Players are leaving dungeon runs unfinished due to poor incentives
Successful “in-time” runs reward 12 Crests - deliberately set just under the upgrade requirement
Failed runs give only 5 Crests - a severely demotivating reward
Unable to replace leavers in dungeons, blocking weekly vault progression
World Quest rewards are imbalanced and often disrespectful of player time
Player Impact
Demotivates new and returning players from gearing up
Makes it harder for players with limited time (due to IRL responsibilities) to progress
Encourages skipping Valorstones World Quests in favour of quicker/better rewards
Discourages learning dungeon mechanics in favour of rushing through content
Dungeon Completion Rewards
In-Time Completion
Current reward: 12 Crests, some gold, loot, and Valorstones
Issue: Reward is deliberately just under the upgrade requirement for new characters
Impact: Creates unnecessary friction for new, returning, and existing players
Failed Timer Completion
Current reward: 5 Crests
Major issues:
Minimal reward discourages finishing failed keys
Players can’t replace leavers to complete their vault slots
No incentive to learn dungeons properly vs. rushing through
World Quest Rewards
Current Issues
Imbalanced rewards
800-900g quests vs. 33 Valorstones quests
Longer quests often giving same rewards as shorter ones
Time investment doesn’t match reward value
Gold quests currently more attractive (can buy consumables) than Valorstones
Suggested Improvements
Scale rewards based on quest complexity and time investment
Increase Valorstones rewards for longer World Quests
Balance rewards to make Valorstones quests worthwhile
Suggested Solutions
General Improvements
Scale Valorstones across all content
Increase Crest rewards from weeklies and dungeons
Align dungeon resources with Delve rewards
New Weekly Event
Implement “Currency Frenzy” week featuring:
Triple Valorstones
Triple Crests
Triple dungeon (gold, materials, misc resources) and World Quest rewards
Goal: Encourage players to engage with all content types
While the upgrade tracks this expansion are good, the main issue lies with the resource requirements rather than the system itself. These changes would help address player motivation and reward structure without overhauling existing systems in a drastic way.
Side note: I used Claude to organise and format my ideas for an easier-to-digest read.
While you make some pretty good points that most of the community has shared and I agree, there are some things that I disagree.
Unfortunately the vast majority of runs fail because of not meeting the expectations. When going for a key the main factor if the key is gonna get completed or not, is the expectations that players have, versus if those expectations are met.
No matter the rewards, if people expected the key to go in a specific way and things do not pan out, they will choose to leave and try again. This is why “weekly no leaver” keys have a way bigger chance of being completed vs regular runs that something does wrong.
To be fair, the rewards work well for the mains that are playing during the whole seasons (excluding valorstones). Alts or players that start late in the season are those that are found facing hundreds of hours played in order to catch up with crests.
As for valorstones, I have no idea why they are in the game. The resource offers no benefit (it does not feel good as a reward), and only matters when you are missing it. I think if they just deleted it tomorrow it would make the game better.
I never understood these “I got 5 jobs, 10 hamsters to feed” so I deserve everything on a silver plater arguments. Video gaming is a hobby like any other. If you can’t invest too much time in it but want the same rewards as people who do…then find a different hobby which meets your time needs.
Organizing your rl shedule is everyone’s PERSONAL problem…NOT Blizzard’s.
You can give 3x more crests for completion, the other issue is the timegate (weekly limits).
Also public M+ experience in general is horrendous in this season which also doesn’t help.
Minimal reward isn’t what discourages people, being stuck is. As others said, it’s all about expectations. If i join a run and halfway through we already deplete, why stay? What is the likelihood the group suddenly becomes better for the second half and we don’t spend another half an hour there?
If you are there for vault, you’ll complete. I did a 10 on an alt this week where after a few fails by some dps, everyone started playing badly and we depleted by a lot. Noone left because we wanted the vault.
If you promise “quick run” or “blast run” or only invite people who have 2.5k score into your +8 and you deplete, don’t be shocked if people leave.
If you go into m+ having to learn the dungeon, you are in the wrong place. M+ literally has a timer associated. If you want to learn, do that in m0.
You don’t have to do all world quests. If something isn’t worth it for you, skip it.
There are always efficient quick worldquests. If you don’t want to maximise what you earn, don’t the the inefficient ones.
If you want valorstones, those worldquests are worth it. Even if you double them, there will be people for whom they are not worth. Triple, same. Quadruple, same. So who is your target audience for the increase? Around whom should the form it?
couple of years ago there was blizzcon panel where they described in depth why they hate deterministic gearing
players literaly forced them to put valor back in game - which later got changed to crests but this didnt change their pathological hate to deterministic gearing.
what they do have is likley a huge excel spreadsheet using hundreds of formulas to count the exact moment where “you should be geared”
Other hobbies wait around for you though. I learned to shred guitar when I was a little kid and now I hardly play because I’ve pretty much hit my limit. However when I do I retain my inhuman dexterity, it doesn’t just reset every 6 months.
If people realise this and leave, they might not come back and that isn’t good.
There should be ways to farm crests more quickly, especially for alts. No doubt about that. A freshly dinged level 80 alt would have to complete 150 timed m+ dungeons or 360 non-timed m+ dungeons to max out runed and gilded crests. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
Every hobby has its specifics. Some needs to be maintained such as fitness and stuff. If you let yourself go then you can lose that pretty beach body. Some are arguably more permanent like your mentioned skills hobby. Some are more “finite” like travelling…you can technically ran out of places to visit. Video games are more dynamic and changing.
Every hobby has its unique specifics. Can’t really place them all in 1 pot and compare them with 1 ruler set.
Well even the CEO of Casual Dads Inc. will be able to shred eventually if they just practice for enough time, even just 10 minutes per day adds up to hundreds of hours eventually.
It’s the same for almost anything, except seasonal games and watching sport but ultimately nothing can be done about that.
As for fitness, your gains are one of the few things in this life that are truly loyal. Rebuilding lost muscle is considerably faster and easier than building it in the first place. Even if you abandon the gains, they will never abandon you.
This is a weird goal if one of the play impacts from the core issues was:
Isn’t pushing players to do all content types the opposite of what you want to achieve?
Players should just do stuff they want to do, and stop setting unrealistic goals. There, I said it. If the goal is to gear an alt to 636 within 2 weeks, then they’re gonna have a bad time regardless of any change.
I play m+ literally just for vault.