MDI 2023 Big Brain Strats - Group Stage and The Last Stand

By Seliathan — Mar 31 2023 13:45 -02

This weekend the first major Mythic+ esports event of Dragonflight will come to its conclusion, as the best Mythic+ teams in the world are fighting over the crown of becoming the new, and Dragonflights very first, Mythic Dungeon International champion!

After four weekends of exciting Group Stage events and The Last Stand, with over two dozen participants across all the events and thousands participating in the Time Trials, only eight teams remain for the MDI Global Finals. We have witnessed some incredibly close games, unexpected upsets and impressive performances by both veterans and newcomers alike, and we can’t wait to see what the teams have in store for us this weekend.

While the format of the MDI remained unchanged coming out of Shadowlands, teams had to not only deal with 8 entirely new dungeons (albeit two of them were already part of the Legion MDI), but also had to learn new classes, engage with the new talent system, and figure out how to optimize and min-max all parts of the Mythic+ experience in an incredibly short amount of time.

Naturally, this means that many new strategies were developed just for this occasion, with teams practicing tirelessly to gain an edge over their competition. Luckily for us, a new season of the MDI means new Big Brain Strats! We saw some very interesting strategies and routes over the course of the Group Stage and The Last Stand, so let’s dive in!

Learn More: Dragonflight MDI Season 1 Live Coverage and Highlights

Groups and The Last Stand

Eight teams distinguished themselves as the best of the best over the last two months of Mythic+ speedrunning competitions. Six teams qualified for the Global Finals through the Group Stage events, and two more were victorious in The Last Stand. Within the next few days, all of these teams will be fighting for the championship in the 2023 Mythic Dungeon International.

While the five-times consecutive champions Echo will be coming into the Global Finals as the favorites due to their impeccable record over the course of almost half a decade, the competition looks to be fiercer than ever. With crazy and exciting strategies popping up throughout the Group Stage, and particularly The Last Stand, we expect this weekend to be full of surprises. Let’s have a quick recap on some of the most innovative and big brain strategies of the Dragonflight Season 1 MDI!

Getting Schooled by Swedes and Donuts

Ironically, one of our first big learning experiences in this year’s MDI happened in Algeth’ar Academy. Teamswe was the first team to show an entirely new trick on the very first day of Group A, one that had even some of the most veteran players and teams stumped. Some of them even had to double-check with the admins if this skip was allowed!

By jumping around a few corners and ledges, an Evoker or Demon Hunter can pull trash from the last section of the dungeon, despite the gate that leads to it still being closed. Grabbing a few Echoknights and [npc=1962029Invokers, Teamswe pulled this trash with the boss, but, unfortunately for them, the boss decided to despawn on them, causing even more confusion among players, viewers and even the casters, on whether this was a bug, or if it meant that the pull itself was not supposed to work.

The admins later clarified that as per the original MDI ruleset, this skip is within the bounds of the rules, as the player pulling the trash is in line of sight of the enemies they are pulling. The boss roleplay usually makes it impossible to pull more than just a few Skitterflies into the boss, but with this big brain strat, teams can chain an entire pull into the boss that has no mechanics whatsoever for the first 30 to 40 seconds of the fight.

In Group B we then saw this strategy taken even further, still, in the match between Donuts and Perplexed. While everybody was wondering how much AoE DPS we would be seeing during the massive pull right before the Overgrown Ancient, Donuts were cooking up something that no one expected. After dispatching of the Guardian Sentry right before Crawth, the team decided to split up and send Stove on his Rogue towards the Overgrown Ancient area, while the rest of the group continued onwards towards Crawth. Before jumping over, Yip made sure that he received a Tricks of the Trade from Stove, who then pulled the Vile Lashers around the Overgrown Ancient.

After a short period of indecisiveness, the flowers finally decided to snap over to Crawth and join their feathery friends. Donuts made short work of both the event mobs and the Lashers, which not only saved them an entire pull, but it also allowed the team to not lose any time to the RP that spawns the Overgrown Ancient, which starts once all three of the Vile Lashers are dead.

Donuts weren’t done just yet, as there were still a few sprinkles to add. It turns out that not all of the enemies are willing to snap over to Crawths platform, which leaves the entire group in perpetual combat with the remaining Overgrown Ancient trash. By having everybody play Night Elf, with the exception of the Rogue that can simply use Vanish to drop combat, they were able to reset their threat by using the Shadowmeld racial ability. Being in combat used to disable the use of the gusts of wind that are required to travel to and from Crawth’s island, so without this trick they would’ve been stuck there!

