Ninja's Guide to Looting

There are several forms of looting in the world of EverQuest. Some are much more friendlier than others, as some will just piss you off to no end! To begin, let's take a look at the basic forms of looting. (ref)

Looting is, of course, the art of sucking up all the goods from a kill. Whether it's your kill or someone else's, loot is loot! Looting can be broken down into 6 basic areas. Some may overlap of course, some not. These six types are:

Master Looting

Master looting can be both fun and profitable to the master looter. Basically it works like this: One person is picked out to be the master looter for their group. His/her job is to loot ALL the kills the group makes and sell the items they get. Whenever a person leaves the group the Master Looter has to do a 'split'. The best way to do a split is to convert everything in gold, I hear it splits better that way. To do a cash split simply type /split #p #g #s #c.... So, you have 12p 54g 123s 228c. To do a split, type /split 12 54 123 228. The benefit to being a master looter is that splits are ALWAYS in your favor. I tested this. With 6 plat and a full group of 6 people, every should have gotten 1p. Wrong. I got 3p and I'm guessing everyone else got 5g.

Evil Master: The evil master looter will 'shave' a few coins from the top. Since you're master looting, you shouldn't have autosplit on. As a result, you are the ONLY one who knows how much cash you're bringing in. Also, although others in the group can see what items you have looted, they don't really know what you sold them for. You could sell those Words of Refuse to the bank for 3-4 gold or find a player who'll buy them for 3p. Hell, who's to really know you didn't sell those words to a vendor and just stuck them in the bank for later? I hear Oasis is a good place to sell words.....

Good Master: The good master looter will work hard to maximize his and the group's earnings. He'll sell what he can to others in order to bolster the split that the group will get. Also, he'll be a lot more generous when it comes to giving out loot. That Necro might need those words he just looted.

Neutral Master: The neutral master is 100% neutral. He'll sell everything to whomever for the good of the group, including members of the group themselves. This can be really obnoxious, and I've only grouped with one person that did this. Thing is, there's a difference between a want and a need: Does she want that small bronze breastplate because she needs it, she's going to twink someone, or it's just extra cash she can snag? I don't think that her troll warrior can squeeze into it... Anyhow, no one gets any free loot and all cash gets split up.

Alpha Looting

Alpha looting is fairly decent but completely random. The benefit is that no one can really be good/neutral/evil here. Bad side is, you killed an orc and got 5 silver. Ranger Bob killed another orc, got 3 platinum, 9 gold, and Large Ringmail armor. Ok, that's pretty unequal there especially if Ranger Bob was getting his ass waxed AND buffed, nearly costing YOU your life but it's his turn to loot. Don't spend your 5 silver all in one place.

Scavenger Looting

Scavenger looting is when you loot any corpse you find. A lot of people tend to get upset at this, but them I say this: 2 minutes. That's right, TWO MINUTES! From the time you make the killing blow it takes two minutes before that corpse is lootable by anyone other than the killer or someone else in the killer's party. If you are dumb enough to let a corpse drop and not loot it within the time allowed, then it's YOUR TOUGH LUCK! I have scored many a plat and items off of corpse I've found just lying around or having been simply ignored because they weren't THAT interested in looting. Oh well, you loose. Some people will kill something and just move along, no one expects issues with that. True scavenging is when you're sitting there just WAITING for a corpse to fall and be forgotten for two minutes. People like this tend to levitate themselves and run around in circles above you in Oasis. At least, that's what it seems like.

Evil Scavenging: Most scavenging is evil, especially if you are sitting there hoping no one will loot it before you. I've actually been involved in scavenging wars with other scavengers. Seriously, EQ needs a new class: 'The Buzzard'.

Good Scavenging: Good scavengers are probably master looters as well. They will scavenge corpses nearby that others have killed, or kill some things on their own while camping something else, and share it all with the party.

