With the release of Legion, Blizzard has implemented the feature of M+ which is meant to keep dungeons relevant. I absolutely loved this new piece of content and did it a lot during legion.
With BfA I expected M+ to still be as exciting as it was in Legion, but I was horribly disappointed. Instead of being fun and rewarding, it turned out to be rather annoying.
This made me think… Did I really enjoy Legion M+, or was I simply doing it for the weekly cache item? When thinking back, I remember only doing 1 Key of the minimum required difficulty for my weekly mythic piece of loot. I also remembered some of the more tedious runs… (Triumvirate and early cathedral come to mind).
This made me come to the conclusion, that M+ wasn’t that much fun in the first place and I began to think of ways to make it better.
Here is what I have come up with:
The positives of M+:
You only need 5 people, which makes playing with friends easier.
A Dungeon run only takes you 20-60 minutes, so you can do it spontaneous.
The scaling difficulty offers you a rewarding challenge other than arenas and raids
The negatives of M+:
The timer forces you to rush the dungeon
Some classes have it harder than others (which wouldn’t be a problem, but since you are chained to a timer, people prefer taking the best classes over a class which could do it, just not in time)
Leavers will completely ruin your run most of the times.
Here’s how I would try to make it better:
Remove the timer
Remove dungeon keys
Change the key socket into a terminal, where you can choose your difficulty for the week (every time you are able to finish a dungeon on a level, the terminal will allow you to do the next level, next week). Example: If I do freehold +5 and finish it, I can choose freehold +6 next week.
make every boss drop his normal loot (including azerite pieces), scaled to the according difficulty.
Make the lockout ID for the dungeon the same as in raids, so you can replace group members who left.
increase the overall difficulty, to make up for the removed timer.
remove the weekly cache and change it into you being able to do every dungeon once a week.
This would basically change the Mythic dungeons into 5-man raids.
What are your thoughts? Do you guys like or hate the idea? What would you change?
Edit1:
People keep bringing up the point that one does not have to rush the timer and can finish the dungeon at one’s own pace. The obvious problem with that is, that one cannot acquire a challenging Key without doing another challenging key in time beforehand. Sure one could find a charitable soul who is willing to give up their +20 key for a slow run, but let’s be real here: No one is going to do that. Also: this doesn’t fix the issue of class imbalance and leavers.
Edit2:
People point out the value of timed dungeons, which is absolutely legit. Maybe instead of replacing M+, they should implement raid-like dungeons as standalone content.
I totally agree up to +10. +11 and above timer can stay for challenge.
no that’s still a challenge.
I don’t like it, so what happen if you finish a +4 and you want to start a upgraded one? wait a whole week?
Ehm… no, or in 2 weeks you’ll be fully geared and ready to be bored.
That’s logical, as you could ask a help from your guild.
i like it.
Yeah, I like that.
mmm… yes, weekly chest with ‘a’ loot from every instance is not worthy. But, removing timer and refilling the group would help a lot of groups finish their keys so more chances to get loot from end boss… No need for weekly anymore.
I’d just love to have a way to increase my difficulty without being bound to a timer. I’d love to do a +20 (even if there are no rewards), but I can’t because I cannot finish a key in time to get so high.
Yeah… Maybe they should make 1-10 accessible from the start and then you can increase the difficulty every week by 1. Also if we were to keep the timer aspect for 11+ as you suggested, there wouldn’t be a need to use a weekly increase.
Valid concern.
Maybe there should be a limit of 3 dungeons a week?
well… as far as I understand you’re saying we can choose only 1 level per instance, with a maximum instances of 3.
I still don’t like the idea. So once you’ve done your 3… Warfront is done… Island expeditions weekly done… then what? logout and Netflix?
Well I only did 1 key per week anyway (when I was still actively playing). At least this way it could be fun to do instead of annoying (at least for me).
The fact that we have a weekly checklist is a problem in itself to be honest, which comes from more than only M+.
Yeah don’t tell me about it… I rolled a monk lately because I got burned out by high end stuff and tanking M+. i like my Nelf monk. She’s low ilvl and it’s funny doing normal/heroic dungeons, people don’t get rushed, don’t care about DPS meter, i can focus on relaxing, doing my WQ, my islands, have fun kicking and puching everything I believe by removing the timers M+ will get better
tbh, timer is what makes it challanging.
you have times in chess, starcraft or RTS in general, its not just what you do but also how fast you can execute it making it a real challange. and aside from raw power, adds mobility and perks of certain classes into consideration
aside from that, the reason 10 man raids got removed is because its hard to balance classes for both 25 and 10 man, will apply to 5 man too.
I disagree. Finish the dungeon is now challenging due to leavers. How many dungeons you join and on scale how many you actually finish?
I’m not talking about our community. I’m talking about PUG. There should be an option (timer and no timer) timer 5ilvl more item, no timer a normal ilvl. (M+7 360 no timer, 365 with timer) so even a tank who wants to learn sanguine and necrotic doesn’t get flamed at the first 2 wipes. yes, I’m talking about me lol.
You could do two different stones then.
If you failed the timer you would get two stones. One normal as we know them today, and one nontimed stone that is one level higher than the one you cleared, but missed the timer on?
Are you not currently able to run every M+ once a week - for loot, at least - already…? Or has the system (one I lost any love for, in Legion, incidentally) changed…?
By no means do I think my solution would be perfect. I simply don’t enjoy M+ one bit (just like pretty much everything else in this game…) I don’t know… This game just isn’t fun anymore and I would love to see something change.
I don’t understand, first you say:
" I absolutely loved this new piece of content and did it a lot during legion"
Then you say:
“When thinking back, I remember only doing 1 Key of the minimum required difficulty for my weekly mythic piece of loot.”
So you never did a lot of m+ runs. You, in fact, did very little.
I loved m+ and I ran dozens od dungeons per week, that was a lot.
I don’t like your ideas, even tho I think m+ now is in a lot worse state than in legion. Yes, maybe some kind on miniraids for 5 people would be fun but it should be a new feature, while m+ should stay what they are.
Its’ already competitive avoiding puddles, explosions, stack of necrotic, a grievous wound, and spawns of G’huun… An option to switch the timer off and not losing the key would be nice… then if you feel you want challenge yourself even more then switch it on and try upgrading it.
logout and Netflix?
