Unwritten Rules to Party Loot Sharing
This entry covers “group loot” parties only. Future entries may cover Master Loot and Free-For-All, etc.
While there are some who believe that if the software doesn’t restrict it, it’s “fine to do”, there are many who feel that it’s the “spirit” of the game that is most important when it comes to making decisions about what’s okay to do and what is not.
Take one example of loot-sharing in parties and raids for example: Inexperienced players may believe that it’s the first to the chest that gets it, but experienced players know that there is a process all party members go through to determine who “wins” the chest this time.
Why The Rules?
For the same reason any Rules are put into place - to try to keep things fair for everyone involved. Just because you’re a big buff warrior who can storm on ahead doesn’t mean that the priest who hangs back to keep you alive should be deprived of the chance to win a chest.
Also, if you roll “Need” a lot, you may find yourself booted from the party and not welcomed back.
Why Are They Unwritten?
Who knows. I just know that it’s bad for your toon’s reputation on the Realm if you don’t learn these rules.
Okay, So What Are These “Unwritten” Rules?
Uh oh. If I write them, they cease to be Unwritten! Of course, these aren’t official rules, so the official rules are still unwritten. Plus, I could get some of them wrong, so don’t blame me if you have to change your behavior - just leave me a note so I can learn too :)
So, here we go:
Loot From Kills
Parties start out in “group loot” status, with “uncommon” (green) and up items triggering a “group roll”. If your party is in a status other than “group loot” it will behave differently, and you may not get the options presented here.
When a green+ item is looted, all players in the immediate vicinity are presented with a small window which has a picture of the item, and three options - clicking on the image of the dice will roll “Need”, clicking on the image of the gold coins will roll “Greed”, and closing the window will “pass” on the item completely.
Need? Greed? Huh?
This is where things get more detailed and important. It’s important to know when it’s appropriate to roll “Need” and when you should be rolling “Greed”.
In short, in most parties the deal is,
Roll ‘need’ if you can use the item in question and it’s an upgrade to your current equipment
Some parties will allow you to roll Need on items which are NOT “bind on pickup” if your alternate character could use the equipment, but be sure to ask.
Otherwise, if you cannot directly use the item or it’s not an upgrade from what you already have, roll “Greed” (or pass completely).
Lockboxes
Something else to consider is that lockboxes are NOT only for rogues - sure, only the rogues in the party can unlock the boxes without keys but the loot that is inside the box is what you are rolling on. It’s likely the non-rogues will turn to the rogues for unlocks anyway :)
Looting Chests
Chests that parties run across are generally “won” through the /roll feature. Each player who wishes to try for the chest types /roll and is presented with a random number between 1 and 100 which all party members see. The player with the highest number “wins” and can loot the chest without competing further for the green+ contents in it.
If the winner of the chest does not want all of its contents or has a full inventory and cannot pick more up, the second place roller can take the rest.
Disposing Of Your Winnings
Selling your winnings in the AH or disenchanting them is perfectly acceptable, and in fact is why many folks continue to go through dungeons that do not give them experience towards levels.
Comments? Questions? Additions? Please leave a note :)
Great post! This should be a ‘must read’ for anyone stating the game!!!
I may add other sections like ‘ninja looters’ (which I guess fall under the ‘always rolls need’ category), what NBG means and when it should come in to play, Bind on Pickup (BoP) rules? But some of those depend on the group, so if the rules are to change, I would discuss it with the group beforehand. Also if you are a skinner, and there are other skinners in the group, its a good idea to share skinning, I usually just tell them to take every ‘other’ skin that drops, just scroll up and see who skinned the last one if you forget. Usually there is only one other skinner in my groups, but I have had on occasion a group where there were 3/5 skinners and one just kept jumping on the skins while the others were still fighting… needless to say we set him straight. Also the people who ’skin for profit’, maybe just forgo skinning in a group unless you are the only skinner? or offer higher end items (especialy if its a guildie) back to them if it will benefit them. Nothing like seeing a warrior skinning for profit skin rugged leather at level 48, knowing that he’s not going to end up using it…
And just because you can disenchant stuff, doesn’t mean you roll ‘need’ on every green+ item! ;)
I had one group in Scarlet Monastery a while back drop the end boss in the armoury (the guy that drops the +1% crit chance mail helmet) drop the helmet so me and a warrior both rolled ‘need’ (I was level 41, he was level 38) and I ended up winning… well, he was pissed because he thought I couldn’t wear it (was bind on pickup and blue). Once he found out that shamans/hunters start wearing mail at 40 he calmed down a bit, but then argued that he thought the +1% crit bonus would help a warrior more than a hunter (I couldn’t believe that when I saw it)…… No…. Blizzard didn’t make half of our special abilities extra crit ones, nor agility our main stat for the reason that they don’t want us to crit anymore than warriors…. LOL! Ever crit on an ‘aimed shot’? I love seeing that big number! My personal best is 929, hoping to see quadruple digits once I get a better bow.
