A bit of a random question, I suppose. Especially since I’ve never liked the Mythic+ system since it was introduced… but if others like it, I’ll leave it to them (even if I preferred that it didn’t affect the rest of the game’s design).
Probably should mention I’m going off the assumption that Mythic+ is mostly unchanged as a system since Legion & BfA, so apologies if this is out of date
But I never really understood the purpose of the keystone item itself. Seeing people rage at people leaving runs and the whole risk of “depleting” them… I find myself asking “Why?”
It seems simple enough to me to have a player’s progress through the Mythic+ system be tracked through some of the existing UI elements; they do track the time of the runs and the level completed so far.
So why is there a separate item for the keystone itself?
Runs failing to complete, for any reason, seems to set off a cascade of frustration and anger from players. It definitely comes across as odd when failure to complete a raid has no such systematic setbacks.
Didn’t kill the boss?
You don’t get loot.
Try again.
So when I see people grumbling about players leaving Mythic+ runs, I have to wonder if the keystone system is just adding an unnecessary layer of frustration that doesn’t need to be there.
So is there something to the purpose of keystones that I’m not seeing here?
The more important thing is the level, the specific dungeon is more or less irrelevant (people just stop running keys they don’t like). Which makes them join other groups, maybe with worse players, who have the key they want. Maybe they join groups of easier keys just to reroll. It gives everyone a chance to play with good players farming bis which is good (for the most part?).
If good players could farm the same dungeon without a key they would not include that fifth person who is not as skilled, they would just get a stacked group of 5 and run it over and over. So a side benefit is people learn things from good players that they otherwise wouldn’t ever be playing with.
For me, I’ve always assumed the keystone served the purpose as a midpoint between mythic+ being entirely farm friendly and mythic+ being utterly not farm friendly like heroics. Remember heroics used to have a daily lockout you could only do one specifically once a day after that you had to randomly get into it. They only recently took that out.
Keystones force you to:
socialize to the extent you can find a key that is for a dungeon you are interested in running, preventing you from just randomly picking one you want to do for a specific item.
forces you to earn your way through the ranks to higher difficulties or at the very least find someone who has who is willing to take you into the higher difficulty - where higher rewards exist.
It’s all a carefully crafted gating mechanic.
It also as others have said prevents you from farming the most efficient dungeon since some dungeons are shorter than others and the rewards for completing a dungeon is not based on its length or perceived difficulty only that you completed it in time and the rewards are based on the key level.
So players in the abscence of keystones would find the one dungeon that is the easiest to complete and would likely just farm that one for their crests. Think of how everyone runs ruby sanctum 5x for the mythic dungeon weekly when it comes up. Because its easy and its short.
I do not understand the love for keys. I have played with competent ppl and I have also pugged a lot, it’s been a minute though ( never understood why people bought 15s D:) I say that, but I get paying to play with other gud players.
I thought I was in the minority. I do not find keys engaging at all. Seems like a bad idea to pigeonhole ppl into for quick gear and ppl who want a score that are competitive I am competitive sometimes.
I cannot fathom running keys constantly unless you’re doing insanely high keys and want a score and even then, no thank you.
…but, fun is different for different ppl. If ppl are having fun w/their friends running the same dungeons over and over (even with different affixes) that is what it is all about!
Again, I thought I was in the minority to not like them and chalked it up to another way that I am weird.
tldr, I do not understand. I think a raid group is more fun and sometimes during my life of WoW PvP was the most fun.
Completion groups exist and should be more common. You run them to finish the dungeon and get XP, not to time them. You get a lower level but that will go up eventually and you will be skilled enough to time it after getting the practice (and go up more)
I would argue in a world without a key depleting on failure to time, the dungeon should award 0 crests/items.
it’s insane to me to think that you should still get rewarded for failure.
currently if you don’t time a key but complete it, you still get items to drop. Yes, you do get more items if you time it.
I simply think the key depletion on failure to time adds another layer of negative repercussions to failling the key in a system that’s overly rewarding as it is.
if you complete the run, you did not fail the run. one of the options when you list a key is “completion”, meaning you do not intend to time the key.
if you complete the run, you should get a reward.
If you complete the run but not in the time allotted, then the key depletes. the idea being that that key level was too difficult for you and you should try a lower rated key.
you get a reward for completing the run. but you get a penalty to your key level.
if you time the run, you get the standard reward and you get you key upgraded
if you 2 or 3 chest the run, you upgrade the key and get better rewards or a higher probability of getting a reward.
