Mythic+ 101: Understanding Your Role

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.

In the previous chapter, we discussed “Netiquette” and how it can help you build a stronger network for Mythic+. Now, our fifth chapter highlights some of the different responsibilities that different roles bring in Mythi+to help you understand what expectations other players might have of you based on your chosen role(s).

Table of Contents

  What are Roles in Mythic+?

When joining any group, whether it is through the in-game Looking for Group (LFG) tool, or through one of the many community Discord servers, you will be required to select the role(s) you wish to play. Within the game, these roles are Tank, DPS and Healer. This role-trifecta exists in many games, and each Mythic+ group will always consist of 1 Tank, 1 Healer and 3 DPS players. The makeup of the individual classes within these roles is completely up to each group to decide.

Beyond this in-game role selection process through LFG, there are a few other important roles in each group that we will also highlight in this article. From the person that creates the route for each dungeon, to the responsibilities you might be assigned in a PUG (pickup group), or even the shotcaller in a more organized group that utilizes voice communication programs, every role is crucial to the success of the party as a whole.

PUGs tend to have much less communication between group members – especially if they are not using any sort of voice communication. Therefore, it is helpful to know what expectations your fellow party members will have of you, based on your chosen role.

  Tank

Tanking in Mythic+ is all about leading the charge. As they are the first player to jump into a pack, tanks are typically seen as the leader of a group. This expectation is especially prominent in PUGs, which brings a variety of responsibilities that set the group’s pace.

While you are obviously expected to maintain threat on all targets at all times, do significant DPS, stay alive, and require as little healing as possible from your healer, the biggest impact a tank can have is in the way they set up pulls and path through the dungeon.

One commonly used tool for this purpose is called Mythic Dungeon Tools and it is highly recommended for every party member to have this addon installed. It allows you to pre-plan the routing through each dungeon, and link that route to your party members. This removes a lot of guesswork from the equation, as there will be no ambiguity over which packs will be pulled at what time throughout the run. It also removes the risk of pulling more trash than is needed for the 100% mob-count objective.

Another responsibility of the tank, at least in PUGs, is marking important interrupt targets. Weakauras can often help with that, i.e. by using an Auto Marker that automatically assigns a few preset marks to each mob that must be interrupted. Once set, the tank simply needs to let each member know what mark they will be interrupting. In PUGs, assigning markers to certain players ahead of the dungeon will help tremendously with limiting the amount of casts that bombard the group, making life simpler and less chaotic for everyone.

Positioning is an often overlooked skill-set that will be very helpful for your fellow DPS and Healer. Ensuring that mobs with any sort of cleaving ability are turned away from the group limits the risk of melee DPS being hit, allowing them to focus on other important aspects of the dungeon instead.

  Damage Dealer (DPS)

Damage dealers, or DPS players, have a big impact on the success of the group and speed of a dungeon. Their main role is ensuring that mobs die as quickly and safely as possible. Cooldown management is one of the biggest responsibilities for each DPS player, and taking a look at the planned route that the tank posted in party chat via MDT should give a decent idea on which packs to use cooldowns on, and when to hold onto them even if they are ready. If a boss is coming up soon, or you plan on pulling multiple packs together in your next pull, then maybe it is beneficial to hold on to the big cooldown for a while longer instead of using it the second it becomes available.

Damage dealers also have to manage their utility and defensive skills in order to succeed. This includes, but is not limited to, their interrupts to interrupt enemy spellcasters, any kind of crowd-control (CC) skills that disrupt those casts that cannot be canceled by regular interrupts, their defensive and self-healing abilities, as well as unique utility like soothing an enraged enemy during a Raging week, or using a dispel to help remove a dangerous debuff or get rid of one of the affixes, Afflicted.

In order to best use these skills, it is recommended to read up on and learn about some of the most lethal and worrisome mechanics in the dungeon. By understanding which casts can be let through, and which casts will make you and your group’s life a living hell, you can prioritize your utility to counteract these abilities. This is a learning process, of course, and the more you play, the easier it will be for you to distinguish between the important and unimportant mechanics.

While it is always important to kill all mobs as quickly as possible, many trash-packs have mobs with different kill priority, meaning some mobs are more threatening than others, or maybe a single mob has a much larger health pool than the rest of them. This requires proper priority target damage, in order to minimize the risk of the group struggling, and prioritizing the enemy with the highest health cuts down on the time it takes you to finish off the entire pack.

Last but not least, surviving is of utmost importance. Losing just one of the three DPS players drastically increases the pressure on the tank and healer, and also has a major impact on the timer of the dungeon itself, as bosses and even trash will live a lot longer if one of the DPS players is unable to help out because they’re dead in the dirt. As a result, surviving is often more important than eking out the last couple of percent of your DPS potential. Using defensives and self-healing, including healing potions, to counteract moments of high damage intake is crucial to being a good DPS player, as is avoiding those mechanics that are targeted at a specific location. “Don’t stand in the fire” is always good advice, especially since your healer will yell at you!

