by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

The most recent Dev Watercooler discussed the problems with itemization and loot distribution that are currently in game, and how the changes coming in 6.2 will try to fix them. Gear has been all over the place this expansion, and raiders expected for it to be less of a hassle with how reforging and stats were removed, but it seems like they complicated themselves by oversimplifying things.

The first thing they discuss is how personal loot has been inherently flawed to begin with. The moment people realized that personal loot was giving them less amounts of loot, most organized and pickup groups switched to group loot. There is also the fact that items can be distributed however you want, for example if in personal loot I get a piece that I don’t need but my friend does then we both end up loosing, but if we are using group loot and the same piece of gear drops we can just give it to the one who needs it. I personally have not seen a group with personal loot on since the first few weeks of the expansion when no one had any gear and every drop was useful for everyone.

Personal loot had the intention of fixing any loot based arguments in pick up groups, but if the method is not used then it is providing nothing to the game. The first change they are implementing to personal loot is making the amount of drops be comparable with group loot. This makes gearing up in pick up groups a lot better as you know that a certain number pieces will drop and your chances of getting loot are higher. Going with this, the amount of tier pieces dropping will also be equal to the ones dropped in group loot.This will also help improve the personal loot experience as tier is so important for a good number of specs, and sometimes the only reason why some players would run in a pick up group.

What I don’t understand is why they are adding the UI change to celebrate loot. The example they use is your friend finally winning the piece he was missing and now you will get a UI notification on who won what so you can be happy about your friend. I don’t mind this change but it seems that it is somewhat contradictory with the intent of personal loot to begin with. If they want personal loot to help in random pickup groups then most of the time you won’t really care about what a bunch of random players won, and if you are grouping with a friend he will most likely show you the item he won.

Tomorrow I will discuss the changes to secondary stats and the item level ramp in Hellfire Citadel. What are your opinions on personal loot? Will this affect the way you raid? Would love to read your opinions in the comments below.