Raiding: Loot Distribution Systems Debate

[Zuziza]

This topic pretty much hijacked heriana's post asking about class stats with the intention of starting a loot council, so I figured I'd try starting a thread where it'd be obvious that this the topic and the other one can get back to stats. I will update the list of systems if anyone mentions one that I forgot to include or didn't know enough about.

Keep in mind, the Pros and Cons in this list are possibilities with the basic system in mind. There are many modifications you can make to a system to avoid some of the Cons or undermine the Pros. They are highlighted because they can be dealt with so long as the creator(s) of a particular system get creative.

Basic Loot Distribution Systems

Need Before Greed Rolls: This is the same as the system you would get in the Random Dungeon Finder. Any class/spec combo able to use an item is allowed to Need Roll, and all others are expected to Greed. This can be done by just leaving the looting options in a raid as Need Before Greed or by switching to Master Looter and manually calling for rolls and assigning gear. Enforcement is often through immediate demands to enchant and gem the item (or equip it if it is BoE). Punishments for violations vary by group. This system is often used for casual guilds or PuGs.
Pros: Corruption is easily detected and highly unlikely. Everyone has a chance for gear regardless of seniority. No tracking is required.
Cons: Shard and AH ninjas can still expoit the Need rolls. How much a player needs an item or how appropriate an item is for a specific class compared to another in the same armor/role is never taken into account. The system is based solely on RNG.
Links: Wowpedia Article

Loot Council: A council is made up of 2 or more people in a guild (usually officers and the GM, though it could be as many as the entire guild) and each person in the council casts a vote for who each piece goes to in a raid. Exact rules about voting, ties, and standards vary from guild to guild, so it is highly customizable. This is immensely difficult to do with pugs and is usually for guild runs only.
Pros: Good for small groups with high trust in each other. Gear can be assigned in order to best benefit raid progression as well as to gear exceptional players.
Cons: Susceptible to corruption among those with a council vote. May give a feeling or create of culture of cliques around particular council members. Bad for any run with a PuG person.
Links: Wowpedia Article, Curse.com Search Results for LC Addons

Dragon Kill Points (DKP): DKP is a "currency" awarded to guild members, usually based on attendance, hours raided, boss kills, exceptional performance, etc. Drops can be priced with a certain number of points or left up to bid. Raiders are allowed to bid as much DKP on any item that drops and it is entirely up to the raider to know their class/stats. It is possible to include bid caps/minimums, overrides by the GM/officers, and resets at decided intervals (usually content patches like 4.2 and expansions). DKP can also be used to purchase items from a Guild Bank if that is included in its design, with items at a set price. DKP is traditionally not awarded for contributions outside of raiding, since the history of the system revolves around boss kills; this can be modified, but usually is not. There are websites and addons available to manage this sort of system. There are many variations of DKP, usually named for the addon/site that you can use, though the basic structure remains the same. A log for points is highly recommended, either through an addon or site.
Pros: Quick, efficient. Points are earned solely through raiding. Easily handled, even in large guilds.
Cons: Can easily favor long time guildees, regardless of raiding experience. Other raid support (buying/farming mats for feasts, cauldrons, etc.) is typically not taken into account. How much of an upgrade an item is for a particular person is not taken into account.
Links: Wowpedia Article features links to websites for DKP management, Curse.com Search Results for DKP Addons

Suicide Kings (Original): All members in the guild are listed, either randomly or according to merits decided by the GM or officers. There are no points. If an item drops, the person who wants it and is nearest to the top gets the item and is also moved to the bottom of the list. The most variation in rules occurs when the original listing is decided by merits (usually seniority), but it has no effect on the system once the process begins. New members can begin at the bottom of the list, be given a ranking by officers/GM, or get a random roll to determine their spot. Rules can vary around particular stats, hiatus, attendance, etc. A log is required, but easy to maintain. A PuG person can either roll into the list for the raid, or an exception can be made for the whole run or just the person (see Modifications below).
Pros: A gear "Round Robin" that allows for each person in a raid to be able to get gear in one run. Easy for new guildees to understand. Good for farm bosses. Easy tracking.
Cons: It doesn't take stat priorities or how much of an upgrade an item is into account. Can be frustrating for very large guilds with long lists or with multiple raid groups.
Links: MMO-Champ Forum Thread: Guide to Suicide Kings, Wowpedia Article, Curse.com Search Results for SK Addons

