Evénements
Mythic+ Affixes (Season 2)
Welcome to The War Within (TWW), Season 2!
Read on for a summary of the important Mythic+ system changes in Season 2, info and tactics for the different Affixes, and some useful resources.
Table of Contents
Mythic+ System Overview
Keystones +4 to +11: “Kiss-curse” weekly affixes called Xal’atath’s Bargains award Xal’atath’s Gift buffs to either players or enemy mobs depending on how well they are managed. Players running keystones in this range will only face 1 of the 4 Bargains at a time each week.
Keystones +7 to +9: Fortified and Tyrannical alternate weekly.
Keystones +10 and up: Fortified and Tyrannical are both active on every keystone, forcing players to contend with difficult bosses and trash alike.
Keystones +12 and up: Xal’atath’s Guile replaces the Xal’atath’s Bargains and makes deaths more punishing in higher keystone levels by adding 15 seconds to the timer for every player death.
The new account-wide achievement The War Within Keystone Legend: Season Two is attained when you reach a Mythic+ Rating of at least 3000. From there, you can strive for Resilient Keystone achievements, which prevent players’ keystones from depleting below a certain level for the remainder of the season once they’ve timed all dungeons at a given keystone level. (For example, see Resilient Keystone 12.)
Keystones can still be lowered by speaking to Lindormi in Dornogal.
Level +4 to +11
Xal’atath’s Bargains
Ascendant
Every minute, Xal’atath summons a total of 10 Orbs of Ascendance that cast Cosmic Ascension. If the orbs complete their casts, enemy mobs will receive a 20% movement speed and Haste buff per orb/cast. If players stop the casts through interrupts, crowd control, displacement spells, or purges, the group instead receives Xal’atath’s Gift, a 2% movement speed and Haste buff per orb/cast stopped – netting players a maximum of +20% movement speed and Haste for 30 seconds.
TACTICS:
Prior to starting the key, each group member should check their talents to ensure they have as many stops, interrupts, or offensive dispels as needed to handle the Orbs of Ascendance. Be aware that the orbs do have a significant absorb shield, so simply killing them is out of the question. As this affix is spawned in waves of 3, then 3, then finally 4 orbs, organized groups may prefer to determine which members will be handling each wave to ensure maximum coverage for the duration of the affix.
Voidbound
When the group is in combat, Xal’atath periodically summons a Void Emissary who will immediately begin to empower nearby enemy mobs with Dark Prayer. Each successful Dark Prayer cast will grant the surrounding enemies stacking damage reduction. Upon defeating the Void Emissary, players will gain Xal’atath’s Gift, granting them 20% Versatility and 30% spell and ability cooldown rate for 30 sec.
TACTICS:
When a Void Emissary spawns, players should swap to it as a priority target and DPS it down while stopping each cast of Dark Prayer. The Xal’atath’s Gift buff on enemy mobs can quickly stack and become unmanageable, so it is imperative that the Void Emissary is locked down and killed.
Pulsar
While in combat, Xal’atath summons pulsars that orbit players. After 15 sec the void pulsar releases its energy to grant creatures Xal'atath's Gift, increasing damage done by 10% and reducing damage taken by 20% for 20 sec. This effect stacks. Players that come into contact with a void pulsar empowers the party, granting them 4% Mastery and 2% Leech for 30 sec. This effect stacks.
TACTICS:
Pulsar is the replacement for Xal’atath’s Bargain: Oblivion from Season 1. This is good news since Oblivion had several bugs, and Pulsar is simple to manage since there is a whopping 15-sec window for players to drag their orb over a friendly player to buff the party. Players can even stack in ranged or melee clusters respectively so that making contact with an orb is swift for everyone involved.
