Claws and Effect

I was 100% remiss in not breaking the news that after only 3 takedowns of the panther boss in Zul'Gurub, Arlokk's Grasp is finally mine! Although the proc on the pair is sporadic, it's still hella impressive to see a 15ft. tiger appear in the midst of your group and continue wailing on things. Many thanks to the Tuesday night ZG Pod group who graciously awarded me this to complete the set.

On a somewhat related note, I happened to take inventory of the items that I use on a regular basis, and I was sort of shocked (I don't know why) to see that most is from ZG. 7 epics so far (3 armor pieces of Vindicator's Battlegear, soon to be 4 with the addition of the necklace. 6K rep to go!!!) from ZG, and I've nearly become the ZG poster child among The Pod People. Aegis of the Blood God and the Bloodsoaked Legplates are all I lack from having my wish list in ZG totally fulfilled. Alas, I must wait until we can begin downing Hakkar himself to have a shot at those.

This might be an excellent, if unintentional, segue into something which a number of us were discussing on Ventrillo the other afternoon. It's a concept which I jokingly refer to as "Darwinian DKP." The concept is simple: Even in a warm, fuzzy guild like The Pod People that eschews a traditional DKP system and embraces the "let it ride" random /roll mechanics that we do, there is a natural selection of sorts that works behind the scenes once the loot has been distributed. Take the Tier 1 headpieces off Garr, for example. If you have a wide distribution of raiders in a particular class where half have their T1 helm, then it stands to reason that once Onyxia goes down, and that class' T2 helm drops, then those that did not win the T1 are going to be in most need of the upgrade. This effectively halves the number of eligible people, thereby increasing their odds on that specific roll. Equivalent gear from another raid instance is another case where this comes into play. Let's use my ZG example from above. I hardly have a need for the Breastplate of Might as my primary tank chest, since I have the Zandalar Vindicator's Breastplate. Yes, I'd love to have an epic piece for my FR gear, but there's no way in hell I'm going to take that out of the hands of one of our other warriors when I already have a +10FR chest. As more TPPTanks get the ZG epic chest, then they are successfully eliminated from a true *need* roll on the Might piece. That improves everyone else's chances, and works for the betterment of the entire raid. The same holds true for the Medallion of Steadfast Might. You won't catch me rolling on that since the neckpiece from ZG is about to flip epic once I hit exalted with Zandalar. There's just no sense in it. Yeah, the stats might be a touch better, but all in all, they're equivalent in most senses of the word.

While in a larger sense, the system we have in place is sound, it does take a couple of assumptions into account that unfortunately leave it up to exploitation. I just gave 4 specific examples of things that by most standards I have no business rolling on if I have (or will have soon) equivalent gear. *Could* I roll on the Might chest if it drops this weekend? I suppose so. As one of the regulars in the MT rotation, I can't imagine that much of anyone would fault me for looking to pick up another piece of my T1 set, and yet I know that were I to make such a brazenly selfish move, it would be noticed by some of our senior raiding crew and I would thereby disappoint them. Here's the thing- and I really don't think that some Pods truly *GET* this, and it's unfortunate- just because you *can* roll on something, doesn't mean that you *should* roll on it.

There is one specific player that comes to mind when I think about this increasingly-ignored concept. Much like my "rape, pillage, murder, and rape (we like rape)" excoriation of the FRC hunters that show their disregard for group dynamics and harmony by continuing to bring their tendency to act like they are the only ones in the raid, and do as they damned-well please at the peril of the other 39 attendees, this is an indictment of an individual's consistent exhibition of selfishness and lack of consideration for what is truly best for the raid, and moreso, their fellow Pod classmates. Were this an isolated incident, I'd probably chalk it up to purple fever and it'd never cross my mind again. Sadly, the trilogy of me-first that I saw out of this person came within a week, and the first two were merely an hour apart. Here's how it went down.

Garr dies. Drillborer Disk is put up for Need rolls. "Can shaman roll on that?" is asked. Fuck no, shaman can't roll on that. And they won't. For a looooooong time. Shut up and rez yourself. Much like Striker's Mark or Mandokir's Sting for the warriors, which are specifically off-limits by all measures of good judgement until all of the hunters in the raid have it, equivalent, or better, so it is with Drillborer. Stupid comments notwithstanding, it's awarded to a deserving warrior, and the beat goes on. Sabatons of the Flamewalker are up for grabs now. We begin to have a thought-provoking discussion as to whether or not that is a toss-up between Needs for shaman and hunters both. Obviously, the +Int bonus would best serve the shaman, but the +Atk power would most readily benefit hunters. It's up for grabs between both classes and a shaman wins the roll. Well done. Grats, and all that jazz. Everybody grab your FR gear, and let's head for the lav- "Oh God, these things are UGLY."

WTF?

Was that just the shaman that won those boots? My keen ear for voices tells me that yes, indeed, it was. Instantly, all whom are of a similar mindset to myself begin to bristle with absolute righteous indignation at the audacity of somebody to have the sheer gall to do something so blatantly fucked up as to complain about the image model of an item that they just beat someone out for, OVER FUCKING VENTRILLO. Are your kidding me? That can't be. A flurry of incoming whispers seeking similar confirmation for what we just heard served as my own verification. You have got to be kidding me. What a grade-A, olympic-style, world-class yo-yo! How rude is that??? Ctrl+click next time, if you're that stuck on appearances, please. Better yet, how about you keep your [Pearl of Asinine Observation]to yourself, next time you choose to complain about something so petty as the appearance of an epic you just chose to roll on and to the group's misfortune that you won? I can think of half a dozen people that were more deserving of this drop than the one that won the roll. Oh well, at least they're limited to that one epic this week. MC drops are capped at one per person until all attending members of that class have won an item or passed to an open Need roll to all that could use it and are interested.

