Loot Priority in Group Finder Instances

You're missing the point. The less we communicate with each other, the more remote we become from each other and that does promote anti-social behavior. Putting mechanisms in place to dictate behavior rather than communicate it amongst ourselves adds to this estrangement, so while you may get the loot you 'need' in groups, you will see an increased lack of teamwork and manners in the game world generally.

You're obviously not big on the socialising side of things if you would consider putting others on an ignore list simply for discussing loot rules in a FP. Personally I would be happy for anyone to put me on that list if it bothered them, but the reality is that people are happy to sort out loot rules beforehand and far from being ignored, I get asked to join groups all the time. I can only conclude that means other players react positively to some agreed rule-setting.

And you're still ignoring the master looter option, a tool already in place to ensure loot can be distributed fairly.

^ This

It will just be abused like the current system. Some greedy player who has all the best gear will need on gear even tho he has better.

Unlike the current system though, a person who uses cunning gear cannot need on aim, willpower and strength. While it's possible to abuse any system of loot that's not a valid reason for not improving on a loot system that would cut back on a person who is constantly needing everything by 75 percent since they would only have top priority for their own.

This would not only make it so gear was distributed to those who can actually use it. It would make group finder instances run smoother.

I'm in a small guild and have to run pick up groups all the time. I agree with the proffered solution.
Ideally everyone should get a loot package/container with an item for them.
Problem solved.

This system will make gearing up companions near impossible and very expensive.

Bad idea.

Hardly, lets not forget that besides instance gear which you'd still have access to - there's also commendation gear, quest gear and pvp gear to feed to your many companions.

The rolls would be changed to go Need - Companion Need - Greed & Breakdown - Pass. You'd only be losing companion gear to people who actually needed the stats for their main character - which should take priority since they're an actual member of the 4 man group.

Not if they implement it correctly. Need should be restricted to class, greed should not. So you would gear your companion on greed rolls, which a large number of people feel is more appropriate anyway. Plus if you are regularly doing your dailies and weeklies you have so many coms that getting all your comps to full columi isn't that hard.

Yes jerks will continue to be jerks, but it would lessen the likelihood. People who roll need on everything are the minority from my experience. Those people would now be forced into only being able to roll need roughly 25% of the time because they are restricted to the 3 other classes gear.

All for this. Although, fortunately, I have not been a victim of the behavior described yet.

By adding the group finder option which people use readily instead of spamming general and trade chats, the game is already promoting anti-social behavior. Which also adds the feeling that you can do whatever you want in groups get away with it. With the addition of the free two play model on top of that, I've also been grouped with people who either don't speak english or are very new to games and don't care to understand how loot rules go or what stats are useless to them.

Therefore, the loot priority system would be a safeguard and also a guideline for people on how loot works and what stats they need.

Most groups formed with the finder aren't chatty and they don't "socialize" unless someone admits to not having been in the instance before and wants an explanation, a wipe happens, someone needs something they can't use, or they're waiting on someone to reconnect. When questions arise they may or may not be responded to by other people. While talking through it can help sometimes, more often then not it doesn't resolve anything and the group waits through a long argument and then a kick happens. Afterwards, you wait for the party go to through the queue again which can be long depending on the role you lost.

The loot priority system would make it so all arguments, kicks and requeue times for groups where someone is needing things they can't use wouldn't happen - because they wouldn't have priority access to them.

While the master loot option is great, you only have a 25% change of being party lead on entering the instance. While you can ask for it to be passed to you, there are no guarantees it would happen and I'm sure most people would wonder why they'd want their loot to be resting in the hands of some random person they'd never met before.