Ways they could make the MDI more interesting.

[Kikazz]

The main one I can think of is allow bans.

Like a team can just straight up nix an entire class for the opposing team. These bans would also happen after the team comps are chosen and after the ban each team gets 5 minutes to replace the banned class - all other remaining classes and specs chosen would remain the same.

Figure the start of the match each team gets 1 ban, after the first match the losing team gets an additional ban, if there's a third match then again the losing team gets a ban so by the end 4 different classes would be banned. Two from each team.

I'm not sure how much it would shake up the meta, I can really see a lot of teams going for Vengeance DH tank bans, but I think it would be fun and show more variety at the highest level.

wouldnt work, as the groups always mostly hinge there entire runs on one class, and they wouldnt pick the class their run is hinged on, just for this reason, to swap to the class their run hinges on.

[Gaidax]

Spec diversity for one, for sure.

Seeing all these mirror teams of same old specs duke it out got old very fast.

[klaps_05]

i dont think in any other esport players whine because they have to practice a lot of heroes/maps/loadouts/etc, only in MDI.

[Kokolums]

I mean I don't even enjoy M+ as time attack is completely antisocial. I want to be able to relax, chat and have fun. This gogogo mentality where all the focus is on being efficient and leave the fun at the door isn't why I play WoW. I have no interest in watching it.

My first thought on how to make it interesting is junk the idea of smooth, corporate play-by-play. Have the play-by-play done by the rival teams. Team x is running, team y is watching and making comments on how they are doing. That could get pretty spicy and generate interest. That would get a lot of people talking and interest in the MDI would probably go thru the roof. Blizzard would also likely be absolutely terrified of the idea because its a loss of control.

[arr0gance]

i dont think in any other esport players whine because they have to practice a lot of heroes/maps/loadouts/etc, only in MDI.

Yeah fuck these entitled MDI players who want to get paid more than the literal minimum wage for the time they put into the game.

100% take, dude.

[gallamann]

Why would Blizzard change anything, it's working perfectly for their purposes. PR

[Bigbazz]

Randomising classes might sound good for you as an outsider but would be hell for the players. Like I'm not gonna be competing in any MDI competitions, but I play Warrior better than I play any other class, I play some specs pretty decently and some other specs I can't play very well at all. I'm sure the top players can multi-class pretty well but even at the world first mythic raiding level you hear talk about how most players are still better with their mains, or how some of the worlds best players only play one class.

So with that said I don't think it's a good idea. The MDI isn't that interesting because only a tiny percentage of players care about high M+ keys, even if you could fix the class representation that isn't gonna change. Also, the MDI isn't even demonstrating the highest keys and you can go to twitch right now and find top M+ players who don't even play in the MDI doing higher keys. I watched someone a few days ago time a Plaguefall 26.

[Electric Lighter]

WoW is both to slow and complex to be an interesting e sport,

People want to see flashy moves and things that can be easily understood its why LoL and counterstrike do so well.

Trying to make wow into a esport is folly by design.

[kamuimac]

random pick for classes/specs

then this game would be interesting finally

and maybe devs then would put any effort into tuning of classes

[Shelly]

wouldnt work, as the groups always mostly hinge there entire runs on one class, and they wouldnt pick the class their run is hinged on, just for this reason, to swap to the class their run hinges on.

You really don't think that group 1 would ban mages from group 2, but in retaliation group 2 would ban group 1's vengeance DH?

Yes, the groups and pulls are built very tightly around specific comps. That's the whole point of having a ban. Being able to shake things up on the other team and see how they handle it.

Basically the point is to treat the MDI as a separate eSport rather than just look at the best M+ players.

And a huge part of any sport is playing the event as well as the game. There needs to be a meta to the MDI outside of the creation of the M+ meta. That includes things like finding ways to screw over your opponent. Having bans similar to LCS or any other number of MOBA and FPS/Hero Shooter leagues and tournaments would be a good start to creating that separate culture.

Other arguments: "They'd have to learn how to run the dungeon on X-other class!"

They already know how to run the dungeon on other classes and play those classes extremely well. For many of the players too the class they are playing in the MDI isn't even their main as they pull so many players from high end raiding guilds.

"People that watch it are only those that push high keys."

This is also false. The MDI is actually pretty interesting for anyone that plays WoW. You pick up tons of tricks and strats just from seeing how certain pulls and actions are done. The casters cover a lot about how certain mobs behave and why to kick, skip or purge some of them. If you're interested in improving your overall performance the MDI is a great tutorial.

- - - Updated - - -

WoW is both to slow and complex to be an interesting e sport,

People want to see flashy moves and things that can be easily understood its why LoL and counterstrike do so well.

Trying to make wow into a esport is folly by design.

This is honestly a caster issue more than anything else. If the casters could give play by play similar to a soccer or baseball game then it would improve things dramatically.

[Baconeggcheese]

I think bans would be great, same goes for AWC.

