My Response To Those That Called Me A Ninja

I appreciate all the comments to my last post about my alleged ninja-looting incident. I say alleged because there are arguments for both sides of the issue. But before I respond to everyone, let me clarify a few things.

There are a few things in my last post that I left out. Some of it was intentional and some if it wasn’t, but I feel everyone touched on the main points of the issue.

For All Intents And Purposes

What was my actual intent on rolling on loot? It was with the intent to gear myself up. I want another Ulduar geared healer. It was not my intent to acquire loot and pass it on.

Gnomer brought up a good point I hadn’t thought about regarding my intent and if I rolled “after [my] guildy’s roll was beaten”. I can gladly say that I rolled first out of everyone including pugs. It was the last item of the night and a few people had already started leaving the raid while probably half the raid had already ported back to Dalaran.

One fact I intentionally left out of the story was that I gave the item to my guildie after the raid. In fact, I had already left raid and we were both in Dalaran. The raid was over. The reason I ended up giving it to her was due to a playful complaint about her roll after the fact.

OK, so this exonerates me, right? Some of you might say yes, because my intent was good. Others will still argue that if I was going to pass, then the pass goes to the next in line. I don’t get to arbitrarily pick who I pass it to which D defined as a loot council, only I’m a council of one.

Rationalizing

No one ever wants to feel like they are in the wrong. It’s not a great feeling, so when we find ourselves in the wrong position it’s human nature to try to rationalize our way out of it. You could argue that my last post was doing that and I can argue that some of my readers were rationalizing that I’m not exactly a ninja. But the majority of you agreed that I did ninja the item.

Firespirit stated “Yes, guildies come first, but even if your only pug 1 or 2, that raid would most likely not have happened without them.” And I agree that guildies come first, but as stated this wasn’t a guild run. I would disagree that the lack of 1 or 2 pugs in a Naxx25 given my guilds gear and abilities would have stopped the run. We weren’t missing necessary tanks or healers, but I would hope that my readers are fair-minded enough to not use that as an argument.

Just because you could do it without pugs, doesn’t make stacking the odds against them fair. And I have seen that rationalization in game before. The pugs couldn’t do it without all of us so they get to live with it is almost a direct quote. Fortunately that officer quit my former guild a short time later.

To: Those That Called Me A Ninja

My response to you is: Busted! Let’s be honest. I knew the answer before I even started writing the post, but I also know it’s a somewhat controversial topic and would make a great post.

Some of you didn’t call me a ninja because I didn’t set out with that intention. And I definitely appreciate that. Even winning the last item I intended on keeping it, trading it in, and gearing up. Due to a flippant comment made in fun, I decided to pass it to a guildie. The raid was over, the pugs had left, end of story. But is it?

The raid hadn’t been over that long. All I had to do was scroll up to see the names of those that rolled, find the second highest, and pass it to the pug. But as Firespirit said, “guildies come first”. So why would I pass it to a pug instead of keeping it? I wouldn’t. I doubt any of you would either. But that’s not the point for that side of the argument. Even if you attempt to argue that the guy went offline your argument falls short since the 2 hour trade window is game time**, so you can still trade as long as you don’t gem, enchant, or stay online for more than 2 hours.

And as it turns out my guildie actually realized after the fact that she had a better helm and gave me the token back. So in the end the net result was nothing. No one lost unfairly on loot. But that doesn’t make for a good post.

Be Prepared

To be honest, I don’t pug very often so I never thought this situation would present itself to me. As such I wasn’t prepared. After the raid I decided to be nice and give a friend the token and it wasn’t until after I did that I realized perhaps that wasn’t the right thing to do. But now I’ve had time to think about it, this is what I will be doing:

If it is an upgrade, I’m going to roll. If I win and something happens that makes me decide to pass, it goes to the next highest roll. If it is not an upgrade, then I don’t roll.

• I win several items and I stop rolling. No one rolls on an item so I do, but then someone changes their mind and rolls.
• I roll and then 15 other people roll. I will often consider withdrawing my roll, but I usually lose anyway.
• If a lot of people roll on an item, I usually don’t even bother. Seriously. I want loot as much as the next guy, but it’ll drop again so…meh. This is probably why I’ve never completed a full tier set…ever.

