MT Prio, does anyone use this?

[Ariedan]

It has nothing to do with tank ego. Hell, most tanks I know would rather not be the one tank that gets passed all the loot and thus tied to the guild permanently.

The question is whether or not it benefits progression.

I'll concede and admit my opinion is solely based on my experiences with MT priority, all of which were negative. All the tanks in those guilds took advantage of this loot system, and felt like it was their due to have all the gear first. Significant upgrades aside, there were many times I saw all loot, including minor upgrades or sidegrades, immediately passed to the MT, and if any voice was raised in complaint, the tank would get defensive and act like it was his right.

If this system isn't abused, and if it's used solely to further rapid progression when you don't have time to farm an instance, then yes, this is a good system. Otherwise, I still feel just as negatively about it.

[Warwench]

I used MT Prio in EQ2 because the requirements of having a well geared tank there were much higher than it seems to be in wow. Currently we only run 10 mans and myself and the Pally tank we have are quite able to look at each other and work out who gets more from a specific piece. If there is no clear winner in terms of who gets more from the upgrade, we /roll on it.

At least that's how we plan to do it once every fucking NAXX boss has had enough of the "lets drop 2 bits of leather" joke. HA fucking HA guys.

[zephyra]

My guild currently has only 3 tanks which works well for us, pally mt deathknight ot and a backup deathknight when needed. We don't really use mt prio more like tank gear if needed goes to the tanks and we dont touch the dps gear unless no one needs it. Makes it way more fair in the long run.

[orcstar]

Btw. what's your definition of tanking priority?
Is that priority for 1 tank(only) and giving him/her first dibs on new drops or is it also priority of other tanks over the rest on tokens?

[Caulle]

It has nothing to do with tank ego. Hell, most tanks I know would rather not be the one tank that gets passed all the loot and thus tied to the guild permanently.

The question is whether or not it benefits progression.

Going to agree with Lore on this one. Sure at first it was great getting everything, but that got old fast. It just felt weird seeing loot drop and having it ML'd to me without question.

We decided to go with a Loot Council in LK and I couldn't be happier. We use a wishlist system, so I sat down with the Prot Pally OT and we had a brain storm session to make sure that neither of us put the same items on our wishlist and it was a lot of fun. When tank items drop, the loot council let's me bring the discussion to the tank channel to see where the interest is and so far we've all been pretty good about sharing.

The content right now simply does not require any sort of MT priority. Maybe there'll be a cockblock in Ulduar where the boss hits for all your health and you just have to make one sacrifice and throw a few extra items at one guy so he doesn't die instantly. Anything beyond that is probably unnecessary.

[Worldie]

Btw. what's your definition of tanking priority?
Is that priority for 1 tank(only) and giving him/her first dibs on new drops or is it also priority of other tanks over the rest on tokens?

Tank priority in general works that if the guy designed as Main Tank says "need" on an item, he gets it without discussion. It's generally applied to Tiers and Quest drops (Iris key for example) since for tank drops there's hardly more than 2 needers in a raid anyway.

[loquatious]

I dont use MT prio but I would say the guidelines should be

Prio on Survivability items Including tier pieces if appropriate.

The flipside is that MT should pass on all off spec items (you are MT you dont DPS!) and any sidegrades or threat items should go to the other members of the raid.

MT Prio should probably only apply during the progression phase, after all if a place is on farm who needs MT Prio.

[Norik]

As one of 2 MT in our guild the pressure as been on me a bit to keep my gear up to par. Lets face it, the better the guy out front is geared, the easier things will be on the rest of the raid. But it has not been our main focus, we have been more focused on getting our DPS up to par and our healers. The faster things die and the longer the raid lives is also crucial to any raid.

[wyatt]

The current raid content is far too lenient gear-wise to warrant MT priority gearing. Don't do it for what Ulduar may or may not be like, it isn't even out yet. The game is easy right now, let people get some loot and have fun.

[Taninor]

The current raid content is far too lenient gear-wise to warrant MT priority gearing. Don't do it for what Ulduar may or may not be like, it isn't even out yet. The game is easy right now, let people get some loot and have fun.

As far as I can tell everyone is getting loot and having fun. MT prio made sure I was ready for Malygos. We got to him and killed him quickly, two weeks after launch IIRC.

This all depends on whomever gets MT prio to be smart about it. I had my list of stuff that I needed. If it was a side grade or slight upgrade I didn't take it. It went to one of the other tanks. Even with MT prio our OT's got geared up VERY quickly. With 15 bosses in Naxx dropping 4 bits of loot each, MT prio will not gimp your raid in the least. I haven't taken a piece of loot in weeks, I show up every raid without fail and since I'm GM I won't be jumping ship to go anywhere else.

Also on a side note, i get a little annoyed at the people who say "if its the GM who's the MT then don't do prio". If your GM is going to be a dick about using his prio then you have bigger problems than where loot is going, you have a bad GM. Go find another guild.

[Worldie]

The GM + MT + RL simply means that the GM has a huge responsibilty on his shoulders.
Assuming he isn't a idiot, that's nowhere close to being a problem. As Taninor said, if your GM is going to be a dick about using his prio then you have bigger problems than where loot is going.

[Pul]

I am tank officer in my guild (Feral), and guild MT, and I had a argue with our GM due to this aswell pre LK when we were discussing new rules etc. I just refuse to have all gear given prio to the tanks given the requirements for sucess in LK - it would just piss off a lot of people of the other roles and, as a group with objectives, you simply need them to make the group function.
Luckly, our tanks have comun sense and usually pass if a certain item is a major upgrade for 1 of the 'primary tanks' - myself & prot warrior.

If MT prio is a guild rule then the other tanks just have to agree with it and wait their turn. But that needs to be writen somewhere and not demand in /o all of sudden for selfishness. Also, eventho the MT is usually that player that will MT progress encounters, all your other tanks need/should be given an oportunity aswell and therefore they need just as much gear as the next one.

Just share the tanking love and rewards

[swelt]

We haven't used a loot priority system since MC and I doubt we will ever need to again. There was a time when having a certain level of gear on the MT was absolutely required for progression. It seems to me quite counter to blizzards current itemisation strategy for this to be the case in the future. If you look at the steps from top blues to 5man heroic/10 man raid and then to 25 man content, you can see upgrades... but can you see anything stopping you tanking the next tier up? ie. tanking 25 man content in naxx10/heroic gear? I can't. Drops not coming? Fill the gaps with badge items and craftables. With so many items dropping, provided you are vaguely active in your raiding you'll have a full suit of gear that is more than adequate in no time.

So if that's all true, why prioritise an MT? Because he'll take less damage? He'll be less worried about that damage if he's getting bigger heals. He'll take less damage overall if the DPS have better gear. Because you'll progress faster? You'll progress fastest if you have a guild that is happy, skilled and committed. Does prioritising loot help with that? That depends on your guild mentality.

In my opinion, the only time to prioritise loot to an individual is if it is for a specific progress checkpoint. That was true in MC, where the gear was a quantum leap ahead and required for later content. It may have been true at the beginning of TBC. With the amount of heroic gear and the accessibility of naxx10, I don't think it's true now.

But what's most important is that your guild discusses, agrees and buys into whatever loot system you have. Otherwise, it'll all end in tears and drama.