guild
20+patrons- Guild Exp=1000/20=50pts given to guild