We just need a “Pause Button”
Explaining my reasoning for M+:
Mythic Plus got introduced during Legion. In Legion we find the Nighthold including the Nightwell. Chromatic Anomaly aside we have Elisande and her Phase Transition mechanic: The Time Stop. Perfect for the encounter/raid setting but also a perfect fit for Mythic+ since the key is represented as an hour glass item.
This mechanic (at least for the encounter room) stops all CDs from recovering and all buffs from running out as well as all movement/animation (which I will go into later). Which means: If it were possible to have this effect active across the entire instance it would make a good addition to improve the overall experience as well as learning curve for new players and forming teams.
The way it should/could work (engineers definitely have a say in this):
- You get an extra button (moveable etc) during m+
- Once pressed by one team member everybody else can confirm a stop demand within a certain time frame. Just in case of this button being involuntarily fatfingered here and there.
- Once time stops all CDs & Buffs are on hold, all players and NPCs are frozen in place and the Mythic+ timer is put on hold.
- These stops can only be done out of combat to first of all simplify it and second not run into these situations where the timing of re-start mid combat won’t always be perfect.
- Given that the server knows if signals are returned from clients or not you could then take DCed players as a sign of confirmation. This solves the problem of waiting for those 1-3 minutes of reconnecting or in some cases restarting the client etc.
- IRL issues interfering with your gameplay could also be solved with this.
- It allows for taking breaks in between trash/boss pulls to maybe set up markers or communicate (changes in) strategy without the stress of losing time. If there should be a limit to this is debatable, maybe for the MDI.
- Once the entire group confirms the button again during the break the action resumes and time is flowing again. Might be difficult though if a players DC happened on the path of a patrol and re-entry triggers said group.
What I don’t know about the Elisande mechanic though since I would have tested it with another player before making this post (in the near future anyway): Does it stop “time” in this rather limited encounter room or also for the rest of the raid?
There is the sentiment of removing the timer from m+ but here you would have a perfect chance to keep the entire setting (running against time) and aesthetic intact while improving on the regular problems this restriction brings with itself.
The one thing that has to work out though is the willingness of each group member to not use it more often than the rest of the groups sees fit. These runs should not end up as a Stop&Go. People kinda expect a certain time investment into Mythic+ and not an additional 20 minutes regardless of it not affecting the “in time” finish.
Additional seasonal affix idea/pitch:
Now looking at the current expansion and the map of Thaldraszus there is a big hour glass. We already have speculation and part confirmation that the Chromatic Dragonswarm and time travel shenanigans will show up later in the expansion.
So adding this feature to (especially) Mythic+ at some point would fit really well.
With that being said: I hope if a future raid tier/season ever incorporates the “time” thematic, the seasonal affix is something among the lines of stopping time. But for such an affix: Just for the enemy and also infight.
- To skip trash packs similar to the BFA S4 Affix
- To create moments of DPSing without movement pressure
- Allowing for healers to save/regenerate mana
Extra incentive for this Time Stop effect beyond (Mythic+) gameplay:
Add a toy into the game as a reward for finishing any mythic+ - over time or not - which allows you to stop your characters animation as long as you are out of combat.
This idea kinda brings me back to the old WoW armory before adapting to mobile phones (afaik) where you could pick an animation pose/frame to further customise your profile. These days it no longer works and the idle position on the page is kinda meh.
But: We are talking about ingame and it would probably add something to play around with given that there is someway to determine the freeze frame, maybe moving through the current animation frame by frame, back or forwards.
Personally where this would become really neat is when taking group pictures. We always did this in my old raid groups after a boss 1st kill. Line up and flex/take a picture/screenshot as a memory. If you were to go for synced up emotes or posing in a certain choreography that was sort of impossible. But given that a toy/option like this could exist it would make that even better. And I guess people would play around with it out of sheer boredom (which is also a player driven feature of MMOs btw).