Mythic+ 101: What is Mythic Plus and Why Should YOU Do it?

By Seliathan, VitaminP, MarianasTrench — Jul 30 2023 06:03 UTC

Welcome to Mythic+ 101! This educational series aims to provide new players with the foundation they need to get started in Mythic+. In collaboration with the Mythic Plus Friends Discord, we have compiled an array of 101 content series of articles and information to help you on your journey to the vast content and progression system of Mythic+.

Mythic+ is a system that was introduced during World of Warcraft: Legion. Mythic+ was born through merging Challenge Mode Dungeons, which were introduced in Mists of Pandaria, combined with a similar scaling difficulty system of games like Diablo 3. The result was a PvE progression system that players dubbed “Mythic Plus”, “Mythic+”, or sometimes just “M+”. Mythic+ is arguably one of the biggest additions to the game in the last decade, and its popularity seems to know no limit.

This article lays the foundation for our Mythic+ 101 series, detailing the different reasons to engage with Mythic+. There is something here for everybody, so, without further ado, what is Mythic+ and why should YOU do it?

What is Mythic+?
Five Reasons to Run Mythic+

Gear Up Your Characters

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What is Mythic+?

Before we delve into the “why”, here is a quick summary of “what” Mythic+ actually is. In order to start a Mythic+ dungeon, you will need a Mythic Keystone. You can receive a Mythic Keystone by either completing a Mythic+ dungeon with the keystone of another player, or by running any current Mythic dungeon, commonly referred to as Mythic 0 or M0. Within each Mythic dungeon, you will find a Font of Power, which will use your Mythic Keystone to start a Mythic+ version of this dungeon.

A Mythic+ dungeon differs from a regular Mythic dungeon in three primary ways:

Objectives: Each dungeon has two main objectives. You will need to kill all the bosses in each dungeon, and you are required to kill a certain number of “Enemy Forces”, which refers to non-boss enemies within the dungeon. Each different dungeon has their own amount of trash mobs that need to be killed. Once you finish both objectives, the M+ Keystone is considered completed.

Time Limit: The dungeon is given a time limit. Completing both objectives of the dungeon within this time limit will reward you with a higher level keystone than the one you used to start the dungeon. If you complete the objectives after the timer runs out, your keystone will “deplete”, meaning it will go down one level instead.

Challenge: The dungeon is given one or more modifiers, or “Affixes”, that affect multiple aspects of the dungeon. Also, all enemies within the dungeon will receive a significant increase to their health and damage, which scales exponentially with the level of your Keystone.

In Mythic+ dungeons, enemies no longer drop loot themselves. You will instead receive your rewards (if you’re lucky!) from a chest that spawns after you successfully complete the dungeon. Both the item level and the number of items that your group will receive increase as you tackle higher level M+ Keystones.

Five Reasons to Run Mythic+

1. GEAR UP YOUR CHARACTER

Mythic+ offers a great way to gear up your characters. Loot quality and quantity scale with the Mythic Keystone level used for your Mythic+ run.

Since Mythic+ can be run ad infinitum, with no weekly lockouts barring you from acquiring more gear, it is one of the best ways to raise your item level within the game. In addition to providing a chance at receiving loot immediately upon finishing a dungeon, you will also be able work towards filling out your weekly guaranteed loot options from the Great Vault system, introduced in the Shadowlands expansion. You can find your Great Vault in Valdrakken.

The Great Vault system allows you to select one piece of loot from up to nine different choices, up to three each from your Raiding, Mythic+ and PvP activities. Your Mythic+ Great Vault choices depend on the level and number of keys you have completed in any given week. Higher level dungeons will offer higher item level loot, and completing more dungeons will increase the amount of pieces you get to choose from. The Great Vault system is a great way to help mitigate some of the randomness of loot, and Mythic+ Great Vault selections can potentially be at a higher item level than what the keystone dungeons normally drop.

Mythic+ is also a great way of acquiring Flightstones and Crests, the currencies that are required to upgrade any piece of current-season equipment to a higher item level. While many sources of Flightstones and Crests have a weekly or daily lockout, Mythic+ has no such restrictions, and is often the best way to quickly acquire the currencies you are still missing.

2. IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS

To be successful in Mythic+, you will need to develop a solid understanding of each dungeon, specifically its bosses and trash mobs, in order to be able to react on-the-fly to unexpected situations. As you run higher and higher Keystone levels, coordinating and strategizing with your fellow party members will be critical to succeeding in timing your key. Some of the most important things to think about in Mythic+ are:

Which enemies and abilities are dangerous, and why?
Which abilities must be interrupted, and which casts can you let through?
Which enemies can be crowd controlled (CC’d), and what forms of CC work on them?

