Clan Overview
Battle.net now provides support for players of Warcraft III to form their own clans. Clans are groups of 10 to 100 players who wish to affiliate together under the leadership of a Chieftain. Battle.net provides clans with their own private channels and profiles, as well as a ladder to rate the overall play of the clan. Every clan also has a unique clan abbreviation that is displayed after the names of the members.
Creating a New Clan
While in Battle.net chat, a user can view his or her own clan status by selecting the Clan tab above the player listing. Any user not already in a clan has the opportunity to form a new Warcraft III clan by selecting the "Create Clan" button at the bottom of the dialog. Battle.net will then prompt the user for the full name and abbreviation of the new clan. The clan's full name cannot exceed 64 characters in length. The clan abbreviation can be from 2 to 4 characters in length. Clan abbreviations can only use the characters A-Z and 0-9.
After the user has selected the new clan's name and abbreviation, Battle.net performs a check to see if the proposed names are available for use. While multiple clans are allowed to have the same full name, the clan abbreviation is unique to the clan. If Battle.net approves the name and abbreviation, the clan creator must invite his or her initial clan members into the guild through the Battle.net Clan Invitation dialog during the next 30 seconds.
The Battle.net Clan Invitation dialog will display Battle.net users who are mutual friends of the clan creator, as well as any users who are in the same private chat channel as the clan creator. The clan creator must select at least nine users from the list before Battle.net will allow the creator to hit the "Invite" button. Once the clan creator selects the "Invite" button, the invited clan members have 30 seconds to accept the invitation into the clan. If fewer than nine users accept the invitation after the 30-second invitation period has expired, then the clan will not be created. If nine or more users do accept invitation into the clan, then the new clan will be formed with the clan creator as Chieftain and the invited users as Grunts.
After the clan creation process is finished, the members of the new clan automatically switch chat channels to their new private clan channel. The Chieftain may not disband the newly formed clan until 24 hours has passed.
Note that a user cannot create more than one clan per week. Users may also not join a clan more than once per day.
Clan Membership Ranks
There are four ranks of clan members: Chieftain, Shaman, Grunt, and Peon. The Chieftain is the undisputed leader of the clan. To help manage the clan, the Chieftain may also have up to 10 Shaman officers.
Clan Chieftains and Shaman can perform any of the following actions:
Clan Chieftains also have the following additional options:
The bulk of clan membership consists of Grunts. These members have no special privileges, but all of their non-custom games count towards the clan's rating on the Clan Ladder.
Peons are also members of the clan, but unlike games played by Grunts, games played by a Peon do not count towards the Clan's rating on the Clan Ladder. Newly invited members of a clan have the Peon status for one week before they may be promoted to a higher status within the clan.
 Initiate |
 Member |
 Officer |
 Leader |
Clan Member Listing
Selecting the Clan tab while in the main Battle.net chat room will display a full listing of the clan's membership. This listing works in a similar fashion to the Friends list, showing each clan member's online or offline status. Right-clicking on a clan member's name on the list will also display a menu of commands associated with that user. The rank of a clan member is displayed with a special icon to the left of the clan member's name, with the Chieftain at the top of the list.
The Clan Chieftain and Shaman also have an additional option at the bottom of the member listing: Clan Management. Selecting this option replaces the member listing with a dialog where the Chieftain and Shaman can perform clan actions such as setting the clan message of the day, and changing the status of the clan chat channel.
Clan Chat Channel
Every clan has a private chat channel for use by clan members. The Clan Chieftain and Shaman can set the channel to only allow clan members to join the channel, or they may open up the channel to entry by other users. The channel's status may be changed through the Clan Management dialog available by selecting the button at the bottom of the clan member listing.
The clan chat channel also becomes the default channel for clan members when they log on to Battle.net. The Chieftain or Shaman of a clan may set a message of the day that clan members will see upon logging onto Battle.net and entering the clan channel. This message of the day is also set through the Clan Management dialog.