So we already know, and if you don’t know you need to come out from under your rock, that M+ is in shambles. And in a way, it is affecting raid participation also.
Right now we have a grand total of 17,436,957 keys that have been ran and finished, timed or otherwise. Compare that to S1 of DF were we had 36,259,005 keys completed by the end. Yes, we still have time to do more runs, but can we double the current amount before the season is up? Highly unlikely.
Half as many keys ran so far compared to S1 of DF and really, not much happening to give any indication that number is going to double any time soon, it really isn’t looking good.
As for why this number is low, there are a few reasons, but why it affects raiding is the same reason there are minimal raids being listed, and it mostly has to do with gearing. For the first time since they changed gearing in M+, we can no longer push higher keys to farm gear, anything over an M7 gives you the same gear from a key and only when you get to M10+ do you start to get vault slots.
You need eight M10+ keys for three vault slots at myth track, of which you can choose one. If you want myth gear otherwise, go mythic raiding. But the problem arises in that in the past players who needed that little push, be it for mythic raiding or even just the last couple of heroic bosses, they could run M+ and gather a few iLVL more to get themselves over the line. Since you can no longer do this, people have basically hit a wall and stopped playing.
So how do we fix it?
First, and as much as you are all going to hate me for this, we can either have a rating system, or a queue and rating system while still keeping the premade scene alive, so we don’t scrap the current system, but add a queue system on top of it like they have with PVP. First, we try to understand what a rating system would be like and how that could work, and how that compares to PVP.
With PVP at the end you see damage, healing, kills and objectives. With M+ what do we have? An M+ rating, an iLVL and a run down of what keys you have done, but what does that tell you about someone? The only time this information is actually useful is if they have done X number of keys at Y level showing they are running them regularly, otherwise that information alone is useless. Players can pay for a score and they can pay for an ILVL.
But worse now, we have delves and as great as they are players can get to 619 iLVL solo with minimal effort, along with FIVE crafting items that lets them craft 619 iLVL gear they can very easily craft up some missing pieces after they have ran some delves and be full 619 with just 8 delves a week.
Too many times over the years I have been burned by players because of all this, seeing their rating and iLVL, thinking they are good but finding out they are far from it, and even have at times ran into players who have a number of keys ran, yet are still not all that good because that information is only part of the picture.
Now why does PVP get a scorecard at the end showing damage and healing, but M+ doesn’t? Is it because completing the key is all that matters? But in PVP doing the objectives is all that matters, you could have a druid tank in WSG who carries 3 easy flags for zero damage, yet helped win the game, but they still show damage.
It’s no different in M+, in fact I would say it’s worse because in M+ if you don’t have the damage and healing, if you don’t have players using CC or interrupting, if you have players taking a high amount of avoidable damage, that is all a negative to the key and just makes it harder to complete.
And since Blizzard already have an in game combat log, the same combat log we all use to see the PVP scorecard, the same combat log we use for3 our DPS meters and combat logging and external websites that give us parses and show what we are capable off, why can’t Blizzard give us a proper M+ rating system and a hidden MMR the same as they would with PVP?
Gone will be the days of players being carried to a 2.5K rating, gone will be the days of players relying only on their current M+ rating and iLVL, now we will be able to accurately rate players based on how they actually perform and can determine who is better to take into our keys with us.
Perform well, do a lot of damage, take as minimal avoidable damage as you can, do a lot of self-healing (HPS), get a better than average interrupt total, high CC count, good dispels from either the healer or anyone that can dispel, basically what we look for on Warcraftlogs and place a point system against them all.
Now when players do a run their rating will be based on two things, completing keys timed or not, and their own individual performance. Keep the iLVL and we will have an entire package to show exactly the type of player we are pugging and exactly what you can offer to others. Of course, the higher a key is timed, or the longer it goes untimed will affect your rating, but since your own personal performance will be checked against others of the same class in the same key level, now you can shine and show how good you are.
Gone will be the days of paying for carries so players can get stats and try to sneak into keys they should not be doing. And with it, hopefully most of the issues we get with said players were keys fail because they are not ready for what content they are doing.
Oh but players will jerry rig their parses and make it look better then what they are? Of course, but when they start pugging into other keys and they can no longer perform at that level their rating will drop and over time if will level out to what it should be based on their own performance. And who are we kidding, players who can game the system and get a higher rating should have a higher rating, give a bad player a chance to pop off and pull an 8M DPS pull and they won’t be able to anyway.
On top of this, give us a commendation system, same issue as my last paragraph, same solution, with enough time players who are not all that great going into keys with pugs will end up not getting commended by other players and it will level out. If they can do it with other games that have a competitive group mode, why not here?
What else we need to do is go back to a better gearing system, give higher keys myth track from the dungeon, give players who have hit 619+ a reason to keep pushing keys, give players a chance to get some better gear so they can push the content they want, because right now many players are hitting that mark and just giving up, and it means those who are wanting to play get minimal to choose from.
And the last thing we or Blizzard want is for players not to be able to play the content they want, but as it stands with no real reason outside of a higher rating, many players just have no reason to play. Add in the issues we have with the potential of finding someone who is out of their league, and it’s a real turn off for many players.
Now how does all this fit into a queue system? Simple, 1-2 melee or 1-2 ranged, a healer and a tank with a sufficient rating to get put into a key either at the level you want to run, or a random key the game can give you within a determined time. Same as it does for PVP, if you queue up with a premade 2’s team for arena the game will try to find suitably rated players to pit you against, and if it cannot within a set time it opens the window of who to put you against.
Honestly as bad as PVP is, especially arena and the pillar hiding game you guys play over there, there is a lot that can be used from outside of the actual arena that can also be used with M+ to make M+ better. Make M+ great again, and with it players might still also want to raid, PVP and hit all their goals they want.