DKP Suicide Kings Style: The same as original DKP, but with a twist: In order to bid on any item, you must spend ALL of your DKP (thus working similarly to the list of original Suicide Kings). While a minor change, this creates a far different culture around gear in a guild compared to one that uses the traditional DKP system because attendance and raiding time have a great effect on ranking in the list. This style often has few or no DKP resets, overrides by GMs and officers are less frequent, and caps/minimums are unneeded. Any website/addon available for DKP can be used for this type. A log is required, usually through an addon or website.
Pros: Ranking is earned through raiding. Long time guildees have far fewer opportunities to outbid a new member. Simple to track.
Cons: A raider may have to pass on a viable upgrade in order to ensure getting a BiS. Missing raids due to real life issues can mean a drastic change in ranking regardless of skill/effort/support.
Links: See DKP and Suicide Kings Links.

Effort Points Group Points (EPGP): A very mathy system where both Effort Points (awarded for attendance, progression, grunt work, etc.) and Group Points (winning an item, getting mats from the GB, etc.) are compared as a ratio to decide which person who wanted an item gets it. Points are awarded based on values decided by the GM/officers. A decay system can also be built in to avoid overinflation of points. This is different from DKP because points only increase (except in decay systems, though decay is equal for everyone in the guild) and is highly focused on the give and take between a guild and its members beyond just raids and boss kills. The EP awards must be explicitly lined out in order to avoid point stacking through non-raiding means. An addon or website is highly recommended for this system in order to be transparent; it gets difficult to manage without one with higher numbers of raiders.
Pros: Reflects the contributions of raiders to the guild and the raid beyond killing a boss. Easy to track with an addon/site. Good for casual raiding guilds.
Cons: Very difficult to manage with large guilds without a site/addon simply due to the amount of number crunching. Points can still be exploited through support EP (if a member has a lot of gold, they can buy mats for feasts and such and put it in the GB to inflate their score, thus "buying their EP"). Can be difficult for new members to understand rankings. Gear is not assigned by who needs it most, but by score.
Links: Wowpedia Article also features links to websites to manage EPGP, Curse.com Search Results for EPGP Addons

Ni Karma: A half-way mark between DKP and Suicide Kings. Karma Points are awarded in a similar manner, but only half of your KP are spent when you win an item. A threshold is set that must be passed in order to win (meaning you must have 50 more KP than the person below you); if it is within the threshold, a /roll (1-100) is done and added to the total KP and the one with the highest wins the item. The /roll number may or may not be permanently added to their KP, though it can be just for determining tie breakers. Decay systems, taxes, caps/minimums, and so on can be added to this system and it can be easily tracked with a DKP addon or site. A log is highly recommended to track points.
Pros: Lessens the pressure to hoard points for a BiS item. Sidegrades are more likely to be taken than sharded, resulting in a better tuned raid.
Cons: Can be overkill for small groups (10mans) or farm bosses, where there is less competition for gear. More complex to track/maintain rankings. Gear not assigned by need/suitability.
Links: Wowpedia Article (Curse.com Addon has not been updated since Cata, and will not be linked.)

Gold DKP (GDKP)/Cash: Despite the use of DKP in the name, the system is simply based off of auctioning all pieces for game gold. Auctions can be done after each drop or at the end of the night (with the 2 hour trade window in mind). All the gold gained from the auctions is tracked for the night, and the total is split evenly among all the raiders when the night is done (so someone who purchased an item will always get some gold back). Bids must be stated in raid chat for everyone to see, and the total in the pot can be tracked by everyone in the raid. A log is required only for the duration of each raid, but must be updated immediately.
Pros: Wards off ninjas since the gold is required prior to receiving the item. Players are likely to stay in the raid to receive their cut at the end. Corruption is easily detected and reported. Good for PuGs and farm bosses. You can make gold and get experience even if you don't get gear.
Cons: May encourage gold buying (for $ money). No priority of MS over OS. A bad option for attempting to gear a poor, undergeared toon. May be unsuited for guilds. May attract unskilled players. No attention to suitability of gear to class/spec.
Links: Wowpedia Article, Elitist Jerks Forum Thread on GDKP, GDKPd Addon on Curse.com (will not start download for you)

