Comments on: Holding Out

By: Virtuoso

Virtuoso — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:55:19 +0000

I will take ANYTHING that even REMOTELY looks like it will help me.

I’m the guy that rolled on onyxia’s “sharpened fang of the mystics” when I had garfrost’s “surgeon’s needle”

By: Virile

Virile — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:45:21 +0000

I keep a priority list, but I will put in for loot that isn’t a huge priority if the item is a significant upgrade over what I have.

By: Cassandri

Cassandri — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:33:13 +0000

I cannot believe how many people will pass over a 1 hand weapon that they want because “I need the offhand first”.

THAT MAKES NO SENSE. Isn’t that a bit like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I don’t like to horde DKP but the times that I’ll pass on an upgrade is when

(a) it’s like 2nd BIS when I know that the BIS is available to me in the near future because it drops from a boss we’re already killing and

(b) when it’s an upgrade, but I’m going to wear a Tier item in that slot eventually for a Tier bonus.

By: Vyll

Vyll — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:08:09 +0000

I think it really depends on how your guild handles loot. When I was in a DKP type guild in the past, I horded my points. However for the last couple of years, the guild I’m in handles loot through a loot council. When I joined the guild, I was pessimistic about how it would work, but I’ve rarely had even the slightest complaint and I never find myself passing on even the slightest upgrade.

By: Beruthiel

Beruthiel — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:36:53 +0000

We actually use a loot council system and not DKP, which is part of the reason that this baffles me so much

Likely we just need to remind folks that upgrades are upgrades, and the faster they gear the more they help the raid!

By: Jasyla

Jasyla — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:06:41 +0000

I take my upgrades as they come. I find DKP hoarding really irritating, and counterproductive to raid progression. I’ve seen it happen a lot too. People make a BiS list and don’t bid on anything else, even if it is a significant upgrade. If an item increases your healing/damage/survivability even a little, it is much more useful to the raid than an abyss crystal. (Of course I’m not advocating taking tiny upgrades over someone who needs the item more – just over a DE).

My viewpoint could very well be biased. As the only caster druid in my raid I don’t have much competition. However, I would never watch all the leather gear get DE’d just so I could be first in line for a weapon or trinket.

By: Jurik

Jurik — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:02:23 +0000

This does happen in point systems with unfortunate frequency. It is ultimately detrimental to the raid as a whole, and is the reason why some Serious Business guilds use loot council (or loot dictatorship as it often ends up) so that they as a whole can progress faster than capitalistic DKP-based guilds.

There are many ways to attempt to avoid this. One that may work for you is this: for certain “coveted” items (pretty easy to figure out which ones they are…DBW, TAJ, AAbacus, that marrowgar axe, etc…) set a “fixed dkp price”. Then, when it drops, anyone who wants the trinket who has sufficient DKP may /random for it. (You may also restrict the item based on raid attendance/class–eg, DBW isn’t phenomenal for all classes, so you might restrict some to DBW and some to TAJ)

Then, the winner spends the minimum DKP required to “win” the item up to a maximum of all his DKP.

This way, your solid raiders won’t stock all their DKP for this one item–they’ll have a “floor” of DKP that they’ll want to keep so that they have the right to /random for it, but not be afraid to pick up other upgrades if they don’t win it for a while. At the same time, you aren’t “fixing” the price of the item, so the item doesn’t quickly become underpriced when dkp starts to inflate–it’ll still cost all your DKP if you aren’t the roller with the most DKP saved.

Anyway, there are plenty of different approaches you can use to incentivise your raiders to loot up both in a way that benefits them personally and the raid as a whole.

By: Cazenovia

Cazenovia — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:43:24 +0000

As a fulltime boomkin, I’m lucky enough to be one of 2-4 consistent caster druids in guild (I think we have 6, but the amount on any given night varies a fair bit); there’s not a huge amount of competition for a lot of the leather spellpower pieces. At the moment I’m settling for taking upgrades that drop.. I’ll pass on small upgrades if other people are interested, but I’d rather take one if no one else is than see it get sharded. Might I replace it long-term? Sure – but I also won’t take pieces I’m expecting to upgrade out of 10/badges. I’ve picked up 2-3 pieces since we started pushing hard into ICC25, and the dagger off Marrowgar was the only contested one.

My feeling at the moment towards tokens is that they can wait. Would they be nice? Absolutely. Is it worth it, to me, to pick up a token and shoot any chance I have at general caster pieces for awhile? Not really. I was middling-to-last to get upgraded tier in TOC, but my willingness to wait is probably what let me get Reign one of the few times it drops.. choices, choices.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:41:26 +0000

In some ways yes, some no.
Now I have fully decided which 4 pieces of t10 I’m going to pick up (2 down, 2 to go), I won’t be rolling on gloves or legs.
Unfortunately it was after our ICC10 yesterday where I picked up the leggings of unrelenting blood that I was going to be replacing them with the tier ones.
I am gagging for a cloak, belt or neck piece though! Be grabbing those as soon as I can.
I am lucky, I guess, in that I am our only raiding tree. I am guaranteed to get stuff if it drops, as long as it doesn’t lean the way of the moonkin!

By: crankyhealer

crankyhealer — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:03:16 +0000

It depends. Generally I’ll just take the upgrade, because a bird in the hand… right? Here are a couple of exceptions:

1. Right now I’m wearing a craptacular cloak that has Spellpower and Crit on it. I’d like to get something with a bit of haste instead. So when a cloak drops that has spellpower and crit, even if it’s an upgrade, meh. It doesn’t really “do it” for me because I’ll swap out that sucker for a cloak with haste on it as soon as I can.

2. I also need to upgrade my belt. It is spellpower/haste and I want MOAR SPELLPAUR/HASTE! A belt dropped the other night with spellpower/crit that was an upgrade, but I passed on it to the other druid – because I know that there’s a badge belt available with spellpower/haste on it, which I will pick up as soon as I get enough frost badges. It would be a waste of gear for me to take the stupid crit belt when I’m planning on a replacement that is not dependent on the RNG.

3. I would consider passing on loot that is a slight upgrade if it would give me a greater chance at the “hotly contested” loot. I don’t have much competition for healing leather. However, if I don’t “build up” some points, I won’t have a chance in hell of ever winning an item usable by multiple classes – trinkets, necklaces, rings, cloaks, weapons, etc. (Not necessarily a specific item, but any sort of upgrades in those classes.)

That said, I hate to see upgrades be sharded, so I’m more likely to hold out and pass on the above items if there’s someone in the raid who wants and can use them. I’m more likely to break down and take the stupid thing if it’s about to be sharded.