I did a guild run of ZG not too long ago with a severely undergeared player. It took me a little while, but I couldn’t work out why a hunter kept dying. I had passed it off as just bad luck – and him not being able to control his agro
An inspect of their gear found that they were wearing severly underleveled gear for their current level.
As the person keep playing – and dying – I eventually asked. Why is none of your gear near your level.
“this is just trash I had in the bank”
Of course some items were dropping in Zg that were upgrades of what he was wearing as he was just under 60, and most of us were 60+ and so untill the last boss the drops were rather useless, but the run wasn’t for him ( we were helping a mage for their turtle sheep quest) So the loot he could use went him, but then I was wondering are they really upgrades. Is he wearing crap so he can need other items.
To be honest he didn’t score a lot of that run – so that wasn’t my main concern. I was healing for some of this Run and my healers instinct was see someone going down – heal them. But after checking out his gear I felt annoyed. He wasn’t in his ‘real’ gear and therefore needed more attention – So I let him die more often.
Let is probably a bad word – More that my primary targets were my focus – and if healing him back up to full health was going to take me from the people that would prevent a wipe ( yes a level 70 Tank can get overwelmed in ZG) – they got the heal not him. He , on purpose was not at his full strength – at no time did he say I can’t afford repairs at the moment.
Being deliberaly undergeared – to save on repairs or just to be a pain – if it draws on the resources of the group than that is not on.
If it had been a serious raid – I would have kicked him guildy or not. As a fun run – the level of stupidity allowed is slighly higher as is my patience.
But it also got me thinking about loot distributions.
If you run with a pug – and something drops and everyone is looking at the upgrade of the Item – Its purple and then a person links in a bad green.. “this is what Ive got” and you look at your blue – and think – A plum would be nice but then guy needs it more.
You take the person on face value – but having this experience if im suss – I check their armory – which while it may not be current gear it can show what the plater ‘goes to bed in” for a better idea of what they really equip.