Dear Blizzard,
I wanted to follow up on my original email and provide some insight into my experiences, as well as my guild’s, in The War Within. I decided to respond to my original post to offer a bit of a template for this response. Although I feel like you’ve addressed some of the potential issues I had warned about, all is still not well.
First off, the Mythic+ squish has really penalized about 45% of my guild. They eagerly jumped into keys this season, only to promptly jump out. A few returned with the changes to the Crest system, but the bulk have not. Due to the difficulty of the keys, the diminished gear opportunities, and the limited options to upgrade, a large portion of my guild is now raid-logging and stuck at a low item level. The five or so players I have who are still doing 10+ keys are now about 14 item levels ahead of the others.
My peak performers (plus 10 keys), as I like to call them, really feel like they are carrying the raid more than they ever have, and my underperformers are more demoralized than ever. The divide in gearing has grown even further in this expansion, further illustrating the disparity in performance. Moreover, my peak performers used to run keys with the underperformers because they wanted to help—and often, the currency incentive was there. But now, trying to carry them through an 8 or even a 9 would not be a pleasant experience. The kicks, stops, DPS checks, and lack of these players not using their defensives would leave our underperformers consistently dying at best, or bricking the key at worst.
What you don’t realize is that my peak performers used keys to build relationships with my underperformers. You’ve eliminated that option for the most part. You were too focused on the logical side of things: nerfing the loot in Mythic+ and assuming that the LFR stacks of Determination would replace our need for loot to progress. However, you overlooked the relationship aspect of key running. In raid, a player can hide and never have to interact or even speak to others. But in Mythic+, players get to know each other a bit more, with chatter before and after the key. Guildmates form bonds. In the past, the best players and worst players were still able to intermingle during key runs. Sure, there were limitations, but not like you have created this tier.
Raising loot requirements while simultaneously demoting loot and eliminating a range of key difficulties has really expanded the void of interaction between my players. Sadly, my good players are now ready to be done with raiding because they feel the other players aren’t pulling their weight. These aren’t new players—they are the same players we’ve had for 8 years. But now, they’re a problem because they can’t gear, can’t do high-level Mythic+, and are no longer able to interact socially through content. I know you wanted delves to fix this and maybe it did at the beginning of the season, but most players outgrew them and their offerings.
People play this game to be social, and this experience has only deepened the divide. Our guild will reach its goals, but we won’t be moving forward with everyone (lost 4 players so far). Raid loggers eventually become no loggers. I think a lot of guilds are built around Mythic+ gearing and the ability to help your friends reach their goals through content while assisting the guild in their tier goals. There were no high fives exchanged for earning another stack of Determination.
Please consider this feedback for the next tier.
Signed,
Hanging on by a thread