How To Deal With Raid Rolling In 3.1
Just when you thought you had it all figured out Blizz comes along and throws a huge wrench in loot rolling. I’m not sure anyone really saw it coming either. We were all so happy to get dual specs that we didn’t take into account the other things it might affect.
Now, Dual specs have certainly made a number of problems go away completely. Perhaps the nicest for me is the fact that BG’s and Dailies are no longer a big hassle as a healer. I just pop into my chicken suit and blast away. Another nice thing we have noticed is that it is much easier to build a raid group because now you really CAN bring the best available player instead of a particular must-have spec or class.
But dual specs have already begun to toy with one of the foundational concepts of loot rolling in pugs – the concept of main spec. For as long as I can remember, the only toons allowed to roll on a piece of gear were those people whose current raiding spec was directly suited to the gear that dropped.
But with dual specs, even in limited raiding after the patch, I have seen dual specs come into question in over 30% of loot roll situations. And we’re not talking about loot ninjas here either – that’s just in our guild only runs. In pugs dual spec comes into play in more like 50% of all roll situations, so it’ is something that is going to have to be addressed.
Now before you roll your silly little eyes at me, let’s look at this a little deeper shall we? You can scoff and just say – main spec is main spec is main spec and main spec rolls and main spec should main spec for main spec it’s all main spec dummy. But you’re going to have to face the fact that the game as far as loot rolls is concerned just got blowed up.
Dual specs made main spec an obsolete term
The only time that you can actually say that anyone has a main spec any more is in the case of the person who either cannot afford to dual spec or refuses to play more than one spec. Personally I get FORCED to play heals on every toon Ive got – even though my self-declared MAIN spec on my paladin is DPS. So if I came to the raid to heal because I was forced to, does that mean I can’t roll on Ret gear against the Ret pally that’s in the raid who has Ret gear worse than mine and is doing a crummy job DPS’ing and refuses to spec heals? You can see the inequity here. This is also bolstered by the fact that the expectation of players has changed, and the shift will only get more dramatic.
Fundamentally Loot roll systems are: methods of determining how to distribute loot in a way that seems fair to everyone in relationship to their expectations. It has nothing to do with what is actually best for everyone involved, but what is best based on a balance between round robin and need.
It’s crazy subjective, and there is no clean system until Blizz implements some kind of deal where every single bit of gear in the entire game is class gear such as the Tier sets. Until and unless Blizz forces loot restrictions on every item you won’t be able to cleanly distribute every thing that drops. and that’s probably never going to happen.
The point is that players now EXPECT to be able to roll on loot for both specs, and it’s only going to get worse.
So you might as well get used to the fact that the game is GOING to go that way. No one is going to spend 1,000g for that second spec and then just sit there happily content with crappy gear for the spec. Plus, when you consider that the main reason for implementing dual specs was to make raiding more fun and easier to group up for, you’ve got a whole other level of pressure to conform to the new mindset.
Two weeks ago it was a luxury to have four real tanks in a raid just for the 4 horsemen fight. It was a luxury to have 6 healers for Patch, it would be nice to not have 6 healers for Thaddius, how cool to have a few less melee DPS for KT? You can have all of that now and never replace a single raid team member.
Go ahead and bring four warriors if you like. Two of them can go DPS for 90% of the instance and switch to tank for the 2 or 3 fights where an extra tank is needed. Have a few guys that are decent healers and great DPS (shammies and druids perhaps)? Awesome, you can just choose how many healers or DPS you need before a fight. The variations on this theme are now virtually endless.
I can actually envision a time coming to a raid near you where you will begin to pick your raid members NOT based on their main spec but on their versatility. You might begin to exclude those guys who can ONLY tank in favor of those folks who can tank well and DPS well too.
You used to demand that DPS toons be capable of 2k before they would be allowed in your run. Now you can really get picky and ask for a tank that’s hit capped and also does 2k in DPS spec. That dude makes a MUCH better addition to the raid than the one trick pony – but we still want to limit people rolling on that one trick? It’s preposterous, a formula for uber failure.
Here’s what’s going to happen – people will put up with the old status quo of only rolling on main spec for about a month, then they will simply refuse to run with you any more unless they are allowed to roll for both specs. You can act all tough if you want and say fine your loss, but so many people will do it and so much sooner than you think that you will ultimately have no one willing to run under the old loot roll systems.
Guilds may have an easier time with this since Karma, DKP, Loot Council or whatever system you use will work just fine for this. Dominate was using a DKP variation that allowed for people to pick up loot for an off spec when off specs existed. My contention is that the only off specs left in the game are those that are not on your talent bar.
The off spec on my druid is feral. I have no kitty or bear gear and shouldn’t be rolling on any unless the stuff is just going to go to shard. Even then, as GM I have to consider that the shard is probably worth more to the guild than me getting some bit of gear that I will never ever use.
So my new definition for off spec is a build NOT in your current book. If it’s not in your current book there is NO WAY you are rolling on the item – period. If the off OFF spec was really important to you at all it would be one of your two builds.
New Term = Current Builds
So let’s coin a new term here – Current Builds. There is no such thing as main spec any more. There may be a priority system where you use one current build more than the other, but frankly even though I spend 90% of raids in tree form, I spend more overall time in Boomkin. I would like to get some chicken specific gear as well, and the only place I can get that sort of stuff that is better for a chicken over my tree gear is in big heroic raids. And I’m not alone.
I have an idea for a new rolling system that will take all of this into account, but unfortunately it needs to be well thought out and massaged before it will be of any real use to you. But I do want to grab all of you raid leaders by the lapels and give you a directive before we close this discussion.
IF you EVER ask a raid member to change current builds in the raid – you are flat out WRONG if that person is not allowed to roll on gear for both specs. If you ask a person to play a role they don’t necessarily want and they are doing you a favor by using another current build for your raid you are wrong if you don’t allow them to roll on gear for the preferred spec just because you made them play the other build.
Think about it in terms of the situation we talked about above. If you bring along a warrior specifically for his dual role capability – he does you no good if his DPS gear blows. He does you even less good if his tanking gear is sub par. You simply cannot ask people to play more than one role without allowing them to obtain gear for both sets.
So while I still think that the term off spec has even more power than ever for limiting rolling on gear, I do firmly believe that the term Main Spec is now completely useless. At least in the fact that someone’s Main Spec may now be Two Specs. In that case there is no single main spec, but rather Current Builds that they can use to help your raid win or help your guild progress.
People have been crying for a while now that you should take the player, not the class. Now that you really can, you have to reward the player and NOT the build. You have to allow players to build gear sets for their current builds. And it’s not like someone can just declare a build and go rolling on everything either. This is just as verifiable as anything else we’ve ever based selecting raid members on.
Armory the guy and see if both specs are worth a dang. Have them show you both sets of gear. Although you need to allow people to roll on both gear types, that doesn’t mean you have to let the guy who just built a new second build grow his second set in your 25 man Naxx either.
You can put the same kinds of quality restrictions on this concept as you have with all the other systems. This just allows you to finally choose team members based on what it should have been all along – skill. So allow those skilled players to get the gear they need to Dominate in either of their current builds. It will make your team just that much better, and every member of every raid you ever lead will appreciate the fact that you were ahead of your time in this matter. Dual specs are awesome, don’t let your archaic loot rolling ideals ruin them.