No, You May Not Roll on Items for Another Class and Strip Out the Mods

Luckily, as others have said before, the actual argument from people that they can or should need for their companions has only been one person confined to my ignore list. Otherwise these people can just sit and drool looking at me on their friend's list while I go into an ops, and I don't even remotely mention the empty DPS slot to them.

According to whom do you "deserve" a piece more? You? An understandable, if flawed, perspective. Each person in a group "deserves" a piece that drops from a downed boss equally. Since each person has an equal claim on a given item, an impartial system for distribution had to be implemented. NBG worked fine in WoW because you only had to worry about yourself; pets, demons, ghouls and elementals didn't require gear.

Once companions who required gear came into the picture in this game, the paradigm changed, and NBG is no longer sufficient, as a companion's requirement of upgrades suffices as a valid "need", despite disagreement on companions "requiring" a given quality of gear to remain adequately functional outside groups. Since there's no objective determination of that factor, it has to by nature rely on a given player's perspective.

You're in an instance. I'm in an instance. It doesn't matter what role either of us fill. We were both there along with two to fourteen other people. Each person has an equal right to stake a claim to anything they want which drops as a result of their effort (in conjunction with the group, of course). They don't have to give explanations, they don't require others' approval.

I would disagree with this. It is, as my drill instructor used to say, "there is always that 10%".

In this case I would agree with that. As the OP demonstrated with the lopsided opinions in general chat, most people understand the concept of fairness. However, when you grant that other 10% the opportunity to control the issue, all hell breaks loose.

Again, for that 10% that just does seem to get it, game mechanics, just like law enforcement, will have to be instituted in order to prevent this type of behavior.

That's fine.
Just make sure Khem is tanking your instance for you next time, instead of me.

In WoW you needed the gear to sell so you could buy vanity pets and pay for repairs.

So in other words what you are trying to say is that they should remove the greed button and everyone should ninja everything if possible.

I could not have demonstrated my point more clearly.

This is exactly why they had to implement a game mechanic to prevent such abuse in previous games, and why it will eventually be implemented in this game.

Luckily, I can gear my companions in Columi anyway, since it does happen where loot drops that no one can use and everyone greeds on. This goes on my companions. Otherwise I'm not going to take gear from a player I'd prefer to have geared up to beat enrage timers on HM ops.

Companion ninja'ers will just end up confined to running 2man open world dailies. Enjoy

I had a drill Sgt that used to say "you can either learn by repetition or blunt force truama..."
Since hearing it said by tons of people and still doing it we need BW to implement some blunt force trauma lol

This game is a MMO and is social. Like it or not, there are social rules in the game. Not hard coded rules, but social rules.
Examples:
A) Loot (Need for self only).
B) Dont loot a container or resources that someone else is killing mobs to get to.
C) Don't talk about spoilers in general chat.

Don't follow social rules in the game (or RL) then you are just being anti-social. You can deny to yourself that these social rules exist, but they do exist.

As usual, someone's attempting to use an emotionalist argument in conjunction with a misused term. You aren't "ninjaing" an item if you're working within the bounds of the game's item-distribution system (Need Before Greed) and choosing something you want, whatever your reasons for wanting it. You don't like that someone wants what you want and is staking a claim to it equal to your own, so you attempt to call them a "ninja" because they don't subscribe to your personal loot theories. That's fine, but don't expect it to be taken as a matter of fact. At best it's your perspective, which holds no ascendancy over anyone else's.

You're "ninjaing" an item if you see everyone else roll Greed on something, then wait til they've all rolled and then you roll Need, dropping group after the item's in your inventory. If you're going to use terminology, at least be accurate.

Since companions are valid upgrade paths, and since orange items occasionally have one to three mods in them that someone might want for an upgrade (for them or an orange item on a companion), these all become valid reasons to roll Need on an item, since the choice is ostensibly there to acquire upgrades.

The source of your upset is that you thought your class/role choice gave you a leg up on someone else when it comes to loot distribution. Someone disagrees, and you discover all of a sudden that you have no guarantee, and only a chance equal to someone else, of getting an item. I have difficulty understanding how you can be upset with having an equal chance at something unless you were going in thinking you'd have a guarantee.