Officers' Quarters: Rolling like jerks

Ah, the good, old-fashioned /random command -- where would WoW be without it? It fixes so many problems. It's utterly impartial. It can't be bribed, cajoled, or reasoned with. The /random command is the friend of every PUG raid leader.
In a guild setting, however, using /random for loot distribution only works when you're sensible about using it. When you're not, you open up your guild to some terrible situations. I present Exhibit A:
Hi Scott,
Well over the past few weeks, we've been noticing some problems with the /rolls we've been doing. In one 25 man ICC, 3 pieces of tank loot dropped, were rolled on, and went to 1 single tank(not even the MT). Problem is, Tanking isn't the role he likes to do. He enjoys healing or DPSing... but because he's gotten the loot, our Guild leader and MT wants him to be the offtank...
If that was the end of it, it'd be easy enough to fix. Get a loot council and be done with it. But, since we PUG our 25 mans, those rules don't apply, and they got worse when one of our healers rolled on a healing weapon, then immediately posted in guild, "Anyone in the raid want this thing for 6K? I need my epic flyer."
If that was the end of it, it'd be easy enough to fix. Get a loot council and be done with it. But, since we PUG our 25 mans, those rules don't apply, and they got worse when one of our healers rolled on a healing weapon, then immediately posted in guild, "Anyone in the raid want this thing for 6K? I need my epic flyer."
As you can imagine, these situations are causing some major issues. We've had one tank up and quit since he's not allowed to tank (since there's no open spot for him as the GL wants tanking gear), our healers who are going to be staying with us aren't as geared as we need them to be, and several guildies are demanding anyone trying to sell loot be immediately banned from the guild.
So now that you have the back story, here's the actual question: Is solving these problems just as simple as changing loot rules? Because it seems like a change is needed... and even the GL admits it's an issue, but they are so worried about straying from the rolling system that they don't want to change anything. Is there a loot system you suggest that would fit a guild like ours? Plus, as I'm not an official officer, is this something I should even concern myself with?
I appreciate the assistance, and hope you're having a great week!
--Semi-not-so-kinda-officer
Hi, SNSKO. Things have certainly gotten out of hand when players are openly advertising in guild chat to sell loot they just won in a guild run. Your officers need to stomp on that. That should NEVER be allowed to happen.
I really can't think of anything more selfish than taking a piece of loot away from a fellow guild member and then offering to sell it back to that person for cash. Your officers should make it very clear that rolling for items to sell is never acceptable under any circumstances. Then if they catch anyone doing it after that point, gkick away.
As far as the guy who doesn't want to tank rolling on tank gear -- well, if you're going to roll on the gear, the officers are going to want you to use it. If that player didn't want to use it, he shouldn't be rolling on it. End of story!
For a rolling system to work, it requires two things: courtesy and common sense. It sounds like your members are lacking in both. This type of situation tends to degrade over time. Your players see one person rolling on and winning a whole bunch of items, and they see that the officers let it happen. So next time, they decide to roll on everything, too. Why hold back when other people don't?
This is a problem that only officers can fix. One of your officers needs to step up and provide some ground rules to put a stop to this free for all. Do you have rules about main specs versus offspecs, and main toons versus alts? If not, you should.
Do you have loot caps? In a run with PUG players, loot caps are essential. And it sounds like the way your players selfishly roll on everything that drops, you could use them in your all-guild runs, too. It's a little bit of extra work for the officers and/or raid leaders, but it's well worth the effort. PUG players won't protest a loot cap. It's quite common. Just be sure to let people know about it at the beginning.
In a /random rolling system, there's no limit to what you can roll on without these additional rules. And additional rules are quite necessary to prevent the kind of drama you're dealing with.
If you can't always count on a run to be all-guild, you don't have too many options for other systems. If you implement a more formal, organized system like DKP or EPGP, you'd have to go back to rolling every time there's a PUG in your raid. I've seen people try to incorporate PUG players into their formal systems for one run, and, in my experience, it doesn't work out very well. The PUG players don't want to be part of your system. They just want a fair crack at the items they need, and /random gives them the fairest opportunity.
The easiest solution is to ask your players to stop rolling like jerks. But if they can't or won't, you need more rules. You as a not-so-kinda officer can only recommend, but I'd certainly say you should bring these issues to the full officers for consideration before you lose any more players.
