Ever since the Dungeon Finder LFG Tool hit the PTR 3.3.0, this dilemma came into view in my mind. One player voiced his concern in a more crude way without actually explaining his reasons, or offering a constructive insight.

Sitting in Dalaran with that 15 min leaver debuff ain’t fun, after getting zoned into Occulus for your random instance (and within 5 next seconds pressing the leave button obviously). I’m sure the rest of the wow community agrees, that this failure of an instance is not a welcome sight on anyone’s loading screen.

Possible solutions:
-Remove Occulus from the random instance pool, so you’ll never end up there.
-Remove Occulus from the game.

Oculus is not fun NOBODY LIKES IT, OK

Removing Occulus from the game is not a logical suggestion, so let’s go into the part that suggests removing Occulus from the random instance pool that is the Dungeon Finder LFG Tool.

Last night, I used the tool to find a group for Occulus in specific. Personally, the only reason I have to go there is to complete two achievements that in months of trial and error, I haven’t been able to complete.

There were various players who would immediately abandon the dungeon when they randomly got sent there. So a shaman and I had to wait until three more people would make their minds to run Occulus in the queue. Obviously some people didn’t even want to waste their time. Have you seen the annoying “No more instances available” message pop again? All these players entering a random Occulus, and abandoning it might be in part responsible for the return of those dreadful messages.

The reason Occulus is not a healthy dungeon to be part of the random dungeon queue is that people are split in this unique dungeon which has 4 separate Achievements. So whenever someone pops into Occulus through the random dungeon queue, you have players who will run it just to:

  • 1. kill all bosses to gain money reward and emblems; or
  • 2. to complete the Make It Count achievement
  • 3. to complete the Ruby Void achievement
  • 4. to complete the Amber Void achievement
  • 5. to complete the Emerald Void achievement

There is a conflict of opposite interests whenever players pop into the Occulus through the random dungeon queue. Each player has a different reason to wish to run the dungeon, and not all players match each other’s wish. One player might need Ruby Void, another might need Amber Void, and another might need Emerald Void, and so on. A player might just want to run through the whole thing to get his money and emblem. People will rather leave the queue and do another dungeon because it requires a length of time to communicate and agree on which achievement to go for.

As an experiment, I queued to run Occulus in specific. Even when I need the Ruby Void and the Make it Count, I stayed silent to observe what players would do. I saw all the people abandon the dungeon at zone in. When the dungeon filled with 5 players who didn’t abandon, we started the dungeon. No one communicated on what they needed from there. I was the leader of the group, and just remained silent to determine what the group would suggest. Someone said: “Get three amber, one green and one red drake”. No one complained, no one made other suggestions, no one said “wait, I need X achievement”.

Did some people needed an achievement done, but decided to stay silent? Did they went through it because at this point, complaining and leaving the dungeon would mark them to not enter another queue for 15 minutes? That’s something I kept wondering, and it may require further analysis asking feedback from players. Either way, there is a dichotomy because this dungeon in specific has four achievements with different requirements. How can you find four people through the random dungeon queue who needs the same achievement as you? Why would you care spending your dungeon run lock to do someone else’s achievement when you need other one? There lies the dilemma.

Removing the Occulus from the random dungeon queue might not be a solution. There are players who would run it without any achievements just to get their emblems. The solution would be treating Occulus as a special and unique dungeon with a separate Dungeon Achievement LFG option with variables.

LFG Occulus: Make it Count
LFG Occulus: Ruby Void
LFG Occulus: Amber Void
LFG Occulus: Emerald Void
LFG Gun’drak: Share the Love
LFG Ahn’kahet: Volazj’s Quick Demise

And so on. That’s the smart-way to go about it without modifying the random dungeon tool. Simply create a achievement LFG tool for those who wish to do a specific achievement matching all the players who need that one from across all servers. You can provide Blizzard feedback about the Occulus and the random dungeon LFG tool here.