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Lotro: Need Before Greed

One of the changes in the Shores of Evendim patch is that the default Roll/Pass options for loot distribution in pickup groups has been replaced by a need before greed system. When a rare item drops fellowship members are give the choice of Need, Greed or Pass. I assume that anyone who hits need gets priority over those who hit greed.

There is much pontificating on the forums about the ethics of when you should or shouldn't select need. Personally I think it is too complicated for the average pickup group. Need before greed relies on an honour system where people are expected not to pick need on items they cannot actually use. However it only takes one player who is greedy or uninformed to break the whole system and upset everybody.

This situation is aggravated by an annoying quirk of lotro: The same right click that is the default method of initiating an attack is also the default method of looting a corpse. Oh and did I mention that the default loot roll threshold on lotro is set extremely low? Every piece of crafting material (including scraps of leather) is rolled on. The net effect is that in the heat of battle loot roll menus keep popping up in the middle of the screen as players accidentally loot corpses. I have tried and failed to move these boxes out of the middle of the screen but inevitably they obscure the action and I am forced to press something quickly to get rid of the box in order to see what is going on.

If the item is a weapon or piece of armour that I obviously cannot use I will pass (or press greed) but trying to assess in the heat of battle whether that particular shimmering dragon tooth is useful for my crafting profession is just too difficult.

It is possible that the loot rolling threshold can be adjusted to exclude crafting items but pickup groups invariably use the default setting. In the mean time the only sensible approach I can see for pickup groups is to press need on everything unless it is obvious that my character doesn't need it. If you see me get something that would really benefit your character - just ask. I will happily hand it over after the battle.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Yeah, I was surprised in the first group I joined and the need greed option was displayed, without thinking twice I hit the button on the left to roll, come to find out the pug I was in had already decided to roll need on everything just to keep everyone honest, I do wish there was a way to stop the popup from getting in the way of the fight at hand.

Back when I played WoW and I was in a fulltime raiding guild, the rule was pretty simple, it was to not loot anything until the fighting was complete, this worked for the most part and made it easier to focus on the task at hand, and obviously there were mistakes made, because of the right click attack button which is default...not sure of any other way to work it out besides changing the default right click to loot, if that is an option...
Anonymous said…
One problem with your 'click need on everything in a PUG' idea, is that many items are Bind On Acquire.

Getting a reputation for ninja looting on items you don't need is a good way not to get invites for raids
mbp said…
@Anonymous you are of course correct but this post refers only to Lotro at a certain time and place. At the time in question Lotro had only just implemented need before greed and it was still confusing for many players. The default loot threshold was set extremely low meaning that you were constantly being bombarded by NBG queries during combat. To the best of my knowledge there weren't any bind on pickup drops in Lotro at that time so mistakes could always be sorted out later.

I am not suggesting that this philosophy be extended to other games or even to modern day Lotro.

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