/salute
So now that you have the back story, here's the actual question: Is solving these problems just as simple as changing loot rules? Because it seems like a change is needed... and even the GL admits it's an issue, but they are so worried about straying from the rolling system that they don't want to change anything. Is there a loot system you suggest that would fit a guild like ours? Plus, as I'm not an official officer, is this something I should even concern myself with?
I appreciate the assistance, and hope you're having a great week!
--Semi-not-so-kinda-officer
Hi, SNSKO. Things have certainly gotten out of hand when players are openly advertising in guild chat to sell loot they just won in a guild run. Your officers need to stomp on that. That should NEVER be allowed to happen.
I really can't think of anything more selfish than taking a piece of loot away from a fellow guild member and then offering to sell it back to that person for cash. Your officers should make it very clear that rolling for items to sell is never acceptable under any circumstances. Then if they catch anyone doing it after that point, gkick away.
As far as the guy who doesn't want to tank rolling on tank gear -- well, if you're going to roll on the gear, the officers are going to want you to use it. If that player didn't want to use it, he shouldn't be rolling on it. End of story!
For a rolling system to work, it requires two things: courtesy and common sense. It sounds like your members are lacking in both. This type of situation tends to degrade over time. Your players see one person rolling on and winning a whole bunch of items, and they see that the officers let it happen. So next time, they decide to roll on everything, too. Why hold back when other people don't?
This is a problem that only officers can fix. One of your officers needs to step up and provide some ground rules to put a stop to this free for all. Do you have rules about main specs versus offspecs, and main toons versus alts? If not, you should.
Do you have loot caps? In a run with PUG players, loot caps are essential. And it sounds like the way your players selfishly roll on everything that drops, you could use them in your all-guild runs, too. It's a little bit of extra work for the officers and/or raid leaders, but it's well worth the effort. PUG players won't protest a loot cap. It's quite common. Just be sure to let people know about it at the beginning.
In a /random rolling system, there's no limit to what you can roll on without these additional rules. And additional rules are quite necessary to prevent the kind of drama you're dealing with.
If you can't always count on a run to be all-guild, you don't have too many options for other systems. If you implement a more formal, organized system like DKP or EPGP, you'd have to go back to rolling every time there's a PUG in your raid. I've seen people try to incorporate PUG players into their formal systems for one run, and, in my experience, it doesn't work out very well. The PUG players don't want to be part of your system. They just want a fair crack at the items they need, and /random gives them the fairest opportunity.
The easiest solution is to ask your players to stop rolling like jerks. But if they can't or won't, you need more rules. You as a not-so-kinda officer can only recommend, but I'd certainly say you should bring these issues to the full officers for consideration before you lose any more players.
/salute
Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Sarnath Mar 15th 2010 11:16AM
If your guild is serious enough about raiding to be even facing these issues, you need to realise that looted gear is not a reward for an individual. It is a tool to help the whole guild progress better. Giving tanking gear to a non-tank is treating it like a reward. It should have gone to your tank, to help him tank better next time you all raid. When the healer won the weapon, he should have equipped it to help him heal better, because that helps the whole guild. He shouldn't have the choice to sell it and buy his epic mount, that is treating it like a personal reward.
Barinthos Mar 15th 2010 1:28PM
All great points. What Blizz should add is a way for the Officers in a guild to "revoke" items looted to people for just those situations.
"Anyone in the raid want this thing for 6K? I need my epic flyer."
*Rolfstomp revokes Dnozzles [Leet Healing Mace of Leetness]*
*Rolfstomp kicks Dnozzle from the guild*
It can use the same timer for trading the BoP items within a run, so you can't do it indefinitely.
Sure this may have HUGE issues with pugs, so maybe only allowing this feature for guild members only. And if an officer ninja's the loot from you for no good reason and gives it to someone else, do you want to stay in a guild of ninja's anyway?
I just think it would be a great idea to take back an item from some dbag that won't be using it and refuses to give it up to benefit the guild as a whole.
Pollux Mar 15th 2010 4:14PM
Barinthos - while I like the idea of revoking items from uncooperative players, the ramifications of implementing such a system would likely be overwhelmingly negative. For example: consider a guild RUN by d-bags. They could invite new members, let them raid, then steal the loot and gkick. Another example: an officer has a personal grudge against a member and convinces the other officers to revoke loot because of it. It's probably better to expect officers to be responsible about loot distribution and have the occasional d-bag game the system (and get gkicked as a result) than to impose a system in which players can game the system without consequences (apart from a bad reputation).
Lars Petersson Mar 16th 2010 12:15AM
Totally this.
