This article and the Routes within have been updated to account for changes to the game and new strategies that have emerged since the last time these affixes were active.

This week’s affixes are: Fortified, Teeming, Explosive and Reaping.

These affixes present a very challenging combination - you should not be alarmed if keystones of the same level are dramatically more difficult this week than they were last week. Explosive and Fortified are much more challenging when they are together because they both increase the difficulty of the same parts of the dungeon - big trash pulls. When Teeming gets thrown into the mix, those bigger and more difficult pulls become much more common - in some cases due to the additional teeming enemies and in other cases due to the increased time pressure forcing you to pull more packs simultaneously.

Although Reaping enemies will neither spawn Explosives nor get buffed by Fortified, Teeming does represent a serious increase in the difficulty of the affix - Reaping waves will be larger and will require more healing and defensive utility to manage. That being said, you’ll have the best chance to defeat keystones of similar levels to other weeks if you can efficiently handle Reaping - that means pulling it with the next boss or trash pack whenever possible.





For each dungeon, there are two different Mythic Dungeon Tools (MDT) routes available – a “Basic” route and an “Expert” route. The Basic routes follow a few restrictions: they don’t feature massive pulls, they don’t require special class abilities like Shroud of Concealment to facilitate skipping mobs, and they don’t require the use of death skips. They also don’t require you to leave anything crowd controlled for too long.

The expert routes, by contrast, often call for advanced pulls and skips. Sometimes, these skips require specific classes like Death Knight, Demon Hunter, or Rogue - but often they can be done by many different group compositions, just in slightly different ways. Every skip in these routes features a full explanation if you mouse over the corresponding number.

If you’re a coordinated team, you should start with the Expert routes and remove pulls/skips that you can’t do. If you need help making any such for your team's strengths and weaknesses, ask me when I'm streaming or get in touch with me using any of the contact info in my RaiderIO Profile!

Click on the COPY MDT IMPORT STRING button and you’ll be able to paste that string into the the "Import" window of your Mythic Dungeon Tools addon and get the route for yourself! Each of these routes contains annotations about how to do each pull and which enemies to crowd control, where to Bloodlust, etc. The annotations and drawings make these routes take a few minutes to Share using MDT’s in-game share function, so consider clearing them before sharing with your group-mates!

Atal'Dazar [back to top]

This dungeon has a strange quirk: there is a random component to the Teeming enemies! In addition to those added to many packs throughout the dungeon, there are three possible packs that can be either added or augmented by Teeming, and only one will be chosen each time you start a run of the dungeon. Two of the possibilities are outside the scope of either the Basic or the Expert route - deeper in the south side of the dungeon that we mostly ignore. One of them, however, will interfere with the routes - it’s an extra pack featuring Reanimated Honor Guards on the north side of the dungeon.

If you’re using the Expert route, you will simply need to skip these enemies in addition to the other ones leading up to Vol’kaal - this makes a Shroud somewhat tighter, or a death-skip somewhat riskier. If you’re using the Basic route, you will either pull this pack or, if it’s not present, the nearby skippable pack that’s worth the same amount of Enemy Forces.

As the metagame has shifted away from Death Knights, our Expert routes no longer plan to take control of an undead enemy and kill it after Yazma to avoid the final Reaping wave, but this strategy is still excellent if you have access to it!

Read more on Atal’Dazar Dungeon Abilities.

Freehold [back to top]

If you’re looking for the most painless key to run this week, Freehold is a likely candidate. Though there is a lot of trash, few of the enemies are particularly deadly, with the exception of the Cutwater Harpooners. Watch out for explosives spawning under the adds during the Harlan Sweete encounter!

Our Expert Route plans to do a bold play to make up some time during the Harlan Sweete fight - pulling trash and killing it with the Cannon Barrage. This is tough with Explosive, so only do it if you have classes and players that can handle it, but if done right you can melt that entire pack in a matter of seconds!

Read more on Freehold Dungeon Abilities.

Kings' Rest [back to top]

This is a rough dungeon for this week - prepare for a few brutal Teeming pulls if you venture into Kings’ Rest this week! However, the relatively difficult bosses of the dungeon are largely unaffected - Explosive ranging from a slight nuisance to a moderate threat depending on the fight. Because of this, you may still find Kings’ Rest to be better this week than most Tyrannical weeks.

Like in Atal’dazar, our Expert route used to plan for a Death Knight to take control of an undead enemy and kill it after King Dazar to avoid the final Reaping wave. We now no longer assume your group has access to this, but it remains a powerful strategy if you do, and you should rework the Route to use it.


