You could argue that since shaman are the most desparate for "while casting" mana regen, that they should be given a small edge when deciding on those items. DKP is best of course, but if I were trying to do it by loot council, I'd go mp5 to shaman, +healing to priests and druids as a general rule of thumb.

This DKP system that prioritises priests above other healing classes is an excellent idea and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

In their defence... I've been in several guilds with non-zero sum, non-fixed cost DKP, "blind" bidding systems. They tended to run with more priests than paladins/druids (some raids would be 7-8 priests, 3-4 druids, 3-4 paladins) and it's kind of frustrating watching druids/paladins get their set items for near enough close to min bids whereas you're competing for the same number of drops against more people...

I think Druids and Shamans can be awesome healers. Were I able to switch classes and keep gear similar to my own (pref to a Druid for bear dance) I'd be sick at healing. The only things I can think of that a Priest has on a Druid is PW:S, Flash Heal, and Psychic Scream, but that's not really used often in raids and Warriors and Warlocks can do similar things (albiet on a longer cooldown). Well, I guess there's also Fade, but the Druids I see shift into Bear seem to do pretty well, though afaik that's ridiculously mana intensive. Druids otoh have Rebirth, Nature's Swiftness, Swiftmend, and Innervate as well as some of the most powerful healing spells in the game

And again, I'm not saying Shamans are worse, I just have no idea how to manage Totems like they do. So personally I think given similar gear they're pretty darned close, but that's the problem now, isn't it? Hence why I'm trying to solve it :).

When we were starting BWL we had Druids that were on par if not somewhat ahead of the Priests in effective healing, but as we moved further the gear gap widened and thusly so did the effective healing.

Give everything to druids. It's the smartest thing to do.

;)

But seriously, I'm guessing your application forum is full of priests and scarce of druids/shamans. And no wonder. That's a terrible way to handle loot.

At the risk of derailing your thread, you may want to look at the rest of your guilds priorities as well.

if the kinds of druids and shamans you're recruiting are ones that don't want to heal well or at all, good luck to you sir

Wow, loot councils? Those work? Seems open to massive favoritism or the perception thereof. Is it a common practice?

I think it works pretty well. Guild is only in aq40 and starting on anub/razuv, but so far, loot counciling has worked out so that everybody is pretty equally geared. Also, it has helped weed the greedy people out. Another great thing is, because the majority of your loot council is around for the majority of the raids, they can carefully analyze attendance and watch people's devotion, or lack there of (damn afk's).

In regards to who gets what, usually, the people with seniority get the first good drops, and the rest trickles down evenly. Example is, three main priests all got their xdence 3 pieces first. Following those three, each priest who had good attendance received one piece until eventually, every priest had their 3 piece xdence. Working out great.

Also, becuz of this, our tanks are pretty equally geared with our main tank having priority on BIG upgrades. Too bad our wrath drop rate blows hard tho :(.

The best loot system is 50 responsible people who balance greed with need and get along with eachother and divy things up fairly.

Alas ive never been in one of these guilds,but im sure there's one out there,somewhere.

That said,priests get spirit and mass +healing,shamans get mp5 and druids get everything /sarcasm.

All the trinkets/neck/rings are fairly good for every healer class and dont really need priority,everything else should be seperated by armour type automaticly. Basicly,your priests are screwing over your shamans/druids (IMHO)

Yes, i think responsibility and fairness is the most important thing, no matter if it's dkp or loot councils.

Also, I personally think that somethings should go to shamans first because they are just THAT important, like mentioned earlier. Examples are ring of blackrock and shard of the scale. Shaman regen isn't that great imo so they really need all the mp5 they can get. I think a priest shud be fairly satisfied with their cauterizing bands, dm trinkets, etc. and just let the sham take the heavy +mp5 items first. Pure Thought is also in the same boat to me.