Starshade Sentinels Looting Rules

A Looting Rules Suggestion

While it’s widely accepted that any group (party or raid) heading out for blood in Azeroth can set up whatever looting rules they want to — as long as everyone in the group agrees — below is a suggestion for looting rules that really work well, keep the peace and make it possible for everyone to get something good.

We borrowed and edited these rules from The Brethren. Thanks to Lorlor and Preacha.

Remember, being generous is a value at the root of The Starshade Sentinels... and if you ninja stuff, people will hate you. So be good to each other and have fun.

A Few Terms

BoE = Bind on Equip — Only after you equip the item to your character will it become soulbound to you... anytime before that you can trade it to anyone you want or sell it at the auction house — after that you can use it, keep it in your bags or bank, or sell it to a vendor.

BoP = Bind on Pickup — Once you take this item off the mob you kill, it becomes instantly soulbound to you... and this is where looting trouble can happen, because if you’re a warrior and you loot a BoP staff that has +15 Intelligence for example... you might have some really angry party mates on your hands (especially the spell casters).

RTS = Roll to Sell — When no one in the group can use or wants the item, and everyone in the group could take the item and give it to a friend or sell it at the auction house or to a vendor; so if no one wants it, everyone types /roll and random number between 1 and 100 is generated and whomever wins, takes the item to do with as they please. RTS usually happens after everyone has passed and discussed a Blue (or higher) or BoP item.

DE = Disenchant — Enchanters can disenchant on some items, turning them into valuable materials for recipes. Sometimes the group will decide that this is the best way to deal with an item that has been looted. Some disenchants are worth a lot at the auction house, so be sure to /roll on a DE!

Ninja Looting — Anytime someone disregards the looting rules, agreed upon by the group, and steals an item off a mob. This is stealing from your party mates, and may result in your removal from the guild. If a guildie ninjas an item and you feel it was not an accident (which should not happen), please report it to an officer and we’ll discuss it and decide the proper course of action).

Need Roll — You roll need when your character will use the item in question (not another character of yours, not your little brother, not your mom, etc.).

Greed Roll — You roll greed if your character would sell, DE or give the item away.

Pass — When you don’t want the item. Of course, you could always roll greed and sell any item; but it’s very generous to pass. I often pass on items in these circumstances:

If I have won a great item or two and want to give others a chance to grab some loot too.
if I am helping a group of lower-level characters (chances are they need the items more than I do).

Looting Rules

Group Leader (or raid leader) sets looting to “Group Loot”
If the mob sparkles, it’s yours to loot. (one note about this one... if the mob is something that is typically skinnable [beasts mostly] please don’t leave the vendor trash (hairs, tufts of fur, soil, etc) on the mob... take the items and either destroy them or keep them to sell. This way your party mates who are skinners can skin the corpse. Nothing worse than being a skinner in a group where everyone keeps leaving Troll Sweat on the Trolls... please just take it and throw it away.)
Don’t ever loot during battle! Help kill all the mobs your group is battling, then loot. It’s common courtesy; if you’re looting a mob and your friend dies while you are bending over... well... that’s not cool. And, no one wants to think about “is it BoE or is it BoP — do I roll or pass — do I want this item or not” while they are fighting. It’s distracting and it’s easier to make a mistake. So kill then loot.
Green BoE Item — everyone will be shown the “Need, Greed or Pass” window, and everyone may roll (need or greed) on green BoE. (If you move your mouse over the icon of the item in the Rolling screen, you’ll see “Bind on Equip” or “Bind on Pickup” written right on it, so you can’t say you didn’t know.) Need rolls automatically beat all greed rolls; so don’t roll need unless you will use the item.
Non-Green Items (blue, purple, etc.) and All BoP — Everyone clicks “Pass” (the ‘X’ in the upper right side of the rolling window works too) — no matter what, if the item is better than a green, or if it’s BoP, click pass. After everyone passes, there is a discussion about who will roll. This discussion is based on who wants/needs the item, and also on the experience of the higher level party mates (sometimes more experienced players have a better idea of who can best use an item). There are times when you may ask the group’s permission to roll on the item, even if it’s not the “most suitable item” for you (this decision is up to the group. Don’t fight it, if the group is leaning toward not wanting you to roll, be gracious and step aside).
Bosses and “Master Looter” Mode (at the discretion of the group/raid leaders) — It is recommended that when you are about to take on a boss (a unique mob), that the group/raid leader switch the looting setting to Master Looter. With the looting set to Master, what happens is only the group leader can give the item to a party member. After the discussions about who will roll, and after the /roll happens, then the leader will click on the item on the mob, and through a fancy little menu, they “route” the item into the bag of a selected party member. If you are the leader in a master looting situation — take your time. You don’t want to be the one to give a caster staff to the rogue by accident. Talk about a cheap shot... <smile> With Master Loot everyone needs to be able to trust the leader of the group.
Epic Set Items or Other “Specialty” Items (armor sets, plans, and patterns for epic items, etc.) — There are items in the high-end instances that are known as set items. These items, when worn/used together, give characters special bonuses, and are among the most coveted items in the game. If there is a particular item that you are looking for, a set that you are collecting, or a certain item that is known to drop from a boss in the instance, it’s a very good idea to mention this to your party mates before you start the instance. This way, it’s possible that your group will agree ahead of time that, if the item drops, you will get it.

