[Guide] Different Types Of Loot Systems

Hey guys, I never noticed a thread thats like this, and I know that some guild leaders/members don't like their loot system, well I'm making this little guide to show you what each system does and whats so good about them. You can use this guide to show to your GM or Officer or something to show them whats their choices for their loot system. I'll be listing the loot systems that I like from my favorite to my least favorite.
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Loot Council

In the computer role playing games of old, one player managed a whole party with several members. When a new item became available, the player decided which party member would profit most, and give the item to them. In its purest form, a loot council works exactly the same, one person decides which raid members get which items. The opposite extreme is to make all items available to all raid members, and let the individual members decide which items they want.

Usually some kind of compromise is chosen, most raids use some kind of loot council, but usually with less absolute powers than the pure form, and also normally with several members. Items are most frequently restricted by class and/or talent build. A loot council is always used to give a higher emphasis on the success of the raid as a whole over the selfish interests of individual raid members. Commonly used categories to limit loot to certain classes/builds are:

* Tank (protection specced warrior, bear druid, paladin)
* Melee DPS (DPS warrior builds, rogues, melee shaman, cat druid etc.)
* Spell DPS (mage, warlock, shadowpriest, elemental shaman, druid)
* Healer (Disc/Holy priest, resto shaman and druid, paladins)

For some spell DPS items it is a good idea to restrict them further by damage type (nature, fire, frost, shadow), but this happens normally automatically because +nature damage is of no particular use to a warlock.

Hunters are a special case. In principle a hunter can find some use for about every item in the game as long as he's able to equip it (the same could be said with some justification for shamans or druids). Depending on playstyle and preference, and keeping usefulness towards the raids goals in mind, hybrids and hunters should be watched very closely, to avoid loot whoring. Usually this means that all players should give their build to their class leaders, so they can judge into which category the player belongs.

Usually the main tank(s) are a class of their own. Since the raid's main tank is extremely important, they are frequently given precedence on about any gear they want.

Advantages

* The people on the council (should) know what is best for the guild/raid and can give loot to where it is most needed or deserved.
* Loot Council can sometimes have less of a cutthroat feeling than DKP, where you always want to be at the top of the list.
* Many of the problems of other (point) loot systems can be avoided, including inflation or hate bidding (draining).
* Exceptionally rare items can be given to who needs them most, rather than who has the most points at the time (for example, a Thunderfury to the main tank).

Disadvantages

* Loot Council is only as fair as the people on the council. If you end up with a corrupt council member, you end up with a corrupt council.
* It requires more work on the part of council members to pay attention to and keep track of that which determines loot distribution.
* Actually awarding loot can take more time as council members debate whom it should go to.
* Some people will always perceive inequality in the distribution of loot, regardless of whether or not it actually exists.


Most other systems actually use some kind of loot council. Whenever there are some rules which restrict which drops players are eligible for, a loot council is in effect.


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DKP Bidding

Basic Systems

Open Bidding

On loot distribution, everybody writes their bids in the open raid channel. The loot master functions as auctioneer. The highest bidder gets the item and loses the amount of DKP he bid.

Silent Bidding

When an item is due to be distributed, everyone interested whispers their bid to the loot master. The highest bidder wins the item for the amount bid.

Variations

Spend one more

The winner pays not the amount he bid, but just one more than the second highest bidder.

Tier bidding

Bidding amounts are in set tiers, e.g. in multiples of 10; players bid at tiers, up to the DKP they possess (or in some cases, the next tier up, resulting in some players have small negative amounts of DKP).

Maximum bid

Items may have a static maximum bid value; players may bid no more than this amount, no matter how many DKP they possess.

Minimum bid

Items may have a static minimum bid value; the winner MUST spend at least this much, even if they are the only bidder on an item.

Class restrictions

Only high priority classes may be allowed to bid on an item, versus any player who can equip an item. This may be used to prevent situations where an individual member of a class values an item more highly (and has more points to bid) than members of a class for whom the item is more traditionally valuable. For example: a Paladin bidding on Drake Fang Talisman and outbidding Rogues who may get more benefit. Class restrictions (or priorities) are traditionally hotly debated.

Advantages

The subjective value of a drop is not fixed. The same item may be a valued upgrade for one raid member, and a minor sidegrade for another. In an homogenous and fair environment, bidding leads to the best possible item pricing and item distribution. Since everyone is free to bid as much as they can (up to their current DKP score), it's not automatically the person with the highest score who gets the item, if someone with a lesser amount is willing to spend more, he will get it. So items normally go to the raid members who value them most, for whom they are the greatest upgrades. On the other end, even small up- or sidegrades will be distributed and not disenchanted.

Disadvantages

Since bidding is a free market, it introduces all problems of a free market. Bidding systems not only reward contribution to the guilds goals, but also reward playing the bidding system well. In order to gain maximum profit in a bidding envinronment, it is neccessary to "read" the situation, and to correctly assess when an item starts to become cheap (or whether it will remain rare/expensive for quite some time).

The issues are in particular:

Inflation

If the system permits players to accrue large amounts of unspent points (e.g. because they've attended a large number of raids without seeing anything they want to bid on), it may become very difficult for new members to ever become competitive for the top of the line drops. See also the DKP gap.

Lowballing

In systems with non-fixed prices, a player may get away with an item for a very low price, because every other player on that raid didn't want or need it, even though other players in the system (but not in the raid) would have bid much higher.

Collusion

Collusion is an open or silent agreement leading to price fixing. In loot systems with bidding, collusion usually means that members of one class (due to lucky drops or by intent) pay only minimal prices on their class gear, in order to be more competitive on cross-class items.

Draining

Sometimes, one or more players enter a bidding contest with a specific player just to push the price of an item up, and thus drain the point pool of the player in question, ensuring that this player will have to stay out of later bidding contests.


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Free Roll


Free Roll Loot System, free roll system is pretty much you just roll for the item, but you can do loot priorities or something.










Well this is all I know hope you enjoy, those are like the best things right now on my server, and there pretty good.


enjoy :D