You will want to be able to do all of these things as you maintain your best possible damage and healing output, while avoiding dangerous mechanics that cannot be stopped by crowd-controlling enemies. Honing these skills will also help you in PvP, Raiding, and even general questing!

3. CHALLENGE YOURSELF

While everyone enjoys receiving great pieces of loot, the thrill of pushing a Keystone as high as possible can be its own reward. Most aspects of World of Warcraft have a set difficulty cap, and overcoming it will provide you with a unique experience and sense of achievement. But as Mythic+ difficulty scales higher and higher with each additional Keystone level, your sense of accomplishment is only limited by how high you can push your Keystone level. This allows players of every skill level to have a way to continuously challenge themselves, even when all other forms of content have been “beaten” already.

You can compare your Mythic+ progression ranking for your class against other players on your realm, your region, or even the entire world using the Raider.IO Mythic+ leaderboards.

In addition to the dungeon’s difficulty increasing exponentially with Mythic Keystone level, each week there are a new set of Affixes that affect a variety of aspects of all Mythic+ dungeons. These Affixes force you to alter your approach to each dungeon, often requiring you to change your approach to individual bosses or trash-pulls, as well as the route and pathing you take through through a dungeon. Tune in each week to the RaiderIO Weekly Route written by Bunten and Play Like the Pros written by Biggerfish to learn some suggested dungeon routes for each week’s affix combinations, for beginners and aspiring professionals alike!

Tip: Raider.IO also provides a Weekly Affixes Discord Alert that can notify you of the week’s new affixes as soon as they change!

4. MAKING FRIENDS

Mythic+ offers a great opportunity to find lasting friends who enjoy running M+ dungeons with you together. Efficient and strategic gameplay is essential to being successful in Mythic+ and as you run more Mythic+ dungeons, you will meet many players you enjoy playing with. We highly recommend adding any such players to your friends list, so you can build a network of players to run dungeons with, as well as build new friendships outside of the game as well!

In addition, there are several Discord servers, like Mythic Plus Friends, that provide ways to find similarly experienced players to run dungeons with. Playing with friends will make for even more exciting accomplishments as you conquer a new best keystone level together!

5. JOIN THE “CULT”

Mythic+ has gained enormous traction in World of Warcraft with hordes of enthusiastic key pushers all across the globe constantly comparing and challenging each other to new heights. With Raider.IO’s integration features, you can connect your Raider.IO profile with your Twitch channel and other social media accounts, making it easier for people that are checking out your latest Mythic+ accomplishments, to see where to follow and how to contact you. When you go live on Twitch, anyone who sees you on the ladder or visits your Raider.IO profile can watch your stream or connect with you on other platforms with just a single click. You can also see when people of various classes and specs are streaming in order to check out their gameplay, or chat with them to learn a new trick or two.

Mythic+ has an enormous fan-base that continues to grow immensely. Outside of live key pushing throughout each Mythic+ season, there are also a variety of tournaments and events where players can test their skills year round.

Each year, Blizzard hosts the official Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) circuit, with events and tournaments for those who like to run Mythic+ as fast or push as high as possible. The MDI and The Great Push tournament circuits allow the world’s best teams and players to face off in dungeon races to claim the title of being the best M+ players in the world.

Additionally, keep your eyes out for community tournaments! There are several tournaments hosted by community-led organizations such as Keystone Builders, LWiW Eve Ascension, the Dungeon Dojo Invitational, the AFDL Summer Clash, the Ukranian WoW Community Mythic+ Events, and Raider.IO’s Push Week events, Break the Meta, and the Mythic+ Charity Pro-Am. These community events all have different formats and rules than the MDI, so definitely check them out if you’re looking to get some competitive practice and connect with other players!

Photo Credit: Reece Martinez for Blizzard Entertainment

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About the Authors

Seliathan has been playing Rogue for over half his life, since the initial release of WoW over 18 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.

VitaminP (VP) is the Content Manager of Raider.IO and has worked for the organization since the formation of the News Section in November 2018. Although VP is currently focused on pursuing her Masters of Business Administration, she specializes in tanking classes and has loved doing competitive Mythic+ on and off since early Legion.

MarianasTrench (Mari/Marinara) is a Marksmanship Hunter main who loves to play all classes in Mythic Plus and raiding. He is a staff member at Mythic Plus Friends, and the Guild Master of Dualism. While he loves Mythic raiding and higher Mythic+ content, he also enjoys helping other players get involved and expanding the Mythic+ community through the Mythic Plus Academy at Mythic Plus Friends.