No, not really. It presents a challenge for players to overcome where at low levels it’s pretty easy but it constantly ramps up to be harder and harder so that eventually, every level of player will reach a point where it is challenging so that one can gain the sense of accomplishment when they beat it.
The game doesn’t expect perfection until the very tip top of keys and a vast majority of players (even ones timing 15s) are not perfect and every complaint about “if not perfect then useless” is making the mistake of confusing the difference between passable and perfect, one must only be passable to succeed in M+ unless you’re pushing title-range. Being below the passable range is not a punishment for not being perfect, it’s just the way things go when one isn’t even passable.
Also, while one can be friendly with pugs, pugs ultimately are not your pals. If you want to hang out and goof off with, ones that won’t mind if you make silly mistakes constantly and the like, find patient friends. Pugs are a bit less forgiving because someone messing around and bricking their key inconveniences them more than it inconveniences the person who doesn’t take the time of the rest of the party seriously in that competitive environment.
I’m not trying to decide what you want, I’m just telling you straight up that replacing M+ with the same dungeons and no timers is a dumb idea, lol. I tried to meet you half way and imagine what equally challenging 5 man content could look like but I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to operate in good faith.
Resilient 12 (and higher) keys feel like this. The affixes are non-existent. And if you don’t time, the key does not deplete. So, it allows for trying new pulls and a reduced emphasis on timing. obviously if you want more loot/crests and to progress, timing is the…key.
I wonder how it would fair if blizzard did this with lower keys. Throw in resilient 7’s, try it out.
I, for one, like the timer because it’s an objective standard for the dungeon, but I understand how that can create additional pressure for folks looking to embrace a different kind of fun in this game.
Except M+ has fundamentally different goals from a raid. You need to clear a certain amount of non-boss enemies and all boss enemies within a longer timeframe than any raid fights (probably, Sha of Fear was like 25 minutes but hardly the point), which are done as a single encounter. A raid is a series of 1-15 individual encounters which are entirely separate from each other, almost always a single mob with an occasional council fight thrown in for good measure. They are very much different.
on one hand i appreciate people who like it have that type of content to do, but on the other i do think it has influenced a certain mentality with players that makes it harder to enjoy anything. MDI and AWC included in this
Op take a break from game and come back in a year.
See that is what I did - I took sometime off and came back and I can tell you now.
There is a whole lot of out door stuff to do.
I was maybe 580 ilevek in Friday - I can’t remember exactly what level I left my warrior at. But they sent me to night fall - bam, I got a 632 for doing the event ?
Did the 4 daily I am already in 600 ish. I haven’t even done a single mythic and I am 629. I just completed my plus 8 delves today and I don’t even know what the heck I’ did.
So yea the game is as casual as it can get - anything more you will be playing it in a switch.
I really miss the good old dragon flight mythic plus days - not sure why we have all this outdoor mode, delves, raids, keys.
They are splitting the player base.
I just took a months sub to see how I spend my time.
If by exactly right we actually mean completely and totally wrong.
Mythic+ saved the game from the infamous “raid or die” WoD left it struggling with and keeps it thriving today. Mythic+ is, by far, the most engaged with endgame pillar and gives, by extreme far, the most room for skill expression and demonstration of content mastery.
Yes, left of bell curves are left behind but they still have an endgame pillar in delves and queue content…it’s just that that content pillar caps out VERY quick.
You’re explicitly describing what I don’t like about mythic plus. But I want you to think back to the old days, what was the purpose of dungeons in the first place? Heck, don’t even go that far back, think about any mega dungeon on release. They’re miniature 5 man raids. M+ adds extra tedium that just isn’t fun for me. Dunno what else to tell ya.
Depends how far back we are going. With the awful itemization of the early game, sometimes they gave the best pieces. Otherwise, late game dungeons were literally there as a stepping stone to get into raids, because raiding was the only endgame content available.
That’s fine, they’re just a part of the game that isn’t for you. Raiding is still there.
As you may think, I gotta disagree with you on this one. Mythic+ might’ve saved WoW from “raid or die” but it also kinda caused a lot of issues too. Now it’s all about rushing and being perfect, and a lot of players just don’t wanna grind that hard for some number or time. It’s making everything way too competitive and not as fun for a lot of people.
Sure, M+ gives a chance to show off skill, but it also makes people feel like they suck if they’re not hitting those high levels. Not everyone has the time or energy for that. And yeah, the people who don’t wanna push Mythic+ still have stuff to do, but those options are kinda meh compared to M+.
In the end, M+ kinda just locks people out, making the game feel a lot less fun for a lot of folks.
With the exception of WoD, WoW didn’t struggle to survive before m+ was introduced. The fundamental design goal of WoW has changed, and the game now revolves around it as a crutch.
Timed runs is the dungeon equivalent of boss enrage timers in raid, something we’ve been conditioned to since launch.
Hot take: M+ is itself casualification of the gearing process. More people than ever before have access to gear of the highest level, all without ever having to set foot in a raid, or even have set playtimes. M+ IS the casual experience, you’re conflating being unskilled with being casual.
Casual reminder that wow began in needing 40 man groups to get anywhere, then 25, then 10, then back to 20, then 5. Solo content was never at the heart and soul of what world of warcraft was about, it was always about the group content.
Ironically what you pretend to propose is against what you have actually stated. “something for everyone” when there are more avenues of play than ever before, what you’ve actually proposed is another one in the list of “everything for me.” If you do not like M+ then go raid, go delve, go pvp, do some world quests, pet battles, old content, there is an entire world (of warcraft) out there, go experience it.