Take a look at the new Pulsar affix on Dorki’s stream below:
Devour
Xal’atath periodically casts a Devouring Rift healing absorb on each group member, persisting for 15 seconds; if it is not removed (via dispelling or healing) before the duration expires, the shield will explode, granting nearby creatures Xal’atath’s Gift, increasing their damage done by 10% and reducing their damage taken by 20% for 20 sec. This effect stacks. If the Devouring Rift absorb shield is removed before expiration, players will gain Xal’atath’s Gift, which grants 4% Critical strike chance and 2% increased maximum health for 30 sec. This effect stacks.
TACTICS:
This affix is essentially just another version of Afflicted, but on players instead of mobs. Any form of dispel works on the Devouring Rift debuff, including abilities like Cloak of Shadows and Stoneform. Removing each debuff is of utmost importance for the group, as allowing it to expire on a large pack of mobs or a boss can have dire consequences for your timer. Players who can remove their own debuffs are absolutely encouraged to do so, and most regular dispels (such as a Poison Dispel or Curse Dispel) can be used twice before the debuff expires if players are quick enough to react!
» USEFUL RESOURCES
To keep track of the Xal’atath’s Bargains before they trigger and after they apply buffs to players or enemies, there are many great WeakAuras packages available that include alerts for important mechanics on trash and bosses as well. We highly recommend Causese’s TWW Dungeons WeakAura pack, which can be found here.
For tips and routes to tackle the new affixes with ease, The Weekly Route series will be coming back on Tuesday – bookmark the page to stay in the loop!
Level +7 and Up
Enemy Empowerments
TACTICS:
Fortified empowers the trash mobs throughout the dungeon to have more health and do more damage.
When playing +7 to +9 keys during a Fortified week, players are encouraged to build a group composition and talents that favor AOE damage output and crowd control (CC). However, remember that empowered trash mobs also mean that single-target damage output is valuable for certain trash mobs with higher health pools and dangerous abilities, as well as bosses.
If you’re aiming to optimize around Fortified, some groups line up Bloodlusts on the most challenging trash pulls rather than bosses. However, it is sometimes worth saving Bloodlust for the hardest bosses in each dungeon – even on Fortified weeks – just depending on the difficulty of that boss amongst other possible factors.
TACTICS:
Unlike Fortified, which empowers trash mobs, Tyrannical modifies the difficulty of boss encounters, increasing each boss’s health pool and the damage dealt to players.
Saving cooldowns for bosses, especially the most difficult ones, is vital for success on Tyrannical weeks for keystones +7 to +9.
It can also be helpful to adjust your talent and/or gear setup to be more focused on single-target damage when optimizing for Tyrannical. However, keep in mind that you will need to kill the trash quickly in order to time higher level keystones, and the extra time you are forced to spend on bosses on Tyrannical weeks may force you to pull more trash at once throughout the rest of the dungeon to save time. Finding a balance between single-target and AOE damage is just as important for Tyrannical as it is for Fortified.
» USEFUL RESOURCES
Since every week alternates between Fortified and Tyrannical for keystone levels +7 to +9, and both become active on keystones +10 and up, we recommend using Mythic+ Heatmaps to see where most players are using Bloodlust at various keystone levels each week. You can even filter Heatmaps by specific group compositions for a closer match to the classes you are working with!
With both Fortified and Tyrannical active simultaneously during keystones levels +10 and up, Bloodlust timings can be more dependent on your specific group composition than ever. Each class has a different damage profile, meaning that some classes/specs do more sustained damage vs. burst damage, some do more single-target vs. AOE damage, and some do more single-target based upon how many mobs are present in a pull (funnel damage). Running Patchwerk sims of your character via Raidbots for both single-target encounters and multiple targets for AOE can help you understand how to adjust your gear for Tyrannical vs. Fortified weeks (or both active) since the balance may shift in favor of single-target output depending on the needs of your group composition or keystone level.