This still leaves one little issue that I’m extremely curious about what you all think. Depending on the who the 2nd highest roll is would definitely influence whether I pass or not. For a guildie? Sure. A pug? No. Is that unfair? Logic tells me no, but something in my gut says yes.

And whatever you decide to do is up to you. It’s not for me to judge. I’m just advising you to be prepared because if you’re like me, you will feel guilty after the fact.

*Following the poll results didn’t really help me decide, so I’m doing three simultaneously because I’m bored.
**At least if I’ve observed it correctly. I’ve logged in the next day to enchant an item and gotten the warning.

New Dungeon Loot Feature: The New Ninja Feature?

Patch 3.2 introduced the following new feature:

New Dungeon Loot Feature

Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.

When I was first made aware of this feature, I predicted this would allow for a new form of ninjalooting in pug groups; mainly the acquiring of gear by someone who doesn’t need it in order to pass it to someone that does. This would in effect give someone double the chance of acquiring gear.

Now I’m sure that most of us have run into this issue and either made our own decisions on how to handle it or watched others make a decision. It finally happened to me.

Last night while healing for the first time on my druid and helping finish a Naxx25 run the chance to trade loot came into play. This was our weekly Naxx25 with a majority of guildies and a few pugs thrown in to fill things out. Understand that, with only a couple of exceptions where I purchased gear on the AH, if it drops in there I need it. We had a trash ring drop which I rolled on and won. Mach also rolled. No one else did. So I gave it to him.

Why? I have 5 level 80′s. This is my 4th healer. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll live if I don’t get loot fast.

So I gave the ring to Mach. Big deal. No one else rolled so no skin off anyone’s nose, right? Right. But later at Kel’Thuzad I was lucky to win the helm token out of maybe 4 rolls. If I remember correctly, and maybe I don’t because Mikata says I’m old, then the second and third rolls were pugs and the fourth roll was a guildie. There might have been another roll in there, I can’t remember. So what did I do?

Well, the title wouldn’t make much sense if I hadn’t done something that might be considered controversial. After winning the roll, I whispered my guildmate and told her I was going to give her the token.

Question: Did I ninja loot?

Consider your answer right now, because I want to see if your answer changes when I present you with a couple of scenarios.

Scenario #1

I’m ubergeared. I’m completely decked out in Ulduar gear. It’s painfully obvious that I need no Naxx gear. I roll on an item that drops and win, but I decide to give it to a friend a little later even though that friend rolled and did not come in second. I didn’t want the item, but I didn’t want a random pug to get it either when the run is primarily a guild run with the intent to gear up some of our own undergeared members.

Scenario #2

I’m undergeared. Anything that drops in the raid will be an upgrade. I roll on an item and win, but I give it to a friend that rolled, but didn’t win. I want the item, but I know my friend does too and this just happens to be an alt that I’m not too worried about. However, the friend didn’t come in second on the roll and wouldn’t have won it if I hadn’t rolled. But I rationalize to myself that the pugs wouldn’t have gotten the item either way, because even if I hadn’t given it to my friend, I would have kept it myself.

My Answer

Obviously Scenario #1 is ninja looting. I don’t think anyone can argue otherwise. If it isn’t an upgrade, then don’t roll.

Scenario #2 is what I did. I rolled on the item. I won. I wanted the item. I still want it. It’s a huge upgrade considering I’m wearing an ilvl 159 blue quest reward. So I looked at the rolls, found the next highest guild roll and decided to give it to her. She, and apparently her husband, were very grateful.  Happy guildies = happy me.

I won the roll. Because it was an obvious upgrade for me there wasn’t any chance of me not rolling. And because I won the roll the pugs wouldn’t have gotten the item even if I hadn’t given it to a guild member.

So did I ninja loot? And if you don’t consider it ninja looting, what would you do if multiple guild members rolled and wanted it? Give it to the next highest roll? Are you doing it then because you think of it as ninja looting or because you want to avoid guild drama?

If you want to answer anonymously, I’ve posted a poll on the sidebar.

