Standardized loot distribution rules?

[Jordey]

It seems like for years the standard for loot rolls after raids was "do /random 1000 and whoever has the top number gets first pick" --

Seeing a lot of bg leads that do very little, BG does all the work, and then the leader decides to lay claim a piece of loot after raid, or otherwise set an arbitrary "first 10 get to pick then after that it's all random target and distribute." Imagine being #11 in this scenario and having the opportunity to get something that you need, or a good rog that could be templated, but being passed over because someone doesn't want to take the time to follow through with distributing loot.

If there was substantial effort coming from the yellow text in bg to explain encounters and keep everything organized I could understand making that kind of claim, but this is overwhelmingly not the case. Many leads are simply typing /bg invite and then taking whatever high end item they would like at the end and not distributing loot fairly at all. What use are the loot chest and roll logging features that were implemented when a large majority of the participants can be excluded on a whim?

Could we maybe have clarification on if loot rules are truly free for all "bg lead decides, has the final say, and can take what they want", or if this is something that can be reigned in to make it more fair for all who participate? It just seems like laziness and greed. The entire idea of "don't join the raid if you don't want to have that happen" isn't sufficient when these raids are on timers and people only have a certain amount of time to play.

tl;dr ==== If you are leading a bg, lead the bg, distribute the loot fairly, and commit to the entire process. Be ethical with loot distribution and remember that 100+ people probably just gave up their time to help with a raid that needed numbers to be done. Respect their time and effort and allow them an equal chance to receive loot for the encounters.

[Aazimar]

The cache system "is" the most ethical way to handle this and drops are more of a lucky lottery win than anything. In these larger scale raids, it's apparent many are semi afk if not only there for the boss fights and if raid loot was truly distributed by contribution to the encounter, most people would receive little if anything ever for taking up a raid slot.

I've been on 18 dragon raids, and have won absolutely nothing. I've missed even more raids due to time zone differences and often I've been 5 minutes too late to attend. I still have all the dragon gear I need thanks to dragon cache. Leading these massive BGs is like herding cats - no one listens and everyone has an opinion and could do it better, but very very few ever do.