Blizzard, we need to have a chat about affix's and the current state of M+

(edited for typos because auto correct fails)

I’ve been server #1 for IO in the past (legion/bfa). Barely missed title in DF. I’ve been casual on alts in keys. I’ve been top 10 global for tanks. I’ve done it all through pugging. And I’ve never seen an m+ season this bizarre.

I posted about ideas for m+ mechanics in Dragon flight and shadow lands. Someone commented on this orb idea in my post regarding the concept and said, “What if players fail to soak orbs and it buffed the mobs damage?” I kindly said this is a bad idea, because the dps won’t learn the mechanic.

  1. I was very clear in my OP that this concept of orbs I proposed should not buff boss or add damage. Now I feel responsible for this mess the game has created. I’ve been kind in many of my posts to blizzard and supported the team’s direction, but I’m soo disppointed in the current m+ design.

  2. The avg player had trouble with bolstering because they had a tough time understanding why the tank died when the add got 4+ stacks of bolster.

  3. This week 8 orbs go off because the boss is at 10% in a lowbie 11 key and people ignore the orbs. I quote the tank, “We didn’t need the buff.”

But the boss gets the haste stack and 1 shots everyone.

I want the Dev team to think about this. If mechanics that increased mob damage have gone over the majority of players heads for years why did you all double down on it?

My suggestion for orbs that players soak was a 15 second debuff, and if the a player didn’t soak at least 1 orb that debuff would activate, slightly “slow them” and reduce the damage they did by 15-20%. If they got at least 1 orb, then the whole party would gain a buff. The buff aspect would work the same way as the current buffs do and would stack.

This is how DPS learn mechanics. If the mechanic reduces their damage they’ll think, “why?” If a failed mechanic buffs the bosses damage or adds damage and they die they’ll blame the “tank or healer.”

This is what I previously called, “toxic game design.” An affix should hold the individual player accountable for failing it, not the current affix’s that lead to pointing fingers at the tanks or healers we need in this game. That just creates defensive interaction.

Having lead raids for years and the enrage timer goes off I’ve heard countless times, “Wait, why did we wipe?” DPS don’t get mechanics that buff a boss or mobs damage.

And I’ve seen nothing but this in pugs doing +10-11 keys this week. DPS, however, will notice if they die, and what damage they are doing and how slow or fast they move. Thats how they learn, and become an accountable player.

But hey, it gets worse… if we do a +12 key we get NOOOO affix’s. ZERO. Tyran and fort combined. There is no variety. There is nothing interesting about this content. Its boring. The same pulls each week, no changes. No affix’s. You should have at least kept the 1 new weekly affix active above 12s just to make it somewhat interesting. Why push? We may as well run a regular mythic in greens, it would effectively be the same as pushing a +16. And players will realize this. Sometimes when players complain about something like too many affix’s or how annoying affix’s are its because its a challenge and they are learning something. Some affix’s have been great. Some have been good.

I’ve said for years, what we needed was NEW affix’s, and remove ones that have been around since legion.

Removing the affix’s after a +12 makes watching streams boring, makes pushing keys uninteresting.

Either you’re trying to get us to do other content but this is the worst and most uninteresting m+ season I’ve experienced since Legion.

I really hope blizzard thinks about this moving forward because right now doing keys is just not fun. People don’t get this mechanic of the new affix’s in 10s/11s. I keep seeing them blame the heals or tank for wiping when the mobs get 5-10 stacks of orbs. I’m playing DPS at the moment and I try to defend the heals or tank pug. But then some players keep saying, “We didnt need the orb buff, the haste doesn’t matter.”

Literally had this conversation 5x this week. I’ve tried to explain it kindly so the players understand but they still don’t. They keep doubling down, “No, we didn’t need the buff.”

Having lead pug raids and gaining my IO every season from pugging I might be an ideal community member to explain the state of the WoW community and avg pug player.

My feedback should not go unheard. Because this M+ season is a disaster in game design.

This doesn’t mean much, if anything at all.

I would think if you were top 10 global, you would have the .1% achievement.

This happened because of the top key pushers complaining about affix combinations. They were taking weeks off at a time for a “push week”. I agree that there’s no variety, but at the same time it removes weeks where it is significantly harder than the next.

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If keys are to be the same, add in a seasonal mechanic that is only available at 12+.

That way it’s still equal week to week, but also different.

Their new 2850 achievement will drive up engagement metrics so they can pretend +12s are a success.

I was reading till I saw this. WILD claim. I don’t understand why people think they have to make stuff up to have an opinion. Just be honest and say how you feel lol

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Happens constantly unfortunately then people get mad at me for calling them out lol.

I’ve done a bunch of +10 keys today on an alt, and there’s a disgusting amount of people who simple don’t do the mechanic.

I’m tired of being at the mercy of others in M+.

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That’s the nature of group content with failure conditions.

Probably, I’m just tired of these affixes. M+ is fun, and so much more fun without them.

Get to 12, and there are no more.

I find the concept boring, so I haven’t even done all 12s.

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Yes, but the problem is that in order to get there I need to do lower keys first. I’m literally stuck doing lower keys and heroic raid just to upgrade my gear. Every time I fail a +12 key, I have to do a +11 to get a 12 again.

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Honestly, I never heard top pushers complaining about the affix’s besides bolsters, explosive orbs, or quaking. Some healers didn’t have a toolkit for grievous, which was a shame. These complaints were probably burnt out gamers more than top pushers. The affix’s since legion were old and needed to be removed and replaced. Not just removed.

The awakened/obelisk affix in BFA was 10/10 fun and made higher keys more interesting. The reaping affix was a blast because it just made players feel like their overall dps was higher. haha. Encrypted and prideful in shadow lands were a blast.

I actually was .1% in DF, then took 3 weeks off, and blizzard decided to reduce the scaling past +20 keys. Basically they inflated IO and I lost my title lol. Had to work, and didn’t have the time to keep pushing. Not interested in getting title this season. Content is just boring.

They were a blast to everyone who wasn’t responsible for them. They were cancer for tanks.