People who ninja for their companions

There are so many quest rewards for your companions that taking an item out of a players hands who needs the item, is just plan rude.

I'd forgotten about those lists.. Tho after I started raiding I kinda feel away from the casual side of things.

As one that breaks looting rules?

How often do you use your companion at lvl 50? Never is the answer to that question. All companions do is promote solo play - which is fine I guess, we don't always want to play in groups. But don't take something away from another player to give to your companion which you may or may not use considering we each get 6 of them...

People with that thought process should go back to single player games. That mentality ruins any kind of social/community aspect this game already struggles to have.

Last question. Would you rather have a sick AI companion healer you can have while doing green missions, or a sick healer guildmate who can heal you properly through the tough FPs? Take your pick. If you answered companion, I'd honestly consider going back to single player RPGs. You roll need on everything in Skyrim.

No one is taking things out of anyone's hands..you cannot steal or pickpocket in the game. Everyone has an equal shot at getting the item with the RNG.

I use my companion every day, to help me get my dailies done. Having them geared out is the best way to maximize my time so I can spend as little amount of time doing dailies as it takes.

Anyhow... I see only two possible solutions for this dilemma, since it is one hand true that player characters should come before companions, on the other hand you're responsible for equiping your companions and the desire to equip you favourite companion makes for a valid demand, a "need":

a) Loot droops are restricted to the player class they are, as is, most useful too. Each companion belongs only to its own class, which means that they can never use an item meant for a particular player class, even if their abilities resemble that class.

An example, since I noticed in general chat that isn't always quite clear: The Jedi Knight companion "Kira Carsen" is obviously a shadow ("Now you see me... now you don't"), but her class is "Kira Carsen" and she cannot use items meant for shadows or consulars. She could not possibly use a double blade light saber that requires class shadow or assassin.

This solution had a disadvantage though: It also means a jedi-sentinel can't use a full-mod chest piece meant for a smuggler anymore. As it is now, you could simply replace the mods that give cunning bonus with mods that give a strength bonus, and you have an item perfectly suited for a sentinel. If it is restricted to smugglers that would effectively limit the existing clothing options.

b) As I have read being mentioned before, an additional button that enables you to vote that you need the item for a companion rather than yourself. So you had all in all up to five options. "Self", "Companion", "Sell", "Disassemble" and "Pass".

It's a social parasite thing to do. Sounds like a great guild.

Or c) let the players handle it themselves, which requires no changes to the game. Only requires people to talk to each other, which is what they should be doing anyways.

Well, to me (Dunno about you, but you and others, I encourage you to share your opinion on this), the fact that a player is more useful to the group means he did more to drop the boss, and therefore "deserves" more loot. So can I go in and ninja the roll if I did nothing to help the boss? Okay, probably not. Want me to contribute? Okay, I used one move. Can I have free purple endgame rolls now? See the picture yet? If you don't contribute, people feel you don't have a right. You must draw the line between actually contributing and just doing 1 damage. What line? 3k damage? 4k? Why not just whoever is the most contributing?

Additionally,

To the group. I highly doubt a companion is more vital to you than a real player. Companions are like strongs whereas you are like a champion or elite. We are totally dropping all PvE solo encounters, because there is no loot competition going solo. And of course it's your choice to play hand-me-down with your companion. Although there is also the fact that later you will PvE solo with your companion. And yes, that helps you, but I still feel it helps the agent more. And as there is no combat log / damage, healing, protection meters, there is no way to measure the contributions each player made to the group. So, we will have to assume that if the roles you were playing were the same, that you contributed the same [red](Why do roles matter? The same reason people generally MVP the healer in Warzones. They feel the healing matters more to the whole group than the damage. Yes, the valor helps everyone, but those who let the healer have the extra valor voted because they thought (s)he contributed more). [/red]. That being said, you attack more in PvE than your companion (And your damage and healing matters more), so his numbers take precedence as a whole (Obviously not to you, then just need it all, credits help, don't they?) than your companions IMO.