Whoever-Gets-The-Kill-Looting

I hate this kind of looting the most. It's totally unfair to most everyone involved unless you're a caster. I've only been in a group that did this once, and it sucked. If you're not a major damage dealer, forget getting any loot unless you're lucky. I'll tell you this: If you're in a group like that, unless the xps you're getting are nothing short than fantastic, GET OUT! I came back to this same group as a caster. I threw out small spells until the mob was close enough to death, then I bolted it's ass. Of course, I got the kill and the loot every time. Guess what? The party started saying it wasn't fair and some started to just quit. Guess it's no fun if they can't dominate the looting. It was their rule not mine, I was just trying to work within it. ;)

Friendly Looting

Friendly looting is pretty decent really. It's a step down from Master Looting but can be just as enjoyable so long as it's not abused. The idea behind friendly looting, as I see it, is you loot as much as you want within reason. Don't be a hog, and if you loot something that someone else can use, give it to them. You may charge them something small like 1p or something but that's pretty decent. A good example of friendly looting: I was killing things with a group in High Pass. We were making Orc Burgers for the most part. Every now and then we'd come across ringmail armor. Two of us were collecting it for characters we were starting. If I looted a piece I didn't need, I gave it free of charge to the other person and vice-versa. The group leader himself looted a few pieces and he gave them to me without even asking! Now THAT is friendly looting! Result? Everyone had a great time.

Ninja Looting

Do not ninja loot, ever. Do not be a lootwhore. Original Everquest players praise play nice policy, and strive to keep Project 1999 gaming community's atmosphere like how it was in year 1999.

Pay attention, Grasshopper! Your training in the Dark Side of looting will not be complete until you're already looting a corpse before it touches the ground! Pay attention well, and you may yet earn your black belt in the dark teachings of NINJA LOOTING!! Have you ever, just as you've killed something in a group, suddenly gotten a bunch of message about 'so and so is inspecting you...' ? Someone is ninja-looting! Simply put, ninja looting is looting a corpse before it even knows it's dead! A ninja looter is someone who loots fast and loots for him/herself. I am a Black Belt at Ninja Looting when I have to be. It's both sad and funny to have to ninja loot. I look at it as a two-party system: the rich and the slow. You need to have good timing and quick reflexes to be a Master Ninja Looter. Here are some tips on ninja looting:

Monitor the creature's health! When it's getting ready to die, start right-clicking on it in quick successions. Keep right-clicking until you get the loot or see the 'someone is already looting' message.

Keep your corpse open! Don't let people get in front of you. If you do there's a good chance you'll be inspecting that rat bastard which will cost you valuable time and probably screw you out of your loot! If you can, stay in front of the critter so you can still hit it and have a clear shot at it!

Know your party! Keep an eye on who's dealing the most damage. The mob could be down to 1/4 life. Sure, it may still be a few until the tanks kill it but if there's a caster in the group it could be all over REAL quick.

Keep this up, and you'll be getting a lot of the loot. However, a Master Ninja Looter knows when to loot and when not. If you hog up ALL the loot, you'll eventually get yelled or labeled. Share some of the loot too, make your token offerings, offer to get food/drink for the party. Hell, you just ninja looted 5-10plat in loot, spare a gold piece or two for the poor saps who aren't a match for a true master!

It's hilarious to out-loot other Ninja Looters. Have fun with it too. In one group, I was ninja-looting a bit. We got a new member, and I immediately ninja-looted the next kill. Got that familiar line: 'So, how are we looting here?' I don't know about you, but I'm looting just great! Well, the response back was priceless and my friends and I were laughing for days. Someone in the group said 'We're looting friendly, so long as you can beat Bob though'. Ok, I seized up right there, I was laughing so hard. Of course, I relaxed a bit and threw out that 'If I loot something you want, just ask' phrase. I'm willing to share. After all, I'm a Master Ninja Looter, I can afford to be a LITTLE generous with my group.

That pretty much sums it all up in terms of looting. Some names have been changed to protect the guilty, namely myself.