Diary of an Ex-Lootwhore

What makes someone a loot whore? Don't we all want loot? Can any of us say that after running an instance or raiding or pvping that we don't care about loot?

Yes, we all care about loot but ther are a few (maybe more than few) who take the desire for loot to another level. And I'm not sure if it's a bad thing but maybe just a characteristic that leaves a bad feeling in my heart.

I was a loot whore. Yup. About a year ago today actually. The Heart of Hakkar belonged to ME!! MAGES first baby! Priority goes to mages, they NEED it more. They're supposed to top the DPS charts! They're considered noobs if they don't top DPS!

While, mages that fall far behind in the DPS meters are considered "bad", none of those things really have any baring on loot distribution.

I wanted that damn trinket sooo sooo sooo bad. I made up backwards excuses and justifications to prioritize the Heart to mages. I argued with my group and demanded to have my way and it nearly tore us all apart. I have never admitted this to anyone but I was the reason Sadin left the game for two months! I hate admitting it, I do, but you have to understand how ignorant I was...so focused on the loot.

I told Sadin that Warlocks shouldn't get to roll on the Heart, that mages needed it more. I told Taint he had to keep priority on the item for mages. It was all so terrible in retrospect.

Where did I get this stupid idea that this trinket should be prioritized for Mages? The previous raiding guild we were in, the raid leader said the mages would get priority on the Heart of Hakkar. It stuck in my head and I never bothered to question it.

But after seeing my group shake up and so much grief befall everyone, I really came to understand how insignificant ALL of the meta-materials were. I also started understanding that ALL classes can REALLY USE the Heart of Hakkar, mages, locks, hunters, and even healers and tanks! I was TOTALLY wrong.

I'm kind of glad it came down the way it did. Now my philosophy on loot is, if you can use it and don't plan on banking it for all eternity, please roll on it! I don't even want to hear any arguments about efficiency for certain classes. It's like nails on a chalk board now when I hear someone say "well, he is the main healer, he should have it."

Epic and Blue GEAR is great but I promise you, you can f-ing do almost anything with semi-decent threads.

Someone emailed me recently saying how they thought they needed full dungeon 3 sets to run Karazhan. You do NOT have to be geared out for Karazhan. You can go in with mostly greens with proper stats. It's about execution. I know this, because it's what my group did. Half of us had barely hit 70.

Blizzard did a great job with TBC in making gear very comparable with spikes here and there from trinkets and weapons...but the disparity isn't that great. Don't get me wrong, I hate feeling inadequate. I don't want to be the crappy healer who only has +200 healing or a crappy shadow priest who can't climb over the prot warrior's damage. That would be humiliating. I've had guildmates make fun of my green gear when I first hit 70. But I stacked the best stats I could and performed to the best of my ability and did very well.

Loot is great but it doesn't make you a great player. It can make you a better player but it can't make you a great player. I've seen this geared out mage burn the DPS charts like no tomorrow but was completely worthless for crowd control, decursing, and survivability. Great gear, but only an okay player imo.

But I do understand the lure. I understand what it means to feel like you really really deserve an item and you just can't get your hands on it. Part of me scoffs at lootwhores now. But there's still a part of me that totally sympathizes.

I've heard people make all sorts of horrible commentary because the loot bug grabs them. And no matter how much I try to talk someone down from it, they're just not going to be happy until they obtain their material object of affection.

...