Loot systems

Loot is where guilds die. Forever removes one option (GDKP is banned) and leaves one big unknown (whether master loot exists), and adds a new resource (raid-disenchant essences) that no vanilla loot system had a rule for. This page explains the systems, recommends one per raid size, and lists what the guild must write down before December 9. The binding rules themselves live on Loot rules; this page is the reasoning.

What Blizzard has said

GDKP (gold-bid raids) is banned. Josh Greenfield (senior game designer) at the Sept 17 Q&A. Reasons: in regions where GDKP ran longest it “overtakes the traditional guild structure”, it is “a really big barrier to entry” for new and poorer players, and it launders bought gold. verified
Gold buying is “very aggressively” punished, up to permanent account loss. verified
The economy will be actively monitored with tunable drop and consumable availability; the Season of Discovery resource-box lever returns. verified
Enforcement of the GDKP rule itself: no published penalty ladder, no definition of what counts (a gold split for one BoE versus a full auction raid). One careful secondary source explicitly warns against inventing a suspension schedule. verified
Master loot vs group loot: not answered at the Q&A. One boost site asserts “loot distribution is group loot”. unverified

The systems, explained once

System	How it works	Good for	Bad for
Soft reserve (SR)	Each player names one item before the raid. If it drops, only reservers roll. Unreserved items go to open rolls.	Small, weekly, trust-based groups. Lets people target a chase item.	Long instances with many contested slots; tier for nine classes
MS>OS	Main-spec need beats off-spec need. Usually paired with SR or open rolls.	Everything. It is the floor.	Needs a written definition of “main spec” per player
+1	Each item won adds a +1; players with fewer +1s win ties or roll first.	Spreading loot across a farm raid	Progression, where the right player matters more than fairness
Loot council (LC)	Three named officers assign each drop by a written rubric: attendance, upgrade size, tier completion, role priority. Decisions logged publicly.	Long raids with tier and crafted resources to allocate	Trust. Needs a public log and a way to appeal.
GDKP	Gold auctions, pot split.	Nothing. Banned.	Your account

Recommended system by raid size

Raid	System	Why
Barrow Deeps (10)	SR + MS>OS + one item per run, roll /100, +1 tracking optional	Small, trust-based, weekly. SR lets people target the chase item. Reserve declared before the first pull in the Discord thread.
Hyjal Summit (20)	Loot council with a written rubric, public loot history	13 bosses, tier for 9 classes, essences for crafts: rolls waste a long instance. Council of 3, decisions logged the same night.
Onyxia (40)	SR with MS>OS, or the host guild’s rule	One boss. Keep it simple. Tier head vanilla baseline is the fight.

Rules to write down before December 9

These are the decisions. The answers go on Loot rules.

Tier priority order per class and role. With 2/3/4/5-piece bonuses, the 4th piece matters more than the 2nd. A player at 3 pieces outranks a player at 1 for the same slot.
Malleable Essence of Nature policy. Proposal: all disenchanted raid loot goes to the guild bank alt; the council assigns crafted pieces the same way it assigns drops. One designated Enchanter per raid. Nobody “wins” an essence on a roll.
BoE epics from raids. Guild bank first, sold for consumable funds, or rolled. Pick one.
Legendary questline. Name the first recipient in advance once the item and its class list are known. Do not let it be decided on the night it drops.
Trial and casual-attendance priority. Below core raiders on contested items, equal on uncontested.
Off-spec rule for the 1/3 healing-to-damage stat change. A healer’s +healing piece is MS for healers. A caster DPS piece is MS for casters. A healer piece is not “OS” for a caster just because it gives some damage, and a caster piece is not “OS” for a healer just because it could be worn. Single hit and crit stats also mean generic crit items are contested between melee and casters; name the priority.
Transmog is never a Need reason on epics. Raid epic appearances go only to the looter, so “for the look” competes with real upgrades. Dungeon greens and blues give the appearance to everyone eligible, so there it is moot. See Transmog and mounts.
One item per run at 10 unless nobody else wants it.

The essence loot rule, in full

Malleable Essence of Nature comes only from disenchanting Barrow Deeps or Hyjal Summit drops and feeds roughly 72 crafted epic patterns sold in Mount Hyjal. datamined This is new: in vanilla a disenchanted drop was a Nexus Crystal nobody fought over. In Forever it is a tier-equivalent resource.

Proposal:

Designated Enchanter. One per raid, named in the Raid-Helper event. They receive every item that nobody needs, disenchant it in the raid, and mail the essences to the guild bank alt the same night.
Essence ledger. A pinned sheet: date, source item, count, current holder.
Crafted piece assignment. The loot council (or, at 10, the raid leader with the SR thread) assigns crafted pieces by the same rubric as drops. The crafter is paid mats from the bank; the recipient pays nothing.
Crafter obligation. Anyone who learns an essence pattern with guild essences crafts for the guild at no fee.
Class mapping unknown. Set names (Conviction, Demonheart, Grimstitch, Spiritcaller, Grovekeeper, Justice, Glory) do not map to classes yet. The rule is written now; the priority list is filled in when the mapping is known.

Surviving the master-loot question

If master loot is gone, as on retail, then SR and loot council run on “need/greed/pass, then trade within the 2-hour window”, which is how retail guilds do it. Practical version:

Everyone passes on everything except their declared SR item or a council-assigned item.
Mis-rolls are traded to the correct player inside the trade window.
The Enchanter needs on unwanted items so they land with the disenchanter, not a random greed-roller.

If master loot exists, the raid leader or council assigns directly. Either way the written rules do not change; only the button does.

Tooling: what works for Forever today

Forever runs the Midnight addon API. Classic Era addons do not load. verified See Addons.

Tool	Forever status (2026-09-24)	Use
Gargul	CurseForge lists Retail, Classic, TBC, MoP, Titan Reforged. No Forever flavor as of v8.0.0 (Sept 12). verified	Wait; re-check on Dec 1. The retail build may load since the API is retail-like, but it is untested.
RCLootCouncil	Retail only (3.23.3, Aug 31); “RCLootCouncil Classic” is a separate project. verified	Same: retail build may work. Test in beta if anyone is in.
softres.it	Site says “Classic WoW raids”; no Forever raid templates visible. verified thin	Needs Barrow Deeps and Hyjal item lists; expect them near Dec 9 or never. Fallback: Discord thread plus a sheet.
ThatsMyBIS	Lists Forever. verified	Wishlists for loot council; item DB depth unknown.
Raid-Helper	Game-agnostic. verified	Signups.
DBM / BigWigs	Forever-flagged. verified	Boss timers once the raids exist.
Built-in damage meter and cooldown manager	Confirmed by Blizzard. verified	Details! is not Forever-flagged as of 09-19.
WeakAuras	Dead on this API. verified	None.
Warcraft Logs	Unknown; no announcement found. unverified	Do not promise logs.
Wowhead Forever DB	Live, JS-only, has raid zones, factions, tier guide.	Item lookups.

The fallback stack

If nothing gains Forever support by December 9:

Raid-Helper event for signups and roles.
Discord thread per raid night where SRs are declared before the first pull.
/roll in game, MS>OS, one item per run.
Pinned sheet for loot history and the essence ledger, updated the same night.

It worked in 2005. It will work in December.

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Whether master loot exists.
GDKP enforcement: penalty ladder and what counts as a gold split.
Crafted-set class mapping and essence drop rates.
Legendary item and class eligibility.
Gargul, RCLootCouncil, softres.it and Warcraft Logs Forever support.
Boss-to-tier-slot mapping, which decides how contested each boss is.