As Evokers can only play as a Dracthyr, Timbermaw had to find a different way out of the permanent combat he was going to find himself in. Giving up all hope, he simply died on purpose towards the end of the fight with Crawth. While one might think that this is just a necessary downside of the strategy, their big brains figured out a way to use it to their advantage instead. Once Crawth died, Timbermaw immediately released and set himself up for the last piece of the puzzle. With the Overgrown Ancient boss already spawned and the rest of the group on their way to the boss, he was getting ready to copy the strategy that we first saw from Teamswe in their match against Levels, pulling Echoknights and Invokers into the already spawned Overgrown Ancient.

That was the plan, anyway. Unfortunately for Donuts, one of the Vile Lashers did not snap over to Crawth properly, leaving the boss itself disabled until the last remaining Lasher was killed, and if that wasn’t enough misfortune already, Stove also had a disconnect which forced Donuts to kill the Overgrown Ancient with only four players! They had to abandon their, in every sense of the word, original strategy, but Donuts nonetheless showed an incredible amount of ingenuity, combining unique class toolkits, the layout of the dungeon, and the way bosses and trash are spawned and positioned, for a truly big brain strat.

Clearing out the Vault

While some of the dungeons are very linear, with every team using the exact same route, the performances and routing we’ve seen from teams in the cold depths of the Azure Vault was the polar opposite. No matter which team or match you were following, the dungeon was played in a different way by every single team. Azure Vault was the number one dungeon for innovative strategies throughout the Group Stage, and The Last Stand truly allowed teams to go crazy with new ways to play the dungeon without having to worry about it causing a wipe from time to time.

One of the most interesting new ways to play the dungeon was spearheaded by team Thunderstruck in Group C. Early into Dragonflight, players quickly figured out how to skip large parts of the trash by simply jumping down to the next part of the dungeon, as the center part of the dungeon exists on 4 separate floors, with Umbrelskul, the final boss, waiting on the lowest level. Interacting with one of the arcane books starts a long-winded travel animation from one platform to another, and some of them require certain trash to be killed before you can even interact with them. Consequently, not having to worry about using the books at all is a big time save. This can be achieved through clever use of skills like a Priests Levitate and Leap of Faith, a Warriors Heroic Leap, the Potion of Gusts, or by simply jumping down at the correct angle – because the fall is just short enough to not kill you outright.

This has been a go-to strategy for many teams, and it often ended up with them deciding to do the last three bosses of the dungeon back to back. After killing Azureblade, teams went back to the different platforms and jumped right down to Telash Greywing, with Umbrelskul following immediately after.

Thunderstruck managed to snap the last two Drakonid Breakers down to Umbrelskul and cleave everything down very quickly, which set them up for the truly big brain play of the run. Once Umbrelskul had been defeated, interacting with Sindragosa allows the players to quickly teleport around the dungeon, and teams use this to teleport back to Azureblade’s room to finish off the remaining dungeon by pulling all the Hornswogs and Breakers together in one big last pull.

Looks easy enough to just follow the tank as he pulls all the trash, right? Well, not quite. Thunderstruck had the clever idea of using one of their players, in this case Velo on his Preservation Evoker, to not follow the rest of the team after teleporting back to Azureblade. Instead he went back again towards the central section of the dungeon, and where the entire team previously skipped down to Telash Greywing, Velo landed on the balcony with the two Drakonid Breakers instead – but they already snapped and killed them earlier!. This allowed him to pull the remaining trash from the other side, and meet up with his tank and the rest of the team in the middle, which saved them a solid 10 to 15 seconds to stack up all the trash. Simple, elegant and efficient – exactly what we expect from our MDI competitors and their massive brains!

Wolves Hunt in Packs…

…but they cannot climb crags! Well, it's just a rock, so not really a crag… It’ll all make sense in a second, let’s just move on for now!

Many players were disappointed when Blizzard fixed a strategy in Halls of Valor that was as old as the dungeon itself, that allowed players to easily deal with the Ebonclaw Worgs prior to Fenryr. While initially groups were able to simply kite these in a big circle, with only the tank being a viable target for their Leap for the Threat ability, this was changed in early Dragonflight and now any ranged player will be jumped by our furry little friends. Pulling too many of these wolves can quickly lead to a dead ranged DPS or healer, but as is common for the MDI, the biggest brains of the Mythic+ scene found ways around this limitation to pull as big as possible anyway!

