I think I’ll get a lot of negative feedback on this, however myself and others I know feel its near impossible to get into even the most basic and low M+ groups on and alt. I realize you could always play with your guild, or friends, or whatever but then you’re stuck relying on them to both be online, and in the mood to run those groups.
The M+ rating system is both a blessing and a curse. When it comes to low keys from around M0-+5 it seems IMPOSSIBLE to get into. Every single group declines you unless you’re 2342342 rating and 410+ ilvl.
Occasionally you’ll get some groups who will take a chance on you and let you tag along, but its like a 1/100 groups it feels like.
I dunno. It just doesn’t feel great. I see its benefits but damn, it would be nice if it was more tied to an overall account wide kind of system to at least help let groups know you’ve done these keys before.
This is because people are running this key range on higher ilvl characters for easy valor to upgrade their gear. On one hand it kinda sucks because it means there are little to no appropriate average ilvl groups running low level keys, but on the other it means if you sign your own key then you’ll be flooded with applicants willing to carry you that have the added bonus of needing zero loot from the dungeon.
Each time you complete a key, you get 125 valor. BUT if someone in that key gets score, everyone gets an extra 75 bringing the total to 200.
What I suggest you do is this. Take your own key, lower it as much as you can such that you’ll still get score from completing it, and list it with a title along the lines of “Fresh Char” or “Valor run”. Then invite four high ilvl plate people and ask they will kindly trade you anything they don’t need from the end of the key. 3 chest it, get a new dungeon, lower it to the lowest level you’d still get score, and repeat.
Once you’ve done this a few times and got some ilvl / valor / score you’ll be able to sign to 8-11 keys pretty comfortably, and these keys are not populated with high ilvl farming valor so you won’t have the competition.
I’ve been experimenting on my DPS alts by running my own keys and joining waiting lists. It’s much nicer (not to mention quicker) using your key and you get to learn firsthand why key holders are picky.
Firstly, it’s your key and since you want to maximise your odds of success, you’ll naturally gravitate towards potential candidates who exceed the key’s base gear (and rating) requirements.
Secondly - and especially on higher-level keys - the DPS candidate pool is massive. You’re looking at dozens of people grappling for an invite. And since you want to make sure you clear and time the dungeon, you’ll likely end up picking players who over-gear the place, have prior experience clearing the dungeon in question at an appropriate level, and who have the rating to show for it.
And suddenly you’ve turned into that player who asks for a minimum of 405 on a M+5 key.
I have good news outside the “run your own key and be the supply” argument.
Starting in 10.1 the 0-4 bracket will be it’s own segregated community. Followed by the 5-10, 11-15 and 16-20 communities. The new upgrade system will ensure that any player who exclusively hangs out in the 0-4 bracket will never exceed the gear of a +10 runner (without leaving the bracket).
So there will be no high level players to take your spot in that alt key. Im pretty confident that this will mean a ton of keys have 3 or 4/5 for an insane amount of time, but I guess there may be a thriving community of people who never want to touch a 5.
But for now, if you want to run a 2. Go to the npc who hands them out and list it. You’re on your way to the dungeon in around 3.5m and don’t have to worry about the gatekeeping Andy’s.
I exclusively run my own key on both alts. Both almost 2400 io and almost max valor gear now.
I just can’t fathom these posts. Like yeah you don’t get exclusive VIP access to any specific dungeon at will like a tank healer with high main io, but oh well.
I had to grind my own keys especially when raiderio fails to show my main io for a week
The problem is that it really starts to fall apart if you get an unpopular key in the 18-19 level range. A lot of the time you’ll just get no takers at all, and the only thing you can do is try to join a different key so you can reroll yours.
So yes you can get to 2400 doing this but getting from 2400 to doing 20s is the hardest jump to make and relies a fair bit on luck in terms of what keys you roll.
On the low end, use your own key and put “bonus valor” in the description. After you time the 2 to a 5 knock it back down rinse and repeat. I did this on my alt recently and it was incredibly fast and efficient. The dungeons take 5 minutes to fill and 10 minutes to complete. You get a ton of valor for later, and a lot of loot share.
I concur, playing alts is demoralizing, even with a bunch of guildies to play with. It’s just so Meh - and as a result, I just log off.
Everyone is so hell bent on 20’s and max gear and if you shouldn’t get handouts from 15’s but honestly, I think it’s dumb. Who cares if casual players who do 15’s eventually have the same ilvl as you (who mythic raids)? You, as a raider, will acquire that gear much faster and go on to clear your mythic content either way. So who cares if joe schmo eventually hits 418 weeks (or months) down the road? You’ll both be 418 but he won’t have M+ score or Raid achievements to show for it which will hinder his ability to steal your spot in any raid or M+ group. All +20 has done is make it a pain in the butt and kill any desire to play alts.
Gone are the days of blowing through 15’s on alts with friends on Sundays because you wanted to try a new class/spec out. Instead, I’ll just do my 20’s on my main and log - and that’s the general behavior I’ve observed with my friends/guildies.
I do feel, even though I have done timed 14s, that it is near impossible to get into 15s and 16s, which is where I need to get into to get my rating up at this point. I only have one piece of gear that is possible to upgrade (my weapon) after that I’m in limbo.
Now it’s 16s. You get 415 items from vault or 2 weeks of vaults is a 418 crafted item. You can easily get 417 from just doing this and getting somewhat lucky with essence drops. In the next season, crafted is 421 equiv so you don’t need to do 20s to have 5-8 “20 vault” items. Having gear cap just isn’t as valuable as it used to be, especially for alts.
such is the pug life