I can’t remember people in pugs being this bad since early Legion, and IO score/number of timed runs is nearly useless in determining who’s going to die to every other boss mechanic.
The 15-19 range especially looks like literal hell because no 20+ players ever apply here, and people with 2,5k ratings and timed dungeons of the same level or one below, play like they’ve never seen the place before. I bricked like 6 keys in a row this week and the one before, the last 4 being HoV with people just dying to drakes and thunderstorms/orbs on Hyrja.
It seems like complete RNG whether you get someone who does the bare minimum with avoiding mechanics, even without doing massive dps, and it’s only those runs where you hope to time the key. Then you have tanks doing MDI strats and pulling whole rooms, in pugs that barely hold up with normal routes, which ends in a wipe/disband in 90% of the cases in this key range.
M+ and pugs in specifically kill my desire to play the game every single expansion because ultimately, that’s how you interact with endgame content. It’s my fault for pugging even though I can’t commit to any guilds with my insane shifts, but even before when I used to be in guilds, there were never regular M+ runs in any of them outside a few cliques, even the decent raiding ones.
I feel this is a consequence of making the weekly a +20 up from +15. It has forced many out of their comfort zones to get them done and beyond their ability.
Very true and likely the main reason behind the bloodbath in 16-19 range. You need to be there for concentrated focus to drop because otherwise gearing at the mercy of the vault takes months, and people who manage to go over 20 never drop below that because why would they unless they’re doing ultra low keys for vp.
I have done maybe 15 +18s last 2 weeks on my 2 chars, one tjs was extremely depleted, one cos as well (tank kept pulling imps randomly)
The others, including sbg, no, av, hov, more cos were all timed
All of these were pure pugs. In the no the tank and healer queued together, but rest were randoms, no voicecomm, barely any chatting
I think the 10.1 upgrade system is looking to change that because you’d be required to do at least some higher level content for upgrade currency. I’m not sure about the specifics but it looks like you get more from higher runs.
Mythic+ score being tied to Valor, KSM / KSH achievments and so on. This wasn’t a thing until BFA S4.
Dungeons being mechanically just so more difficult. This wasn’t an issue in Legion, because dungeons hardly had any mechanics. BFA made them harder, and now it’s just unenjoyable and too stressfull for alot of people (me included).
People expecting MDI maneuvers and perfect gameplay, which is something that doesn’t exist with us normal people.
People die constantly on the first boss in court of stars because they don’t jump, lmao. Probably the boss with the highest fail rate this season for me. If I don’t mass dispel(or not playing my priest), someone always dies on that boss, in a lot of cases 2-3 people.
It’s because Blizzard forced pugs to do difficulties that are not pug friendly. Before it was 15 for a weekly chest, and it wasn’t too punishing mechanics and tactics wise. Now it’s 20, and a cast that was otherwise harmless in 15 becomes fatal in 20.
It was easier in SL to pug 20s than it is now, lol. So many people who really shouldn’t be doing 20s until they’ve gotten better that are trying to despite not being good enough.
Those people were almost a non-issue in SL because they were just doing 15s.
Season 3 & 4. I didn’t bother to go higher than KSM in season 1 because I was playing a holy priest and season 2 the keys that were above 15 for me were when people put in keys higher than the advertised 15.
SL’s first seasons were a disaster, pugs in 15+ didn’t even exist.
SL’a dungeons didn’t have a whole bunch of different mechanics and casts that have a tendency to overlap at the rate of 10 mechanics in 1 second, which also contributes to wipes and depletions.
Yeah, just like in every expansion, every season was easier because we were receiving more power than dungeons were buffed. It will happen in this expansion as well.
Yeah, ofcourse there are exceptions to every rule. Karazhan was also incredibly difficult, Seat also, and don’t even mention Cathedral. If you got Cathedral, you would bench the key and just join someone else’s.
I’m just looking at the wider picture - bosses and trash in general have way more mechanics than they did in Legion, and dungeons are way more demanding.
If the pelter packs are going to be anywhere close to as strong as they were in timewalking version of neltharion’s lair m+, then we’re going to see a loooooot of groups struggling in there.
More mechanics doesn’t necessarily mean harder. Those pelter packs destroyed groups when I tried to do it on timewalking m+. Like, actually destroyed. It was ridiculous. Only other time I’ve seen groups getting destroyed like that on trash mobs was on thunderhead in RLP in the beta, which really only has his breath and the debuff.
Also, last boss in eye of azshara… Holy, that boss as a healer… Only tarvold before he got nerfed can go up against that imo.
Not just Bracken, the entire season 2 lineup is horrible and too long, and without any positives from a seasonal affix, the only scenario I can see is participation falling off a cliff.
I wish I knew what was the end point for this, and how long it’s gonna take them to realize that most people pug keys because very few have a stable group of people to run with, and who also want to run keys at the same time. The whole point of M+ (compared to raiding) is accessibility, and it’s less and less accessible every expansion because they’re deliberately making it harder and asking people to push higher to get the same rewards as before.