Wishlist: Each raider creates a wishlist of what items they want from each boss and rank them. When an item drops, it goes to whomever ranked the item highest on their list. If there is a tie, it is left up to /roll or a predetermined tiebreaker (temp. loot council, an improptu deal, etc.). Guildees can take initiative prior to the raid to make deals with others who want the same drops. When an item is received, the ranking for the other items does not change (so if a #1 item is received, the others don't move up; #2 is now the highest rank). Wishlists should be recorded/logged and made visible to everyone in the guild. Rankings should be reset as new tiers/raids come out, since BiS items will be changed. Wishlists should be allowed to change for patch/hotfix related reasons (such as stat priorities changing, tier being more/less worthy, etc.). While this works similarly to a guild-wide loot council, the ability to make deals between raiders allows for a lot of give and take between members, and priority lists help avoid corruption. Since the raiders themselves work out who gets what, there is very little fuel for drama.
Pros: Works well in small guilds. Well focused for consistent raiding guilds (multiple days a week, multiple raids, every week). Little to no drama over who gets what first. Encourages raiders to know their class and stat priorities.
Cons: Unlikely to work for PuGs. Can be very time-consuming with large raids/guilds. Does not take attendance/effort/skill into account. A lack of logs could allow for corruption with the loot master.
Links: None yet.
This addition is still a WiP, if you have details or experiences with this type of LDS, please give some insight. =)

If you want to elaborate on a particular type of system or details that are not included and you want me to add it to the list, please clearly state it. If can be difficult to tease apart what is a pro/con for a particular type and what is a system that wasn't yet explained for first time readers if the discussion gets heated. The ones listed are easily researched if you want more details.

Modifications

Many of the listed systems can be modified in similar ways. The ones listed above are more of a "pure" or "hybrid" system which are easily distinguished from each other, which can be tweaked with modifications listed below.

Point Taxes/Decay: A set amount of your points (% or a set number) are subtracted at regular intervals. This can be nightly, weekly, monthly, or by boss kills. The purpose is to avoid high inflation in points-based systems.

Point Maximums/Minimums: These can be applied to bids, purchases, or just having points in general. The purpose is to avoid overly benefiting long time guildees and to avoid pointless bid wars.

Tiers: Most easily seen in Need Before Greed, a tier in a system means an upper tier will always win over a lower tier. This can be used according to role (healers/tanks before DPS), time in guild (ranked raiders before trial members), and raiding amount (ranked/consistent raiders before benched/often absent players). Tiers can also be assigned to bids (50% of your points, 100%, etc.) when a system does not have a maximum/minimum restriction. Tiers can be applied to systems whether points are used or not.

Overrides/Vetos: Usually implemented in points system for the off chance that an item that is immensely hard to get or otherwise rare would go to someone that is somehow less worthy of it than another. It usually allows for a GM or a group of officers to use their authority to temporarily use loot council and appoint the item to a particular raider. A veto by the GM can also fulfill the same purpose or even prevent it.

Requirements: Requirements must be met before a player can even be considered for loot, and they can be implemented in any loot system, whether for PuGs or guilds. A DPS role requirement in a PuG (traditionally a VOA style PuG) would be a minimum amount of DPS total, or damage % to adds (to ensure switching). A typical guild requirement may be dues (whether in mats or gold) deposited in the GB weekly or monthly. The purpose is usually to avoid carrying players who would otherwise put in no effort to raid or support the guild.

Exceptions: Exceptions are when the set loot system is ignored for a particular run or player. A run where this is used may be an old-school raid done just for the achievement, and the loot is switched to in-game rolls just because the loot is not that important (but someone may have a strong attachment to an old drop they never got). A situation where a player may get an exception could be ANY non-roll system with one or more PuG person. There are many ways to handle such a situation:

• The PuG player and the guildee that would have otherwise won the item do a /roll to determine the winner.
• The PuG player and anyone in the guild who wanted the item do a /roll. If anyone from the guild wins the roll, they defer to their LDS, even if the guildee that won the roll does not win the item. If the PuG wins the roll, they get the item. (This allows the PuG to have the same chance of winning that they would have in any other raid, but without a 50% chance of winning every item they want.)
• The PuG player must buy all the drops they want with game gold.

