Key depletion is incredibly frustrating for pugs

Community General Discussion
1

Pretty much what the title says, I’m currently trying to pug my way up into what I consider higher keys, but it’s impossible. I legit never get invited to keys I actually need, I’m currently 3388 and I feel I’ve reached a point where there aren’t alot of keys listed that I need and on the off-chance that a key is actually listed that I need the chance of getting invited is pretty much 0.

I’ve timed all keys on 26 minus 2 and one on 27, I’ve gotten pretty close to timing a few 28’s a few times, but I legit cannot get into 26 keys in the lfg tool… I can apply to every 26 I come across all day and never get invited, even though I’ve timed the vast majority of them already… My guess is that 3400+ players also apply and therefore someone with a 3388 score is alot less desireable.

So I list my own key, a 25 everbloom, after waiting 40 minutes for people to apply, I manage to find a few players in the range of 3300-3400’s and guess what, the dungeon goes smoothly, the dps is high, there’s no toxicity. We reach the 3rd boss we have 3 CR’s and what happens, the healer dies to every single cinderbolt salvo, group disbands and I’m left with a 24… How frustrating. I didn’t even need the 25 and now I’m stuck with a 24, so I go back to the lfg tool in the hopes of joining a key, no luck.

Welp, back to hosting my own key, 24 Everbloom, a bunch of 3300s apply who should be overqualified for the dungeon and… it’s an exact replica of the last run. Smooth sailing, we reach the 3rd boss and the healer and hunter die to every cinderbolt salvo, disband and I’m stuck with a 23 key, a key I absolutely do not need, a key that’s far below my skill level that I’m stuck with because I got punished for other people’s mistakes. It’s honestly fatiguing,

M+ is incredibly fun if you’re doing hard content and every minute counts, everybody’s playing well and nobody’s holding the group back, it’s an experience you do not get in any other game, but I can only experience it every now and then because it’s impossible to find keys you actually need and hosting your own key is a complete gamble with an extreme punishment for failure.

I think blizzard should consider a charge system, where you can fail a key multiple times before it depletes.

3 Likes
2

This is the result of the key depletion system.

You cant get into those keys because people with 3600 rio are applying to them as well.

Why? Because they need to re-roll their depleted keys to something easy to time in +2 or +3. Like BRH or AD.

I ended up in the exact same situation, but with half the keys in 26, and half in 27 (both tyranical and fort). And I gave up like 2 months ago. Just decided to wait until S4 because it was getting way too frustrating.

What I suggested many times in this forum is to allow us to increase the key level of our own keys with flightstones and crests.

I have suggested somewhere along the lines of the currency you get by timing 2 keys. So every 2 keys you time, you can increase the key level of your key.

Someone else also proposed to allow you to buy key re-rolls as well.

These are the benefits:

First, currently those currencies are worth nothing. Because their only purpose is to increase ilvl of gear. But after like 1 or 2 months, anyone that pushes keys are caped of currency and fully geared.

It would give them value.

And second, it would give you a reward for timing someone else’s key. So you join groups and get currency that can be used to increase your own key.

And I dont see any drawbacks. Let me know if you do.

2 Likes
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Was thinking of this exact same thing as well, except that it only levels your key when the key you’re doing is higher than the key you’re holding to make sure people aren’t leveling their keys to ridiculous numbers and to incentivize people to still host their own keys. I was thinking it would automatically level your key but I like the currency idea as well.

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And why would this be a problem? You can increase your key to a +50 for all I care.

Now… time that key… :smiley:

I think this can be solved by the cost of increasing a key level. Maybe 2 keys / increase is a bit too much. We can make it 3 or 4.

Something tedious, but still possible.

1 Like
5

I think it would be a little strange to see a bunch of level 50 keys listed haha, especially by people who did not get there by ‘‘natural’’ means. By making it so the keys can’t be leveled beyond the keys you can actually complete you keep people from hosting keys above their skill level hoping for a carry.

Actually it should probably be 1 key level above the key that you’re holding so when you complete a 25 key in time your key levels to 26.

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They can hope all they want. You wont get carried in keys 24 and above.

Tell that to your Healer buddy dying in EB… :slight_smile:

Im just a big fan of keeping things simple you know? And so what if you want to skip some levels.

If you time it, you time it. Kudos to you.

7

No.

Stop pugging if you can’t deal with pugging.

1 Like
8

That is what I did.

Tried to form a premade 3 times this season. Failed.

And I failed for the same reasons OP is complaining : Too many homework keys.

Of the 4 2h days I played with my premade, 1 was spent pushing. 3 were spent upgrading keys/re-rolling keys.

It became tedious really quick. It breaks groups, and its hard to keep coherency in them.

And in reality, there is no other way to do it. You cant seriously expect to time every single 28 I step foot on. I will wipe. Many times. Until I get it right.

But each wipe is 40 min to upgrade the key back to where it was, and Y amount of 40 min runs to re-roll it back to the dungeon I want.

And hence… I quit. Like many others did too.

3 Likes
9

Obviously from a certain level you basically need a premade, but that isn’t easy to obtain. And even for premades the amount of ‘homework keys’ is a bit much. I have always supported the idea of charges on a keystone (2 or 3, whatever the best number is), without adding a big complicated other currency or system to it.

1 Like
10

I feel these keys are puggable, 27’s and 28’s are puggable, but the whole system around it with depleting and people only inviting people that are trying to reroll their key makes the experience awful when it doesn’t have to be, pugging could be better.

1 Like
11

ofc there isnt much pugs there because most people are long done with progression . or are not intested in oushing nything higher then +20 because or 99 % of players there is literaly 0 reason to do so.

if you want to push - find a guild / premade group to push .

pugging on that level is pure insanity .

1 Like
12

well ofc it isnt - when there is no reason whatsoever to do anything higher then +20 in first place.

13

some people play this game for fun

3 Likes
14

There are no rewards (there should be) but in general, the challenge is fun.

And Fun is the #1 reason to play this game. And if that is not reason enough, then why play the game in the first place?

1 Like
15

It’s frustrating for everyone. It serves no purpose when you got an NPC that can lower it.

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I sometimes wish there was a practice mode for keys. Something that you could enter as a premade group to train keys on a chosen level as often as you want before you actually try your key.

It annoys me as well that I enter a key with Premades, we fail, play the same key on a lower level without issues and for the next try we get another dungeon on the level that we struggled… It just lacks consistency, if I fail I want to try the same thing again until i stop failing. Not a lower key level or another dungeon…

It won’t help pugs since it takes more time, but it would be a big help for Premades.

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yep that would be a good nice thing . like a practice team . but i dont mind . i mostly use my own keys so if the key gets bricked i lose one level and do it again to make it the same level after completing the lower one and try again .

18

Same we usually run our groups keys too. Still… It’s probably my ego, but I want to redo the same key that I failed at until I was able to get over my struggle.
Doing another key on the same level as the failed one leaves a sour taste. I don’t feel like I have improved unless I did it at least on the same level and pray to the almighty RNG for your next chance.

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good for you ?

clearly most people do not share your point of view else you would have no problem finding / forming groups.

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you have this though .

you try again on -1 level of difficulty .

thats the practise you get.

and if -1 is not enough then on -2.