We use a sign up bot on discord. I have a set roster x-tanks y-healers z-dps, the bot automatically numbers people and I fill the raid roster based on sign up order and comp requirement. I keep track of who sits bench and those who were bench get first in line the following week so no one has to sit multiple weeks in a row. Sign ups are posted on the same day and around the same time every week. I can count on one hand the amount of times iv had complaints or problems with raiders having to be benched. Seemed like the fairest way, it puts responsibility in the hands of the raiders so if someone gets benched it’s on them, but they are also protected from consecutive weeks on the bench.
1 Like
Yeah we bring 4 and 4 hunters and we do just fine. Three hour AQ40 clear. Good enough for us.
And we clear in an hour ish. I’d rather be optimized. We usually do aq40, bwl, and mc all in one night. Clear times add up.
Sometimes as raid is forming, RL asks if anyone wants to sit. Some people volunteer
1 Like
We dealt with that by never having 40 players in the first place.
1 Like
This is the best way to handle sitting. Those on standby are still awarded DKP, but they are expected to actually be there on-call for when we lose a raider during the raid. But instead of random, we go by sign-up order on our Discord.
Whoever has bad attendance or is unreliable generally will sit first, whoever does lowest on performance for their class/role will be sit priority.
Take into account who you want to gear up and anyone who’s low prio on gear can sit for that week but you have to handle it delicately.
Personally I’m down to two items in AQ as an officer (feral dps gear isn’t widely fought over). So two of my items I’m not up for anytime soon.
Due to my role I offer to sit so that gear doesn’t get DEd.
Some raiders may want to sit in order to pug the raid to get specific upgrades.
Example boomkin wanting a nelth tear or a healer wanting pvp spell power gear may consider pugging in a soft res.
Again that’s from a very tight nitt raiding guild where we have no concerns of people leaving
Our bench consists of returning raiders wanting back in or waiting on a spot
I would say to rotate out the underperformers but your guild seems to be made of them
Recruit people specifically for the bench.
Give them attendance credit as long as they’re online during raid time.
Best practice is to make sure warlocks are fully staffed so we can summon people in and out with minimum downtime as per needed by each encounter.
I got to sit the bench once.
Was nice.
1 Like
It’s mostly just whoever shows up on time. If you show up late and the raid is already full, too bad you’re sitting.
We actually had a new recruit priest show up like 10 minutes past raid start time (nevermind invite time), and get all whiny when he was told that the raid was full, started getting all dramatic and “well okay, I guess you don’t need me” and immediately gquit.
What an entitled baby.
My suggestion is if you have to constantly bench people make sure one of the officers/class leads gets a bench now and then. Don’t show a trend of favoritism to the “inner circle” or that will piss people off.
Obviously your main tank(s) are almost immune to the bench, but if you have someone with the tanking gear who isn’t one of your main tanks but got benched before as a dps. Give him the option of being a tank to avoid being benched the second time and bench a main tank. And if they perform well, you now have the option to rotate tanks on the bench a bit.
Similar for healers. If you have extra healers who dps but have the gear/skill to heal you can let them avoid a bench (second bench as they are main speced dps in this scenario) and let them still roll main spec. (Yes I know hybrid dps is rare, but they exist).
No one is immune to the bench, but dps will be on it far more than tank/healer due to number of dps vs the other roles.
I pray for the bench but always seems one of our three locks can’t be here weekly so no bench for me.
Yeah - totally agree. We’re taking the attitude that no one is immune from a forced sit.
I dont see how your going to sit any priest in your normal raid roster. but you could afford to sit 3 hunters and 2 druids with basically 0 penalty. Anyone can be sat, thats not the issue as much as who are they being replaced by, and also how strong is the guild culture overall that people wont jump ship (just being objective here).
From what i remember in Vanilla, and mind you some of this wont apply since AQ40 cleared and geared was not half as common as it is now. If you dare sit a AQ geared Warrior, Priest, Shaman in Naxx it was virtually a Gkick as it resulted in the exact same outcome.
Now again this isnt vanilla where finding a Conq or even Wrath geared Warrior was difficult, Classic has 5 TF Warriors on every mail box… So i understand times change. But even on a packed server like Herod recruitment for Warriors and Shamans is high demand for basically every guild here.
eh, maybe non of it will be a problem and it all works out for you guys.