As BFA has progressed a trend in Battlegrounds has been increasing. Players are leaving in the first minute of battlegrounds in bulk. In the epic battleground just completed out of a full raid at start by the time I was brought in 2 minutes in 17 people had left. If the penalty is moved from 15 minutes to an hour to detour players from leaving. Battlegrounds are not intended to be decided victory in just a minute of play time. It is also a disruption of competitive game play for the people trying in the battleground. This is not a faction issue it is happening on both sides. Blizzard please review the deserter policy and time.
1 Like
When I am in AB and see everyone just leave bases without anyone staying to defend I am not wasting my time staying in it.
1 Like
If you leave an ashran there should be no deserter debuff. No one wants to be in that hellhole
4 Likes
No thanks its fine the way it is now
Yes this is happening, but the reason is the content, therefore the solution is not to punish players for their mistakes. This is far more prevalent in EPICS and this trend really took hold upon the introduction of WG and Ashran, where the games can be decided in the first 5 minutes of 1/2 to an 1 hr Bg… Make some changes that offers a more diverse potential to alter the course of the outcome and kill the 60-80 man mob gatherings that currently takes place.
Additionally, by extending the penalty, you would invariable start generating longer queue times as less and less and lees people are queuing up.
Unfortunately the BG design and mechanics is responsible for this issue, and conditioned people to believe this is the case due to most times it really is. I do agree that they should most definitely not be decided, be it real or even perceived (But even the perception comes from the more often than not experience), within the opening few minutes.
The majority of the problem is not the players but inherent to the BG. Absolutely there is no question that some players will always be “that guy” who leaves at the first obstacle, but these people are in everywhere just not in PVP.
The content is fixable, so maybe they address that first before jumping on the players.
I have never seen desertion at this level. Back in my day people would fight over a Warsong flag for an hour or more. It’s no longer uncommon to see 2-3 people (20-30% of a team), if not more, leave as soon as a single flag is capped when there are still 11 minutes to go of the game.
2 Likes
Hey I agree, unless the GY is being camped, that is ridiculous especially in reg randoms… I dream of getting WSG’s lol, I could never leave under the worst of circumstances. For regulars maybe a progressive penalty system:
- 1st time offenders - 15 minutes
- 2nd time offenders - 30 mintes
- 3rd time offenders - 1hr etc
- However, due to life situations that may result in a person having to leave or AFK, the offense progression is reset if you go lets use an arbitrary number of 5 Bg’s without leaving or AFKing.
- Of course this also has to account for people abusing the AFK system which is far less plausible in regular Bg’s, so it may be a non factor.
With no blacklist option I just afk out when I get a BG I hate. Looking at ToK/Seething Shore/Ashran.
Maladath also brings up a good point, if your team is full on suck its better to afk out then waste time in a loss.
With respect to epics, I am on board 100%, but regs, i know some aren’t the greatest, and sometimes or many times lol the teams are awful, but like i said previously, unless it’s a GY camp, even I am not in favor of bailing routinely (It’s easy to go on a bad streak of Bg’s and / or players).
I’ll even hack out “most” epics just because by me leaving i’m condemning some other poor soul to the misery lol…
Just my point of view!
They are free to afk out as well,. For example, during an AB if your team decides to derp on roads or camp GY while neglecting to defend bases its just a lost cause. After calling out the bad strategy, the normal response is “lol look at your horrid damage getgud noob” - disregarding that defending bases normally means your damage output is lowkey.
1 Like
lol that’s so true!
I mean some pugs are just beyond help. The same scenario happened in EotS. Our team was just sitting on the road in between FRR and BeT, and this is what the chat looks like;
me-guys don’t get tunnel vision farming horde, focus objectives
pugidiot#1-bro your damage sucks
pugidiot#2-l2p trash
me-you do realize I am a healer right
pugidiot#1-err well start doing damage pleb
pugidiot#2-report ____________ afk they are not helping
me-sigh, you guys are f****** dumb /afk
1 Like
But you aren’t staying to defend it either… 
1 Like
Very often you know in the first minute what the outcome will be. Sometimes you know even before the gates open.
But I hear you. The deserter debuff should be an hour. It should be account-wide. It should also apply to all aspects of the game; queueing for pve, experience, objectives towards world quests. If I had my way it would carry outwards to other games too (and not just Blizzard games).
If you queue for a BG you stay there until the end. You don’t high tail it out of there and punish another player who waited in a long queue to take your place in a decided loss.
I didn’t say that now did I? I can’t defend multiple bases by myself.
I agree, a ramping penalty in which the time doubles each time a match is abandoned will also leave some leeway when life happens. so first time 15 min, second 30 third 60min and so on. Take your lumps folks…expecting to win every match is ridiculous.