The dungeons are quite punishing for tanks and healers so i think many just stopped playing cause its not so fun when every single second is so stressful. I also think tanks and healers can climb quite fast out of the lower bracket because they are in such high demand.
The squish stopped me from doing m+ this season. I am not confident enough to wade into what are effectively +10s cold in pugs. I always liked working through them level by level so I knew what was coming. For me delves had nothing to do with it. I main a healer (priest and pala).
I am considering doing enough keys to work up to the rating for this seasons mount before the season ends. Feel free to add me on battlenet (epidote #2729) and if I’m online I can heal some keys for you. Both my priest and pala are around 620ilvl. I normally get enough rating for the mount and then stop m+ for the season.
Everyone on my friends list, except 1-2 people, took a break from M+ over a month ago. It’s late in the season and most people are waiting for the new patch, and this season has been pretty bad overall. I’d normally play a bunch of alts after I get the +10 portals done, but the pace of gearing and difficulty level this season completely put me off.
If you play for rewards/gear, the sad truth is that M+ below +8 is pretty much a waste of time unless you have a steady group of friends to play with. For pugs it takes to long to form groups, unless you’re a tank. Failure rate and group disbands are too high as well, so a lot of people have simply opted out of lower M+ keys and are doing delves instead.
m+ is far more rewarding when it comes to runes but delves is more rewarding when it comes to loot especially early in the season, but most seem to get stuck in doing delves, even tho m+ is more rewarding after like 3 weeks of delves.
That’s what Ion says, and he’s got access to data.
So, yeah… Probably.
Hazzikostas said that Blizzard expected some drop in player numbers as more options became available for dungeon-runners at lower difficulty levels, including increased rewards in easier dungeons and the advent of Delves, short dungeons for single players or groups.
“When we added Delves in The War Within, we knew that some number of players would shift from M+ to Delves as their primary activity due to the greater flexibility,” he said. "If a number of players who used to do M+ because it was the best way for them to get loot are gravitating toward Delves or raids instead, that isn’t inherently a problem that needs to be fixed.
Delves have nothing to do with this. People that play mainly play Delves did not play any M+ at all in the past. And hated doing M+.
They were forced to do it because there was really nothing else to do other than WQ… but once they got that 1 item they wanted, they immediately stopped playing M+.
The reason there are few player in M+ is 100% the failure of Blizzard to implement the required hot-fixes and reforms on time.
I think delves are a part of it yeah. Why sit in queue for a +4 that might fail when u can just fill your valt with delves instead. But i dont think thats the only factor, dungeon design and balancing also plays into it + the m+ squish.
If players were doing Mythic+ because it was the best way for them to get loot, and are now doing Delves or raids, it isn’t inherently a problem that needs fixing
And this is what I said:
Which are the same thing. Same players.
What matters is the drop in participation of M+ enjoyers. In other words, this:
Ion Hazzikostas via PC Gamer said: But if people who have really enjoyed M+ gameplay in the past are feeling frustrated today, we agree that’s a problem.
Which is what I said. And the reason is not what Ian talks about. He is wrong.
The #1 reason for this is taking too long to do the reforms he talks about. For example:
Ian said this about S2:
“We also need to ensure that our dungeon pool feels roughly consistent in terms of difficulty”
You havent done much of M+. But the difference between GB and SV compared to say… DB and MotS is massive. And they waited… 6 months to address it. And will do so in S2…
And I can go on with issues that were either not addressed at all, or addressed with dumb and stupid changes.
And S2 does not make me hopeful either. Because even IF they fix some issues, S2 will have other issues of its own. Like all seasons. But if they continue to take 3/4 months to make any changes at all… then we are back to square 1.
I spammed delves on a few characters, until they hit about 612-615. After that it felt like a bad time investment. Not been in one since… probably early November.
Also I don’t want to solo, and a lot of delvers don’t want to group, so… that doesn’t work out great rn.
To be fair, late season - 10-11 keys. If you care about gear, you’re exclusively doing content that puts myth in your vault. 9 or below is dead to many of us. And I feel like we’re at a low point for alt-friendly that rivals Shadowlands.
Now if higher delves put myth track in the vault… sure, I’d do them (with a party) and possibly never do M+ again. Frankly I will take whichever gearing path is least sweaty so that would be about tuning.
This is what he said. And pre-Delve you always had a drop in participation at the end of the season. When people like you stopped doing M+ once you got your gear in favor of doing something else.
So its not a surprise really. It’s something that already happened. So WHY is OP asking this question now?
Well because as he explains the contrast with S2 DF. Which in-spite its massive flaws it had a much larger participation of M+ enjoyers.
Well I literally quoted Ian about the difficulty difference in dungeons. I KNEW that since week ONE of S1 TWW. You dont need data for that !
He actually knew that since the Beta of TWW when people were flipping bananas with the difficulty.
He might have the data. But apparently he forgot to look at it for 6 months then !
And that is just ONE of the issues. I can quote a ton more in that interview. And one thing that is NOT in the interview is the Aug situation, and how it will be meta… again… for 5 seasons in a row.
And maybe, just MAYBE after like… 5 years of “data” that we all knew since 10.1.7 beta they will realize the problem support specs and spells create in M+.
PS: I am not angry at you. I am angry at Blizzard. In case you wondered.
He is making assumptions from numbers. That is not the same as having an absolute understanding to the issue. There have been many posts complaining about M+ this season. None of the issues raised in those posts were discussed in that interview. Adding fixes to the end game of M+ just annoyed people. Blizzard are failing to read the room yet again.
I too have made the decision not to partake in M+ again - I’ve said this before, but its hard to quit the mode as I’ve made a lot of friends in dungeon running communities - heck, i even had a guy willing to boost this toon with 598 gear but i politely declined it
I think because delves hand out heroic vault gear, that these players then join M+ groups and brick the keys because they have no idea about dungeon mechs, kicks, bosses, doing reasonable dps, etc. This is because delves can be facerolled and these people think m+ gonna be the same.