--

The purpose of this thread is to facilitate discussion on what systems you have experienced, your impression of whether or not they are fair, possibilities for abuse, and what type of guild a particular type is suited for. The more details in your argument, the easier it is to understand your point of view. Each loot distribution process has a lot of variables that guilds customize, so what may be true for one guild's system may not be for another's. You are fully welcome to share your experiences and opinions.

[Angarin]

Add epgp up there. I dont know exactly how it works but its based on priority system. In my guild every boss kill, wipe on new bosses & being on time and staying for the whole raid gets you a # of epgp. When you get new gear for current raids your gp goes up. Your priority rating is based on the difference between your ep and gp. So say I have 25000 ep and 5000 gp. My difference is 20000. My friend has 30000 ep and he has 6000 gp. His difference is 24000. Because his difference is bigger he gets a priority.

So say a new raider joins the guild. His ep after the first night of raiding might be 8000 and his gp might be 2000. He has a 6000 difference, he's way lower than any of the core raiders. While he's always going to be lower unless theres decay. If other people are getting gp he's not, so his priority rating is going up while theres is slowly going down and with decay goes down faster. This balances out and gives priority to those who deserve it.

[Ragekitty]

I wouldn't even begin to try and label our loot system. We have two main guild ranks: raider and trial. Raider ranks will be allowed open roll on anything that is considered a "Need" roll. Trials can roll, but their rolls will be trumped by any raider who rolls. Off-spec pieces ("Greed") are open to both raider and trials, with each rolls having equal weight. But we have a Master Looter who is pretty on top of what classes need what secondary stats. I guess it's a hybrid of Need Before Greed and Loot Council, but it's pretty awesome.

I've been in guilds that use DKP. I don't like it at all. If two pieces of loot drop from one boss (and with bosses being loot pinatas like they are, this happens a lot), you have to blow all your DKP for one item and then watch as the other piece goes to someone else for an off-spec? Maybe it was just a fail version of DKP that was used, but it left a bad taste and I've found myself resistant to DKP-style systems.

Never used Suicide Kings but that sounds equally horrible as DKP.



Maybe I'm just a bit spoiled but I really like the way we do loot. It works for us. There's no drama ever, except for QQing about terrible /rolls. You're still rewarded for being a valuable raider (because of your rank) and you can easily get multiple pieces from one boss if needed.

[Sunseeker]

I've used all of those systems and we currently use a mix system, which I'll explain below. I've generally felt that "Need before Greed" is the most balanced and fair system and least prone to corruption or elitism. Every time I've been in a DKP system it almost universally resulted in at least one "long time" raider getting everything, even things they can't use or don't need just because they've raided every time for a year and the new guys don't get any sort of "introductory" points. Loot councils has also tended to be bad experiences, generally the GM's friend, girlfriend or the guild "elites" get gear even when someone else could use it much more than them. I've never called it suicide kings, I've generally called it a ladder system, and all in all, it's been the fairest of all systems outside of Need/Greed.

Currently, our system is a mix of the above. People who raid regularly get priority over people who don't, simply because if you're not reliable, why should we gear you up? Our "loot council" is everyone in the raid, who talk quickly and figure out who most needs it in the group at the time. We need/greed because a lot of us are full on main-spec gear, or close to, so we let people gear up their offs instead of simply DEing every gear that's not MS.

Generally we've found it works out well, people who need gear get it, people who want gear that noone needs gets it. People who raid more often tend to get a larger share, and then in turn wind up not needing gear which allows more people to get gear. And if you've already gotten some gear in the raid, you're lower on the ladder than someone else who you'd be competing with for gear.

All in all, it works. And the only stuff we end up sharding is really shammy mail....because we have no shammy! Like with politics, the purer the system, the more often it fails to function properly, that's just been my general experience in WoW.

[blacksheep]

When I was in a big, progression raiding guild, we used DKP and it was quick, dirty, and efficient. I also hated it.

I ran my own small guild for two years and used a basic loot council. We had very little drama over loot, which I place entirely on the close-knit structure, friendly atmosphere, and casual nature of the guild. I would not run loot council in any other sort of guild.

