Group rules – don’t you fight, children
You’re rushing through the instance, the trash goes down like little gnome schoolgirls and already you start to feel those easy badges in your mooncloth bag. Then it happens: An epic recipe drops on the way, a crafter claims it, others want it FFA, everyone rolls weirdish and poof – your group is a war within, breaking apart and flaming for the rest of the painful run. Read on if you’d like to avoid situations like that.
This post intends to deal with PUGs, however if your guild hasn’t loot-rules yet it might as well come in handy there.
Make it crystal clear
Rules don’t make sense if you make them up when the situation they should deal with already arose. Obviously, if that epic recipe already is there in the loot window it will be way harder to convince the group that crafters come first and chances are you’ll not even get a chance mentioning before others clicked “need”. So as you enter, or better yet: on the way to, an instance make some rules. Even if the rule is “everything ffa” making that clear in the beginning will avoid arguments as to “I’m used to …”, “usually …”, stuff like that.
Show no mercy
If you arranged rules everyone should stick to them, obviously. Unfortunately WoW is full of people who don’t care the least about that if they see something they want. The dark side is strong in many a player. So if someone just can’t get around clicking that “need”-button, throw him out the group. Just do it. You can discuss later, but make your point and avoid a flamewar within the group. A kicked player can still flame and be flamed, but he can’t destroy your group’s atmosphere anymore.
Avoidance beats caretaking
Make rules easy to execute and hard to get around. Everything FFA should be rolled for with “need” by everyone. Lucky enough many recipes since Wotlk can’t be rolled for by anyone without the corresponding profession anyways, but there’s still those materials. I’ve seen Primal Nether Ninjas once too often to not make the “everyone rolls need”-thing clear for that item in every single run.
Should some be more different?
If you run with some guild members and only take in 1 or 2 randoms think about how you’ll deal with loot. Is it fair to claim “guild goes first” in that context? In general I’d advise that as soon as a random player is in the group the group should be considered a PuG regarding loot, it’s just the fairest thing to do and will gain your guild some good reputation in the long run.
Need & Want – the power of greed
There you are, and there’s this other warrior in the group. An item drops. It would gain you some 4 more stamina versus your current equipment, whereas your fellow adventurer still wears a crappy green on that slot. What would you do? Think about the reputation-thing and don’t underestimate people’s gratitude. I’ve seen quite often that players whom you pass on an item for will, at the end of the run, pass on the disenchanted shards, as to return the favor prior received.
Self-Control is the superior creature’s strongest weapon
Don’t flame. Ever. Deal with those strange guys with humour and strength. Instead of “Geez you dork, we said it’s FFA” go with a *sigh*. Poke at people, that’s fine, but do so on a high standard. Don’t fall into low-level offensive language, but stay calm. Once again, this not only will relax the group atmosphere, but will gain you and your guild some good reputation with the sound players on the realm.
Recommended Reading
- Looting while in a Party @ WowWiki.com
- World of Warcraft Group Basics – Looting @ wikicheats.com
- My personal WoW Rules of Pick up Groups @ killerbetties.com
- Warcraft Looting Rules Series @ WoWgrrl.com