I was in a party in on of the higher level instances, in this case, Dire Maul, when a Staff of the Ogre Magi dropped. As a priest, I was very intent on getting it. For that matter, it was the reason that I went through the hell of Dire Maul. THe rules for loot was simple, pass on everything and then roll for Blues and sets. Then, the rogue in the party looted it and left the group.
I was a little mad.
In the race to be the greatest in World of Warcraft, a piece of equipment that drops like that is something that a Priest can afford to lose, unless it was to another priest, then it's all good. But, when people are looting stuff that they don't need or jsut for gold on the Auction House, that is wrong.
So, the subject is ninja looting. A person in my guild was in a high instance when a Glowing Brightwood Staff dropped. It was Ninjaed. On my server, that is a 700 gold item. It is not so much about the gold value for me, since I am still two levels away from 60, and epic mounts are a far off dream. It is the fact that world drops and good rares per class are few and far between that to see it happen is brutal. I personally haven't run into too many problems, but not a session goes by when I don't read that so and so is a ninja looter while passing through IronForge. As someone that just hit the prime lvl for instances, it makes me a little scared. After all, if I go on a few runs and Devout equipment drops, and someone ninjas it, I'm out my treasure for that run. Since the standard rule is Need for one blue or one piece from a set, I would save all my one N for that one piece. There is a loot option that I have forced parties to use and that is a dedicated Lootmaster. It is not foolproof either because if you don't pick right, you lose all the gear.
The other thing that I am noticing is that there is a increasingly number of guilds that support only lv 60 people and will not run some of the better instances without them. I like my current guild, since we are all canadian, but there is no help for instance runs, especially when it comes to Molten Core, or the new one, Blackwing's Lair. I am starting to get invites from massive guilds that only do these kind of runs, but then I have to leave my guild.
For a power player as myself, that is what it will come down to. I don't want to leave the friends I have made, but to get the best gear, some sacrifices need to be made. There is a guild on my server that does nothing but Molten Core runs, and they are pretty unstoppable. My choice is to wait and wait, or join one of these elite guilds to get my elite gear. It is a problem of course. I'm hoping that there will be something implemented in the future by Blizzard to make some of the gear available to people that aren't so fortunate.