I’ve got a problem that I’m hoping an players in MH or BT can address.
It mainly concerns the epic gems from those places.
How does a Guild handle epic gems like that? We were considering using DKP and bidding but all that would do is determine the order in who gets what gems. Obviously we want the epic gems to get slotted into the T6 stuff. We maximize our performance by putting epic gems and such in there. So we were debating setting up a mail order kind of deal where if a player wanted some gems, all he’d have to do is send a request in (verbal or otherwise), what gem, what cut, and what item he was going to install it on. Only 1 gem per order.
I don’t think our brass have decided on an adequate way of distribution yet. We’re trying to employ a bit of common sense as well since these ARE just gems. Several months from now, we’ll probably have more gems then we know what to do with.
Ideas? =)
I have nothing to do with the running of my guild but this is how we do it:
We keep a thread on our forums where people request gems. Once their request is filled, the post is deleted – allowing for a clear view of how long the waiting list is. You state the name of the gem you want, what you wish to cut it into, what item you will be socketing and it’s dropdate. For example “Belt of Blasting, crafted, 2x Crimson Spinels cut into +12dmg gems”.
We only allow epic gems to go into gear that won’t be upgraded at all, or gear that won’t be swapped out for a great length of time (ie if you’re last on dkp among the priests, you won’t be getting your hands on t6 chest anytime soon so it’s justified to put epic gems into the chest you’ll be using until then).
You may request gems for PvP gear, but you have to pay for them (albeit much lower than market value) and all PvE requests take priority.
We always have an abundance of green gems (which I’m told are useless for PvE), and sometimes another kind as well tho my memory fails me on which one. We advertise these in /trade and sell them cut or uncut.
After each raid the officers put all gems into the guildbank. The people at the top of the list contact an officer who take out the requested gems and hand them over to one of the guild JC’ers for cutting. The officer then removes the request post on the forums.
Once the gems start piling up as people get fully gemmed t6, we might change it to a different system. For now however, we’ve found that this method gives the best overall result for the guild.
MBB: Thank you very much for your timely response! I’m going to have to go propose that to my GL’s. That looks like a sound way of handling gems.
Do you guys ever AH any?
Seconding MBB’s comment. We do things the same way. We haven’t gotten to the point where we have enough to AH gems but with the guilds ahead of us, as far as I know other people gotta actually go and talk to one of the officer types(?) in the guild to buy ’em. Depending on what gem they usually go for a couple hundred gold if they are being sold.
My guild just started Hyjal/BT, and the officers have added the policy that if the loot isn’t from Hyjal/BT or isn’t ‘best in game’ it doesnt need an epic gem, because the difference from blue to epic is marginal. All requests for items are sent by ingame mail to the ‘bank alt’, from crafted BOEs to gold for respecs to epic gems. All of which is approved by the guild leader.
The guild is pushing progression as hard as reasonably possible, and has had much success. Within 2 weeks, 4/5 Hyjal is down and 3/9 BT (first night) is also down.
I second MBB as well. This is how we handle Nether Vortexes at the moment. We have a list of who wants which item, who will be crafting it, how many Vortexes it requires, and how many they currently have.
This has worked very well, and we just reference the thread when one drops and the ML can give it to the next person on the list who is at the raid. He can also edit the post to make the change, right then and there.
This sounds like it would work very well for the Gems also.
I’m going to make an assumption from everyone’s response here is that DKP does not come into play at any point.
Nope, our gem distribution has zero to do with DKP. If you have an item worthy of an epic gem, it’s yours basically.
I think we may have auctioned some gems, but only after advertising them in trade first. We find it’s easier to advertise the different cuts and then cut to order. If you list uncuts on the AH a lot of people won’t know the possibilities of the gem, and if you list a pre-cut one on the AH you are limiting yourself to one specific market. /trade just works out better.
Oh and in reply to Doug:
the officers have added the policy that if the loot isn’t from Hyjal/BT or isn’t ‘best in game’ it doesn’t need an epic gem
The only reason we haven’t said that non-BT/Hyjal drops can’t have gems is the fact that certain items – like the Frozen Shadoweave Boots – are actually the best in game for a specific class. And they’re obviously not from BT or Hyjal. The only exception are those particular items though.
So, my raid doesn’t actually use DKP, but like a lot of people above, we have instituted best-in-slot item priority for both drops and gemming. We also make everyone map out their upgrade paths for new instances, so that there’s no quibbling about what constitutes “best in slot” when something drops.
At present, we have a bunch of gems from the past 3 or 4 weeks ready to go for when T6 and T6-equivalent slotted gear starts to drop. You’ll probably end up in the same boat (but I assume it levels out after a while, because the only gems that get sold on the AH are greens, more or less).
My guild uses the best-in-lot rule. They’ve also instituted a rule that says only Spriests and Warlocks get red gems when they get an item. Everyone else has to wait. Even if it means the 10 red Crimson Spinel stock they want on hand at all times sits in the bank, unused while the spriests and warlocks haven’t picked up drops for them, and other classes sit in a waiting list.
This system does not work.
Kaething: Yeah I can see that that isn’t the way to go. It seems to be a waste of Spinels. I’m sure they can spare some of them.
GMW: Really? I’m seeing Sapphires and Spinels all over the Ner’Zuhl auction house. The cheapest is Sapphires for about 300G+.