I find MDI incredibly boring to watch, but AWC was pretty entertaining when I watched games that included off meta specs like prot pally healer or mistweaver. But then it goes back to really boring hpal + fmage + arms games.

Would be fun to see like a reverse meta for the games. All the least represented specs going head to head.

[Bibarel]

Main issue is that MDI has nothing to do with keys on live servers. We fairly slowly push keys that are hard for us in 30-40 min runs, while these are 10-15 min speed runs we'll never see on live servers.
I think bans, non-meta classes and other restrictions are not good at all, since they will make lives of players even more miserable and will not do much for the viewers, as less efficient specs will make the pulls less spectacular. This is not a MOba where you have balanced field of heroes and very few maps, Wow classes are way more complex and none of them are tuned for speed running dungeons.
The best way is to keep it as is, but do only one qualification tourney and one finals tourney for each season, so that new affixes and class changes will help to keep it fresh.
Multiple weekly tournaments with slowly evolving comps are boring for viewers and require huge time commitment from the players.

[Chilela]

I'm just gonna go with banning the most prevalent high-end RIO specs outright. So at this moment, the following would be disallowed:

Tanks:
-VDH

Healers:
-Hpal
-Rsham

Melee DPS:
-Outlaw Rogue
-WW Monk
-Fury Warrior
Maybe UHDK and Havoc as well. Heck, maybe even Fury falls into "Maybe" here. There's a much smaller gap in Melee DPS representation than any other role.

Ranged DPS:
-MM Hunter
-Fire Mage
-Balance Druid

Seeing non-meta specs played at high levels might encourage the playerbase to branch out a bit more.

[Tyris Flare]

Yeah fuck these entitled MDI players who want to get paid more than the literal minimum wage for the time they put into the game.

100% take, dude.

I mean, if they don't someone else will. They aren't actually Blizzard employees the company needs to care about. They are streamers, of which there are many.

Also, glancing at the MDI the other day it had 11k viewers at one point. That is pathetic. There is no way Blizzard is happy about that.

MDI was by far the most entertaining to watch when it was amateur hour during Legion imo. Way more comps and crazy stuff.

[arr0gance]

Also, glancing at the MDI the other day it had 11k viewers at one point. That is pathetic. There is no way Blizzard is happy about that.

This has been the average viewership in the MDI for the last 3 expansions. For something that "there is no way Blizzard is happy about" they sure as fuck aren't in a hurry to change much of anything.

[VinceVega]

I think the only way would be random comps. Both teams get a random group of locked in specs. 1 tank 1 heal 3 dd. Both the same of course.

But in the end i don't hink MDI will ever be interesting.

PvP has the human component which makes every game different. MDI you just play against the exact same stuff over and over and over again. Nothing changes. Ever. Affixes are not even really noticed in MDI. Becuase they don't really change much more than making the healer suffer.

[Azerate]

I have no idea how to make mdi less boring to be honest.

But I don't think "bans" and "randomized teams" are the answers though. If you do that, you basically force the people competing to be great players of every single class and to practice those dungeons on every possible class. MDI is already barely worth it as an esport to people taking part in it. If those things happened, no one would participate in it anymore.

It needs a much fresher idea I think. Something to change the whole gameplay and do so in every match as well

[arr0gance]

I have no idea how to make mdi less boring to be honest.

But I don't think "bans" and "randomized teams" are the answers though. If you do that, you basically force the people competing to be great players of every single class and to practice those dungeons on every possible class. MDI is already barely worth it as an esport to people taking part in it. If those things happened, no one would participate in it anymore.

It needs a much fresher idea I think. Something to change the whole gameplay and do so in every match as well

You know, I've been thinking about it. People would still participate in the MDI even if there were bans. It just wouldn't be the current MDI teams because most of them would quit. It'd likely be random pick-up groups that sign up last minute and go in blind with zero practice (because why would you?) just for a chance at the prize pool. And the dungeons themselves would be 100+ death runs that would be an absolute embarrassment to watch. But hey, the viewers got what they wanted: A donkey show for every dungeon.

[Tyris Flare]

thousands and thousands of players can complete 18s with premade gear, these aren't difficult dungeons. They would just be slower and more amateurish.

Maybe that's better? College sports are incredibly popular even if the players are shit compared to the pros.

[StillMcfuu]

Multiple ideas to make MDI better:
- Each match takes place in the same dungeon over 3 rounds (this way the crowd sees and recognized mobs/bosses and will get a better understanding of the mechanics involved)
- Each round requires a new comp. Everyone needs to switch class (no you can't just run the same comp with players swapping to the specs others were using). This will put pressure on strategy. If PvP players know every classes abilities and how they interact with their class, there is no reason players can't learn multiple specs and how they interact with a dungeon.
- Redesign dungeons.... Seriously dungeon design is god awful since M+ took off. Too many attempts to create skips, dungeons should have 1 skip thats high risk or an alternate route. Dungeons should be straight forward actual dungeon environments, not open areas that are just open world instances.