Looting -- The official thread for discussing the loot system. Updated 18th March, 2013.

I am repeating already said information but some people have to be reminded about the pros and cons of FFA loot. Most people dont see the overall picture.

Though I am a big Instanced Loot fan I still try to be as fair as I can in evaluating the situation. I want to add that my personal advantage through FFA loot is TREMDENOUS as I ninjad 2 exalted orbs. Still I am against FFA loot.

FFA
Pros first:

1, You get more excitement after you got a valueable item in a clutch situation, no matter if its with or without your name

2, people will loot faster and dont slow the group down by analyszing crappy items

3, everybody has access to a bigger itempool (I dont see this a a good thing though but most people do. More about this further below)

4, Skilled player benefit from the loot system because they can pick up "seemingless" items like tricolours and 6 sockets



Now the Cons:

5, FFA is frustrating for lower skilled players

6, picking up something is unreliable, because even if you click on it it sometimes does not work, so the whole FFA system is pretty pointless in the regard of "beeing the better player"

7, increased Quanitity clutters the screen and makes looting tedious. It also trivializes picking up seemingless items as its maybe not worth the efford. For instance: who would pick up a ilvl 69 vaal regalia if like 60% of the complete screen is filled with items?
The amount of items reduces the pontential pickyness(and thoughts) of players and makes looking more straight forward in general. For me this is a huuge point.
The occurance of the timer just makes this situation worseas it fills the screen with useless information.

8, FFA loot enforces a bad playstyle. You have to dive into enemies as ranged characters. And people stop fighting monsters because of the loot system. They take more time analyzing loot(see point above) and take more efford to "ninja". This leads to the situation where a party becomes less effective. Though parties are OP in general the loot system should not be the limiting factor but the scaling of the monsters! Also the balance between ranged and melee should be determined by skills/passives/items and not by the playstyle which is forced upon them by the loot system.

9, FFA loot reduces build diversity for players who dont want to play in party because of loot system. What if you would like to play a full Support/Tank Character but dont want to be stressed by FFA loot?
You just cant play this build. What if you want to make a full DPS fire which with buring to help parties advantace faster? Cant play this build.(point 8 comes into place)
Personally I made a summoner who is extremly effective in maps, just for the purpose of not having to play with other people as I despise the lootsystem(though I am benefiting from it greatly)->build limitation


FFA loot has its advantages, I dont want to deny them
When I ninjad exalted orbs point 1, come into place and it was actually pretty enjoyable. Actually I am pretty good at timing the clicks in order to "convert" 20ms delay to 0ms. My current win is: 2 exalted + 1 GCP from ninjaing. holy shit! Still I am against FFA.


Point 3 is also interesting: Though it can be mentioned as an advantage I dont like it that party play has double benefit: you kill faster and in addition you also have a larger item pool. How is this balanced with solo play?
Why should solo play be punished in this way? i think its better if everybody has his own loot pool and to indirectly "extend" your loot pool you have to trade and not party up to have an additional income of white items and chromatic orbs.


I dont mind winning or losing items, what really completly crushes the idea of FFA are point 7, 8,
Each of those 2 points immidiatly makes FFA out of discussion.
Even if only 1 of those 2 points would exist I cant consider FFA remotely as a good thing.

Being forced to a bad playstyle and screen cluttering completly destroys the FFA loot system. Those 2 points make the FFA system completly unenjoyable for me.
Point 9 is also pretty huge, but its manageable as you can make every build viable somehow. It just really limits party focused builds.


I hope I could provide you the whole picture. I think every single arguement I mentioned is universal for everyone its just a different emphasis people have on each point.

Unfortunalty people tend to make up heir opinion by their own benefit: Those who think they belong to point 4,(skilled player) will vote for FFA loot while those who suffer from bad internet (point 5,) will be against it.
But those 2 points are not all!
In my opinion point 7, 8, 9 are extremly important to consider!(screen cluttering, build limiting, bad playstyle)

PS.:

Today I had another funny situation. My general playstyle for new characters is quest hopping (through parties) and then solo farming easy areas(fellshrine, ledge...)
And what I did was I came into party, went through portal, 1 second later merveil dies and I ninjad 1 Orb of regret + 1-2 rares. LOL
How can I actually be against FFA loot??? If you are a lazy asshole the FFA system is just perfect! :DD