Sunday (11 Dec)- Looking For Raid Loot System fails

Sunday (11 Dec)- Looking For Raid Loot System fails

One of the major features of the LFR is the loot system that was designed specifically for raids. The well intentioned purpose was to have the loot system dole out whatever loot dropped to those in the raid who could best use it. They did NOT implement anything that checks whether the raider already had better gear, but that would be prohibitively difficult and I understand that. Of course, the system would have to take into account class and specialization - but, alas, it doesn't. Well, it should at minimum ensure that loot is distributed where possible so that one raider does not receive more than one item that could have been used by someone else. Sorry, it can't do that, either. Situations that commonly occur, for example, include hunters being awarded strength gear (they get almost no benefit from strength), and when more than one of the same item drops, the same raider could get all of them.

So, if it doesn't do any of the above, what does it actually do? Basically, all it does is distribute loot based on role. If you're a healer, you get priority on gear with spirit; if you're a tank, you get priority on gear with tank based specs; and if you're a DPS - well, you could get anything and everything else. Wild, as a healer, does use a lot of spirit gear, but right now I already have more spirit than I really need. I reforge what I can to mastery, but I'd really like access to gear that has lots of mastery than lots of spirit. But Wild is unlikely to meet the loot system requirements to get it. When Wild is in moonkin spec, it's even worse. Spirit is converted to hit rating for moonkin, but as a DPS, that spirit gear will be priority for the healer, not the DPS.

Blizzard "is aware of the problem." They should trademark that line. For the foreseeable I don't see then them changing anything.

Sunday night at the DS LFR was kind of hit or miss. Players are getting smarter. Once a player downs a boss, they can't get any loot from subsequent kills of the same boss, so players simply quit the raid when they come on a boss that they've already killed for the week. When queuing for the LFR, it tells you how many bosses are down, so you know what boss you will be starting with. If it's not a boss you need, you just decline, wait a bit, and try again. Because players are getting picky about the bosses, and even with the huge pools of players from several servers, raids are attacking bosses short raiders. Usually it's only 1-2, but I've been on attempts with as many as four missing.

Here is how things stacked up for Wild on Sunday. Wild has already completed the last four bosses in DS LFR, which collectively is called Fall of Deathwing. Wild needed all four bosses in first half raid, called The Siege of Wyrmrest Temple.

Wild queued up Sunday evening, seeing that the raid being offered was at 2/8, meaning they were on the third boss in the Siege half of the raid. Wild could have declined and waited around until he could a 0/8 raid that was starting from the beginning. Wild was impatient to get going, though, and accepted the invite. The third boss is Yor'sahj, with the multi-colored oozes. From a healer perspective it's pretty straightforward, but that's only if the DPS know what they are doing (ie, killing oozes in the right order based on color). If the DPS doesn't know what they're doing, no amount of healing will likely save us.

It took us a couple of tries, but we downed the third boss, Yor'sahj.

We moved on to the final boss, Hagara. I like this fight. There's plenty to do, including getting to race around the outside of the platform being chased by ice spikes. We wiped on the first attempt, but a few raiders kept the fight going a good five minutes past the point where we knew it was a wipe simply by running around the edge of the platform and not dying. It was funny and irritating at the same time.

Wild DCed on the second attempt. I was having trouble getting back, with a lot of lag, and raiders were calling to Kick Wild from the raid. So I saved them the trouble and quit the raid myself. Getting disconnected seems to happen more often since the patch.

Anyway, Wild took the opportunity to build back up his store of food buffs, which were getting eaten down a lot faster now that Wild was killing bosses and wiping a lot. Wild was down to just six of his favorite buff food, Severed Sagefish Head, and I decided to let Wild cool off with a little fishing. He stuck around to catch enough fish for two stacks, and then started checking the LFR again. The first few times Wild tried, the LFR kept showing 2/8 bosses, meaning the raid group was on the third boss, which Wild had already killed. Wild was patient, and eventually he got a 0/8 raid and grabbed it.

Killing the first two bosses, Morchok, and Ozz, went smoothly, and after killing them Wild quit the group as I didn't want to have to kill Yor'sahj all over again. There was more patient waiting from Wild as he chatted with guildies and checked on enchants and gems. Yes, Wild finally won something. But that's for later.

Finally, Wild was able to get an LFR raid at 3/8 done, so Wild could go after the final boss, Hagara. That particular group did not start well. The first attempt served to show - or remind - raiders what to do, such as run from the ice spikes, kill the icicles, and don't get too close to the melee. The second attempt was a non-attempt when a druid healer - not Wild, silly - meandered too close to Hagara and started the fight prematurely. Neither one of our tanks returned for a third attempt, and we lost healers, too. The new group had new tanks and four of five healers were druids. Oh boy, a room full of raid healers. I hoped we could keep the tanks up.

It took us three tries, but Hagara went down. Wild was disappointed he only came in third in healing among fellow druids. Perhaps the results of this night will help in future raids.

Wild did not win one loot drop -


. . .  wait for it . . .


. . . he won two! :P

His first Dragon Soul loot was [Mycosynth Wristguards]. The i384 bracers  replace Wild's i378 bracers, but there was a challenge. Wild's current bracers have 148 haste. The new bracers have none. Wild was determined to keep a minimum 2005 haste, so I had to do some reforging to be able to equip it. I managed to get it done, but had to compromise a bit, giving up a +50 int enchant for a +50 spi enchant on the bracers to shore up the loss of spirit that was reforged to haste. Wild's overall spirit still dropped a bit, but that shouldn't be an issue.

The second piece wild won was an easy swap. Wild won [Seal of the Seven Signs] an i384 trinket with +408 int that replaces the i359 Tsunami trinket (with +321 int) Wild has worn for a very long time.

Wild's equipped gear score is now i374.

Wild also now has 1000 Valor Points (VP) and is considering a relic upgrade (700 vps). I think I will wait on that, though. What to do with VPs is going to be the subject of another post, as getting VP gear and Tier gear doesn't appear to work like I thought it did.