Establishing loot rules and item/drop preference is especially important if you are in a mixed group (some guild-mates and some not), to be sure that everyone knows what the purpose of the run is. You don’t want someone who is really looking for a chance to roll on the beaststalker boots to get very upset when everyone says “here you go Yuna” when they drop. Make sure everyone knows if there are certain “givens” going in. In general, set items and other specialty items are handled in the same way that other blue or purple items are handled: Everyone pass, then discuss who will roll, then roll, then loot or master loot. Remember that you have to set Master Loot to “O” before you kill the boss, not after.

In general, I recommend the guildie who holds the highest guild rank to be the group leader (in terms of end-game instance/raids: guild officers will be the ones to make the group/raid invites). Of course, each group is autonomous and may set its own rules. Remember, it’s a game; we’re all here to have fun. <smiles>

The bottom line with these looting rules is communicate, be courteous, and do what you agree to do. When in doubt, ask a question; what we want is for everyone to know what’s going on, to not make any mistakes that they can’t take back, and to be courteous and gracious to our fellow players. It’s that simple. We hardly need say it in The Starshade Sentinels; but be respectful to each other. And you know the real secret is - the more you give the more you get.

You may also want to create a Looting Rules Macro

Copy and paste the text, below, into your macro editor in WoW. To create an in-game text macro, type /macro then click new, then select and icon, give it a name (like “GC Loot”, “P Loot” or “R Loot”) click ok, then type the appropriate text below in the text box in the macro screen (or copy and paste it from here) and click complete. Then you can drag the icon for this macro to your action bar, or create a keybinding for it in your main (press escape in game) menu under Key Bindings. This way it’s super easy to communicate to everyone what the rules are for a given run, and to get everyone to sign off on it. That way, no one can claim “I didn’t know the rules.”

Create a macro in-game for the following:

For guild chat — /g LOOTING RULES ~ Need or Greed on GREEN BoE items (only roll need if your character will use the item) ~ EVERYONE PASS on GREEN BoP, all BLUE/EPIC or BoP & discuss. No Ninjas!! All agree?

For party chat — /p LOOTING RULES ~ Need or Greed on GREEN BoE items (only roll need if your character will use the item) ~ EVERYONE PASS on GREEN BoP, all BLUE/EPIC or BoP & discuss. No Ninjas!! All agree?

For raid chat — /raid LOOTING RULES ~ Need or Greed on GREEN BoE items (only roll need if your character will use the item) ~ EVERYONE PASS on GREEN BoP, all BLUE/EPIC or BoP & discuss. No Ninjas!! All agree?

...and make sure everyone in the group acknowledges and agrees to the rules before you begin the run.

Hope this is helpful, and please direct guild mates to this page so everyone has a good understanding of how we all expect things to be done — especially Level 40-60. (It’s also good practice to do this at lower levels so that when you level up you are already on the same page as everyone else.)

Have fun and go loot an Epic that you really need! Nothing feels better than sticking with these looting rules and walking away with something that everyone is congratulating you for rolling on, much better than using that purple sword that you had to piss people off to get your paws on.