Looting Etiquette and Rules

by Sandriell Elora on July 26, 2009, 12:25 AM

Looting while solo

When soloing, looting is easy- a "lootable" corpse emits a "sparkling" effect, and the cursor will change to the "use" cursor when you mouse over the corpse. Simply right-click on the corpse of the mob you just killed, and a window will pop up containing any loot the mob was carrying. (Sometimes this window is empty, which means the mob had no loot.) Using Shift-right -click "autoloots" the corpse, which picks up all items.

Looting while in a group

In group situations, looting is vastly more complicated. The leader of the group can set the group looting parameters, as well as the threshold where items of particular quality are automatically rolled for. There are five group looting parameters:

Free-for-all: (FFA) First-come, first-serve. You snooze, you lose. This is a good setting if you are assisting someone and intend for them to be able to loot all the kills, or if your group is not in the same area, this setting will prevent meaningless roll prompts.

Master Loot: The leader of the group loots all corpses and distributes the loot. This setting is most widely used on boss kills where the value of the loot is considerably higher. Distribution methods used can either be having all group members interested in the loot doing a /roll, or for large raids using the Suicide Kings list.

Round-robin: Group members take turns looting corpses. While it is one of the simplest methods next to Free-for-all, it is widely considered a poor choice because it severely lowers the perception that one is receiving loot or at the least a chance to receive loot.

Roll/Pass: For every piece of loot dropped that matches or exceeds the rarity threshold (more on that later) specified by the leader a simply dialog is presented with a simple “Roll or Pass” query.

Need before Greed: This is the most common loot system used. It expands on the Roll/Pass system to provide two tiers of rolling, Greed and Need. Greed is the first tier, and should always be your default choice for rolling. Need is the second tier and all need rolls supersede greed rolls; meaning if 5 people roll greed and 1 person rolls need, only the person who rolled need will roll for the loot. This however is the worst system to use when grouping with inexperienced players who may be accustomed to rolling need by default based on experience with “PuGs” or less organized kinships. More on this system to follow.

In all loot settings, money on the corpse is distributed as evenly as possible among all the group members.

Items on the corpse that are below the rarity threshold can be picked up by whoever is looting it. After the person whose turn it is to loot a corpse finishes, anything they left can be looted by anyone in the group.

Quest Loot: Quest loot is on a separate loot distribution and regardless of loot setting, the mob will indicate lootable by every group member with the quest (and without the object already). Each member may loot the quest item off the corpse. The other loot on the corpse is subject to the group loot setting.

Loot options: Need, Greed, and Pass in detail

Items of a particular quality or higher might not be immediately lootable, depending on the rarity threshold established by the group leader. When an item is available that falls within that rolling threshold, the looter is prohibited from taking the item and a 'roll window' pops up for all group members with an image of the item and three buttons — NEED, GREED, and PASS.

Need: If the item is a direct upgrade for you (such as better equipment you intend to wear immediately), is an item particular to your class only (such as a legendary weapon), or is specifically for your profession (such as materials, but not a “crit item” [i.e. a mithril flake]), then click the NEED button for a "need" roll. A need roll will supersede any greed rolls, so it is generally a good idea to be very conservative when deciding to roll need on an item.

Greed: If the item is something usable by everyone (such as an item-experience rune), is an item you want for cosmetic uses only (such as some pretty armour), is an item you want just to sell, is an item you want for an alt, or any item that does not qualify for a need roll, then click the GREED button for a "greed" roll. This will only result in a roll if no one chooses need.

Pass: If you don't want the item, click the PASS button and you will 'pass' on the item.

The high-roller among those who roll is awarded the item, and it goes in that character's bags. If everyone passes on a rollable item, the item becomes freely lootable to anyone in the group. The roll window has a timer, 30 seconds, shown as a shrinking bar; if the timer expires before you choose "need" or "greed", you will "pass" on the item.

Group policies and other loot options

Often, Instances will be run with one character of much higher level leading the charge. This is frequently done when senior members want to help others in acquiring good loot. In these cases, it is common that the senior group member will serve as group leader and set loot settings to Master Loot, so as to best distribute all loot.

Many players consider it to be very rude if someone intentionally loots a corpse while combat is still going on. To avoid any conflicts, it is best to wait until combat is over and everyone has been rezzed (waiting for everyone to be rezzed is particularly important; a player can't roll on any items if they are not close enough to the body that is being looted).

Note that loot from containers — chests, crates, and the like — as opposed to corpses, also uses the specified loot system, although the container will always be lootable by any group member. If the container holds an item that matches or exceeds the rarity threshold, that item will be rolled on (or not in the case of Master Looter), the same as if it were looted from a corpse and the same loot rules apply.

General Looting etiquette

Read the item descriptions; know what you are rolling on.
- Know if your character needs the item, or can even use the item.
- Know what stats are important for your character’s class.
- Know what equipment you already have.
If you think you need everything, you need to do more research.
Speaking of research, it never hurts to research the instance for what loot drops and decide ahead of time what you need.
If it is a Bind-on-Acquire item, you cannot give it to an alt. You cannot auction it.
Think beyond yourself. Be kind and courteous to others in the group. Sure, you could use that item to complete your armour set, but maybe the person who doesn’t have any of the set yet could use it a little more.
Loot your kills. Even if your bags are full, open the corpses that are yours to loot (other than on free for all). This distributes the gold to the group and makes the corpse available to your group members when you close it.
Communication goes a long way toward solving anything. You may want something that doesn't fit the mold, that's OK, as long as you are honest about it up front and give potential group members a fair chance to turn you down and look for another group. You want to farm for an alt, OK, just don't spring it on everyone after you enter the instance or come looting time.
If you are the group leader, do not tolerate a “ninja” (someone who needs everything). Try education first, but if they insist on being a bonehead, move to a more controlled loot system such as Master Looter. If the problem persists, be sure to notify an officer or the leader.
If you are in such a group, politely make your concerns know, if nothing changes, ask the leader privately if he or she intends to take action, if not then politely state your intention to leave the group if that is your desire.

Secondary rolls

In the event of two or more rolls being equal (for example: if 2 players have a 'greed' roll with the number 56 for a certain item), the system performs a hidden secondary roll to determine which player will receive the item. If Master Looter is being used the tied players are simply asked to roll again.

Loot systems: Suicide Kings

The basics of the system are as follows:

Players are put in an ordered list, based on a random roll initially, but simply added to the bottom for existing lists. Multiple lists may be used.
When loot is dropped, the person who wants it and is nearest the top of the list wins the loot and goes to the lowest position held by a group member while everyone else moves to the position of the group member just above them.
Players who are not currently in the raid do not move up or down in the lists, they maintain their exact position.

It's the last two points that are confusing to most people. Players not on the raid are frozen in their same position relative to the top of the list when a suicide occurs. Everyone else moves "around" them. That means if the bottom player on the list is not present, then the suiciding player won't go all the way to the bottom. Likewise if the top player is not present, he/she stays at the top. This, we believe, is a fair way to account for attendance and reward good attendance, without overly penalizing those that cannot raid all the time.

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