Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog

I’ve talked about GDKP’s which are pretty prevalent on Blackrock before,  It seems from comments,  and other server talks,  that it’s prevalence is a little unique.  Sure other realms have them, but on Alliance side of BR there is at least one ICC 25 GDKP running  every night during  Aussie peak hours,  and one or several during the day / our early mornings. Not as frequent,  but still quite common are 25 TOC’s, and 25TOGC’s run.

Anyone can run them.  Not Everyone should run them. Eg last night.  The person who started the TOC 25 GDKP – had extremely poor english speaking skills, minimal communication, and a non working GDKP mod.   It was salvaged by a good friend of mine who took over loot bidding, gold, and raid leading,  all the while also main tanking.  If not for them – the group would have failed.

Most of them are run through a GDKP mod,  this keeps track of the pot, and controls the bidding – picking up on the gold bids through raid chat. But it can fail if the Loot master has to restart PC,  or like the TOC  last night find out that the Loot master can’t get it working after killing beasts .  It had  to be done manually – which is a pain,  but it’s not the end of the run,  enough people where keeping track of the loot so it was all fair

Getting into a GDKP

Some of them have varying requirements, and ‘qualifications’  min gear scores, achievements and Gold – if your running it you set the rules.  Depends on how picky you are will depend on how long it takes to fill and also your chances of success.

Some of the time those requirements are negotiable. I got my 10/12  25 ICC ( with Some heroics) by linking my 10 man 10/12 and I think showing I had done at least 6/12 on 25. My 6/12 25 was done, because I ran a 10 man ICC with the 25’s raid leader the day before  and had proven I was capable.  

Some of its networking, finding out when the good runs are,  proving yourself in other places.  Just because it’s a Pug it doesn’t mean that have an automatic right to be there because you think you deserve to. I guess it is like a social judgement, if you’re not on the guest list,  you’re not invited. It can also be who can vouch for you,  friendship/guild relationship   ( Eg a guild running it will take guild alts for gearing up.

It may also depend on your role, and how desperate they are – if you see this being spammed in trade for 5 min   LF1 Rogue   ICC 25  7/10  GDKP Pst GS achieve and Gold  and you reply   5.7 Rogue 4/10  looking for New dagger.  They may take a calculated risk and invite you,  rather than keep 23 other people waiting.  Especially if they are having issues finding that last healer.

I’ve never faked an achievement,  I try to avoid linking gold – and I have rounded up my 13k to 15k – but most of the time you don’t need to lie. 

I will lay bets that rarely will you have everyone in that raid meeting all posted requirements on the toon they are on, and that can also be why there can varying success.  

GDKP Rules

The  rules, or expected behaviour may also include

No flask/food / vent no gold. 

I’ve not seen the flask/food rule punished for,  but I have seen stern warnings in regards to the vent requirement. 

If You cause wipes/perform very poorly you may get kicked

There may be Min bids on some items eg Tier tokens,  or trinkets,  or Heroic gear to stop people from bargain shopping and keep the pot healthy 

There may be a payment for a Kingslayer to unlock Heroic modes.  ( standard fee is 1k on 25)  40 gold each taken from the Pot.

Patience may be required when the run is ended, and the gold is being handed out.  If the Loot Master says – I WILL TRADE YOU.  And you spam him  with trade invites.  You may miss out on any gold when you get removed from the group.  It’s distributed with a method,  so they aren’t losing their own gold and they can track who has already gotten their share of the gold. They might work from group 1 to 5 or who ever is stacked close to them. Any way they do it they are trying to keep it fair.

Imagine 24 people trying to trade you saying. Gimme gold now – what do you think the error rates would be  and thus and the loss of trust factor on this system would be?

Successes

My biggest pot has been 6k from a 1o boss kill in ICC,  I spent 14k in that one though,  for which I got a Tier Token, and a 271 Heroic Neck .  I got Reign the other week for 8k in a TOC – but in early days ICC Reign was still going for 20-30 k gold, which was way out of my reach. 

