This New Deserter System Is Not the Fix We Need

‘This change won’t really affect me, since I usually finish M10 in the first week to unlock the vault. And if pugging gets much worse, I can always run keys with my guild raiders. What concerns me is how much harder it could get for the average pug group.’

Not sure why Blizzard is rolling this system out in the next expansion—it doesn’t seem like it’ll work the way people hope. League of Legends has had a similar system for years, and is still famous for its toxicity.

First, locking players into a group unless the timer expires is just going to make people more selective during group forming. Right now, many players are willing to take a chance on someone with a low or no IO score. But if there’s no easy way out, expect people to start hard-filtering based on last season’s IO—especially early in the season. No one wants to be stuck for 30+ minutes with a group that’s clearly not working.

Second, Blizzard seems to think that taking away the option to leave will make people cooperate more. In reality, it might just push things in a worse direction. Think of a healer whose group ignores mechanics and dumps all the pressure on them. Under the current system, they’d probably just leave. But with this vote system, if the group refuses to end the run, that healer is stuck. This kind of behaviour is nearly impossible for Blizzard to distinguish from a genuine lack of skill, which means players who intentionally give up and those who are simply underperforming could be treated the same. If Blizzard starts punishing both without clear differentiation, it could create a chilling effect—especially on support roles like healers. No one wants to risk being penalised for struggling in a tough run, and as a result, fewer players may want to take on those roles, making queues longer and the role shortage even worse.

Third, people already leave when the timer fails, and that’s not going to change. Even though the run can still be completed, many just don’t bother. Being forced to stick around when someone doesn’t want to be there is just painful. At that point, they’re not thinking about rewards—they just want out.

This system sounds like it’s trying to fix leavers, but it’s probably going to create new problems instead: more gatekeeping, more passive-aggressive behaviour, and less interest in support roles. Hope Blizzard rethinks this before going all-in.

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If the vote to abandon doesn’t go thru, you best believe I will start doing minimum dps, fake healing and stand in fire.

It’s such a bad addition to the game. I should not be held hostage because of others.

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It sounds like you’re the problem in the group

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Why be forced to stay for completion run?key is dead it’s dead. It becomes a waste of time

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M+ should be queueable. It starts at 0 and goes up infinitely. If you fail, the number you were on greys out until you finish the previous number again. No more wasting hours to find a group.

Nope won’t take the risk to not have a lust class

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You joined a group to do a full run. Do the full run. If your group votes to abandon, then great for you. If your group doesn’t vote to abandon, you still joined to do a full run. You could leave, but then you’ll be subject to the leaver penalty. Intentionally throwing just because you didn’t get your way is pathetic and childish.

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I’ve been in nightmare runs with 40+ deaths and multiple wipes on bosses. It’s fine I won’t pay the repair bill so if my gear breaks it breaks. Sorry I only carry very little gold on toons most of it is bank. You can pay my repair bill if you want me to stay sounds fair to me

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Hopefully we’ll be empowered to build up reports against people like you to get you banned from the game for griefing.

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LMAO, if it’s a fun run, why would someone vote to abandon at the beginning? :rofl:

Nobody would do that a vote to end it only pops up when the key is smoked

More like I don’t want to stay in a group I don’ want to continue suffering.

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Can’t say I’m griefing if I hit my dps button :wink:

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There is a way to force a vote most people have limits on runs. Nobody wants to stay for longggggg runs

Sure it is. Key leavers get punished. Problem solved.

Blizzard isn’t taking away the option to leave. They’re just letting other players know which players leave an inordinate number of keys. It’s just like looking up IO or last season’s achievements: another metric by which to judge who to invite.

I agree with op. I think it’s one of those things that sounds good on paper but once applied in reality, it’s terrible.

Catching a ban in LoL vs WoW doesn’t hold the same weight for starters. Very few people would be willing to risk losing their 20+ year old account if they know there is a risk of getting perma banned.

I say ban instead of leaver penalty because the only way systems like this work in both Dota 2 and LoL is the fact you will get banned eventually if you are extremely toxic like the poster below you.

I wouldn’t put it passed Blizzard to implement a system like this with no way to tell if someone is griefing or not but they wouldn’t out right tell you how it works so you can bypass it either.

No ban for the deserter.

The fact that OP liked this comment is all the proof we need to know they’re truly the problem here.

Thanks Blizzard, for finally making people accountable for behaving like total jerks in M+.