Am I just imagining things? I remember that it used to be, once upon a time, that if you died before the mob your group was fighting....you didn't get the quest complete or items related to the quest. Howevr, at a later point, it was changed that as long as your group was successful, you would be able to loot (even if you died during the encounter).

I first noticed that it seemed to have changed back in this last patch on a lowbie alt when I died doing a quest with a friend and I couldn't loot the head of a mob. A few days later, I died in a 5 man instance of Shadow Labs and was unable to get the spirit shards off the corpse.

The reply above seems to indicate that nothing has changed. Am I just delusional? Just a month ago, if you died during a group encounter, you still had the ability to get quest items from the corpse of the mob?

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Avoiding a death during Van Cleef is almost impossible in a PUG. And yes, we could all loot the head...

I think it depends on the context. If everyone died and you all had to run back, then you may not be able to loot the item in question. If one person died and was rezzed, he should still be able to loot. If that same person died and released, he could be FUBAR.

An example:

2 17th level toons take on the elite Stitches mob in the new blood elf lands. We were doing ok, but then some undead spawned and added, so I died. The friend didn't. Knocklerot went down. I came back, rezzed, and the friend could loot his head, but I couldn't. Previous to this patch, I was able to in such situations as long as SOMEONE was alive in the group when the mob died.

Then, on my 70 shaman, we were doing shadow labs and the guy with all the voidwalkers? He got me :p I died. No one else did. Everyone else was able to get spirit shards, I was not. Previous to this patch, I was able to.

I have verified with my guildmates that they are seeing this as well where they weren't before. But blizzard, when I wrote in a report/bug, says nothing is broken (as cut and pasted above). I just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy and that you used to be able to loot these things before I write back to them and say "um, no." :p

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Did you release? I've never been able to loot something if I released before it died, but I have been able to after. Of course I haven't played since patch, and I've done nearly every quest on my blood elf so.

No release on the instance example. Was rezzed back in. Had to release in the lowbie example. Either way, not able to loot/get credit for quest stuff.

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Well, perhaps the newer-world stuff (like the Stitches mob) is under a slightly different rule. When you say you released, did you do so before or after the kill? A good rule of thumb is to never release until after the mob is dead (if at all), even if a run back is going to be needed. The issue in Shadow Lab sounds like you lose the buff to loot shards when you died, so there were no shards for you to loot, since you didn't have the buff. I know I've had more than a few occasions where I was able to loot shards but others weren't. They are pretty easy to get, anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it.

ps: Don't die!

This has been happening since the latest patch. Only solution is to not die.

if you release after the mob dies then you get credit and can loot whatever. The thing is to lay there dead or be combat resed in while ht efight is going on and be there when it drops, then release if there is no res. The way its always worked for me.

When you die, you dont have blessing of Auchindoun up when the mob dies. Wether you release or not, you don't get a spirit shard.

I've died post-patch and been able to loot quest items from the mob (happened in Sethek Halls on that first boss that spawns the elementals) even though I actually had to release and run back after it died, I'm guessing the spirit shard thing might be a specific issue with that buff like they've said.

You could definately loot the quest item as long as you didn't release until after the mob was died. I have done that lot before the patch. Since the patch I have not been on any raids/5 man instances where I got keeled and we beat the boss. But my priest is usually the first or second to die.