DKP - Good or Bad?

Thursday 16th August 2007 - Gruul 4?

Off to Gruul and Co. once more. Just before the raid I get my 2 new enchants done. This is the first raid with the new DKP system in place. We all start off with 0 points so we'll only be able to bid minimum.

Tonight I am assigned as a healer for the tank on High King Maulgar himself, rather than the mage tank. We wipe 3 or 4 times but eventually he goes down.

First off my Tier 4 token Pauldrons of the Justice Seeker drops. There are no Shamans and only 1 rogue, so it is me against him. He won. Gutted.

Next item up is the Tier 4 Shoulders for Hunters etc. StupidDorf wins it. YAY - that should cheer him up.

Lastly a plate tanking piece drops. I am not going to waste my DKP on this as it is not for my primary healing build, but it would be good for my alternate tanking build.

Guess what. None of the plate wearers want it. So it is announced it is going to be sharded. A couple of people complain about this, including me, if no one wants it and is willing to spend DKP on it what should happen next?

Surely it is not good for the guild to shard something if someone could use it, albeit if it is for an alternate build that would not be used often.

StupidDorf pointed out that someone (Raider D) could wait for everyone else to get the drop (Raiders A, B and C) and weeks later when it comes up again and no-one wanted it Raider D could not spend DKP on it but still get it by default for free.

SO WHAT? That person has waited a lot longer for it and has gone without in the meantime. Now no-one else needs it now, so why shouldn't Raider D get it for free. Surely DKP is used primarily as a way to measure how much each player wants an item so that when multiple people want an item the highest bidder gets it. There should be a way to avoid something getting sharded. Maybe when bidding goes in you could bid (zero) and if no-one else bids you get it free. If multiple people bid zero and no-one else bids then they have to rebid an amount greater than zero. If no-one rebids, then and only then does it get sharded. Or maybe they roll for it.

So what if Raider A spent all their DKP on the same item 4 weeks ago and now Raider D gets it free? Raider A has had the item from the start and had the benefit of it, whereas Raider D has gone without.

I just think it is totally pointless sharding something that someone somewhere could use.

Well it got sharded anyway. What a waste.

Onto Gruul the Dragonslayer - wipe wipe wipe. Raid finsihed. Goodnight.