I was ran a larger guild that used EPGP, which was fairly effective, but I still think the guild was too large and competitive for that sort of system. The reason DKP works in big, competitive guild is because it is a quick and clean effort = reward system. EPGP didn't end up working overall because, perhaps only in this particular guild, individuals wanted greater reward for themselves, instead of a more even distribution for the guild overall. EPGP also tends to be ridiculously complicated, and so most people don't want or care to keep track or understand it, which causes further frustration.

I really liked EPGP, but once again, I don't think I'd use it in a guild with a contrasting mentality.

Edit: I also used Suicide Kings at the start of BC, which was also efficient but still pretty obnoxious. Being frozen in the queue because I missed one raid due to an emergency - and therefore missing out on a much-needed upgrade the next week - left a bitter taste in my mouth.

[Deleted]

DKP, unlike LC has no favourites / best mates.

Tho a bad DKP system will see ppl passing on upgrades as they are waiting for a certain item.

[Tziva]

Ni Karma

In 25mans, we used Ni Karma, a points based system that rewarded people for attendance and boss kills. You earn points for being "on time," for each hour in the raid, for staying until the end, and for each time the raid downs a new boss (ie, are present for progression and not just farming).

If you want an item, you "bid" your karma points. If you have more than 50 higher than the next bidder, you win the item uncontested. If other people are within 50 points of you, you all /roll and your rolls are added to your points, and the person with the highest total wins.

In all cases, whenever you win something, it subtracts half your karma points. This means that people who hoard their points longer may have a higher chance of winning, but they also spend/lose more. It also means that even if you buy a lot of stuff, you still have the ability to lock out subs and new people if you're willing to spend points.

If no one wants to spend points (which is common for minor upgrades or offset items), you can bid without bonus. This functions like a straight roll off and no points are spent for the winner. Subs can participate this way. Pointsless rolls automatically always lose to legitimate bidders.

The main advantage of that system is that, unlike systems like DKP where we were sharding things that were a minor upgrades just because no one wanted to spend points on it, everything that is legitimately useful to a player goes to use. If no one wanted to spend points on an item, they still had a chance to win the open roll. It also gives subs and new members a chance at loot (which is important in the raiding alliance where I've used it, as we rely on those people to run), while still preventing them from taking the best upgrades from players who genuinely wanted it. There are a few minor disadvantages (like any system), namely that there is nothing inherent in the system to stop the same person from winning a ton of things, there is a degree of randomness, you need to run an addon if you want to use the system smoothly and efficiently, and it's complicated to explain for new people.

Overall, I really liked the system for 25mans. We used it with a "Don't Be A Dick" policy (which I explained explicitly on the forums) and in general people were very respectful about passing on loot that was a bigger upgrade for other people and being real teamplayers.

It's way unnecessary and overkill in a 10man. We now use Need/Greed with some minor adjustments.

[Mudkiper]

DKP, unlike LC has no favourites / best mates.

Tho a bad DKP system will see ppl passing on upgrades as they are waiting for a certain item.

If theres favourite or best mates then the LC is too small or corrupt and won't work. A good LC will always be the best way to distribute loot, closely followed by EPGP.

[TobyKenobi]

A few pros and cons for you

Loot Counsel:
Pros:
-Loot Counsels can determine what is most beneficial to the guild. For example an item may be a larger upgrade for the off tank than the main tank, so the loot counsel could decide to give the item to off tank. Alternatively, a player could have excellent raid attendance, but unlucky rolls, so the counsel could choose to reward that player.

Cons:
-Loot Counsels are subject to favoritism, and the Counsel may have a tendency unfairly distribute gear based on friendships and relationships.

Need Before Greed
Pros:
-Gives all guild members and equal chance to roll on a piece of equipment they need.
-Suitable for guilds that use 'pickup' players to fill out their roster.

Cons:
-Random Number Generators are Random Number Generators. One player could frequently win rolls on gear that would be more beneficial to other players.
-The Random Number Generator also doesn't take class specific stats into account (e.g. a piece with a lot of mastery may have more benefit for one class than another).

