I’ve been working on my level 30 Warrior, completing all quests as I go, earning reputations, and collecting gear sets from Classic raids and dungeons. Soon, I’ll move on to The Burning Crusade content, followed by Wrath of the Lich King, and so on. (For those interested, I’ve shared more about my approach in a forum post:
While polishing off quests in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, I’ve been queueing for “Random Classic Dungeons” as both DPS and tank. But, quite literally, 100% of the time, I get in as a tank—after a very long wait, I might add! My average queue time is around 30-40 minutes as a tank , and the longest I’ve waited so far was about two hours. I guess people only queue for Timewalking dungeons while leveling these days.
Anyway, my Warrior is well-geared from Classic raids, but nothing too extreme—certainly not comparable to level 11 twinking. Yet, for the third or fourth time in the past couple of weeks, I’ve been randomly kicked from a group halfway through an instance. The chat is completely silent; no discussion, no warnings, nothing. I maintain a good pace, no one is over-pulling, and I rarely drop below 50-60% health. Then, out of nowhere, I’m removed from the group without explanation and slapped with a 30-minute Dungeon Deserter debuff.
I’m left scratching my head every time this happens. Is it some kind of bug or glitch? Or is someone in the group initiating a vote kick and at least two other members blindly clicking “Accept”? The only plausible reason I can think of is that someone might be annoyed that I’m a semi-twink tank and potentially out-damaging them.
While I understand the intent behind the Dungeon Deserter debuff—to discourage players from leaving groups willy-nilly—it’s incredibly frustrating when it’s applied unfairly. I always check the chat logs afterward, thinking I might have missed some criticism, but there’s nothing… not even a “Hi guys” at the start of the run.
Proposed Changes to the Dungeon Deserter Debuff
To address this issue, I suggest the following changes:
- No Dungeon Deserter for Vote Kicks: Players should not receive the Dungeon Deserter debuff if they are removed via a vote kick. Being kicked from the instance is punishment enough, especially if the vote kick is unfounded or unfair.
- Retain the Debuff for Voluntary Leaves: The Dungeon Deserter debuff should still apply to players who choose to leave the group on their own.
- Reduce the Duration: I’ve mentioned this before in response to other posts—consider reducing the duration of the Dungeon Deserter debuff from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, which is still more than the average time to complete a random dungeon.
Given that dungeon queues are already long enough whilst leveling, and given that there is usually a demand for more tanks… it doesn’t help matters when a capable and willing tank is locked out of dungeons due to the deserter debuff—especially when receiving the debuff out of jealousy or spite, rather than any wrong doing.