Need vs. Greed; or Why are Enchanters Lazy?

For a few weeks now, I've been participating in a late-night 10-man group of guildies that I've dubbed the Power Team (click here to read about the real Power Team--and quite possibly laugh. However, I would advise against laughing in the face of a Power Team member--these guys are BIG.). Despite the fact that I love to sleep and runs that last until at least 2:00 am make me tired, I love them. Every Friday and Saturday night, the same ten players (unless someone is out of town or otherwise unavailable) get together to speed through Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Eye of Eternity, and sometimes Archavon.

Our loot rules are simple, and we use the dice. If you are rolling for your main spec/role and it is an upgrade, you click need. If you are rolling for an off spec/role, you click greed. There is no limit to the number of need or greed rolls you may make, since it is a guild run (and we don't take loot whores). I know. What a concept, right? We use the in-game dice in the intended manner. It's strange, but it works.

The first run or two, the raid organizer (he doesn't like to be the raid leader, but he does the invites on the in-game calendar) and I made sure that everyone knew what the loot rules were. Since they follow our guild loot policies that are listed on our website, it didn't take long for everyone to get the hang of it. Well, almost everyone.

Tonight our resident Disenchanter made a fuss to the two of us because he wanted to hit greed for DE. We pointed out that that wouldn't work if someone wanted the item for an off spec. He still didn't seem to get it. He thought everyone should just hit need if they wanted it so he could just click a button instead of waiting by the corpse to see if he needed to pick up the item and disenchant it. He also argued that there really isn't much difference between the stats for items anymore, so there shouldn't be off spec issues. Although I got the feeling he was mostly being contrary because he likes to argue, it also made me shake my head in wonder. He plays a pure dps class, so the big decision when speccing for him is whether to do damage this way or that way. But the concept of hybrids isn't a new one. And I guarantee that if I rolled need on a piece with +hit on it, he would be the first to question me about it.

He is right that many stats have been homogenized, but not to the point that some discretion isn't necessary in deciding whether it is worth a need roll or a greed roll.

Here's my take on it:

• Resto Shamans don't get a lot of use out of spirit, so anything that is heavy on spirit, like The Impossible Dream probably isn't worth a need roll, unless you are using something really bad.
• Crit and Haste rating are good for us, so Hammer of the Astral Plane (damn you Mase) is totally need worthy.
• Items with a lot of mp5 are also good. Water shield will keep your mana ticking, but a nice base of mp5 gives you more regen, and acts as a buffer if you are short on global cooldowns to refresh it.
• Hit Rating is a greed, but I do not hesitate to roll on it. There are fights where I not only have time to dps, but I am also expected to (i.e. Thaddius in Heroic or Loatheb during the 17 seconds where I cannot heal). Having a few +hit pieces to toss on to minimize my misses makes my resto-dps more useful.
• I am also contemplating creating a decent enhancement set (although I haven't decided for sure yet), so I may start greeding on attack power items that no one else wants.
  

It isn't that hard to look at a piece and decide if it will help me heal people harder, faster or more efficiently; or if it will let me quest or dps easier. But don't be a lazy disenchanter. If the rules are need for main role/greed for off, please don't think that disenchanting is an off spec.