I’m finding the psychology of DKP bidding much to be like GDKP bidding – of course they have more in common then just three letters, each has it’s own form of currency. GDKP – of course is gold, DKP is points earned for attendance in raids and so on, but there is a way of approaching bidding – knowing how much currency they have to work with, how important that item is to their class/spec – how many people want it and so on which can make bidding an interesting show.
The hesitate bidder – 1 point above the last bid. The one who means business. 40 points straight up. The hesitations as they feel each other out for how much they are willing to put on the table.
I’m managed to get this far in my WOW raiding without ever having to worry about a point system before. I’ve seen Loot council ( which worked out bad for me the crappy shadow priest in BC – because any upgrades outside my Shadow Weaving 4 set were also awesome upgrades for every other dps class – who were doing a crap load more damage then I) Loot by date of last allocation for that loot group. From memory I believe weapons, were separate to trinkets, rings & necks, and gear was also separate, and the other guilds were variations of loot councils, and were pretty much as equal as possible with attendance & raider/trial status taken into consideration.
I have DKP to spend, and there are items that drop that I would like – but this means I need to know how much I have to spend, how much the people bidding against me have to spend, and is it worth what ever amount it is being bidded for.
I’ve been hesitating pushing my bidding. Do I really want to lose all my dkp earned so far for one pair of boots/offhand ? does the person bidding against me have a massive amount to spend? – and the best I could hope to accomplish is either wiping out all of my dkp – or forcing them to spend a chunk of their own.
I haven’t been lootless. I was able to upgrade my 4th piece of t10 to Sanc, and got 4 sanc tokens for my healing offspec. I also managed to get the staff of LK extremely cheaply because 2 dropped in one run, and then 2 dropped the following week as well.
I’m also unofficially next in line for Heroic DFO. unofficially meaning that no one else wants it for mainspec. ( I think) It just hasn’t dropped for 3 weeks, but then there might be someone who needs it and then I will need to have dkp to bid.
Things like belt, boots, offhand , wand, and the Heroic Sanc tokens though can turn into bidding wars, and I haven’t pushed my bidding. There isn’t a code like I was told in a GDKP where I was bidding against someone I knew. They bowed out because “they don’t bid against friends’ this is healthy competition for gear, and you can see how quickly much desired pieces have their value bumped up quickly beyond anyone with only pocket change dkp to spend.
Like dead dps does no dps – unspent Dkp means no new gear. So after a week or so of getting scared out early – I am trying to be somewhat more assertive.
*Guildy disclaimers.. No I am not trying to guilt you into passing, and I don’t have your DKP points memorised – it’s just been interesting watching the bids.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
The optimal strategy for English bidding is to bid up to what you think the item is worth. Once you realize that, bidding goes very easily. When the item drops, or even before, just mentally value it and bid until you hit the limit.
My guild does bid-DKP as well, though we have a separate pool of DKP for class tokens. I’m generally willing to spend up to all my DKP for class tokens/weapons/trinkets, and about half for any other piece. (Though I’d spend all of my DKP if those damn pally bracers ever dropped.)
Bid systems work best when people bid aggressively. Too much passing “for friends” often warps the system.
I believe in bidding erratically 😀
Sometimes I will open up big (say start at 7k when I hope the item will sell for 10k), sometimes I will let others set the pace and just chime in at +100 more than their highest bid.
However, I always always have a set point of how much I am willing to pay for an item as soon as I see it drop. And I never bid over that amount. There’s always next week!
My guild uses overbid protection…highest bidder pays 1 dkp more than what the # 2 bid was. So I just bid what I am willing to pay, and will only pay that much if I bid the same as someone else, and then it is a roll between the matching bids, and the winger pays what they bid.
I use to love DKP and died by it… and now I can’t imagine a world without Loot Council.
That said, when I left my old guild (over 3 years ago) I had the highest DKP for relevant stuff by such an exotically long mile, I royally screwed myself over. Something like 487 DKP when the next highest was only at 123. (Yay for perfect attendance and reluctance to bid?)
Yes the main problem with bid dkp is the long term effects of passing for friends. If its reset often ie new tier of content that is minimised.
Our guild it used to be the DPS casters where very fiery and every caster drop was hotly contested, the rogues would pass for friends, and bid up the warriors on a contested drop ie ring/trinket/fury weapons. The warriors had a fairly strict chain starting at the main tank and best dps and some new tank bidding against the main tank was frowned on. The healers used to be very friendly and often drops would go to the person who most needed it.
The long term effects of that? I documented it asking for a change. The average warrior got 3 times as many drops as a caster and spent 1/4 the dkp per item.
Well, that’s collusion. My old guild had no collusion control at first; the end result was the officers deciding to allow Healers to bid on off-spec gear (back before unified spellpower, when things were explicitly +heal or +damage/heal).
Casters attempted to collude on Neltharion’s Trinket and bid something low as 20 DKP, they were reamed when healers started bidding 80-100. But they learned their lesson.
The best tip I was given when I moved to a DKP guild was along the lines of – ‘you earned it, you are entitled to spend it’.
When a guild has decided to go DKP, all that stuff that Loot Councils worry about – who hasn’t had any loot for a while, who is doing the best dps, what their girlfriend will say – goes out the window. If you don’t bid on stuff you need then the DKP system won’t work for you. If you need it, bid on it, up to what you are prepared to pay. Don’t rely on other personalities to pass on stuff for you.
This was all pretty contrary to my usual inclinations — but I screwed up my courage and bid away. And it worked out very well for me. And no-one got shirty.
Good luck with a wand. I didn’t see any for months and had started to believe they didn’t exist. Now it seems one drops every week.