Should I raid with a guild that uses Loot Council?

[Deleted]

Never had issues with LC but the council in my guild was there just to decide who got to roll on certain items, after that it was still need before greed, never have I once seen the officers take an item just because.

[Nahela]

We've used Loot Council for years (since around Black Temple) with very few issues. It's simply vastly superior for any serious raiding where you want to ensure gear distribution promotes progression. We used to use DKP in classic and decided to keep around our DKP site/databases to use for loot tracking with loot council, this way there's always a publicly accessible history of loot distribution. This way we add an extra level of transparency to the system and ensure that we stay on track. We rotate people in and out of the council now and then, typically a handful or less.

Aside from poor leaders, which is a bigger issue regardless of loot system, there's really only 2 reasons you should shy away from Loot Council: 1) The guild isn't killing bosses regularly enough for loot to filter out, but this is really a bigger issue than loot. 2) You don't feel you perform well enough to not be last in line.

I find that a lot of people that take issue with a loot council system do so because they're just not good players. It sounds harsh, but rewarding poor play and poor attitudes with loot just doesn't get you anywhere as a group, which is the inherent flaw with any randomized or point system.

That all being said, if they tuned personal loot up to silly levels to try to push people into using it, I can actually see this becoming a possibility for serious groups due to the sheer amount of shared loot. If personal loot drops a raw amount of loot on average that's significantly greater than master loot, I can definitely see it being beneficial due to the ability to trade. Cloaks/Rings/Necks are universally shared, relics and trinkets aren't far behind, and any group with an imbalance in armor class (leather everywhere) is likely going to see more geared up players faster with fewer rotting pieces on bosses. We're still planning on using council for Mythic right now, but we're going to try Personal through Heroic to see how it shakes out mathematically.

[Baconeggcheese]

Entirely depends on leadership. Loot council is the best system when you have good leadership that makes objective / optimal decisions to get the most out of pieces for the guild to help progress. Loot council is the worst system when you have poor leadership who just uses it for selfish purposes.

My guild uses loot council and I wouldn't have it any other way, we have very strong leadership and that is reflected through decisions being made. Its up to you to find if you feel that way about a guild you join or if you feel taken advantage of.

[vindicatorx]

The only people who should worry about Loot council are the people who are generally terrible raiders. Undependable, poor attendance, generally rude people are the ones who get over looked if this is you, I guess you have a reason to not like it.

[shonist]

I have been out of the raiding scene for years and from what I am reading personal loot seems like a better overall gearing option for entire guilds but on my servers the only guilds recruiting are all loot council based. I am wondering if the Inner circle buddy system will be prevalent and something I should just walk away from.

I joined this one guild recently since all 5 of the only mythic guilds recruiting all used loot council but has anyone had alot of good experiences with loot council or should I just cut my ties? I did notice that the officers were all grouped together doing mythic modes seeming to exclude other members but that is natural to want to group up with your closer knit friends so that has no bearing on this issue. Just seems ripe for abuse over personal loot or DKP.

just get on their Inner circle buddy system
Join the guild and be a part of them, they will need you to be geared

[Re1ax]

The people that are saying loot council is so horrible are people that raid LFR/normal/heroic. If that is your goal, then yeah, personal loot is probably the easier option.

If you are applying to a decent mythic guild then you should have no problems with using loot council.

[Rezhial]

As others have said, loot council has always been and always will be the best way to distribute loot to a higher end raiding guild. Once you are a part of the core team, you will get geared relatively quickly, regardless of who your friends are.

[ThunderTaco]

We have been using Loot council for WoD and we never had an issue. We always try to take into account everyone's ilvl and stuff like :
- Will that make someone their 2p of 4P ?
- Is this item particularly good for this class ?
- Did anyone not loot for some time ?
Etc..etc...

Of course we are a group of friends and when we take PuGs we rand things they need so they don't feel cheated. So far it has been working well.

[thilicen]

Any guild worth their salt who care about progression should be able to distribute loot to help the team. Councils ensure the entire team will be upgraded in good time.

[vlobben]

Loot council comes in many forms. Some guilds distribute loot with an iron fist depending on what the raid needs (and nothing else), while others are more relaxed and prioritize things like who haven't received something in a long time and who is it the biggest itemlevel upgrade for. I wouldn't mind either approach tbh, the most important thing is that the guild is clear about which factors they based on their decision on.

[Deleted]

Gonna go out on a limb and say if you are concerned about not getting loot in a loot council system then you are applying to a guild that raids above your ability level.

This. If you're worried about not getting loot then chances are you're afraid you won't preform. Just find a slightly more casual / less kill level guild with a loot option you're more comfortable with. There's literally no shame in that so don't feel bad about it.

