It’s so sweet of you to be so nice to me

Ran through the Mana Tombs for the first time last night with a group of level 70s, mostly for Consortium reputation. I’m Honored with, I think, all the other Outland factions just from general questing/instance running, but was only halfway through Friendly with the Consortium even after a bunch of repeated ogre bead/insignia turn-ins, and I’m keen to get their Fel Leather recipes.

A fairly unremarkable run, but the final boss dropped the Ethereal Warp-Bow. Obviously there’s no hunter in the party (goes without saying), and no disenchanter to turn it into a shard. Now, I think everyone’s experienced, or at least heard of, the loot ninja. We tend to have the opposite problem in our guild, Extreme Loot Politeness. Everyone passes on a BoP they can’t use (in fact I’m so used to passing on blue items I can’t use I passed on a blue pair of BoE boots, and everyone else positively insisted I /rolled, which I did, got higher than the highest Greed roll, and felt slightly guilty when the original winner handed them over… still, I suppose I can say I’ve got a blue drop from a dungeon after Hellfire Ramparts, not that it’ll forestall my whinging as I can’t actually use it, but I digress). Now, if a BoP drop is something nobody can even equip, a quick /roll and the winner heads off to the Antiques Roadshow for appraisal: “ah, now, yes, wonderful craftsmanship on these Beast Lord Shoulders, you can really tell the quality of them… excellent stat bonuses… I suppose you’re wondering about the value? Well, I’ve got some bad news I’m afraid. If they were Bind on Equip, you could expect to make between five and six hundred gold pieces at auction, possibly up to a thousand. As they’re soulbound, though… I’ll give you one gold seventeen silver, and you’ll be grateful.” Sometimes, though, you’ll get an item that one or two people in the group could sort of use, like a ranged weapon when there’s a warrior and rogue but no hunter, or a +healing/spell damage ring when the primary casters have something better but a feral druid could us it in one of their alternative gear sets. And that’s where the politeness kicks in…
(simultaneously)
“Well, I suppose if nobody else wants it, I could always…”
“It’s a slight improvement over my current…”
(pause)
“Oh, no, you have it. It’s got good +Stamina for you as a tank”
“Well, yes, but the Critical Strike Rating would be better for you as a rogue”
“True… but then, if I have a bow equipped, I can’t use the Deadly Throw ability”
“Well you take it anyway, I’ve never used a bow before so my skill is zero”
“No, no, you can plink away with it to improve your skill, you have it”
(etc.)

Eventually, one person relents (usually when someone else shouts “SOMEONE TAKE THE DAMN THING BEFORE HIS CORPSE DESPAWNS!”), and then we all head back to Shattrath to fight over whose quests to work on next…
“No, really, let’s do that group quest you have”
“No, honestly, it can wait, let’s work on that chain of yours with the nice reward”

1 thought on “It’s so sweet of you to be so nice to me

  1. Anonymous

    My guild and friends have the same “problem”. It’s what makes me come back and play this game, nice people who are generous with loot and even banked wealth.

    Last night I caught a buddy of mine farming air motes to make a cobrahide armor kit she knew I wanted. She refused to let me tip or pay for any of the mats (130g worth). So later on I asked her to go to Dire Maul East to farm shards (since she is an enchanter too). We two-manned the placed, reset and went again. She melted all the drops. When it came time to split up the shards I refused to take them, to pay her back for the armor kit.

    It was silly but fights of generosity like that keep a guild tight. We’ll never have the problem of a guild breaking up over some purplzuberdropz that people disagree on.

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