User blog:MorbidCoffee/Lesson 1.3 - Loot Rules, Etiquette, and Raid Lockout

Every raid usually has a set of "loot rules" that everybody follows in order to ensure that everybody has a fair chance of getting some reward out of a raid rather than wasting their time for nothing. While not written in stone, these loot rules are more of a guideline to make everybody happy and cause less issues and drama among the community when pugging a raid: Simply put, melee and ranged dps don't need card sets that give INT, where as spell casters do not need card sets that need STR. It's only fair for classes that need those stats to roll for those cards. But in the end, it all comes down to who actually needs the loot or not. There are multiple loot settings you can set in order to control loot distribution: Unset: If you don't set any of the loot options, looting will pop up with a box with Need and Greed buttons. Rolling need gives you priority over the others, though playing with the settings can allow you to make it so only classes who can use the loot can roll need, while everybody else can only roll greed. Only recommended if you trust everybody in your group. Free For All: Having this option set will make all loot first come, first serve to whoever can loot the body the fastest. This is generally frowned upon, and there should never be a reason to have this option with the exception of very rare cases. Round Robin: A bit confusing, and generally unused. This will make all loot go to one person starting from the raid leader, and then all following loot will go down the list in order of who accept invitation to the raid before the others. Recommended to skip over this setting and not use it. Master Looter: This is the most common, and widely accepted way to set loot options for a raid. With Master Looter set, whoever is delegated the ML will be the only one who can pick up loot from the bodies of defeated mobs and bosses, and will also be the one in charge of distributing the loot to the raid group. There are a few steps to being a good master looter: Step 1: Let everybody know what they'll be rolling for.
 * 1 token and 1 accessory per person. Weapon drop is a roll between whichever players of that class need it (if there is only one and they need it, it goes directly to them).
 * If no players need the armor or weapons, it becomes a free for all roll among the entire raid group to break down for elunium/oridecon and mysterious crystals.
 * Cards are a bit tricky. Cards from trash mobs are generally trash, however, boss cards are valuable, and once you get into CoA and AoD and start having card sets, rules will need to be set in order to ensure that no one player recieves all the rewards while another player gets nothing unless both parties agree to it. Ideally, as the master looter in charge of distributing the loot, I would recommend allowing only one card per person per run, and in the later raids, only allow players who need the card set to roll on those specific cards.

Simple. Just link the token, accessory, recipe, or whatver your group will be rolling for in chat so everybody knows. Just open your inventory, and alt + click on the item in order to link it in chat for everybody to see. Step 2: Have the raid group roll on the item. Just as if you were to roll on something without any loot rules set, it's only fair to roll on items a master looter is distributing as well. Simply type /dice 100 (or whatever number your ML would like you to roll with, though /dice 100 is the most common and accepted way to roll for loot). The player with the highest roll (which will be seen in the system messages) will be determined and the loot will be distributed. REMEMBER: If you are locked out of a raid, you will not be able to recieve any tokens, weapons, or accessories even if you win a roll. You can still win cards and recipes though. You can check your raid lockout through your character information window. Simply click on the tab on the right side near your armor, and a new window should pop up listing all the raids you've completed. You will also be reminded of this when you try to enter a raid you've already completed. REMINDER: If you're hosting a raid, make sure you don't have bosses locked out. Whether a boss appears in a raid or not depends on whether or not the raid leader has completed that boss fight at any time during the reset period. Example, if the raid leader has beaten Baphomet, and somebody in their group hasn't, Bapho will not spawn for the group. However, if you switch the roles around, even if the former raid leader finished Bapho, if the fresh player is the raid leader, Baphomet will spawn for the group. As for raid resets, they reset every Wednesday and Sunday morning at 6 am server time (PDT).