Patch 5.0.4 Auto Loot

So patch 5.0.4 hit us last week and there are certainly a lot changes to get to grips with. One of the major ones are the looting rules in LFR (Looking for Raid) and whilst I commend Blizzard for making this change I don’t think they went far enough.

So what bought this change around? 

I have no idea as to the official reason why but every LFR always had people ‘needing’ drops that they didn’t need. For example a tanking weapon drops and a paladin (who is in the raid a Retri)  needs and wins. He offers up the excuse of ‘off-spec’ even though one of the tanks in the raid genuinely needs it. Another example is winning shoulders and upon inspection you see he already has them. Certain classes have an off-spec that will require a second set and this is usually offered up as a valid excuse to need.

I would argue that. If you are in a raid as dps, then you should only need on dps drop, the same if you are a tank or healer but as we know, people would roll for gear, regardless of needing it or not. The good thing was in the past if you spoke nicely to the winner, they would sometimes agree to trade with you and you would get that piece.

With patch 5.0.4 this has dramatically changed. The loot is automatically passed to a winner which is decided randomly by the LFR loot handler. No more ‘needing’ and if you don’t win you at least get a satchel with 25 gold in it.

This is a great step forward as it stops people arguing, leaving raid totally pissed off having lost out on something they need to someone who they deem doesn’t but there are to me still issues. Here’s why;

Last night, I did Deathwing on my Priest Lyllyana and on the final part I won a mace, Maw of Dragonlord. This too me was amazing as it’s only the 2nd win in LFR for me. Yes my mage is full LFR geared but that’s only because I either went with friends who would roll for me as well or people traded with me.

Then I looked closely at it and as you will see this is a healing mace. I was in a Shadow (DPS) so can’t use it. OK I guess if I run as Discipline in Battlegrounds or general world pvp I could use it but it makes me wonder if there was a healer in the raid who actually needed it. As DPS I don’t need it and the second part is, you can no longer trade so even if I could see a healer needed it, I could not have given it to him.

This is where I think Blizzard could have gone further. Maybe it’s too technical and these are just my views, ramblings etc but surely they can have a loot handler that can work out a healing mace should go to the healers first and if they don’t need it then farm it out to other members who it could apply to? There aren’t the rows over who gets it now which makes the raid that more enjoyable but Blizzard have missed a big issue here.

As for the not being able to trade, Damien (guild member) won a helm last night that he already has (note Blizzard – this proves my point) yet it was something that I needed. Unfortunately as he couldn’t trade it all he can do is sell something I so so badly need ;(