  Healer

Healers have an important role in most groups, and it is not what you might expect. The job of any healer is to contribute as much DPS as they can, help with interrupts or disrupts and dispels, and do a variety of other things, without anybody in the group dying. Of course, the priority should always be on keeping players alive, but this can be done in many different ways, and being a good healer is all about effectively managing your mana and skills.

As an example, it is not always necessary to immediately heal everybody back up to full HP if the next big damage event is still a while away. Maybe a player just used one of their self-healing effects, or they are capable of leeching back some of the damage they deal as healing. Considering these possibilities will allow you to instead use a few damaging skills, contributing to finishing the dungeon faster, which means there is less time for people to make mistakes that require your attention.

Similar to the other two main roles of tanking and DPS, understanding the enemies you are fighting and the damage patterns goes a long way in making everybody’s life easier, and as a healer you will be able to contribute a lot of damage if you understand these patterns and mechanics well. The biggest struggle as a healer in Mythic+ is with all the avoidable damage that the group will inevitably take.

In any given run, some of your fellow group members (or maybe you yourself) will be taking avoidable damage. By itself, this isn’t a big deal unless there is also a bunch of unavoidable damage on top of it. Depending on your class, you will have a few tools to deal with these situations, often referred to as “spot-healing”. While it is easy to blame a DPS for standing in the fire, you as the Healer have the most options to keep that player alive through their mistake.

  Routes

As we mentioned before, creating and making Routes is a crucial part to success, especially once you move into higher key and difficulty levels. The usage of MDT is pretty much universally accepted at this point, and not being aware of the pathing and routing in your dungeon can be a great detriment to your group’s chance of success.

While it is often the tank that posts these routes, every player should have a vested interest in taking a look at the route and suggesting possible alternatives or changes to it. Especially when playing with the same group for prolonged periods of time, you will want to make use of the lessons you have learned from running the dungeon multiple times together. If some of your cooldowns went to waste, or a pack was much harder to deal with than expected, you might want to consider discussing a change in routing. Maybe your group now has a Rogue who can use his Shroud of Concealment to skip a particularly dangerous pack, or you do not have the necessary CC to avoid or control dangerous enemies. All these are good reasons to adjust your route, and contributing and listening to the route discussions is a crucial aspect to improving your performance in Mythic+.

We at Raider.IO have two weekly series that provide general-use routes for Intermediate and Advanced players! For each set of affixes, Bunten provides our RaiderIO Weekly Route where you can find strategies, helpful tricks and downloadable strategies for every dungeon each week.

While the Weekly Route is aimed at beginner and intermediate level players, we also have our Play Like the Pros, compiled by Biggerfish, that focuses on higher-level play and tried-and-true routes, as shown by some of the best Mythic+ players in the world!

  Shotcalling

Shotcalling is an important role in any group that is using voice communication programs like Discord or TeamSpeak. The Shotcaller avoids overlaps by calling out interrupts, usage of crowd-control abilities, and is generally responsible for guiding and leading the group. While this role is often assumed by the tank in a PUG group, any player can do this in a more coordinated environment, and with how many things tanks need to keep track of, it often falls to a DPS player to do this kind of shotcalling.

The Shotcaller not only sorts out most of the coordination for the usage of CC and interrupts, but also keeps track of other things like the availability of certain cooldowns, the routing and pathing, and making sure that the plan that the group agreed on before the run is actually being put into action. They also call out important mechanics on bosses and trash, helping the rest of the group focus on other aspects of the dungeon or encounter, similar to what a raid leader does in a raid-setting.

The difference between a good and great Shotcaller is massive, as it allows players to focus on maximizing their DPS or healing output, while being able to simply listen and follow the call-outs on voice for all of the responsibilities that require coordination.

  Social Roles

Social Roles are a bit of a unique feature found in coordinated teams. If you play with the same group multiple times, you will inevitably have to deal with clashing personalities or disagreements. These can sometimes get very heated, and as with every group project, it helps to have at least one person that keeps a cool head to focus on the issues at hand and not let things get too personal.

In coordinated groups that play with one another regularly, you will also want one person in charge of scheduling and finding dates and times to play at. This is a managing task that can sometimes be frustrating to deal with, especially when players are on different work schedules, time zones or sleeping schedules.

There are also social roles that are a bit harder to define, like the “jester” who keeps the mood light by cracking jokes, or the “buzzkill” who reels people back in when things get a bit too clowney. It is important to keep a good balance between having fun and focusing on the task at hand, and if the pendulum swings too far to one side or the other, the enjoyment or success are likely going to suffer.

More Mythic+ 101 Articles

• What is Mythic+ and Why Should You Do It?
• What You Need To Know for Your First Keystone
• Pugging, Networking, and Group Dynamics
• Mythic+ Netiquette
• Understanding Your Role (You Are Here)

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Links

• Join the Mythic Plus Friends Discord Community
  
• Try the Raider.IO Auto Route Creator
  
• Download the Raider.IO Client
  
• Set up Raider.IO Discord Alerts
  
• Follow Raider.IO on Twitter
  
• Support Raider.IO on Patreon

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