I’ve been watching the discourse around M+ changes and class balance for the last, like, week or so, and maybe I just have a “further from the fire” perspective as someone who has observed, tried and confirmed that M+ was very much not for me and my friends, but there’s been a clear message, again just to my eyes in what’s happening in the war within.
I’ve mentioned this in another post that I’ll link below that WoW seems very much to be closing in on “we can’t control the PUG experience so either play with friends or solo” kind of approach with TWW. They won’t unlock cross factional LFDungeon in an effort to protect new players from faction-pilled vets, as a rare acknowledgement that “the community has cooked itself”, and now they’re going all in on follower dungeons, delves and story mode. There is, almost, no “excuse” to PUG except “ilvl number go up” and maybe a “gotta have it” M+ achievement mount. Those incentives though, more than ever, are really just lining up to tell players “just form a team.”
People aren’t liking how the new affixes are looking for the PUG scene and like… maybe it’s time to read between the lines on that.
From level 10 to level cap, to the great vault, to the big scene at the end of the raid, there is (or will be soon) a “one to five player” instanced PVE pipeline. For most players there is no need to look outside your own account or a small (Smaller than 5 even) group of friends unless you get sucked into “make the ilvl go up.” Heroics, blocked from LFD until TWW season 1, are “relevant” again, an intended part of the progression ladder, and every rung of the ladder has to be built as a potential stopping point. Delves, rewarding low to mid level M±equivalent gear, will serve those who in the past would sit in the decline/leaver/toxicity misery vortex that is M+PUGing.
It is ok, in this new reality, to look at delves and/or the occasional heroic dungeon queue as your ceiling. The thing about that ceiling is it’s insulated, for the most part, from the “transaction with the community’s overthinking” that is the decline vortex of M+ PUGing. Yes people can and will kick for dumb reasons in heroics, but if you queue with only two friends, that becomes impossible to happen to you, and if you don’t have those two friends, you have delves.
The truth, as I see it is: WoW has clearly caught on to the ubiquity never intended for “kEEEEys”. It was never meant to be a casual lane of the game. It’s their big Esport and clearly, to their thinking “you should have a team.” Not a group, a team. They support PUGing mechanically but “relevant” heroics and now delves are clearly being introduced as pressure valves for the “no one will take my class” conundrum that they will never apply the agility to fix. They’re making alts connected so when one class rises as the clear meta… “just go level one and play that then.” It’s all warband.
It is ok to look at the new options and remove yourself from the headache. I don’t know how much more plainly I can put it, but WoW aren’t obligated to just hand out keystone master to everyone every 6 months just because streamers run “kEEEys” with viewers.
Know your limit, play within it. The goalposts on past “limits” are moving, they’ve been moving since season 4 when no one not terminally online knows what which key numbers mean any more. It’ll sort itself out when delves drop, and you can be ahead of that curve.
This has been a PSA from a M+ outsider looking in. It’s so much more peaceful here on the side of the line that looks at M+ crashing into its changing definition and realizes “yep, the devs caught on.”
Maybe you’re not an M+ player any more, and that’s ok. Some of you would be so much happier if you could realize that.
This thread is kind of an extension of another ramble I went on.
Have a nice day. Please, save yourself some headache and think about where you fit in the devs’ vision. It’s their game and they’re clearly moving the goalposts. Have the agility that they won’t, and preserve your fun.
Just my opinion, just trying to help.