Except I would also have called the Raid Leader/Guild Leader a couple of window lickers for letting a non tank roll on tanking gear.
In our guild it's like this:
1st need rolls for main spec
2nd rolls for off spec
3rd DE
Easy. And the pally/druid who rolled for the tanking gear shouldn't have done so anyway unless s/he wanted to tank...
And the healer who wanted to sell that mace should either be /gkick'ed or be given a stern warning...
Chris Mar 17th 2010 2:30AM
I would agree to you, happened to me in a Black Temple PUG I ran with a couple of 80's and level 75's (including me).
A DK kept rolling on everything including heal,caster, tank gear where infact he was a DPS. I tried to point that out many times in the raid and got no response from the Raid Leader who was either busy tanking or looting (Master Looter).
Even I rolled by mistake on two items I didn't wanted, I asked if someone wanted it for their levelling etc. Gave the bow to a hunter and Pauldrons Armor Token to a priest.
I always pass things that I don't need but people are becoming extremely selfish especially in cross-server PUGS & even on same-server PUGS. They just roll greed on everything that pops up.
All in all I got 1 2H Mace, 1 Leg Armor, 1 Ring and 2 epic gems which is not bad as the gear helped me increase my DPS.
moosejaw Mar 15th 2010 11:17AM
Our guild runs usually have a a pug or two for the ten mans (I'm in the second group so the first group has no pugs) and more for 25 mans. We do use epgp for the guild folks, but that is often on hold depending on the number of pugs. Our loot rules are pretty simple and seem to work so far. One piece of contested loot per raid and however much uncontested that you want. Main spec rolls first and then off spec.
I like the "don't be a dick" loot rule, but folks often don't know how to not be a dick. Like the plate healer that will roll off spec on dps gear so they can give it to their significant other if they win or the caster dps that rolls on a healing cloak because they are hit capped. There are some awesome folks that do pass because they recognize when something is better for someone else, but they certainly seem to be the exception.
djfatsostupid Mar 15th 2010 11:22AM
If anyone in my guild was rolling on things to hand them off to other people rather than because they wanted the gear themselves I would boot them from the guild. On a very good day I might give them a warning instead. This is ninja-looting plain and simple.
Justin Mar 15th 2010 3:42PM
We use a system close to that... We use a standard DKP system, if there is a pug that the loot can go to then /roll... If the pug wins, end of story. If the guildy wins (of course only people who can use should role, which might be tough here) then DKP goes into effect. Easy, done. If guild members get upset when they lose to a pug roll it just helps make sure they show up in the future and help recruit more...
djfatsostupid Mar 15th 2010 11:18AM
My guild uses /roll, giving to main spec before off spec and with no limit on the number of things you can pick up. We agreed on this system because we figured we would be downing things at a fast pace and there would be lots of loot for everyone. We wanted to spend less time looting and more time killing more bosses for more loot.
I think that rapid progression in the key to a free-for-all /roll system. If you are only taking out four bosses in ICC a week then there is not enough loot to ensure that everyone is consistently getting things with random rolls. With PUGs you don't have much of a choice but to roll, but you should probably use a bucket system (if you already have a thing then people who don't have a thing get a thing before you do). For in-guild I also recommend giving to item level upgrades before sidegrades. That helps to maximize the benefit to the guild rather than the individual.
On the tank who doesn't want to tank the answer is spot on. If you don't want to tank, don't roll on tank gear and take it away from the people who want to tank.
Speedmonkay Mar 15th 2010 11:20AM
Nice double dice .. double d6, d10, and d20 are great in any GMs dice bag :)
Sleutel Mar 15th 2010 8:05PM
Yo dawg, I heard you like dice so we put a die in your die so you can crit while you crit.
souvlaki Mar 15th 2010 11:20AM
In PUGs, we follow this rule.
- All the items are handed to the ML and /rolled at the end of the raid (it prevents people leaving when their loot is handed to them/someone else won the piece they were looking for)
- 1 piece of loot per person. If no-one rolls for an item, the item is free-for-all (only classes that may use that item, of course) and does not count for the 1-piece-per-person (this way no-one rolls for an off-spec piece unless no-one else wants it, or rolling for selling it).
Bigmu Mar 15th 2010 11:56AM
That is the best idea I've seen for shorter runs like Sarth, ToTC or VoA. I've taken the liberty of copy-pasting your post on our raiding forums. Thank you very much for the idea.
