Loot council for World of Warcraft guilds

How a loot council works

A few trusted officers, often the guild master, the raid leader and a class lead or two, decide who gets each item. They weigh how big an upgrade it is, attendance, performance and what each raider has already received, so the gear goes where it makes the raid stronger.

• It's fast. No bidding and no rolls: the council already knows who wants the item and decides in seconds.
• It's flexible. The council can gear a tank first for progression, or pass an item to the player who'll still be there next month.
• It runs on trust. Raiders accept decisions they can see are consistent, which is why guilds that keep a loot council for long keep wishlists and a log of every decision.

Current-tier Mythic guilds mostly use a loot council. Classic guilds with a steady roster often prefer DKP or EPGP, where the rules decide instead of people.

Wishlists: what each raider wants

A wishlist is a raider's list of the items they want from a raid, and how much they want each. With the wishlists in front of it, the council isn't asking "who needs this?" over voice while the loot timer runs. Many guilds keep them in a spreadsheet or on a separate site; on Meadhall they sit beside the loot log.

Loot council on Meadhall

Meadhall is a web hub for a guild or raid team, with a Discord bot. Loot council is one of its loot systems, on every World of Warcraft line it supports: Retail, Classic, Classic Era, Hardcore, Season of Discovery, Anniversary and WoW Forever.

1. Switch it on: on the DKP page's Rules tab, set Loot system to Loot council. The council is whoever may log drops (the Log drops and remove loot lines permission): the officers you already trust with the loot log.
2. Raiders keep wishlists: on the Loot page, Wishlist shows one raid at a time. Each raider adds up to 20 items per raid, says how much they want each (Best in slot, Major upgrade, Minor upgrade or Off-spec), optionally why, and which character it's for. Where the raid's loot list has been read from Battle.net, items are picked by boss; for other raids, typed by name.
3. The council sees everyone's: Everyone's wishlists shows the raid item by item, with who wants each one, the keenest first, and their notes. Only the raider and the council see a wishlist.
4. Record the pick: when the council gives an item, an officer records it under Record a drop. Once the item is picked, Wished for by lists who wished for it, the keenest first, with how many items each has received from that raid in the last 8 weeks. Pick one, and the loot line is written as given by Loot council.

Every decision stays on the loot log, which the whole group can read: who got what, from where and when. The council also sees who had wished for each item, so a question about a decision months later has an answer. A loot council group has no DKP auctions and puts no DKP price on loot; gold auctions still run where gold auctions are allowed. More in the guide: Loot council.

With soft reserve, or beside an addon

A raid's soft reserve is on its event, whatever the group's loot system, so a pug night can use soft reserve while the main raid runs a council. If your raid uses RCLootCouncil in game, Meadhall sits beside it as the record the guild reads outside the game, with the wishlists the council reads before the raid; it doesn't read the addon's data.

Loot council or something else?

• DKP if your guild likes bidding, or fixed prices it can see.
• EPGP for points without bidding: priority is effort over gear.
• Coming from That's My BIS? How Meadhall compares.
• Starting on WoW Forever? Its page compares the systems for a fresh guild.

What it costs

Loot council and wishlists are on every plan. A World of Warcraft group of up to 10 members is free; a raid team of up to 30 is £3 a month and a guild of up to 300 is £5. Members never pay. See pricing.