When is a Ninja not a Ninja?

I finally managed to get through the Shadow Labyrinth to get the first fragment of the Karazhan key. The first two attempts had to be aborted owing to a lack of time, but the group I made it with pretty much raced through the instance. The tank was pretty good, but the DPS and healing were awesome, and we sailed through encounters, and some early bad pulls. In fact, I think the bad pulls gave us all confidence about each other. The second pull went wrong, and a few of us edged to the instance exit, but stayed inside and we defeated the extra group without a problem. Another bad pull soon after that saw us defeat a big group with some excellent healing, and it seemed like we didn't think things could go wrong. Sure, bad pulls are technically 'wrong', but it was nothing insurmountable. There was only one wipe, and that was a pull that shouldn't have gone wrong right before Murmur, the final boss. A quick recovery later and we killed Murmur easily on the first attempt. I picked up the key fragment and we all went on our separate paths.

Having the first key allows me the option of getting the second and third, so I tried to get in to either the Arcatraz, for the third fragment, or the Steamvaults, for the second. I have managed to get the key for the Arcatraz, but haven't visited either dungeons in my warlock guise yet. I got myself in to a group for Steamvaults, which is a fairly small dungeon, and we started. After the false start, with the healer being 'called away' and one of the damage dealers falling asleep or something, we get a full group and start to clear the dungeon of enemies. The second key fragment is quite close to the entrance, and I get to pick it up just before we fight the first boss. Huzzah! From there, we continue.

The first boss falls quite easily, and we are doing pretty well as a group. Nothing spectacular, but good progress and everyone seems to know what they are doing. Except when it comes to bind-on-pickup loot. The first boss drops some BoP loot, and one person passes and two others roll 'greed' before any rules for how to handle it are announced, and before I can point out that I'm an enchanter and can disenchant any unwanted loot in to a shard, which often has better value than the loot itself. I am told to 'roll need to disenchant'. But that's a bit dangerous, I think. On top of that, two people have rolled 'greed', so would they both like it, or are they both enchanters, or what? I roll 'greed' myself because it's all terribly unclear, and someone wins it, but cannot disenchant. This also means that the person, maybe two, who didn't roll didn't get a chance to get the loot. That struck me as unfair.

I pointed out the way of handling BoP loot drops that is not only logical based on the way the looting system works but that has also been used in every other run I've been on. If someone needs the item they roll 'need', if there is an enchanter in the party he rolls 'greed', and if you don't need it and are not an enchanter you pass on the item. That way, 'need' rolls overrule and 'greed' rolls, and 'greed' rolls overrule any passes, ensuring that the item goes to someone who either will makes use of the item or can turn it in to a shard that can be passed out afterwards. My advice met something of a silence, but wasn't turned down. Onwards to the second boss.

The second boss dies, and he drops another BoP item. Again, two people roll 'greed' and at least one passes. I take this opportunity to point out again that this is not the best way to achieve loot distribution, and am again told just to roll 'need' to disenchant the item. I try to press home the flaw in this thinking, but am ignored, so I roll 'need' and win the item to disenchant it. Sensing that something will go horribly wrong with this system, I make it a matter of some importance to point out the flaw again. 'What if someone actually needs the item?' I ask.

'Then you wait until everyone has rolled and then you work out what to do'.

'But if needers 'need', enchanters 'greed' and everyone else passes there is no need to wait. If I roll 'need' I could get loot that is actually needed!' But they didn't seem to understand. This was most odd, as the group was competent in other ways, it's just that looting seemed beyond them.

Fine, if that's the way they want it. I appeal to my guild, in the guild-only chat channel, updating them with what my group has asked me to do, and am glad that I am not alone in seeing things going seriously awry at some point. They ask me to keep them appraised of the ensuing drama.

Now, I admit that I was being a bit of a dick to prove a point. In my defence, there is a working system being used by almost everyone else. I pointed out how to use this system to everyone's advantage, more than once. I pointed out the flaw in their thinking, more than once. No one seemed to care. I am also doing people a favour by disenchanting the items, as I don't have to. Waiting until everyone has rolled is not a great option, as if two items drop there are two lots of five rolls, all in the same colours, all either 'need', 'greed', or 'passed on', with 'need' and 'greed' not easily distinguishable, and potentially all the messages are intermingled with each other as well as with party and guild chat messages. For doing people a favour, I do not want to have to wade through information in order to work out other people's intentions. It also really didn't help when some people passed and others rolled 'greed', as it introduced unfairness in to the system that I could not override. I am told to roll 'need' to disenchant, so that's what I'll do.

We kill the third and final boss, and he drops two items. I can use neither, but have been told to roll 'need'. I do so. The shaman, it turns out, actually wants one of the items, but my roll beats his, so I get it. It's BoP, so I cannot give it to him. The shaman protests, leaves the party, sends me bitter /tells, to which I can only point out I was doing what I was told and had tried to stop exactly this from happening, but, of course, that doesn't help him. The others in the party aren't too bothered, and two of the reasonable ones see the folly of what has occurred. My guild finds it amusing that the almost-inevitable happened. I'm just left wondering why it had to get to that point. Ah well.

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