Keystone Deserters Are Real: Mythic+ Leaver System Fully Revealed in Patch 11.2

For years, Mythic+ players have begged Blizzard to deal with leavers. Now, thanks to this week’s Patch 11.2 PTR build, we finally know how the whole system works, and yes, you will be marked….

The new system adds a Keystone Deserter tag that shows up in the Group Finder. If you leave too many keys early, your name gets flagged and your group slots will carry the Deserter’s Badge tag.

Deserter’s Badge: How You Get It

If you’ve left too many keys, expect to see this message pop up:

You have been flagged as a Keystone Deserter by repeatedly leaving Mythic+ instances.

This is not just flavor text! When this happens, other players will get a warning in the group browser:

This group has one or more players that have been flagged as a Keystone Deserter.

This only appears to affect Mythic+ groups. Don’t worry, your raid won’t know about that Priory of the Sacred Flame run you’ve bailed last week, but randoms will!

MYTHIC_PLUS_DESERTER_GROUPS_AFFECTED: This will only affect Mythic+ groups.

Vote to Abandon: A Legit Way Out

Instead of ghosting your group after a wipe on the first boss, you can now vote to end the run clearly, and avoid the deserter mark, as indicated by the latest global strings:

VOTE_TO_ABANDON: Vote to Abandon
VOTE_TO_ABANDON_PROMPT: Abandon Instance?

If your team agrees, you’re in the clear, but if not, the Abandon Instance vote will be unsuccessful.

The vote requires a threshold:

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.

The keyholder’s vote has more weight too, possibly their vote will count as 2.

Who Actually Gets Penalized?

Only the first player to leave the instance before the vote passes or without returning in time gets flagged. Everyone else gets a pass:

VOTE_TO_ABANDON_PLAYER_LEFT: Another player has left the instance. You can now leave without a penalty.

The system will warn you before it hits:

LEAVER_PENALTY_WARNING_TIMER: You are not in your party’s active Mythic+ instance. You will receive a penalty in %d %s.

WARN_LEAVE_RESTRICTED_CHALLENGE_MODE: Penalty Timer |n|n|cffffd200If you don’t return… you will be kicked… and receive a penalty… |r