LFR Loot Rules Won't Fix the Problems

In the most recent water cooler post by our friendly neighborhood crab ghostcrawler, found here, he explains a lot about loot in MoP.  There are many things I wish to touch on in what he said, like valor is no longer going to be used to buy gear, but this is about the looking for raid loot system he is saying will be implemented.

So here he is, ghostcrawler stepping up to the plate to bat.  Can he get a hit?

In a not so stunning way Blizzard has once again proved its complete detachment from the community and an utter lack of understanding as to why there were issues with the LFR loot system.

Their new design is simple enough, everyone rolls, everyone that wins gets someone fitting for their role.  Simple and basic and quite honestly not a bad idea but it is still faulty.

One good thing is we will no longer need to wait on people that just leave not rolling.  The good things end there.

Their assertion that this will fix a lot of the problems with people winning gear you felt you deserved will be cleared up is about as faulty as can be.

What they seem to miss the point on about this is that if player A and player B both roll on an item and player B wins when they did really horrible, player A has a right to complain they deserved it more, but do they think that allowing both player A and player B to win at the same time will change the opinion of player A?

If player B did do really poorly in their role they do not deserve the loot.  That is how the average player in the game sees it.  Even if player A can win as well, the act of player B winning will still cause problems.  Sure, people can not say that they won "my loot" but they will still complain that player does not deserve the loot.

Instead of it being like this.. "the worst players always win my loot"
It will become this.. "the worst players are the ones that always win something"

Blizzard seems to think that option two is better than option one.  Blizzard seems to think that the community is better off if only they make it so that player B is not getting loot out of the hands of player A.  Blizzard is wrong.

Player A, even if they did not want the loot, has a problem with player B winning because player B does not deserve it.  While that might only be their personal opinion it will not change just because they changed the loot system.  Player A will still be pissed off that player B won something.  Player A will still create drama.

Not sure what game crabby is playing but apparently it is not the same game I play because the community in the one I play will still create drama because someone they deem undeserving wins something.

Swing and a miss on that one Ghostcrawler, nice try but you missed the ball with that assertion.

Another thing the crab pointed out was that people would not be able to trade items and he boasted about this as if it were a good thing.  At least he is half right with this one but half right does not mean right.

I, for one, will be glad to not see people rolling on things just to trade them later.  That has always annoyed me and that is where GC hit the nail on the head.  Removing that possibility is a good thing but making things untradeable does bring up a lot of other issues.

My guild does a guild LFR every week and goes in with between 15-18 players.  Sometimes we bring lesser geared alts, non raiders, people that don't play often, whatever, the fact is, we play as a team.  We all roll on everything that anyone needs and we help gear the lesser geared players up.  It is good for the guild, good fun for everyone there, and it creates a great way to bridge the gap between the raiders and non raiders and create guild chemistry.

It brings people together and can also be used as an excellent recruiting tool in a world where people often do not want to leave their current guilds because they feel bound by reputation to them.

The new system means playing as a group will no longer offer any advantage.  The new system means that those lesser players we help out will now be looked at as players we are dragging along that are just not good enough and not players we are dragging along to help them catch up.

It could very well mean that we do not do guild runs any more because there is no real benefit of a guild run when it comes from a loot standpoint.  Why run as a group and make a set time for it if going alone or with a group will still end with the same results anyway?

Is this their way of trying to create community?  To make it that playing as a team means nothing now.

I am sure not everyone is like us but if none of us need something, we do not take it from others either.  We will pass on it and let someone else get it.  We are not jerks like that.

Taking away the ability to trade will ruin one of the best things we can do for fun as a guild that allows us to bring non raiders with us, the raiders.

Often I have been asked by someone to help them roll on something and I have.  Some people ask nicely, so I help.  This is good for the community as well, this is gone as well.

While trading in LFR can very well be a bad thing and I have seen it be abused, it is not always a bad thing and it is not abused by everyone.

Taking away the ability to trade items from the people that do not abuse the system because of the ones that do is not a solution.  You have to sharpen your pencils and rethink this one Blizzard.

Swing and a foul ball.  At least you got a piece of this one but that is still strike two ghostcrawler.

You've got one strike left. Will you get a hit or are you going to the bench with your tail between your legs?  Do crabs even have tails?

Lets take a look at offspec. Lets take a real close look at two situations that stand out in mind screaming look at me.

Being there will be no offspec loot awarded that means you need to run as what you want loot for.  Poor tanks and their massive long queue time.  Many tanks roll as DPS because they know if the two tanks do not need something they can win it.  They also do it because being DPS means a lot quicker of a queue time.

I know someone that has a full set of tank gear from the LFR and only runs it as DPS because he gets in faster that way.  Now he has not choice, he has to wait longer as a tank if he wants to get in.

So tank was situation one that was yelling look at me, but speaking louder by a long shot are the healers yelling look at me three times as loud.

Shadow priest running as healers.  Enhancement shaman running as healers.  Elemental shaman running as healers.  Protection paladins running as healers.  Retribution paladins running as healers.  Feral druids running as healers.  Balance druids running as healers. And soon guardian druids running as healers, winderwalker monks running as healers and brewmaster monks running as healers.

Are you aware of the amount of non healers that run the LFR as healers just for the instant queue?  They figure at the worst they can win tokens and if they get lucky some other stuff.  Sure, removing these non healers will increase the quality of healing in the LFR but it will also increase the queue time for everyone else.  Big time.

There are healing problems with the LFR as it is now, so what does blizzard do?  Create even less reason for people to run as a healer because they now went from a limited chance at getting gear for their main spec while running as a healer to absolutely zero chance at getting gear for their main spec running as a healer.

A huge swing and a miss.

The mighty ghostcrawler has just struck out.

Who is up next?

Mists will not be out for a long time still.  There is time to fix this blizzard, please get off your asses and give us a better solution.

Coming up next...  A better solution, because blizzard is not going to think of one themselves.