Jul 2, 2009

My raiding, looting and hybrid philosophy

WowGrrl asked why we raid?

I love teamwork. I lack the epeen to try and top numbers anywhere, whether it was tanking (look I can keep them ALL on me!), dpsing (I rolled a shadowpriest in The Burning Crusade for heaven's sake) or healing (hello, Discipline Priest here). I am in raids because I get a vicarious thrill in killing the monsters, in working with others (sometimes total unknowns, since I like to pug alot). That's why I'm there.

I don't consider myself a hard core player at all. I usually log into the game at least once every day, either for two hours after work or during the summer months for a majority of the day when not working/running errands. (I believe in making the most of my $15) I don't min/max everything I do. I have fun in the game, it's not a second job. But I treat people the way I would want to be treated, and I make sure fairness is always present where ever I am involved.

Looting is an integral part of raiding. Loot makes the killing of the bosses, the conquering of the instance, easier to accomplish and for those more focused on what a raid offers them, the loot is a personal reward for good performance, good attendance, etc.

When I led raids I figured it was the most fair approach to limit players to one upgrade. Those that hoarded their rolls and passed on obvious upgrades instead of letting the rolls fall where they may on an item and just dealing with chance on what loot will drop and what others will roll were not invited back to raid with me.

I've always played a hybrid class until recently (my low level alts don't really count) but I was a one-act hybrid in Burning Crusade. I only tanked on the druid. I only dpsed with the priest. Sure I picked up offspec gear when no one wanted it for their main spec, and I took my chances rolling on offspec gear with other offspec rollers. I think that approach has stayed with me. I had a raiding spot on my tank always. My shadowpriest was not so lucky because she wasn't awesome dps, but I didn't sweat that. I still managed to sweep through Mount Hyjal in a pug and get most of the way through Black Temple on the priest, too, also with a pug. (Okay so it was after the great nerf prior to WotLK getting released.)

My point is I do not see HOW THE FUCK dual specs has "dramatically changed" the raiding environment. Is it nice to have a flexible toon, on a night when you need a healer instead of a dps? Yes. But it does involve more work for the player to gear up all those specs. It naturally takes more time to gather 2 or even 3 complete sets of gear than 1. I do not believe hybrids, nor hybrids with dual specs, deserve access to more gear because of their flexibility. They raid the same number of times as others, with the same amount of lockouts. Their access should NOT be increased. There are other ways to gear up via crafting, heroics, and other raids out there.

If it hurts the raid because you're not giving this greater gear access to your more flexible toons, then you need to recruit more. And those with dual specs need to work harder on gearing their alternate specs.

That's just how I see it. I didn't get any special breaks on my druid in TBC and I won't give special breaks to dual specced hybrids in Wrath. They can pick a raiding spec. If it limits how often they raid because that spec is less needed, that was their choice. If they want to change specs in order to raid, they have to put the work in to gearing up that new spec.

My guild still hasn't worked out what is up with loot in ten mans. Still no hard written guidelines. (Hell I'm the one that copied and pasted the guidelines as they are now, which a raid leading priest violated.)

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