One of the simplest ways you can do this is to run 2 separate Sims with “Top Gear” to assess whether your gear and talents are suitable for AoE or single-target damage. For example, you can run a Patchwerk sim for 1 boss, 4 minutes. Then, you can open another tab and sim on Patchwerk for 5 (or more) targets for 1 minute. Although you will want to adjust these numbers based on what level keys you are doing or how many mobs may be in each pull, this can be a helpful starting point towards understanding whether your gear and talents are set up well for running Mythic+ on a Fortified week to do more AOE damage.
Level +12 and Up
Timer Penalties for Deaths
Xal’atath’s Guile
Xal'atath betrays players, revoking her bargains and increasing the dungeon timer by 90 seconds, but dying subtracts 15 seconds from time remaining.
TACTICS:
Xal’atath’s Guile is what Challenger’s Peril was in Season 1…just don’t die! Seriously though – from keystone levels +12 onwards, you must be more mindful of your character’s health. Do not rely on your healer to save you – use defensives during periods of large incoming damage or when you are targeted by certain spells. Play safer and cleaner, and your party (and dungeon timer) will thank you!
Use keystone levels +10 to +11 to practice what it feels like to have both bosses and trash mobs empowered by Tyrannical and Fortified to get a hang of when to line up your cooldowns and Blooodlust timings while playing cleanly to avoid deaths. It will require practice, finesse, and some analysis on how to push towards the top 0.1% of the player base.
» USEFUL RESOURCES
- The Weekly Route Series is our weekly digest where you can import routes of all different keystone levels directly into your game via MDT.
- Within the Raider.IO AddOn in-game, enable Mythic+ Replays to see an overlay of your current dungeon run against past runs. If you’re struggling to live through each dungeon and want to see if you’re making improvements, the Mythic+ Replay System is the easiest way to see that improvement in real-time.
- Use the new Mythic+ Heatmaps to look at common cooldown timings, pulls, and pain points in each dungeon.
- Looking for a tried-and-true route more specific to your unique group composition? The Auto Route Creator lets you generate routes of any completed dungeon on our site that was Live-Tracked...including runs on the Leaderboard, and leverage the power of Keystone.Guru to make any adjustments!
- The GTFO AddOn will sound a buzzer (or whatever sound you’d prefer) when you take avoidable damage. Those who love to layer their gameplay experience with sound notifications will love this addition to their UI.
- OmniCD is a fantastic AddOn that allows you to customize which cooldowns you see of your teammates and your own abilities if desired. Tracking your team’s interrupts or other utility spells is a great way to know if you’re going to have to use a defensive or not…like when your teammates overlap kicks and a big cast is coming up that may not get stopped in time!
Links
Follow The Weekly Route Series
Download the Raider.IO Client
Set up Raider.IO Discord Alerts
Join Raider.IO on Discord
Follow Raider.IO on Twitter
About the Authors
VitaminP (VP) is the Content Manager of Raider.IO. VP holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and has worked for Raider.IO since the formation of its News Section in November 2018. VP specializes in tanking classes and has loved doing competitive Mythic+ on and off since early Legion.
Gogogadgetkat has been playing WoW since late BC, and has been the GM of her guild Propaganda since its creation in 2014. As a career healer, Kat has a number of CEs and old-school heroic kills under her belt, all on a variety of healing classes and specs—she’s a serial altoholic! In addition to Mythic raiding and a little Mythic+, creating safe, inclusive spaces in gaming is her longtime passion; Kat has been an admin for the Perky Pugs community since late BfA, and is also a founding council member and the community manager for the DEIBAJ initiative VISAGE. She is excited to bring her wealth of experience and love of writing to the Raider.IO team.
Seliathan has been playing Rogue for over half his life, since the initial release of WoW over 19 years ago. After a long career of Raid Leading, Theorycrafting, and pushing Mythic+, Seliathan enjoys creating all kinds of PvE content on Twitch, co-hosting the Tricks of the Trade Rogue podcast, contributing to Raider.IO as Staff Writer, and writing guides for Icy Veins.
