I was feeling magnanimous this week, and because we always have too many for a 25 man Naxx, but not enough for another 10 man, and we have newbies in the guild our raid leader said that If any of us were prepared to sit out to let them know at sign up.
So I sign up, say I still need stuff, but I will sit out for a boss/wing/raid if someone needs to go more then me – Translation in Girl talk: I still want to go, but I am happy to be slightly flexible.When I said I would be happy to sit on the bench. I was lying.
They did a full clear without me.
I don’t raid for loot. I raid because I like raiding, I don’t think I can say I ever got bored of raid content, I got bored of people not being prepared ( Back in Kara) I got tired of drunk & Nasty GM/RLs( BT -Hyjal ) but what I like about raiding is more then loot, WOW is a social game, and I would say that the pinnacle of the socialness is being in a raid – what else do you do in the game with the equivalent amount of people as a small party. ( Besides PVP with strangers)
I look forward to these small gatherings. To miss out on what 25 people are doing is a pretty big deal, and I felt lost.
So I farmed, did rep things, smacked dummies around for a little while, compared trinkets with another level 80 similar geared shadow priest. Helped some friends kill the last boss in a heroic. All the while seeing snatches in guild, and the caster channel about the raid that Iwasn’t in.
As 1 of 3 Shadow Priests, and just another dps, I’m not essential, I am doing ok on the DPS metres so I don’t have a performance issue, but next time when I sign up I am not adding the ” its ok to bench me” note.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
That was generous of you to let them take someone new, but I can really understand where you’re coming from there. In my other guild, we were a lot smaller and short on healers, so I was always invited (in fact, needed to come) to all the raids and runs. Once, someone wanted to come on an alt and I volunteered to let them go, and I felt so left out and didn’t know what to do with myself either. I thought I would be happy of the break, but I wasn’t. Funny how that happens, isn’t it.
Sucks doing the “right” thing doesn’t it?
Honestly having to pass a raid every now and then is quite a normal thing in a raiding guild. You can’t run a guild with exactly the same amount of raiding members as there are spots. Things happen, you need reserves. I don’t think its a good idea to put pressure on members to volontary pass for raids. But taking turns is normal. In our guild the RL decides who will be drafted for a raid. Class composition always goes first, but if that is equal, he will follow a list, so that all members sooner or later will be left out of a raid. But if you’ve been, you know that it won’t happen next raid. Of course it sucks to see the other play and not be a part of it. But really, it’s something you have to learn to live with.