This is a very simple principle that a lot of people don’t get…
Assigned spots: If you want to be able to raid every time you want to, you need to be prepared to raid when you don’t feel like it.
Rotation: If you want to be able to skip raids every time you want to, you need to be prepared to not-raid when you might want to raid.
As you probably guessed, given our emphasis on Real Life first, the Effers go with the Rotation model. We have enough raiders to cover when people go on vacation… or work late… or get sick, but that means that sometimes we have a few too many who are ready and able to go. So we rotate.
Now, this rotation is imbalanced. Namely because there are always more DPS than tanks or healers. The DPS take reasonably frequent turns sitting. However, Team Heal almost never sits out. I’m not saying that the same 3 of us showing up to each and every raid. I’m saying that there have only been 3 of us available at any given time.
What this means is that if 2 of us can’t make it on a given night, we are scrambling for heals, usually borrowing from Team Tank.
Last night Eff got 2 new awesome healers.
Am I pissed that I will now have to sit out? HELL NO. I don’t have to sit out. I get to sit out. I get to not-sign-up and not worry that the raid will not happen if I don’t go. In the end, being able to take off when I want for RL is definitely the biggest consideration. You bet your ass I won’t be crying about sitting out when I’m catching up on girly TV that Gnoble won’t watch with me.
I am looking forward to welcoming new members to TEAM HEAL. May our reign be long and oppressive.
Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to take a peek at druid healing, since we now have 3 priests. Oh yeah, and I’m obviously INSANE.
Oooh, Druid healing. I read your site daily and I think you would love Druid healing… Mmm, the darkside is calling to you!
I was a druid healer for the last half of WOTLK, but I quit for various reasons, one of which being OMG THEY TOOK MY TREE. The other being “ZOMG GNOME PRIEST!!” Usually I have an alt that is geared and slightly ready to do… stuff, but since I’ve been working obscene hours, the druid fell by the wayside.
We shall see. So far I’ve noticed that I have FEWER KEYBINDS… like by FAR.
Yay for being able to have a life without guilt trips! We have exactly 3 healers, so if one of us is unavailable, it either means that the shammy has to respec (and since she’s usually enh/ele, this is her third spec and she has to redo her bars and everything) or that we don’t have a raid. We’ve been considering recruiting another healer which would be kinda awesome. Four raids a week is getting a bit too much for me.
(Also, druids still rock. Even without permatree.)
I’m totally ok with being superfluous. It was really hard to drum up the energy to raid when I was working insane hours, but knowing that “not feeling like raiding” was not a good enough reason to prevent 9 other people from raiding.
We love you Zel exactly for how insane you are.
And I agree with this post. I love to be able to sit out. I’m working on unprogramming years of Vanilla/BC figthing for spot training so I get nervous from time to time but in the end its for the best.
THIS. OMG. I have like the healer complex where you whine about being indispensable and never getting a break, but the second the possibility of a break arises you’re like AMG MY SPOT *hyperventilate*. I thought it was exclusive to healers. Glad to see tanks suffer the disease too.
Sitting, huh. >> Never in my raiding life have I gotten to do it. I’m not sure what it will feel like.
Haha, I’m glad to hear that other people are familiar with this feeling too…
Zel, I am happy to be a part of Team Heals (Though really, I’m part of team whatever is needed because I love holy, lolsmite, and shadow pretty equally)
Huzzah for being able to sit out when you can!
It’s wonderful having a “true switcher” like you in the ranks (currently only Morehnai is crazy enough to swap between tanking and DPS regularly). Makes rostering super-easy, especially on low-sign-up nights.
Looking forward to meet the new members of team heal
As for druid healing, if you have any question, dont hesitate to throw them my way.