[Nah]

I've used various DKP, EPGP, and Need Before Greed systems in the past, and each of them has had their pros and cons. My guild currently uses LC, and while there is some inherent risk of bias on loot decisions, most of my guildmates are more focused on boss kills than on who has the most 372s. 25-mans offer vast quantities of loot per boss, so any loot disputes appear to be extremely rare so far.

LC would have been a nightmare in some of my past guilds, so I can understand why many people hate the very thought of using it. It's certainly not for everyone.

[coldfiredragon]

My guild uses a 2 Tiered DKP system.

Tier 1 is Raiders who have 75%+ attendance in the last 30 days.
Tier 2 is Raiders with less then 75% attendance and recruits.

Tier 1 bids override Tier 2. So if say the head token drops off nef, and a T1 raider bids 10 DKP and a T2 bids 100 DKP the Tier 1 wins and gets the piece.

I happen to like this system because it rewards people who are there, we raid 4 days a week and it is surprising how many people only show up on Tuesday, so its nice to not see the people who are never there taking gear from the people who are there consistently.

[Solia]

GDKP (Gold DKP): Open bidding system for all drops, winner determined by highest bid regardless of spec/class. Gold is collected in a pot and pot is split evenly at the end of the run. Works well for pugging and players are protected via the anti-scamming policy is RL makes rules clear in chat.

Pros:
Gold is split, so even if nothing you wanted dropped or you didn't win an item, you get a share of gold in the end for your time and effort. Favors people needing an item as oppose to those who want for side-grade or off spec since one must pay as oppose to just rolling for it. Zero sum system at the end of each raid (aside from some rounding.)

Cons:
Does not work well in 10 mans and limited loot bosses (VoA/BH/Ony25.) System favors the richer players, encourages gold buying, and fails if the raid is not balanced between geared player and buyers and competing bidders.

[Zuziza]

GDKP (Gold DKP): Open bidding system for all drops, winner determined by highest bid regardless of spec/class. Gold is collected in a pot and pot is split evenly at the end of the run.

Pros:
Gold is split, so even if nothing you wanted dropped or you didn't win an item, you get a share of gold in the end for your time and effort. Favors people needing an item as oppose to those who want for side-grade or off spec since one must pay as oppose to just rolling for it.

Cons:
Does not work well in 10 mans and limited loot bosses (VoA/BH/Ony25.) System favors the richer players, encourages gold buying, and fails if the raid is not balanced between geared player and buyers and competing bidders.

if you could elaborate a bit more on this system, it'd be great. Is the gold similar to DKP, but only awarded for that night? Is it gold ala game gold, and each item must be purchased as though it was on the AH? Contingencies for a raider sitting for a particular boss would also be helpful.

I'll add it once I know I can for sure explain it in the OP.

[parkerlynne]

My guild is a mixed DKP system (but I've used EPGP and Loot Council in earlier guilds). Our max DKP bids cost either 50% if you are lower rank or 33% if you are a higher rank, 5dkp if a min bid, and MS always beats OS.

Examples :

Piece A is up for bids. Member 1 has 50 dkp and bids max (25) but Raider 2 has 60 dkp and bids max as well. Raider 2 will win but only pay 20 dkp since he has a higher rank.

2 Piece Bs are up for bids. Raiders 3 and 4 bid min (5) but Raider 5 bids max cuz it's the last piece he needs. Despite the fact that he had no max competition, he will still have to pay 1/3 of his dkp while 3 & 4 roll off to see who gets the other piece for 5 dkp.

You never really know how much someone has, as it is not updated anywhere we can see it. Best luck you can have is doing backwards math to see if you got screwed or not. Also promotions can be quite arbitrary. My guild has been running raids 3 nights a week since the first week in January ( 15-16 weeks I believe) and I have missed 2 nights in all of that (officers notified of both) and yet I am still lower tier ranked. I was told well over a month ago that I'd be getting a promotion that never occurred and so that makes my gearing up more difficult as I have to spend more points than my competition.

I don't like this system (or EPGP) for gearing up OS. I was asked to OS Tank back in wrath but they still wanted me to pay points for my tank gear and that would slow down getting my MS DPS gear.

Another con, being able to boost your points. Donations of gold/mats/etc to the GB often result in additional points in the DKP/EPGP system. People who have more gold or farm time can boost themselves quite a bit.

