Blizzard's stance on ninja looting

Just wanted to set the record straight for those who aren't quite aware of it.

Ninja Looting: Blizzard's Stance

Have a nice day. :)

Thanks! I was getting ready to link that in that other thread, but it capped before I could.

I think it's important to note that our support policies match what's reasonably enforceable, and this really can't be a conversation about our support team making the right or wrong decisions, or helping or not helping. It's unreasonable for them to act as arbiters for every piece of loot that drops in every dungeon for every player. I hope that's something we can all agree with.

What can and should be discussed, and something we've been discussing a bit more internally, is the loot rules themselves to potentially prevent the issue in the first place. Clearly the current dungeon loot rules are fairly lax to allow for people to gear up in different ways. We (at least currently) want people to be able to gear up to tank by DPSing, or being able to help out others by healing when they really just want to DPS in their weekly raid. We want to allow them to run dungeons over and over to make up for bad luck in their drops. Just with those two things combined there will be people in your groups rolling on items you believe to be better for you.

One side issue that's made this all seem much worse is that with the launch of Mists a lot of items were tagged incorrectly, leading to people being able to roll on items they just have no business being able to roll on regardless of specs available to them. That makes the system just seem broken, when it's only a couple items that are essentially 'bugged'. We of course want to get to those bugs as quickly as possible.

There are clear benefits to allowing people to roll on off-spec items, or run dungeons over and over to try to get an item (or even just because they enjoy dungeons!). There are also clear issues it can cause when the factor of who 'deserves an item more' comes into it. Being matched with strangers you can never truly know someone else's intentions, and conclusions are easy to jump to. The converse though, where you can only roll on your current spec, is a system where you're locked into gearing up a specific way, and discourages (or maybe completely blocks) changing roles or even gearing up an off-spec - even if no one else wants an item.

There are many considerations to be made, but the discussion of LFD vs LFR loot systems is a larger one than even just this issue, and the devs seem intent on discussing it more and more as this expansion rolls on.

Until then, if you want to ensure you get the drop you want, I really recommend forming a group with trusted friends and guild mates if at all possible. Plus you can talk trash on them the whole time, which makes everything with friends more fun! ;)

Good to have this clarified more. The old community's honor system of not rolling on off spec is something we're supposed to move past then.

As I'm from the old days, I am uncomfortable with this policy. It still seems very selfish to a lot of people who leveled in that old environment, so this is going to take getting used to.

Personally it's something I uphold in my own play. I'm running dungeons how I want to run them, in the spec I want to run them, and rolling on items I want for my current spec. If not I call it out in chat and ask if anyone minds that I roll. But that's how I play, and I don't impose that on how other people choose to play as they exist within the confines of the game rules.

I don't rely on the kindness of strangers, and I certainly can't justify getting mad when they aren't nice. Although that doesn't stop me asking rhetorical questions of my monitor from time to time. :)

Typically that's how I've approached it as well, but I've been trying to explain to people lately why there are players who feel their rolling on off spec is a bad thing.

Personally, I make it a standard point to ask people how they feel about this before every 5 man I run, as a lot of confusion seems to stem from people not doing that and assuming everyone else agrees with their personal ethical stance.

I will probably continue to uphold this in my own playstyle as well, it just feels like the better thing to do to me.

I think that's a great point. So much can be resolved before it happens by just communicating first. Make your intentions known. Find out other people's intentions. Dungeons are pretty quick and the pressure to just gogogo is strong, but it's a great idea to just take some time and talk for even a few seconds.

10/17/2012 05:46 PMPosted by Zaxan

Make your intentions known.

I do by joining an LFD group that is using the loot system i prefer to use...if i wanted to use a different loot system i would have formed my own group with players who also wanted to use a different loot system...

It's weird you just said this one post ago but don't seem to apply it to yourself? Or am I misunderstanding what you meant?

if you are going to play with random players, you have to accept it when random players simply do not feel the same way as you about loot

i do accept that they feel different, i dont accept that i should not be in LFD if I want to use LFD loot system...

Who said that? I didn't. Let's not twist words around so we can stay angry.