- 1st Sergeant (almost stone guard) Rizzo, level 49 Troll Hunter on Alexstrazsa.
Comment on March 29, 2006 @ 10:16 am
It may seem like common sense to people who’ve played past… 25 or so– but any newbies just starting out could really benefit from this post. Recently a rogue went over to a locked chest, unlocked it and took the contents. He was booted shortly after for not giving everyone the chance to roll on it. =S
Comment on April 5, 2006 @ 3:50 pm
Hear hear, Xelare, I guess he figured that if he didn’t open it, nobody would benefit then he’s entitled to it! lol… Personally you have to be aware that you are playing with other people, and to be considerate. Money automatically gets split, I’m not concerned about food, but personally anything my pet can eat I’m interested in, even though I usually have 2-3 stacks of the stuff, :) and tradeskill items that drop should be need before greed in the party. Considering its usually not worth a whole lot selling 1-2 of something in the AH. Grey/white weapons/armour at level 45+ are usually worth 0.5 to 1.5 gold to a vendor which is where I think the major value of the chest comes from (short of the green/blue items)….
Now the green/blue item that may be in the chest is up to debate… You might be able to sell it in the AH for a few gold, or if (for example) its a ring or cloth item that the caster in your group would very much like to have (has healing/damage value), versus the warrior who just won the roll and will just flip it for a (hopefully) quick profit… “I” would personally ask that caster if they would use it and hand it over. Most people I have played with keel over from the gesture, but I know that I will always get tells from them for groups in the future, which to me is worth way more than the potential 5gp I could have gotten.
I know 2 guildies that have ‘ignored’ each other because once they grouped together and a nice ring (good for this warlock) dropped and he had died, and was not there, and everyone else wouldn’t use it (no casters) and rolled ‘need’ (for some bizarre reason), and this other guildie won it… even though everyone had rolled ‘need’. And then the ‘ninja’ name calling started… to get even, this warlock rolled ‘need’ on a nice item (bind on pickup) the other ‘ninja’ would have used…. and won… well, you can imagine that they’ll never group again, and it has created a whole lot of animosity within the guild because now they can bad mouth the other in guild chat without the other seeing it. To them I say “grow up”, and manners go a looooooooong way!
- Stone Guard Rizzo, level 52 Troll Hunter on Alexstrazsa.
Comment on April 7, 2006 @ 9:26 pm
Have you heard of this?:
(I wasn’t there, just heard it in /gu) 4 of my guildies were in a 10-man UBRS run with 5 people from another guild, and 1 pickup guy. The loot rules were as follows: If you would use it as an upgrade, you get it, if there’s a conflict, you roll… everything else gets disenchanted by the enchanter in the ‘raid’… this is how the ‘other’ guild does it, so they thought this was fair…
uhhhh how is this fair if their ‘enchanter’ who isn’t then giving the disenchanted items to the rest of the ‘raid’ but keeping it for himself (presumably to help his guild with enchants) but my guildies who are all 60 now end up with nothing? My guildies ended up starting to roll /greed on items that dropped, and once they won something needless to say it ended up almost in to a brawl and everyone calling the others names my guildies left the ‘raid’ and the other guys had to leave halfway through with an unsuccessful run. Now both of our guilds are boycotting the other… fun fun fun. But who’s in the right… maybe its how this other guild operates, but in a pick up group like that were half of the raid isn’t in your guild what do you do? Is it okay or a whole guild to get ‘marked’ because of one incident involving a few people? This is usually something that breaks guilds apart, or at least you lose a bunch of members because of it.
- Stone Guard Rizzo, level 57 troll hunter from Alexstrazsa.
Comment on May 13, 2006 @ 9:08 am
Thanks for the information you provide. It’s an excellent resources for us wow players.
Comment on July 24, 2006 @ 9:40 am