To Clan, or not to Clan?

When I first came back to Diablo 3 I was with friends from WOW, so I joined the clan that modeled the guild I was a part of. It was pretty dead, but as long as someone was on there was social interaction and keeping up with how things are going. That died out and I stayed in the clan for a while, but the fact that no one was ever on and there was no one to talk to got to me so I weighed the same options you're asking for and decided to apply to join a couple of mid-large size clans without huge joining requirements.

Within a day I was accepted into one that had a reasonable (100+ paragon) required at the time and about 100 people. After a few days in there I could see the pros and cons of joining a clan.

The pros of course are that there are other people who might actually care about your progression and be willing to run stuff with you and trust you more than someone out of general chat. I was still gearing up but as a ranged class who wasn't bad at not dying I was able to tag along with some runs that might've been to hard for me to solo, but providing CC and buffs I helped them go further. At times people in the clan will offer up caches as well, usually for torment 6 that now gives a guaranteed legendary. Most importantly to me though is that there's an aspect of communication, not all clans are all diablo all the time, so having people to talk about sports with or other games while playing the game you were planning on all along is just a hidden bonus. And that's not even counting in the possibility of powerleveling and loot sharing which are two things I have seen organized but not taken apart of (I like leveling), but there was a guy in the clan who offered up powerleveling on seasons and probably did 20 people to 70.

The cons of course are the same with any social thing. There are/were a few people who get on my nerves, but they're present enough that ignoring them throws off the entire conversation. Sometimes people will condescend to you if you're lacking in gear or paragon (that doesn't happen often, but it took a while to convince people I could do torment 6). Also there's the clique aspect, where people who have played together for a long time will continue to do so, and then you have a hard time breaking in without catching them when the others aren't online. There have been a few times that I was running groups with people and one of them left to play on the same level with others in the clan, and that's a relatively negative thing to look at from a number of perspectives.

So I guess the main decision is about what you use diablo 3 for, if its for relaxing or hardcore gaming and how you want to attack those different aspects. I've been close to leaving my clan in the past, but I'm glad I stuck through it because I know that I'm a kinda social gamer and the opportunity to communicate with people who don't just randomly zone in is a positive for me.

Clans have their own chat by typing "/clan" so only members of the clan can see what you are typing. In the clan chat it also automatically shows what legendary items people are identifying without having to link them to the chat. You also get to see what level of grifts clan mates are completing above what their old record use to be.

If you want to join a larger clan it is a good way to find a group of four around your skill level to do rifts or grifts or if you just feel like messing around.