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Loot council? Common pitfalls etc?

My guilds currently considering running a loot council for dragon soul. We've been running just random rolls through FL, but many people are sick of it, and they all seem somewhat keen on a loot council type system. We're currently a 10man guild.

The current thinking is to have a rotating council made up of at least 1-2 officers and 1-2 raiders with a heavy preference towards BiS.

What are the common pit falls, stupid mistakes and so on that people make?

  • Devolore
    Posted 14 years ago (Source)

    I find loot council to be very flawed.

    If I take the initiative and buy up all the BoEs I could I get, I feel punished by being passed up on upgrades because I already have more upgraded gear than the person that just logs on to raid. and does nothing else and uses guild funds for all his repairs. (sorry, this guy only has 346 JP item so we're going to give him the tier 12 shoulders that you need to finish your 4-piece set because you bought the staff, bracers, and boots already BS and you got the 359 shoulders still so he will get the bigger upgrade)

    I've left a guild for implementing loot council in wrath.

    We actually tend to prioritize upgrades to the people that are going out and buying BOEs, and have forced people to continue using easily-replaced blues for entire tiers of content while upgrading other people's epics. We'd rather put the loot in the hands of people who are actually putting effort into their character over someone who's slacking off.

    Just because some guilds are too dumb to understand loot council, doesn't mean the system is broken.

  • Devolore
    Posted 14 years ago (Source)

    A few rules that my guild uses (we've been using LC quite successfully after switching over from DKP when WotLK hit):

    1. No one is allowed to participate in the discussion for items they are bidding on, for obvious reasons. The exception is if they are passing on the item to vote for someone else.
    2. We take "bids" via whisper to see who is interested in an item -- you're not allowed to take whispers on an item you're bidding on. That way, no one can claim that the person who took bids "accidentally" left someone out.
    3. We keep an odd number of people on the loot council as much as possible, to avoid even splits (they just tend to be really time consuming). Since a council member can't comment on their own items, we keep a "backup" council member around to act as a tiebreaker in those specific circumstances.
    4. We actually run an extremely stripped-down eqDKP backend just to keep track of who gets what items, to help us decide in those situations where there isn't really an obvious choice and also help make sure we don't end up giving anyone preferential treatment beyond what they deserve.

    The most important thing to understand about loot council is that the point is not to be as fair as possible. Fairness is certainly important, but people are people and will make mistakes. If you're having loot drama in a 10man with random roll (where you're probably rolling against 1-2 other people at the most), chances are pretty high that your guild members place a lot more emphasis on loot than ours do. In fact, our alt runs are 10man, and we just random roll there with no drama whatsoever. Make absolutely sure that the reason they want a loot council is because they like the system itself, and not that they just figure whoever's in charge will probably vote for them. You'll just get more (and bigger) drama if that's the case, and should use a DKP system instead.

    EDIT: Another big thing to think about as a 10-man guild is at what point is the loot council just half the group? Really, I think if you're getting drama (or at least, disgruntled complaints) about random roll in a group that small, LC might not be the fix.

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