Tanks, Healers and the Abandon System in LFG - Midnight Group Interviews

Posted 2025/10/10 at 11:23 AM by Squishei

Tanks and Healer Population in LFG

Ion Hazzikostas

Are there any planned class or reward designed goals to try to get more players playing non-DPS roles in order to facilitate pickup group queues?

That's a great question. It's something we spend a lot of time thinking about. I think that specifically for Mythic Plus, the burden of information on Tanks is not lost on us. It's not just about your ability to play your spec well and to push your buttons; it's about knowing the route and having memorized the skips that the community prefers and what other people are expecting to see, how you maximize your enemy forces and so forth, and that can feel very daunting. The amount of information we're giving players in Mythic+ and how we can ease that burden logistically; that's something that we talk a lot about. We don't have a silver bullet that we're ready to roll out right at launch at Midnight, but we know that I think for Tanks in particular, that's a major concern. And I think for healers, part of it, I think part of the goals of our general approachability improvements when it comes to how much information you have to manage, honestly, a lot of the, a lot of the time right now, there is so much thrown at you to multitask that add-ons feel necessary to manage and to surface the most pressing things that you need to react to, particularly if you're a healer trying to watch out for the entire group. You need to be aware of when every mechanic is coming up that might cause burst damage, you might need to pre-shield, pre-hot, all of that stuff. we think that by disarming what add-ons are capable of doing and adjusting some of our encounter tuning to suit, I think again, as I said, we want to keep the same overall level of difficulty, but I think that can make the experience more approachable, just in terms of a couple of fewer things going on at the same time, that hopefully, for those who just get stressed out at the pressure that comes with having the survival of a group depending on you, it can make it just more manageable and create a smoother on-ramp there. But we understand, for as long as the game has existed there has been an imbalance between roles. It's something we want to chip away at. It's also something that is a major problem seen across nearly all games. More people want to blast than want to want to tank or want to play support, but continuing to work on what we can do.Abandon SystemIcy Veins has reported

Blizzard via Icy Veins

The team is overall happy with the abandon system in Mythic+. Toxic cases make up under 1% of runs. Reporting categories have been improved.

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Comment by Neechee82I have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...Comment by LeiyanDoes this first line have an error? It seems contradictory.

"In a group interview with Ion Hazzikostas, Blizzard was asked about the current lack of DPS in the group finder and if there any plans to incentivize players to play non-DPS roles. "Comment by SiriI'm happy too about the vote to leave etc...
But would love players to end more key for vaults or crest, idk. But that's another topic.

However, would be nice that the "disconnect" or "afk" thing to avoid the leave penalty gets fixed. These guys need to be punished ingame.Comment by SiriI have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...Comment by aaron000I've personally noticed a LOT less quitters in keys since the abandon system. So that's a win in my bookComment by UwuusenpaiBlizzard has done very well to remove the combat addons from the game, and I am excited to see a version of M+ where they won't be a part of the game. Hopefully Blizzard goes as far as possible to remove all combat addons from the game.Comment by UwuusenpaiI have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...Comment by Zaharialon god if they want tanks to do more m+ they need to put a route builder in game like mythic dungeon tools, add in the option to select from the most popular routes and make it literally highlight on screen each next pack. basically make the pack glow or put a bouncing arrow over the pack or what ever.

i play at a 3k level, its basically the same route with minor variations every time, so i dont think the barrier to entry for tanking should be pathing. especially when routes are already accessible and used by much of the community

maybe add in a par timer that shows how fast youre pulling packs vs the average group and the fastest group. since a lot of new tanks struggle with pull pacing.Comment by thirty8overheadRemove tanks from that question/answer and the whole thing applies to healers in pvp too. Blizzard is not great at incentivizing people to play non-dps roles.Comment by apedosmilI have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...Comment by DenlysI've personally noticed a LOT less quitters in keys since the abandon system. So that's a win in my bookComment by ZandI have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...Comment by Melkkon god if they want tanks to do more m+ they need to put a route builder in game like mythic dungeon tools, add in the option to select from the most popular routes and make it literally highlight on screen each next pack. basically make the pack glow or put a bouncing arrow over the pack or what ever.

i play at a 3k level, its basically the same route with minor variations every time, so i dont think the barrier to entry for tanking should be pathing. especially when routes are already accessible and used by much of the community

maybe add in a par timer that shows how fast youre pulling packs vs the average group and the fastest group. since a lot of new tanks struggle with pull pacing.Comment by YaypandaslolI have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...Comment by ZaharialI have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...Comment by DpsgnomeActually, LFG is really toxic and Blizzard is turning its back on it, to cater to the Mythic plus runners. They are very bad in the toxicity. Name-calling to the extreme, they kick you even if you disagree one time. They will belittle everyone with a blink of an eye. They over pull, pull way too fast that a healer is still running behind. It is not fun to do mythics anymore. Not until Blizzard actually puts tanking back to before Battle For Azeroth. Healers have to deal with all group failures and it is up to them to keep them alive, do mechanics and other stuff. They miss one heal, one mechanic, anyone dies... They are screamed at, cursed at & even kicked. People are rude in LFG, and Blizzard will never change anything at all.Comment by BigBadDadLet tanks blast!Comment by nicmercyMy main is a Mage. It has been a Mage since 2004. It will always be my main. If Mages ever get a healing spec in retail, then I will be a healer going forward. If you want more healers (and tanks), give Mages, Warlocks, Rogues, and Hunters a new spec that can fulfill the healing or tanking role. Personally, I'd say give Mages (Chronomancy) and Warlocks (Soul Channeling) a healing spec, and Hunters (Guardian) and Rogues (Fencer) a tanking spec. Blizzard could also give Shaman's a tanking spec as a callback to their vanilla days when they sort of had talents to make them tank-ish.Comment by flickamadon god if they want tanks to do more m+ they need to put a route builder in game like mythic dungeon tools, add in the option to select from the most popular routes and make it literally highlight on screen each next pack. basically make the pack glow or put a bouncing arrow over the pack or what ever.

i play at a 3k level, its basically the same route with minor variations every time, so i dont think the barrier to entry for tanking should be pathing. especially when routes are already accessible and used by much of the community

maybe add in a par timer that shows how fast youre pulling packs vs the average group and the fastest group. since a lot of new tanks struggle with pull pacing.Comment by theiggiesI have a simple solution, Ion... Don't disable the healer addons, otherwise there will soon be even fewer healers...

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