There will be a new patch going out on the server later today with the following changes:

When you fail a timer on a Shard Dungeon, the person who activated the dungeon will now immediately receive a shard for two less shard levels than the current attempt. So it is no longer necessary to actually finish the dungeon to receive the downgraded shard, but you still have to finish (even after the timer is up) if you want loot. Note that the downgraded shard is now two less levels, not three less levels, than the current attempt.

If you complete a Shard dungeon in less than 15 minutes, you will receive a shard upgraded by two shard levels rather than just one.

Monsters/bosses in Shard Dungeons will now drop their normal, non-equipment loot (such as dyes, fragments, etc.) while you are running the dungeon.

Our goal with these changes is to make it so that failing to complete a dungeon is not as severe of a punishment, and also to allow you to stay more around the “correct” level of challenge for your group, by not dropping you down as far, and also giving you a way to more quickly recover should you totally lose a shard for some reason.

These changes will probably go out in a few hours, I’ll update this post when it’s live. Thanks!