Mists of Pandaria: Inside the New Loot System

One of the worst things that can happen to you in World of Warcraft is being in a raid pug and having another player take an item that you need. Sometimes this is justified because the other player also needs the item for their main spec. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case and items are taken by players for use in their off-spec or for some other illogical reasoning.

Before the existence of Raid Finder I experienced multiple occasions where raid leaders would ignore winning rolls and simply give loot to their guild mates or friends. Even now when using Raid Finder items can be won by undeserving group members simply by them choosing to roll need. With the implementation of the new Mists of Pandaria loot system, Blizzard hopes to address this and other unfair looting practices.

In the Mists of Pandaria expansion, players using the Raid Finder or killing world bosses will experience a brand new loot system. Instead of the boss dropping random items from its loot table and players rolling against each other, winners will be chosen at random behind the scenes by the game and given an appropriate item according to their current spec. The decision by the game of what loot will drop from each boss will be made after the winners have been selected. Players will no longer have to choose to roll need, greed or pass.

Hopefully these changes will eliminate arguing over who should receive loot and lessen any animosity towards similarly specced group members. Items won through this system will not be tradable so players will no longer be bothered by group members begging for or asking to purchase recently won items. If you receive an item you don’t want you can either disenchant it, sell it to a vendor, or delete it.

To encourage players to be productive while not in a raid, developers have added another very interesting feature to the new loot system. The bonus roll feature will give players the choice to spend a new form of currency to have an extra chance at loot from each boss kill. Once a week players can complete a quest which will allow them to spend 25 Elder Tokens to purchase a Charm of Good Fortune from the new Mists of Pandaria faction: The Elders.

Whenever a boss is killed in Raid Finder anyone in the group who possesses a Charm of Good Fortune will be given the option to use a bonus roll. A bonus roll will provide an additional attempt at winning items from the bosses loot table. Players who use their bonus roll will always receive something whether it be gold, gems, flasks, or even epic items.

One more great change Blizzard is making to the loot system in MoP is area of effect looting. Players have been begging and pleading for many years to have this implemented. When you kill multiple mobs, instead of having to walk around and touch each individual corpse to acquire their loot, you now only need to click on one to receive all items available in the area.

These changes in the loot system are a dramatic improvement, and will without a doubt make the game much more enjoyable. What changes are you most excited about in Mists?

Source: [Battle.net]