Not here to debate what constitutes a “higher key”, but something I have noticed in my experience:
Why is it that the griefing and the flaming seems to go down the higher up I climb? Like if I make a mistake (still learning, happens) in a 13 or 14 key, I almost always seem to get players who are cool with it, and even if they gg and split, at least offer me some useful constructive criticism in a very respectful and tactful manner.
Whereas 10-12’s, it’s always the most vile nonsense you can think of, regardless of whether or not I messed something up. I really don’t let it get to me, just send some hearts <3, let them know I will learn from it, then quickly move on.
Just something I’ve noticed, not sure if this is typical or not.
My guess is 13+ it’s about rating and pushing higher keys. 10s and 12s are still tied to rewards, and the turbo boost increased item levels have pushed the more “toxic” crowd a few keys higher than they would’ve been otherwise.
I did a +14 Meadery, with players who were all higher ranked than me. Actually nailed the nightmare pulls clearing the bar area. Going into brewmaster, get him down to 20%, then I get hit with Keg Smash with no defensive (mismanagement on my part), and everybody just encouraged me to keep at it, gave me some pointers, and very kindly moved on. Even whispered me after telling me not to worry about, I’ll get it next time.
If it were a 12, probably would have been along the lines of “gg LeArn to Tank bro, ur route sux.”
As the season starts and ages, a vile worm starts devouring the lower keys, spewing toxic excrement in its wake. It starts at keys 2 then moves up to 3 and so on. At this point in the season, the worm is feasting on keys 10, 11 and 12. Keys 9 and below are desecrated filth pools where you will almost certainly find riffraff and deranged people.
You experienced the riffraff and got the filth on you. Wash it off and move on. I am rewards based myself, so after achieving my 3k for the season for the mount, I return to my cesspool of 10s and 11s to fill the vault but I wear a hazmat suit to protect myself. I call it “Don’t give a crap what the peasants say, I am cool with my 3k”
I know I am not good enough to get the title so I don’t try. I just get back in the pool and fill the vault.
People make mistakes, they’re just more noticeable at this range and most of the time people shrug it off and say “ggs nt”, the other times you get clowns that overreact and spew filth thinking they’d never make a mistake.
The good thing though with toxicity in this range (especially for oce) is that it’s such a small community, so if you make a dick of yourself then you’re gonna be remembered as one, where as with lower keys there’s so many people, the dicks just blend in.
2-6 were totally chill. Not really a lot of complaints or sass, if we wiped or messed up partially there’d be little to no discussion or clarification and we’d keep trucking. I never even failed anything 6 or below (close once).
I’m working on 7s and 8s now and the banter seems a bit more, partially cause the difficulty uptick is noticeable with the addition of an affix. Timed one 8 and barely failed another; first one was surprised we pulled it off and second had a pissy DPS cause we wiped on last boss. Guess I’ll see how bad it stays as I work on keys this weekend.
First kind are the Entitled Noobs. They have no gear, low M Scores and toxic to everyone doing M+ as they cant get invited blaming the game when in fact it’s their fault why they are not being chosen to be invited. They keep asking to be invited to keys they are not geared for. Like they are trying to get invited to M+5 when they havent even completed any M+2s with no past M+ experience on past Season. They get offended and he cause toxic craps.
The second are the Perfectionist Elitist toxic to any mistake. One mistake and he’s gone bricking the key. And if the key being bricked is owned by the Noob, they clashed with full toxicity throwing hatred on both sides.
On keys between where the Perfectionist Elitists and the Noobs, that’s where peaceful groups are. They know everyone can make mistakes but not that much to be annoying.
Because the people pushing 13s and up know they make mistakes, and look to improve on their mistakes. The people who are still stuck in sub-12s are the people who think they’re the best and everyone around them is holding them back. They’re the DPS that stands in swirlies and blames the healer for not healing them, for example.
Additionally, once you’re pushing past 12s you’re pretty much only doing it for rating. If you’re not going to time the run, there’s no real point in completing it if the group is struggling. Everyone accepts that, and will generally just “nt gl next” and it’s fine. Whereas people in sub-12s are still looking for loot or vault slots and see people not staying in their terrible group as “toxic” because they feel like something is being taken from them.
I had a funny run on my alt yesterday in a 6. Azralon shadow priest doing 1.5m less dps than my DH and the rogue. Naturally the SP was flaming the group because he didn’t think the tank’s route was correct, kept pulling additional packs and causing us to wipe. The lower ranks are infested with players like that at this point in the season because they’ve acquired enough gear to brute force through some of the lower key levels even though their actual skill level is M0 at best. Also the higher you go, the less you see of the truly toxic server group.
I really haven’t noticed a change as I’ve moved up. Toxicity seems fairly minimal no matter the range of keys I’m playing in at a given time or on a given character. I read that “it gets better” but everyone seems to have a different opinion of when it gets better and I think it’s more likely that it stays pretty steady.
There isn’t a whole lot of toxicity in M+ it’s just very expressive and memorable when there is.
I think the key level doesn’t have much to do with it
Most people are reasonable, you just got a group with 4 reasonable people in it which is nice. You could have invited a crazy person and the results would be very different in the same key, over the same mistake, to be fair
the worst players are usually (not always) also the most toxic. the lower the key level, the more likely you are to run into toxic players.
as for why that is, it’s a lot of things. a big part of it is that they’re used to being the worst player in every group they join. they’ve gotten to the level they play at by being carried (whether they paid for it or not) and get angry when the group isn’t strong enough to make up for their own mistakes, or the key is high enough that that’s not possible. rather than looking at their own misplays, they lash out at anyone else for any perceived problem – they use the “best defense is a good offense” approach, figuring that if they blame somebody else quickly enough, nobody will look at their death log or check to see what they’re kicking and how often, etc.
I’m with you on the over exaggeration. It’s not an every group thing. This is not a doom and gloom post. Plus if it seems like it’s in every group you’re in, then you might want to look at what the common denominator is (wink wink, maybe yourself).
I’ve just noticed that the “better”, higher ranked players are much more likely to actually help you, be it by reasonably explaining the mistake and ways to correct it. I’ve even had some gamers playing on alts hop on their tank mains and show me routes on practice runs. Pointing out some really cool positioning or priorities at certain packs.
When I thank them for their help, the response is usually along the lines of, “No worries, the learning is the fun part. You have a great attitude and that is a big key.”
This is my first time ever doing it and I’m having a blast (trying to) progressing in Mythic+. My goal after every dungeon, good or bad, is to suck a little less on the next one. It doesn’t always go that way, but I keep that same mentality regardless.