Thursday, February 25, 2010

Why you gotta be so needy?

For those of you running daily randoms for your frost emblems, I'm sure you've noticed a trend emerging since the latest patch notes were released.  You run your instance (half watching the screen and half doing something else because you're way over geared for these dungeons), you roll through each boss fight in near record time (clicking disenchant on every piece of gear that drops), you down the final boss and toss out your customary "TY for group" in party chat... then you wait for all the rolls before you leave group and take your port back to where ever you came from.

Just a normal day in WotLK heroics, until... you notice some bozo was the ONLY one to click "need" on the frozen orb (AFTER everybody else greeded on it).  "Dude... seriously?"  Yeah, we all know frozen orbs will be used as currency come patch 3.3.3, and we all know this makes them the only relevant loot in these 5 man dungeons, but what possesses these people to believe they "need" these frozen orbs?  What makes them think they "need" them more than everybody else in their party?  Do these orb needers know how pathetic I think they are?  (If they didn't before they will soon.)

Let's take a look at what these needy frost orb ninjas are so desperate to get their hands on.

•Crusader Orb (6) - Six orbs o' the frozen will get you one crusader orb.  Mmmm, k?  Triumph badges are so easy to get it's hard to image anyone wanting to grind out orbs for these craftable items (even with the nerf to the mats for those craftables).  But hey, who am I to judge.  If you'd rather grind on your main to gear out your alt, go nuts (4 donuts) but keep it on the level.  K, ninja boys and girls?

•Runed Orb (4) - The low low price of four frosty orbs will get you one shiney new Runed Orb.  Go go Ulduar patterns!  I'm all for nostalgia armor sets, but com'on... you're not even getting tier gear here. (Three rhyming words in a row... blog bonus points!)

•Eternal Fire - Now we're talking!  Straight up trade for a somewhat annoying to grind Eternal Fire.  I can just sense all you blacksmiths dusting off your titan steel cooldowns.  My server sells these for roughly 8g on AH (with the price likely to drop thanks to all those orb needers.)  Is the bad ninja karma really worth it to you?

•Eternal Earth - Slightly less annoying to grind, but still... 1 for 1 trade here.  Median AH price on Eternal Earth = 4g.  Vendor price for frozen orb = 5g.  No economics degrees needed here.  You'd probably be losing money by trading in your frozen orbs for these mats.

•Eternal Water/Air/Life/Shadow - You get the picture.  One orb = one eternal.  Can you imagine people "needing" on eternals?  "Lame."  Yeah, I feel the same way about these orb whores.

•Frost Lotus - Ahhhh. Here's the culprit.  The once nerfed, soon to be buffed, spawn rate of this reagent has driven daisy pickers crazy across azeroth.  Whether you're looking to make a buck or simply trying to get your flasks made in a timely manner, one frozen orb for one frost lotus is a great deal.  SO... is it okay to essentially steal these valuable commodities from your fellow party members?  It sure is.  If you're middle name is Ninja. :-p

•Pattern: Frosty Flying Carpet [Tailors Only] (6) - "Don't you dare close your eyes..."  For all you Alladin wannabes out there who are thinking "Hey, frozen orbs help me learn stuff for my profession, so I neeeed them." I ask you this... is it OK if I need on every blue that drops in heroic dungeons because the dream shards buy me enchanting patterns?  If so, you A. have questionable moral fiber and B. must have brown eyes because you're so full of...

Anyway, the point is this.  People who used underhanded tactics to obtain frozen orbs back when they were THE orbs to have were called ninjas.  The people who do the same thing now and don't believe they're ninjas are simply lying to themselves.  In fact, if you ask me (and nobody did), they are a somewhat more pathetic version of loot ninjas that I like to call "frosty orb whores".

Rant... ended.

4 comments:

  1. 99% of people that I run with Need on the orbs, it's a pretty standard thing these days.

    Perhaps he was from a server where it's common, and he didn't realise. Hitting Need late, after everyone else Greeds, is a bit rude - but maybe he was just slow.

    I lost a lot of rolls at the start of the LFD system because I would always Greed but everyone else automatically Needed. I started hitting Need after I realised it was the common thing.

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  2. Strange. I've only seen a handful of people need on frost orbs, and it's always after someone has chosen greed on them.

    Regardless, frost orbs are still kinda useless,imo, so it's not the fact that someone else is getting them that bothers me. It's the principle of the thing (<-- famous last words.)

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  3. I think it's a battlegroup-to-battlegroup thing.

    I was used to Greeding, and at first was annoyed when people Needed, thinking they were being jerks. But then after it kept happening, I realised it was just how many people do it.

    But hey, I'm no expert on LFD loot systems, as my "everyone seems to be ok with Need rolls for offspec, so I'll do it too.. wait, why am I being pelted with rotten tomatoes" blog post a while back will attest.

    Just when you think you have them figured out..

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  4. On Aggramar we had the tradition of greeding orbs until LFD came about. Now about half the time someone clicks need so I've begun waiting to roll on the orb until the other four party memebers have. If all four greed, I greed. If someone needs, I need as well. It'd probably be easier and more fair if everyone needed but I haven't reached that point yet.

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