Leaving Mythic Keystones early? TWW Season 3 Deserter system will penalize you
Blizzard introduces a new deserter system in TWW 11.2 to mark frequent Mythic+ leavers and reduce group disruptions through a vote-based penalty system.
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Blizzard is cracking down on Mythic+ leavers in the upcoming Season 3 of The War Within with the M+ Deserter system launching in Patch 11.2. After years of community frustration around players quitting mid-dungeon and ruining Keystone runs, the developers are finally stepping in with a vote-based penalty system designed to mark frequent leavers in Group Finder.
Here’s everything we know so far, including developer commentary, early impressions, and how this could reshape the M+ experience.
How Season 3 M+ Deserter system works
Let’s break down how the new Mythic+ Deserter system will work in The War Within Season 3 with the release of Patch 11.2.
- Starting in Patch 11.2, the Keystone Deserter system will be active in Mythic+ content.
- When a dungeon isn’t going well, players will be able to initiate an abandon vote. If the group agrees, the run can end without any penalty to anyone’s rating.
- However, if a player leaves without a successful vote too frequently, they will be flagged as a frequent leaver in the Group Finder.
- This public mark will allow others to decide whether they want to group with the marked player before a Mythic+ run starts.
- Players can remove this mark through consistent good behavior by completing Keys properly and using the vote-to-leave system as intended.
What M+ leaver’s penalty looks like
It seems there are several warnings that will appear within the Mythic+ system if you leave without voting. These warnings highlight the consequences of leaving early or abandoning the dungeon without permission. Here are some of the key warnings:
- ERR_START_RESTRICTED_CHALLENGE_MODE: You have joined a Mythic+ instance. Leaving the instance before the timer ends, without voting to abandon the dungeon, will give you a penalty.
- LEAVER_PENALTY_WARNING_TIMER: You are not in your party’s active Mythic+ instance. You will receive a penalty in %d %s.
- CONFIRM_LEAVE_RESTRICTED_CHALLENGE_MODE: Leave Instance Group? Repeatedly leaving Mythic+ instances will cause you to be flagged as a Keystone Deserter.
- WARN_LEAVE_RESTRICTED_CHALLENGE_MODE: Penalty Timer. If you don’t return to the instance within the remaining time, you will be kicked from the instance group and receive a penalty for leaving. Time Remaining: %d sec.
How to abandon M+ dungeon without penalty
To leave a Mythic+ dungeon, players will need to initiate an /abandon vote. If the vote is unsuccessful, a cooldown will be imposed, limiting how frequently you can attempt the vote. Additionally, the keyholder’s vote will count more heavily, giving them greater influence over whether or not the dungeon is abandoned.
- SLASH_ABANDON1: /abandon
- SLASH_ABANDON2: /abandon
- VOTE_TO_ABANDON_VOTES_NEEDED: %d votes needed to abandon the instance.
- VOTE_TO_ABANDON_VOTES_NEEDED_KEYHOLDER: %d votes needed to abandon the instance. As the keyholder, your vote counts as %d.
Note
It appears that only the first leaver of the Mythic+ instance will be penalized. If another player leaves first, you will no longer be subjected to the penalty. In this case, the system will notify you with:
- VOTE_TO_ABANDON_PLAYER_LEFT: Another player has left the instance. You can now leave without a penalty.
Deserter badge
Once a player leaves too many Mythic+ instances, they will be flagged as a Keystone Deserter and receive a Deserter’s Badge. This badge will be visible in the Mythic+ group finder, letting other players know that there is at least one Keystone Deserter in the group. The flag will also affect any groups with players who have been marked as such.
- MYTHIC_PLUS_DESERTER_CONSEQUENCE: A Deserter’s Badge will be visible in Mythic+ group finder.
- MYTHIC_PLUS_DESERTER_GROUPS_AFFECTED: This will only affect Mythic+ groups.
- MYTHIC_PLUS_DESERTER_FLAGGED: You have been flagged as a Keystone Deserter by repeatedly leaving Mythic+ instances.
- MYTHIC_PLUS_DESERTER_FLAGGED_SHORT: You have been flagged as a Keystone Deserter.
- MYTHIC_PLUS_DESERTER_GROUP_WARNING: This group has one or more players that have been flagged as a Keystone Deserter.
- MYTHIC_PLUS_DESERTER: Keystone Deserter.
Devs commentary on M+ leavers problem in TWW Season 3
Here’s the full developer commentary on the new Mythic+ Deserter system, where a Blizzard representative discusses the system in more detail during the talk with Wowhead:
“Yeah, so I don’t have all the details. We’ll be sharing this as we go live with Ghosts of K’aresh through PTR, but we’re actually introducing a Keystone deserter system. Yeah, so the rough summary, and again there will be more details that come out as we progress through the PTR cycle, is you will need to put up an abandon vote essentially on a dungeon if things aren’t working well, and if the group agrees you disband – there’s no there’s no harm no foul to your rating or anything like that. If you are leaving keys too often in this first iteration, we’re not going to penalize you on an account level. You’ll just be marked as someone who leaves often; so in Group Finder, you’re going to see this player quits. That said, if you’re on good behavior and you’re finishing Keystones or using the abandoned system appropriately, you’ll lose that mark as well. First iteration, we’re going to take a bunch of feedback, but we do view this as a problem. We want to build a tool for players to agree that the key is over and punish players who suddenly vanish.
We’re going to roll it out carefully and make sure we get feedback along the way. So it’ll be iterated on.”
— WoW Lead Encounter Designer Drew De Sousa
Life under the new Keystone Deserter system
As we haven’t tested the new leaver system in practice yet, it’s hard to tell how effective it will be. A lot of its success will depend on how the system is tuned—how many times you can leave before being marked, how many completed runs are needed to clear your name, and so on.
Even without exact numbers, we can look at similar systems in other games. Based on that, it’s safe to assume that frequent leavers will start grouping together, since most players won’t want to team up with someone who’s marked. This will likely be more noticeable for DPS players: we expect them to have a rougher time if they leave parties frequently. Tanks and healers might have an easier time, as many groups will still be willing to take them even with the deserter mark just because there is no alternative.
Overall, the system sounds good on paper. Even if it doesn’t fully solve the leaver issue, it might still reduce the negative impact. On the flip side, it does create a kind of first- and second-class divide: labeling some players as “good” and others as “bad.” And in some cases, those marked players might just have an unstable internet connection or IRL situations that force them away from the keyboard.
Do you know who never leaves M+ runs and completes them at any difficulty with ease? Our Mythic Plus boosters. Check the link to learn more.
What are your thoughts on the new Mythic+ Deserter system? Have you ever left a Keystone run? Share your experience in the comments below!
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