Read more on Kings’ Rest Dungeon Abilities.

Shrine of the Storm [back to top]

The Animated Droplets are mercifully no longer Explosive spawn points, but the affix is still a serious problem in many parts of the dungeon! Teeming in here is also rough because it dramatically increases the amount of enemies you’ll need to deal with in this dungeon in particular.

Both of our Routes plan to skip the final Reaping wave by killing a pack of Abyssal Eels after Vol’zith the Whisperer. Our Expert route also plans to skip the penultimate Reaping wave by triggering it during a death skip.

Read more on Shrine of the Storm Dungeon Abilities.

Siege of Boralus [back to top]

As usual, our Siege of Boralus routes are based off the Horde pathing and will require some modification if you’re Alliance.

With Explosive active, you’ll need to be careful if you decide to use an Ashvane Spotter to help kill enemies, Reaping waves, and/or the last boss - those orbs will be spawning on the Spotter which is often not where you’re looking! Because of this added annoyance, neither the Expert route nor the Basic route plan to use the Spotter quite as thoroughly as previous or future weeks’ routes will - but you should still feel free to do so if you’re comfortable handling the extra Explosives.

Read more on Siege of Boralus Dungeon Abilities.

Temple of Sethraliss [back to top]

This dungeon is a great choice for this week - the trash is relatively easy in here, two of the five Reaping waves can be skipped without too much trouble, and there’s really only one brutal Teeming experience - a set of five Static-charged Dervishes.

Our Basic route dramatically over-pulls this dungeon - this is because it’s such a linear dungeon that there are very few packs that can be avoided without the use of abilities or deaths, and that’s outside the scope of the basic category. By contrast, our Expert route fancily avoids an extra Reaping wave in the final part of the dungeon by synchronizing its spawn with an area where there’s already a strong incentive to do a death skip. If that intimidates you, but you still feel comfortable doing some skipping, just use the rest of the Expert route and fight that Reaping wave!

Read more on Temple of Sethraliss Dungeon Abilities.

The MOTHERLODE!! [back to top]

This dungeon is never easy on Fortified weeks, but hey, at least it’s not Bolstering! Reaping, especially with Teeming active, is a problem in here because many of the enemies are casters, so you’ll have a critical mass of Tormented Souls nuking your group down.

To combat this, our Expert route is designed to allow you to kill all the enemies from the first three Reaping waves on the same spot as each other, which will cause them to arise pre-grouped and ready to be Crowd-controlled. After skipping all of the trash after the second boss, the Expert route also plans to avoid the final Reaping wave in a similar fashion to our Shrine of the Storm route, by triggering it and then executing a death skip.

Read more on The MOTHERLODE!! Dungeon Abilities.

The Underrot [back to top]

This is another good dungeon for this week! You should consider lusting trash rather than the first boss, but you also should probably lust Cragmaw rather than any of the trash in its room to avoid as many Tantrums as possible.

Whether you’re using the Expert route or the Basic route, you should be ready to jump in the tunnel to the final boss as soon as you hit 100% - this will cause those spirits of the final wave to follow you down and group themselves up nicely!

Read more on The Underrot Dungeon Abilities.

Tol Dagor [back to top]

Cannons are still the best thing you can be doing in Tol Dagor - just know that they don’t kill Explosives, so you should have the rest of your group either killing the Explosives or lining them while your healer focuses on the cannoneer.

This dungeon is also an exception to our rule for the Basic routes that no specific classes or abilities are required - the route is designed for a group with either a Rogue or a player with items from their profession that can open the doors. If you don’t have access to either of those, the dungeon is extremely linear and you should just pull the enemies that are in your way and avoid any that aren’t!

Read more on Tol Dagor Dungeon Abilities.

Waycrest Manor [back to top]

Rather than having Expert and Basic routes, for Waycrest Manor we instead provide a route for each possible door that can be open at the beginning of the dungeon. Generally the Top Left door is the one you’re most happy to have open, because it facilitates lust being available for the hardest boss encounters. This week, however, lust is instead something you’ll mostly want to use on trash pulls in this dungeon, so getting Bottom Right may actually be best, as that door offers you a good lust as early as the second trash pull.

Watch out for errant Explosives spawning on adds during the boss fights that feature them, or under Lady Waycrest herself when she’s inactive during that encounter.

Read more on Waycrest Manor Dungeon Abilities.