The new strategy is even more simple: The ranged DPS and healer simply climb on a rock or a fence, which completely stops the wolves from jumping. As the mobs are unable to find a path to the elevated spot that the players are standing on, they simply do not cast the ability at all, which allows the teams to play all of them at the same time!

Some of the teams went even further, pulling all of the wolves together with Fenryr! Setting up this pull is crazy difficult, as even a few seconds of not making it up to the safe spot will spell doom for anybody who is still a valid target for the bloodthirsty wolves. However, the wolves also need to die as quickly as possible, as the players standing on top of their perch will not be able to share the split-damage mechanic of Fenryr, and everything needs to be dead before any major boss mechanic starts casting.

Team Mandatory (previously team Monka) showed how to fully optimize this set up, and with Sanguine being active, no less. Only Moadmoad on the Discipline Priest climbed up on the rock, while everyone else, including Crims on the Fire Mage, were pushing as much DPS as possible. Once Moad made it to the top of the rock, he simply used Leap of Faith on Crims, and the entire pull and positioning was perfectly set up without the Mage having to worry about doing any rock climbing. Truly a big brain strategy, as this kind of min-maxing and flawless execution makes or breaks a pull like this!

These Snaps Are Performed By Trained Professionals

We have some more incredible snaps for you, and both of these happened in the Azure Vault as well. We told you that there was a lot of crazy stuff in this dungeon, didn’t we?

Despite their unique strategy in Azure Vault in Group C, Thunderstruck did not manage to claim a Global Finals spot during the Group Stage. The team returned even better prepared for The Last Stand, and once again showed their big brains and snapping prowess in this incredible play.

Right before jumping to the central platform of the dungeon, all the players except for Lemike make it to the first ring, while Lemike on his Protection Warrior gives his team enough time to get to the inner ring, before he triggers the Shrieking Whelp, which automatically pulls the Crystal Fury and Crystal Thrasher with it. He then chases after his team and jumps off the platform, where Soda on his Shadow Priest is ready to life-grip him to reunite with his teammates. The remaining mobs then snap onto the other trash that the team already pulled, giving them a massive pull that they can blow all their cooldowns on. While it didn’t work out for them in the end, this level of innovation is what makes the MDI so great.

Last but not least, we have to talk about team Cheese and their incredible snaps! Cheese did not manage to qualify for the Global Finals in Group C either, and same as Thunderstruck, they had to go through The Last Stand where they ultimately ended up taking second place, securing themselves the last spot for the Global Finals!

Much of their success during The Last Stand was a result of their incredible flexibility and adaptability, preparing multiple different routes and strategies for Azure Vault depending on the position of certain patrols. If a pack was too far away compared to a previous attempt, the team simply adapted and played something else entirely. For a while it seemed like every attempt at cracking the Azure Vault wide open ended up with Cheese playing a different route than in the previous run. One particularly interesting set up was started by what looked like an accidental death from Fem, the Protection Warrior for team Cheese.

After killing Telash Greywing, Fem jumped down to Umbrelskul and died, leaving everybody flabbergasted. He then releases, teleports back to Azureblade’s room, and makes it back to the second level of the center ring. He picks up a bunch of trash that they were missing earlier, and snaps it all the way down to the last boss, while Zhatzi on his Preservation Evoker adds both Drakonid Breakers to the pull for good measure.

Don’t try this at home!

With the Global Finals around the corner, it will be exciting to see how many more strategies teams have been holding back so far, and if some of the routing and execution can be improved even further. You can catch all the action over on the official Warcraft YouTube or Twitch.tv channel, and you can keep up with all of the action over on our MDI Highlights page, providing LIVE coverage, updates and analysis throughout every minute of the competition.

See you soon, and let’s have ourselves a great 2023 MDI Global Finals with the biggest brains and boldest strats!

About the Authors

Seliathan has been playing Rogue for over half his life, since the initial release of WoW over 16 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 the Raider.IO RWF Coverage, and writing guides for Icy Veins.

Picco is an old-fashioned WoW gamer that started back in Vanilla and has played ever since. She is a healer by heart and is currently maining Restoration Druid. She loves Mythic+ and has a great passion for events like the MDI and TGP. Picco is part of the KeystoneMasters team and enjoys jiggling around with ideas for fun new formats of community tournaments. She is also a Mod for several streamers and guilds, particularly during the RWF. Outside of WoW, Picco is a Sprout in FF14, where she explores with her Lala Summoner.