[bigbleach]

Loot Council is the best option tbh. The guild I ran in cats used it, I had 3 other officers along with me and we would appoint what pieces went where, to a certain extent. We treated tier tokens slightly different I guess? Like, we had myself as a war and 2 hunters. I opted to go last and we worked the other two in on who needed it more. For big drops like trinks or weps, we went with general performance, how often they missed, and who would be the greater benifiet with the item. A lot goes into who gets what, I wouldn't worry about it until you start seeing rarely dropped items going to newbs to the team or something like that. I know I'd be upset if I were waiting for a trinket to drop and a new member joins and within their first few raids gets the piece we haven't seen drop in a month. But hwy, that's just me. PL is only good for normal/heroic guilds.

[Echo of Soul]

It depends entirely on if the loot council is biased or not. The idea of loot council is to give upgrades to the player that need it the most. The risk with the system is that the council is made up of people and their votes. A player can get special treatment for being a friend of someone, better than another player or just someone they like.

[Kisuke42]

We have used loot council for 8 years.
If you are worried about abuse and not getting gear then don't raid.

If some one said this shit to me before they tried to join my guild they would never be considered for a single piece.

8 years? wow must have been nice to use loot counsil to get loot 1st for all these years

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I raided in TBC and Wrath and always been in guild using DKP.

Quitted for few years then came back in WoD and raided abit.
For some reason most guilds are using loot counsil now.
Not saying that loot counsil is bad but man, my experience with it was awful.

[thatguy181]

Loot Council can be perfectly fine, it can be a total crap show.


Seek clarification on how exactly loot is decided. Then throw questions at that (because there are flaws) to see if they're willing to adapt on the fly as needed. If they say tanks > healers > dps, but the group is hitting the enrage timer, wouldn't they try to favor DPS next time around? If it's by lowest iLvl, what's to stop someone from not even trying to gear up and just showing up with 810 gear and being the clear winner of the night? Etc.

I've ran with loot council, been part of the council, been part of the group, and ran without loot council. All forms of loot are open to crazy/absurd drama. With loot council, you have to ultimately trust the council. If they freak out from you even questioning them or seeking clarification, then that's your biggest red flag to get a new guild.

[ceall]

Eh? Such animosity for asking for an opinion. I have never dealt with loot council before and I have no choice IF I want to raid on my server as its the main method for gear distribution on my server. To someone whom has never dealt with this before I am only asking if people have had issues with the Loot council method. Your statement of your guildies not being considered for any loot because your mood is soured by a certain person without cause is were my angst comes from.

I wish I could delete this thread now. I never meant to start a thread that I now can see would easily slide down into troll territory.

Loot council Is no problem, if handled correctly. In my guild, we have a spreadsheet, where every member puts in his personal BiS list. According to that list the officers will plan who to take to which boss. If there's say 2 people competing for 1 item, the council will vote who will get it. If you don't get it, you get it next time.
Loot council is not for you, if you only care for yourself and want to be fully geared ASAP. In organized raiding, the council is for distributing for the greater good of the guild in order to progress further.
And even if you are in a loot council guild, there's still other members who may pass on items as the item is a bigger upgrade for someone else, even if he won the item via council. Not everyone is an a-hole.

[Nahela]

8 years? wow must have been nice to use loot counsil to get loot 1st for all these years

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I raided in TBC and Wrath and always been in guild using DKP.

Quitted for few years then came back in WoD and raided abit.
For some reason most guilds are using loot counsil now.
Not saying that loot counsil is bad but man, my experience with it was awful.

That's an issue with the people, not the system. Any guild that can't handle loot council almost certainly has much bigger issues to attend to.

[Sierra85]

is personal loot usable? why wouldn't guilds use personal these days anyways, isn't it technically better?

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

You just proved the OP's point here I hope you realize that. This is why loot council sucks because people like you love being able to decide who gets what gear. I wouldn't even think of raiding with you with that attitude.

Yup I am 100 percent aware. And you wouldn't even be thought of for raiding with us. Anyone who cares about gear distribution so much that they can't trust a loot system is not some one I have time for.
99 percent of people who have asked this question to me leave after the first 3 weeks of raiding.

[Maischou]

A few short experiences.

Never had any success with DKP for all the years I've played since vanilla. Rich players could grief newer players and roll on items just to keep them down. This is (theoretically) avoided with a council.

I've been in three guilds that uses loot council now, with a very high level of success. We determine distribution based on the value to eligible players, preferring to bring up the rear guard to get an across-the-board increase. It's not uncommon that a raider with us for the very first time ended up getting a warforged mythic drop just because it fit them the best. If we feel that we cannot make a clear determination, that the eligible players aren't making their cases strong enough, or the increase is simply equal, then we roll on it.
We further encourage players to hold on to the gear in the uncommon case that something even better shows up, so they can trade it over to the loser of the previous roll.

But I agree with the caveats. A loot council needs to be selfless or you might suffer from preferential treatment.