Back in the past even farther would be the LC days. We didn't clear much current content but when we did, an officer would link the piece and everyone interested had to link what they would be replacing so whoever needed it the most, got it. It was very visible for the most part. I remember getting the str dps ring off Beasts in TOC on my very first raiding night

[BossManRoth]

Effort Points Group Points (EPGP): A very mathy system where both Effort Points (awarded for attendance, progression, grunt work, etc.) and Group Points (winning an item, getting mats from the GB, etc.) are compared as a ratio to decide which person who wanted an item gets it. Points are awarded based on standards decided by the GM/officers. A decay system can also be built in to avoid overinflation of points. This is different from DKP because points only increase (except in decay systems, where decay is equal for everyone in the guild) and is highly focused on the give and take between a guild and its members. An addon or website is highly recommended for this system in order to be transparent; it gets complicated very quickly.
Pros: Reflects the contributions of raiders to the guild and the raid.
Cons: Very difficult to manage with large guilds simply due to the amount of number crunching.

its not very hard when you use the addon correctly. My guild uses it and i run it mostly, so its very easy and effective.

[Mudkiper]

if you could elaborate a bit more on this system, it'd be great. Is the gold similar to DKP, but only awarded for that night? Is it gold ala game gold, and each item must be purchased as though it was on the AH? Contingencies for a raider sitting for a particular boss would also be helpful.

I'll add it once I know I can for sure explain it in the OP.

http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t77416-g...d_your_server/

[Tharkkun]

We run Loot Council / EPGP hybrid system with 5 people, 3 whom are not officers. This insures you won't have a tie.

We use EPGP (reloaded) with the EPGP lootmaster mod for rolling on loot. Every item is worth 1. This allows us to track raid attendance to drops given so we can distribute loot somewhat evenly. We also reset the numbers with each new tier of content and allow 0 cost items when we return to old content.

We have a couple people designated for offspec priority who actually use their offspec in a raid. We call it swing spec. This means people like warrior tanks get a priority on dps items over say a Paladin healer with a ret offspec. They would never get priority over mainspec dps. Others get to greed roll against the raid. The mod does the rolls for you and is visible for everyone.

[Solia]

if you could elaborate a bit more on this system, it'd be great. Is the gold similar to DKP, but only awarded for that night? Is it gold ala game gold, and each item must be purchased as though it was on the AH? Contingencies for a raider sitting for a particular boss would also be helpful.

I'll add it once I know I can for sure explain it in the OP.

http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t77416-g...d_your_server/

is a great guide to get started on, but the mod that it mentions is no longer updated/working. Newer mods have been a pain so far, we have just been manually doing the bid via /raid chat and keeping track of it on paper (or Excel.)

Yes, it is in-game gold that people (should) have. We generally don't allow swap outs as it slows the raid down (the bidding process can add quite a bit of time to a run) but obviously we can make exceptions if 1 person and he's willing to pay a lot. ATM, if we cannot carry the raid through a boss (Twilight Council the previous week) we switch it to 10 man, kill it and reform the group to kill Cho'Gall.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2353276042 <--- our run from last week. YMMV depending on how progress your server is.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2325612960 <--- previous week's with winning bids

[FireBorne]

If you have a mature adult guild you can go loot council and have zero drama

[Zuziza]

Since the OP is now a bit fleshed out, I'll give what my personal experiences are:

NBG: Works best in pugs from what I've seen, and can cause a lot of drama if it's a BiS item in a guild run. For example, Muradin's Spyglass dropped in a 10man reg run in ICC while farming. A very unlucky mage never saw it drop before, but I won the roll (as an spriest). We both needed it because it was awesome for her compared to her 232 and I still had a fail iLvl 200 trinket from Naxx (because I had literally failed every trinket roll since).

Loot Council: Working with that in my current guild, and I feel like some of the decisions are unfair, but there also hasn't been any incidents of loot whores. I'm DPS, so much of the spirit gear goes to healers first, but I have won a few items that were BiS for me over healers as well. I think it very much depends on having a competent and trustworthy council.

DKP Suicide Kings: I worked with this in a former guild and it was a bit of a pain if any guildee went AWOL for a while but had a million points. It did help a bit against hoarding points, but it could have been better IMO.