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The Deserter Debuff is a good thing
We talked yesterday about dungeons. Today, while crawling the blue tweets, I came upon this exchange between community manager Lore and a player who doesn't like the deserter debuff. Only Lore's side of the twitter exchange remains, for whatever reason, but it's worth reading. The disparity between tank/healer and DPS queues for heroics has always been there, and it's likely going to remain for the future. It's simply a matter of math - for every tank and healer in a dungeon, you need three DPS, but the actual number of DPS per tank and healer is much closer to what we see in LFR. And even LFR doesn't pop instantly or even close to it. But the deserter debuff isn't just implemented to control tanks and healers and keep them from dropping group at the first sign of trouble, knowing they'll immediately get a new one. It also exists to try and curb the mentality that any perceived or real failure is immediately grounds for bad behavior - because dungeons are and are supposed to be a group activity, and using the dungeon finder is essentially partaking in a social matchmaking system that breaks down is such behavior isn't penalized in some fashion. The deserter debuff exists not necessarily to punish, but rather to serve as an incentive - it is as much carrot as it is stick.
Deserter debuff changes for Random and Rated PvP
PvP has long has the Deserter debuff, which means that there's a cost to simply dropping a game rather than taking the loss. However, that system is being changed in terms of how it functions in rated PvP like Arenas and rated battlegrounds. For starters, it's being applied to said rated PvP. In addition to now getting the Deserter debuff for rated PvP, how it works for random BG's will also be changing. Lore - Upcoming Deserter Hotfixes for Rated PvP As part of our continued efforts to curb exploitive behavior and improve the overall PvP experience for our players, we're applying a couple hotfixes that will make a few changes to how the Deserter debuff functions, and also apply it to Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds. Once these hotfixes are applied, a player who leaves an Arena or Rated Battleground before anyone in the match has entered combat will, at first, be given a 5-minute Deserter debuff. If they leave another match prematurely within a 20-minute window, the duration of the Deserter debuff will increase by 5 minutes each time (and the 20-minute window will restart), to a maximum of 20 minutes. The debuff will also apply if a player leaves the queue (or ignores it) once the match is ready and they're given the prompt to enter. The Deserter debuff given for leaving a Random Battleground early will also be changed to begin at 5 minutes (and increase by 5 minutes for each subsequent desertion), but otherwise the rules will stay the same. Leaving a Random Battleground in progress at any point before it's finished will give the Deserter debuff, and leaving or ignoring the prompt to enter a Random Battleground will not. We're currently in the process of preparing and testing the hotfix, but hope to push it live with this week's maintenance period. source The change seems aimed at allowing players who just drop occasionally to get back into PvP relatively quickly, while becoming more onerous if you're a serial dropper. Rated PvP will also get the debuff if they queue but don't accept the queue, while randoms will not, which seems reasonable to me.
Breakfast Topic: Dodging guilt
I'm hardly a PvP fanatic. Occasionally I'll run into a battleground when I have extra time on my hands, usually after getting my two frost emblems for the day and wrapping up some daily quests. But often, I'll duck into a battleground and realize that there is no way we'll win; commonly, this is either Eye of the Storm or Isle of Conquest. There's no cooperation, one-quarter of the Alliance is doing just enough to avoid an AFK report, and the Horde seems to run with a Navy SEALS level of coordination. It would be perfectly justifiable to drop out and go do a few quick daily quests while I wait for the deserter debuff to go away. My mouse hovers over the "leave battleground" button. I want to click it. I don't. There's something about the Deserter debuff that just gets under my skin. I can't help but picture someone clicking my 'toon and seeing "Deserter" attached to my name. They think, "Well, now, that there's a coward!" Inside, I know that it's just as reasonable as dropping from a bad dungeon PUG (even more so, if I drop from a turtled AV). But then I think, "I'd be a deserter." I'd end up spending the next 15 minutes wandering around Netherstorm or Silithus, keeping clear of other players, contemplating rolling a warlock and other self-hating activities. So I stay and rack up another "L" on my personal record. But it brings up the question: what do you put yourself through to avoid guilt in World of WarCraft? This article has been brought to you by Seed, Aol's guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Watch for the next call for submissions and a chance to submit your own article. The next new byline you see here may be yours!