How To Avoid Guild Drama

Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can’t eat it or play with it, just pee on it and walk away.

BoO vs. Yoggie: Round 1

So a week ago I got into a big ol’ fight with the ball & chain. Just kidding. It wasn’t that big of a fight. Kidding. I got in a fight with my loving wife.

Anyway, it happened about 10 minutes before raid time so I had to quickly state that I would be late and they should replace me if necessary. About 25 minutes later I said I gotta go and quickly logged. That night I unfortunately missed out on some continued Ulduar fun. Then on Wednesday when we extended the lockout, I sat out because I didn’t feel it right to make Kotakh sit out when he’d helped us get to Mimiron. So even though I outrank him and he graciously offered to sit out for me, I told him to go instead. And they downed Mimiron and Vezax!

BoO vs. Yoggie: Round 1

So last night was a continued battle to go after dear old Yoggie. And again, I didn’t get us there so I sadly listened in on Vent while they explained the fight and went over some strategy…

YEAH RIGHT!!!

My druid hit 79 over the weekend and tonight was the night I was going to hit 80!!! As for paying attention? I think I heard a few items like avoid the green shit, watch your sanity, kite, portals, run, fail, epic fail, dude what the hell, ok I’m starting to make some of those up, but you get the picture.

So I quite happily and quite contentedly worked on leveling my druid. But then…

BoO: 0 – Yoggie: 1

About 1.5 hours into the raid one of our dps raiders decides he has to go and do homework because he has a quiz tomorrow. Fair enough. Real life before games. Totally understand. Why the hell did you come to the raid to begin with?!

First let me say, I like this guy. He’s a good kid. He’s just a teenager and my priorities are definitely not his priorities. So coming to the raid knowing full well that you can’t stay for the entire raid during PROGRESSION is inconsiderate to say the least. Aside from interrupting the raid while a replacement is found, you’ve now introduced a new person into the raid that doesn’t know what you’ve been going through and is going to hold the raid back while they go through the exact same wipes while the new guy tries to catch up.

Enter The New Guy

Amber starts frantically asking me to come to raid. They need dps and not heals so I figure she’s just whining. Turns out she was serious because Kotakh was switching to Boomkin, so I told her if Josh wants me to come, I’ll come. Evidently he’s the one asking her to ask me anyway.

Remember how I mentioned I wasn’t really paying that much attention earlier? Damn! And I was getting really close to hitting 80 besides!!!

Anyway, they ask for my pally and I zone in, but as I try to teleport I realize I’m saved to Mach’s Saturday run so I ask them if they want the shaman or priest, and shaman wins due to Cleansing Totem and my superior cleansing abilities.

After a quick overview of Phase 1 and 2, I proceed to noob my way through healing. First impressions? Healing Phase 1 is a joke. I spammed Chain Heal the entire time with a few LHWs and Riptides and was still at 95% mana, but we wiped the first few times due to floating green crap and inattentive dps’ers.

By the way, after one wipe Amber eloquently stated that the “The green shit is like baby diarrhea poop. You don’t want anything to do with it!” Man, I wish I could screenshot Vent. Anybody know a free good voice recording program?

Healing Phase 2 is rough as hell because it’s not so much about healing as it is about cleansing. It’s also about trying to figure out how to get into the damn portal which I failed at EVERY SINGLE time!!! First time I was too far away trying to restore a little sanity and got hit with Malady which had me walking in circles, then Apathy had me walking too slow, and then the portal disappeared. The other times were Apathy induced nightmares. Any suggestions on where I should stand next time?

Well as you can imagine frustrations were abundant, but I was having fun. I was seeing something new. Phase 1 seemed really easy as long as people were paying attention to clouds. Phase 2 is a nightmare, but hopefully I can train my eyes to be in 14 places at once. We had one really good attempt into Phase 2, but I think I’m a big part to blame on that one since I failed at getting into portals and cleansing. We did get into Phase 2 several times so all in all it was a pretty good night. Granted I also heard Yogg was nerfed to the ground several times so…

Anyway, a good night in my opinion. Oh and I almost forgot…