We're a small guild (only about 20 warm bodies) and every week we do 25-man VoA, ToTC and, depending on what it is, a 25-man version of which ever weekly raid is going. This is on top of solid 10-man ICC runs. Being as small as we are, we generally have to PuG in between 10 and 20 people for those runs and the loot hassles can be a pain. I will admit that there is a bit of loot-loading (where, say a T10 plate PvP item drops, ALL guild Warriors and Paladins will roll on it with the intention of handing it to the guildie that needs it) but let's be honest here - it's helping out a fellow guildie and we only let it slide for PvP items. We're VERY strict with raiding items as the guild's reputation can be put into jeopardy if we were to be accused of ninja-ing PvE items.
Playge Mar 15th 2010 12:06PM
@bigmu
"We're VERY strict with raiding items as the guild's reputation can be put into jeopardy if we were to be accused of ninja-ing PvE items."
But you ARE Ninja looting...
souvlaki Mar 15th 2010 12:10PM
As you said, indeed this works great in small raids. In fact, we only PUG ToC 25 which does not take a lot of time to complete it, and we have heard a lot of compliments from PUGgers on this system. In fact, we are beggining to have PUG regulars (if that even exists) because they like how we run ToC 25.
You just have to watch carefully the loot handing timers as you can only pass an item for 2 hours.
Longer raids like ICC we only do them as 10 man and it is only for guild members where we don't even need strict loot rules.
bf71090 Mar 15th 2010 2:54PM
@bigmu
Wow Ninja guild in denial. You roll on something you personally need. End of story.
PeeWee Mar 15th 2010 3:34PM
@Bigmu: Please tell us what guild/realm you're in, so we can all avoid your Ninjas like the plague.
Adrian Mar 15th 2010 5:59PM
Guys, obviously its okay because they are only ninjaing SOME of the items, not all of them.
/sarcasm
crschmidt Mar 15th 2010 11:22AM
http://www.wowwiki.com/Suicide_Kings is the only option I've found that seems semi-reasonable to use in a situation where you may have PUGs who come along with you. Have everyone '/roll' for a slot to start: basically, this is their spot in the list. When they get loot, they go to the bottom of the list. If I was consistently seeing inappropriate /roll ing by people in a guild or PUG, I would probably give SK a try as it is both reasonably fair and not overly complex.
I raided with loot council for a while. The biggest complaint I have is just the time it takes; the conclusion I came to via http://epicadvice.com/questions/4163/accelerating-loot-council is that if your guild is willing to put in the time *outside* of raids, you can make it fast, but if they're not, you're likely out of luck. When 75% of a TOC 25 clear is spent on deciding loot -- a side effect of having no trash is that there's nothing to do while loot is being distributed -- it gets real old real quick.
I currently run a small guild which does half-PUG runs of ICC 10 every week -- tanks + healers are in guild, and DPS are PUGed. The loot rules, as I state them every week, are "Loot rules are: Main Spec first, and don't be an ass. Main spec includes Armor Class." (The latter was added when an Ele Shaman was upset that a Resto Druid took a pair of non-hit leather bracers.) We've gotten lucky and had relatively little loot drama despite 3 clears of 6/12, but if that isn't sufficient for your group, I think that Suicide Kings has the highest likelihood of success for equitable loot distribution with minimum overhead.
Loreana Mar 15th 2010 12:34PM
I also currently run a relatively small guild and have found our Suicide Kings system to work very well both for full guild runs and when we have the odd pug. We started by "rolling in" everyone in the guild even the occasional raidiers which gives you a random starting list.
Once we down a boss all who are interested in a piece of loot say so and it goes to whoever is highest up the list for their main spec which we restrict to their primary role for that raid (It's a long list but you'll only be competing with a couple of people in a given raid). Once you take loot you drop to the bottom of the list. If no one wants it it opens to off spec which doesnt affect the list.
This results in a pleasant taking in turns and just feels fair. It also stops anyone feeling they haven't got anything for ages.
In order to combat people not turning up to raids (waiting for other people to get loot and drop below them) so that when they do come they are top of the list we have a policy of bumping people 5 places down the list per week they dont sign up and turn up (with one week's grace).
With pugs we have a /roll system combined with the SK list. Say we have 3 clothy healers one of which is a pug. All 3 roll on the first drop, if a guildy wins it gets put through SK as normal. If the pug wins he gets it but is barred from further loot till the others have got a piece (and the same goes for guildies).
It's worked pretty smoothly so far :)
I