This.
What we have now is the lesser of two evils. It’s the only way to handle it that’s equally fair to everyone. People have had many suggestions over the years, and there hasn’t been a single one yet that would improve things while keeping it equally fair.
Basically, we can’t have nice things because people are jerks and will take advantage of loopholes. So there can’t be any loopholes. It sucks but it’s the way it is.
Emphasis on the could is very important here. That does not mean it happened every single time. But it did happen enough for blizzard to make some changes.
Not with the latest update already posted to curtail this behavior.
Read the harsher penalty post from Mira.
Its what Zungar said - sometimes I even see the same guy who dropped the dungeon getting back in the same dungeon again and then flame the party for still being here instead of all leaving so that HE the tank quitter could get a fresh other dungeon. Like the mental gymnastics was just ??? at that point.
I’m highly in favour of expanding the deserter debuff to Warbound if possible with other measures like putting all the loot in a chest behind the last boss in the dungeon or something.
Alas that is all feedback and not in the right forum.
But that doesn’t say what the penalty is or when it applies. Is it still 15 minutes or is the time penalty higher? And when is it ok to leave the group without getting a debuff?
Which is the customary 30 minutes for Deserter.
There is a trend where a thread is created asking a question, several people answer and then one person enters to take over the discussion.
Maybe let’s focus on answering the OP as best as we can and providing advice on where they can find info or provide suggestions instead of taking over the discussion until it makes sense to you.
As the others seem to have provided a good deal of information already I’m going to lock this one up.