Even though the TOC last night only got 4/5 it was still a success because there was control, and a confident leader.  We killed stuff without a wipe fest,  people got loot. People got gold.  After one wipe on Twins because people restless we were down 3 by this point,  and a couple demanded their gold.  A ready check was done, and a majority chose to stay.  More people leaving would have spelled the end of the run smaller pot, less loot – so they got a choice – leave now and no gold.   They signed up for a 5 boss kill.  A 3 hour run, 50 wipes  would be unreasonable expectations – but after one wipe on twins, and they wanted to bail.   That is not reasonable. Of course they stayed, and we killed the twins. Success!

Sometimes you need to pick and choose your GDKP’s I guess wisdom comes with experience,  and this is me trying to pass on some of mine. It’s still a risk,  though. I’m a big fan of GDKP’s ( if you can’t tell )  I’ve not been in one that was ninja’d  ( touch wood) But they have become very much part of the Faction and Realm culture – back on Dath’remar the odd one gets run,  but only by top end guilds, and often with preset invitee’s  organised on forums, and strict gold requirements.

Failures

People lie to get in, fake achievements and if 24 people negotiated their way in,  or the Raid leader expected to be carried  then obviously your more likely to fail.

I’ve done ones that disbanded on Marrowgar trash, couldn’t kill beasts, got called at Saurfang, wiped on boat – just like any other pug . I can pretty much garantee a 4/12  boss kill on any I do on either of my priests though now.

I’ve seen more runs fail on attitude, and I guess Synergy and poor leadership then gear and experience. Like any pug,  one wipe can be enough for the breakdown of the entire raid.  F this says a random dps.  2 people leave,  then a 3rd, a 4th, and then it just becomes too hard.

I’ve even tried a couple of TOGC 25 GDKP’s – one got that bad that half the raid left group in anger after a 6th fail at Faction champs.  Of course there was still gold to be distributed  – so those who stayed got more.

If your main tank abandons you at Saurfang,  and your only planning for 4/12  – unless the pot is decent you may have issues trying to fill.   I’ve been in a few TOC 25’s where getting someone in for Anub hasn’t been too difficult because of the loot that might drop, and if they aren’t planing on doing the run,  an easy couple of hundred  could be appealing.

Why I like them

I spend in GDKP’s,  I make money off GDKP’s

I don’t have to be in a guild to see content,  or get gear, and I get to profit from the experience

Good value loot – My Healing Priest Ostaraa got new boots from TOC  last night- they were a upgade, I checked the AH after,  and for 2k there were boots about on par with them,  The ICC crafted boots were 6 k.  For 800 gold I got new boots, and with my share of the pot just under 800 – im outof pocket only a small amount for an upgrade.

There is also more motivation for a GDKP to stick it out.  There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  People are less likely to leave –  I trust your interest in the sucess of this is as great as mine,  and a stable raid increases the success.  Greed is a powerful motivator.

Trust

There is still a big trust factor – currently Blizzard will still intervene with gold pot Ninja’s  – there was chatter in trade last week of one person with a respected guild tag ninjaing, and server transferring. I’ve done them successfully with Guildless,   little guilds,  big guilds.  You still need to be able to work as part of a team with strangers.  I’m noticing less carried people these days,  or the gaps between OP, and carried is getting shorter as people get geared up.

Maybe GDKP’s will get phased out.  The structure of the content and timing now is good for this.  People have the geared alts to do them,  giving people opportunity to see content,  get gear that they wouldn’t otherwise. 

I guess BR has had lots of practise getting it right,   – I’ve never run one,  and probably won’t so I can’t give you advise on how to build the trust the people on your realm need to get them off the ground.  25 random people doing something that requires skill, and involves gold.  There’s a bit at stake there – you need people with spare gold,  you need people, with toons that are free to use their raid ID’s as they choose – and often some realms struggle for 25 man raiding.  It is a lot to ask unless you have the right population.

In conclusion,  if you have made it this far –  I have fun in them.  I love the flexibility,  I like the ‘easy’ gold, I also like that RNG means nothing when you can pay for what you want.   I don’t believe it means I have been carried because I have purchased some of my upgrades – I still have had to read strats for bosses / Hardmodes, still had to  perform,  heal, dps,  dispel. 25 lazy people still means a fail and why fail when you can profit!