Holding raid slots

Due to RL a friend of mine decided to cut back from raiding for a while. He was only gone for perhaps a month or so. But when he came back and wanted to raid full time, he was sat on the bench. He understood that as a price to pay. He had to earn his raid slot back.

However unless you're really good you don't usually leave a spot open for someone to leave for that length of time and come back to. So his raid slot had been filled.

The next alternative was raid swapping. And this is what both the guild and he felt was fair. After sitting on the bench for a while, always willing to fill in as needed (and it was needed) he hoped to start getting to get in the game and let someone else warm the bench.

Unfortunately, although the raid leader said this was what would happen it never did. The raid leader consistently sat my friend on the bench even though he performed exceptionally well each time he got to raid.

In the end my friend switched guilds and is much happier as a result. Looking back we can only imagine the raid leader had an axe to grind but wasn't willing to share his reasons. What's worse than a over the top aggressive raid leader? A wishy-washy passive one.

I happened to follow me friend to this new guild and since I've been there someone left and they said "your slot will be waiting for you when you return". It is indeed a warm sentiment to share when someone leaves raiding unwillingly (due to RL, money, etc.) and I'm sure a nice one to receive.

Our raid roster at the moment is just right for most content (we can do some of it undermanned), but with us on the slim side for the harder content (where every person counts).

If the player comes back now, he'd be very welcome on our harder instances, but there is a chance someone would have to sit out on the other ones to fit him in.

And I have to ask is this fair to the person that filled in for him while he was MIA?

How do you tell the paladin you're recruiting "Hey we really need you right now, but there will come a time when Joe the Player comes back and you'll be relegated to the bench"?

So I can see it from my friend's side as well as a little from my former guild's side. I wouldn't tell a player their slot is safe. It isn't fair to the other 24 players who want to raid, especially if they can't at least give you an estimate on when they think they'll return. I wouldn't tell a player they aren't able to earn a position back on the roster either, especially if they have been a consistent raider in the past. If I felt there was no place for them, I hope I'd have the guts to tell them so, especially if I care an iota about them.

For the good of the guild

Quite often you read a blog and get ideas for what you want to talk about on your own. This happened with Tobold's blog which lead me to Matticus' blog which lead me to the Greedy Goblin's blog and back here.

Apparently Matticus is a guild leader faced with a raid member who decides he wants to take a break until Ulduar (the next raid after Naxxramas) because he has all the gear he needs and doesn't want to burn out.

I can side with both Matticus and the paladin to some extent.

In the guild I joined with the release of Wrath, I've seen players with different levels of progress:

1) The over-achiever who leveled the fastest, raided the earliest and has gear for various specs already. Has more gear than what he knows to do with.
2) The average-guy (for our guild) who leveled pretty fast, raids a lot but may or may not be lucky with drops. Has pretty much what he needs now. <----I'm here
3) The lucky-guy who didn't level fast, raids just enough, but got lucky with drops. Has pretty much what he needs now. Lucky bastard.
4) The bringing-in-the-rear guy who didn't level fast, doesn't raid much. Doesn't have what he needs, but may get lucky gearing up fast because the rest of us have pretty much what we need.
5) The alts. These are the #1 and #2's characters. Who either have everything or pretty much what they need and want to gear up their alts.

I am in the camp that I am willing to continue raiding for my guild on my main ONLY if they are gearing up their main characters. I have no desire to keep going to instances just because they want to put their 2nd and 3rd character in epics.

This, for me, leads to burnout very quickly because
1) I'm not getting anything out of it, except the chance to be nice
2) Being nice is often misused and abused
3) Runs go unbearably slow with too many alts

For the good of the guild, I will keep raiding and finding reason to raid for the core of the raid group. Because I hope they will do the same for me.

When I see more and more alts coming to raids, I'll either politely bow out or bring my own alt!

A few more heroics - this time with guild

Since I normally pug heroics, I try not to do them on weeknights. The time it takes to find one and get it going and get it finished seems to eat a whole evening up. And the chance for frustration is high.

However, last night I broke my no-heroics-during-the-week rule because some of my guild wanted to run some. Not only did I get one cleared, we did three. Instead of ending the evening grumbling about a waste of time, I came away with some more achievements under my belt and more badges saved.

The nice thing about guild runs is not only are you getting gear, you're actually improving your gear for the 10 and 25 man dungeons. Instead of some random person getting an upgrade and you never seeing them again, your fellow guild member will show up next time a few stats better. So, if one person in your heroic gets gear, even if its not you, its essentially better for you as well.

It really builds a strong case against pugs and that's a shame.