State of the Meta: East Time Trials #1

Today we’re taking a look at the results from the first week of the Mythic Dungeon Invitational Time Trials East, featuring teams from Asia. This is the second of six weeks of competition (three weeks for each division, alternating). This weekend the West will compete in their second Time Trials. Meanwhile, the East’s Top 8 teams are facing off in East Cup #1.

For this analysis, we’re only considering the best runs for each team, and only looking at runs that were completed in time.


Important Note: this is the high end of Mythic+. If you’re reading this article wondering whether you need to run triple melee, including double Rogue, to time your weekly +10, the answer is simple: No. The relative strengths of each spec become increasingly evident at the high end, but pretty much any group of competent, geared players who understand the dungeon and affix mechanics can successfully time a +10.

Overall

• There are far fewer teams in the East. Last week the West had 294 timed runs. The East only posted 111 timed runs.
  
• The meta is very similar. Protection Warriors, Restoration Druid, and 2x Outlaw Rogues continue to dominate.

Dungeon Statistics

How’d the dungeons stack up this week?



The three dungeons were pretty close, though Tol Dagor (Tyrannical, Teeming, , Quaking, Reaping), was generally the easiest, largely because creative use of cannons enable quick clears. Shrine of the Storm (Fortified, Sanguine, Necrotic, Reaping) had the fewest clears in time, which isn’t surprising given it is usually one of the more difficult dungeons in Battle for Azeroth.

Fun fact: Each dungeon’s best time was done in under half the timer.

Tank and Healer Representation

More than 60% of the best attempts from teams used Protection Warrior + Restoration Druid. Blood Death Knights were a distant second tank, but two even made the Top 8 for a dungeon. Mistweaver Monks were a distant second healer, though none of them made the Top 8 for any dungeon. Restoration Druids dominated all but one of the Top 8 times across all dungeons.

Fun fact: One Holy Paladin made it into a Top 8 clear of Waycrest Manor.

Team DPS Composition

Welcome to the triple-melee meta. Most often it’s a pair of Outlaw Rogues and a Windwalker Monk, but Unholy Death Knights and Havoc Demon Hunters also make an appearance from time to time.

All but 4 of the Top 8 runs for the dungeons ran double Outlaw Rogue. One of those ran Assassination Rogue and Outlaw Rogue and the three others only ran one Outlaw Rogue, either pairing Unholy Death Knight and Windwalker or Havoc Demon Hunter and Frost Mage.

Here are the common DPS compositions used by 5 or more teams:

Count	DPS 1	DPS 2	DPS 3
25	Outlaw Rogue	Outlaw Rogue	Windwalker Monk
19	Outlaw Rogue	Outlaw Rogue	Havoc Demon Hunter
14	Outlaw Rogue	Outlaw Rogue	Frost Mage
6	Outlaw Rogue	Havoc Demon Hunter	Frost Mage
5	Outlaw Rogue	Outlaw Rogue	Unholy Death Knight
5	Outlaw Rogue	Outlaw Rogue	Beast Mastery Hunter

The few ranged that see play are almost always a Frost Mage or a Beast Mastery Hunter. The East was not as much a fan as the West of Balance Druids or Elemental Shaman. Take a look at the spec representation for Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Tanks, and Healers:

Faction Rivalry

Out of the 111 timed runs with faction information, an overwhelming 88% were Alliance. At the high end, the Alliance was the only option as all of the 24 best runs from the top 8 teams were Alliance. None were Horde. Behold the power of Shadowmeld.

Looking Ahead

There are four more weeks of Time Trials. This weekend has the East’s first Cup and the West’s second Time Trials. In the East’s Cup, will we see a team win that isn’t running Protection Warrior, Restoration Druid, 2x Outlaw Rogue, and Windwalker Monk? In the West, will the move to +19 dungeons instead of +18 dungeons mix up the meta?