Mythic+ Keys should NEVER deplete

I just had a very unique experience where me and a few other pugs ran a resilient key a bunch of times and every time something went wrong, instead of immediately disbanding and going back to sitting in a queue for hours and/or fishing for the key they need again, we kept restarting with the same comp and practicing different parts of the key until we eventually timed it.

I think that, going forward, no key should ever deplete, not just resilient ones. Or at least not below the level of that specific key if you’d already timed + one more level, to ensure you never have to run the exact same key - level and all - again. It makes for a way better experience, especially for us LFG people. It would also greatly help to get rid against the prejudice that players might have towards some specs, which makes it impossible for some people to progress.

Would it take away from the challenge? Not really, unless you view relying on RNG to give you the keys that you need again as part of it. Hours of your time spent just to try again once, in an environment where one mistake can cost you the key immediately. I don’t think that’s fun.

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They need to punish the players if they are not doing so good otherwise they will not feel the victory rush.

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It’s difficult to balance because people would just flock to groups with tanks and healers. So at lower levels no score DPS would have no chance of getting groups going because people like me would constantly make our own groups and invite blasters who already have gear and score.

Currently I have to waste time pushing my key back up and that gets other people score. If I don’t need to push it back up those people don’t get score. Plus it keeps me playing longer.

That said I do think depletion is stupid and I don’t like it.

I feel like there’s enough players and people who play alts that lower level keys would still be played. You get your highest completion level key from the vault anyway, and I still see lots of +2 on the LFG right now. They could also tune gear & crest rewards to encourage players to run low level keys.

Either way, my concern is mostly about high level keys since that’s what I play the most and that’s where failure is extremely punishing and creates a very unpleasant environment to play in. From what I gather by playing alts myself, lower level keys become very forgiving shortly after the season starts, and having some gear allows you to +2 and even +3 them easily, so I’d be okay with 1-10~ still depleting.

I have no proper response to this. That is one of the fastest 180s I’ve ever seen. Normally people aren’t so honest.

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It’s a typical forum thread. Didn’t think it through and no thought given to any circumstances but their own.

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Yeah but usually people don’t immediately say they don’t care. If I wanted to drum up support for Guardians and other specs getting an OP ability, if someone then tried to point out how that would impact other specs I wouldn’t immediately say:

“I actually don’t care about those specs, I just wanted Guardians to get it because I main Guardian.”

I’d lose all support from non Guardians, which is most of the people who play the game.

skill issue. git gut.

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I’m not sure why you’re suddenly being so hostile about this? I only meant that if it helped low level keys to not die out like you yourself seemed to have suggested, then I’d be okay with that. However I can only speak for higher level keys since that is what I do.

I’m not intending to be hostile. I agree with your sentiment regarding keys becoming easier as the season goes on.

I just really wasn’t expecting you to say “all keys” then say one post later that you didn’t mean all keys.

Ultimately the system keeps us all playing. Maybe high pushers would hit their limit too fast if they could infinitely retry.

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It’s called compromise. Is having all keys not deplete what I’d prefer? Yeah. I think it would make for a nicer game. Did I think about it in terms of lower keys the way you did? Not really. But I did see your point.

No solution to any problem has to be black and white. I’m okay with the developers listening to both the high end players and more casual ones and adjusting the game appropriately.

I just do not see restarting the same key over and over and over again as good gameplay. I always suggested about 3 charges for a key.

Except that’s what happens anyway, but with a whole lot more downtime and gatekeeping.

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Maybe for you. Not for me. My key just changes after a run. And i like that.

That’s fair enough.

The current system is sort of a compromise. Noobs like me get zero protection against our keys getting blown up but it’s easier to push it back up and it gets easier as the season goes on.

Pushers get a level of protection but it’s harder for them to push it back up.

So perhaps it evens out. It is pretty cool you can just restart, I didn’t think that was how it worked.

And I’m happy for you. It must be nice for every key that you do to actually finish instead of the group disbanding after the very first pull, leaving you with both the same key and at a lower level too, for an undetermined amount of runs.

Yeah, while that happens probably once in a blue moon to me, it would be fixed with 3 charges.
Endless spamming the same key is bad gameplay.

100% agree. Or only deplete if you don’t time it not if a pos leaves

“Hey quick my key is about to deplete, someone leave it”.

You sure think these things through so well.

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Depletion is linked to overall difficulty of the dungeons.

Its a formula that sais: How long do you spend pushing your key VS. how long do you spend increasing the key.

If you deplete say… 90% of the keys you push, you can confidently say that you spend most of your time increasing the key level back.

If you deplete say… 5% of the keys you push, you can confidently say that you spend most of your time pushing keys.

ONE anecdotal story (the one you mention) is not enough to reach a conclusion.

In S1 for example, where almost everyone was depleting keys (in particular +12s) then YES. Depletes should be removed.

But in S2, after significantly reducing the difficulty. I can confidelty say that Depletion is OK. Because it keeps you playing for longer.

But I still think this:

I think there are better ways to achieve the same result Depletion wants to achieve, with a less “annoying system”.

Tsjoh’s suggestion seems to me like the best solution to the problem:

I cant think of anything better than this.