The earth has this silly habit of continuing to spin on its axis, no matter how ridiculous one mongoloid's behavior, and much like the planet we inhabit, the raid moved on. It was difficult to shake that bad taste in our mouths, though. Naive as we might be, it still shakes some of us whenever somebody willingly exhibits brazenly non-Pod behavior. Geddon dies, as does Shazzrah, and we wrap up another episode of Pod MC. A number of us continued our tradition of heading into ZG and decimating Venoxxis at the very least, and much to the chagrin of some, Windowlicker Royale with the "ugly" epic boots is in tow. Venoxxis is weighed by the might of the Pod and found wanting, and behold, Primal Hakkari Armsplint is left at his wake.

(For those not familiar with the way we do ZG Primal drops, the roll is initially open only to those attendees who currently have the requisite reputation with Zandalar Tribe to cash in the drop immediately. This equips another Pod with an epic ASAP. If no one in the Primal's class range has that rep, then we drop to the next tier. At this point, I prefer to have an open discussion as to who's where in their rep progression. Thanks to the trash mobs continuing to yield rep beyond Revered, ZG rep is really easy to come by. The actual count on the rep is largely for those Honored, working toward Revered, but it can make a difference in other cases, too. A single jaunt into ZG can yield 500-1000 rep, so it's not a big deal. We head into ZG at every available opportunity, so it adds up very quickly.)

The Armsplint is the drop for shaman, rogues, and warriors, and you need Friendly with Zandalar to convert it it your bracers. As the numbers went, everyone that had the needed rep already got theirs previously, so it would go to a Need roll among those classes that were Neutral, working to Friendly. We had one shaman roll, and another. One had been on a few ZG runs, and was halfway to Friendly. It just so happens that Uglyboots (for forever shall he be deemed) was the second one. Just in case I've bored anyone to the point of dozing off, this is the same Uglyboots whose comments defaming the appearance of said Sabatons came no more than an HOUR BEFORE. Now, this jaunt into ZG was neither scheduled, nor "sanctioned" by the officers, but in accordance with our agreement with guild leadership, we keep the same loot rules in place for our other raid runs, Podraid gets the Souldarite/Bloodvine, etc. Fate would have it where Uglyboots won the Primal.

This is often the touchstone by which true Pods are made or broken. The losing shaman was closer to Friendly, and could likely equip the item sooner. Then again, we're only talking a maximum of 500 rep separating the two. One skipped ZG run by the loser, and the winner could conceivably pull ahead and get to Friendly faster, thereby validating their win. And yet the larger point is lost in the semantics. Just a scant number of minutes before, the winner of the Primal had won an epic in MC, and MC/ZG loot rules be damned, it's pretty fucked up and selfish to go on to grab as much for yourself as you can in a given night when it's not necessary.

It deeply saddens me to see someone have an opportunity to be a team player and back down from it. Simply rolling on a purple because you *could* use it, grabbing the loot, and slithering back under your rock is some of the most brazenly non-Pod behavior I can think of. In those situations, character flaws like that show up like a metaphysical blacklight on so many hotel bedspreads. Again, I go back to my "symptom of a larger problem" assessment, back when I discussed somebody not fessing up to making a mistake that leads to a wipe. Doing so doesn't make you any less dead. It doesn't issue forth gold to cover the cost of the repairs for the raid. What it does, though, is exhibit strength of character and maturity that shows that you feel remorse for what happened, and it likely means that you'll be more cogent of your surroundings in the future in an attempt to avoid a repeat. Yes, I know... "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." I just hate to be disappointed by people that you make the assumption are going to exhibit behavior that flies in the face of our typical human tendencies.

The third of the brazen gluttony of this individual comes in the form of another post-MC ZG run, the following week. The loot in question this time, again off Venoxxis, was the Band of Servitude. This time, this asshat rolls on it and loses, thank God, but let's break down their thought process for a second, if you don't mind. There's no doubt that that's a caster ring. Lord knows that I want all my healers to have it. Uglyboots is Enhancement, though. I know that shaman can pull double duty as healers when dramatically appropriate, and for this fact, I'm grateful. What galls me, though, is that on that same random boss loot table is the Seal of the Gurubashi Berzerker, which by every estimation is vastly superior to Servitude framed in Enhancement shaman context. After all, +40 attack power is teh hawtness. Let's add to the mix the fact that they heavily weighed the +Atk bonus into the decision making process when they won the Sabatons of the Flamewalker, as they would be benefitted greatly by that +Atk bonus, too. The pair would make a mighty combination. And yet they felt that with mages, priests, druids, and Elemental and Restoration shaman all rolling on that ring, they felt that they had every right to hop in there and take their chances, too. Not that they couldn't/wouldn't receive benefit from it. They would, and in a major way. It's just that they were willing (had they won) to take it out of the hands of someone that would've gotten a more immediate benefit from it.

I liken it to the other day when one of our DPS warriors whose attendance is sporadic thanks to school won the T1 Might Helm, when there were a set of +Atk plate gloves that would be rolled on next. One of the guys in our MT rotation lost the roll, and I know that it couldn't be easy for him. I'd just won the Might boots a half our before, so I was out of the running, anyway. I just wish that people would stop and think before they do things, is all. I understand that it's not going to be the only time that that item drops. I get that. I just find it unfortunate that the largest benefit is delayed. Even a significant improvement on a DPS warrior's survivability is going to help, but it's marginalized when that person is rarely in the raid.

I just wish folks would stop and think.