MDI Time Trials: Tips, Tricks, Routes & More!
It’s everyone’s favourite time of the Season…that’s right, the MDI Time Trials have begun! Over the next 6 days, teams from around the world will be racing against time, and each other, to qualify for the Mythic Dungeon International. Once the Time Trials end, the 16 teams with the fastest overall time in the 2 Time Trial dungeons will qualify for the Group Stage, taking place starting February 16th. From there, the top 8 teams will face off in the Global Finals in March!
But it all starts with the Time Trials, and if you’re one of the over 1000 teams registered for the MDI, we’ve got you covered. Whether you’re there with your friends just to get the exclusive Dreaming Banner of the Aspects, or if you’re pushing in hopes of qualifying…we’ve got some tips, tricks, and routes to help you along the way!
We’re also happy to announce that the Auto Route Creator and Mythic+ Replay System will be available for runs completed on the Tournament Realm this Season, giving you access to some amazing features to help you improve your runs while you practice. Read on to learn more!
Table of Contents
- Time Trials Leaderboards
- Time Trials: Basic Routes
• DOTI: Murozond’s Rise • The Everbloom - Time Trials: Advanced Routes
• DOTI: Murozond’s Rise • The Everbloom - Auto Route Creator for MDI
- Mythic+ Replay System for MDI
- Get the Competitive Edge with Keystone.Guru
- How to Use the Tournament Realm
- MDI Practice Tips from the Pros
- Where to Watch & More Info
Time Trials Leaderboards
The MDI Time Trial Leaderboards continue to be hosted here on Raider.IO, but their location has changed. As Raider.IO is now the Official Platform for World of Warcraft Esports – including Registration and Administration for all tournaments – you can now find Time Trial Leaderboards, and MDI Brackets, in the Tournaments hub.
Navigate to raider.io/tournaments, select MDI Dragonflight Season 3, and then select the Time Trials tab at the top. Here you can see the Dungeon Leaderboards, as well as the Team Rankings.
Time Trials: Basic Routes
The Time Trial dungeons opened at 10am PST this morning, January 31st, with a slight change to what we’ve come to expect! The dungeons will now begin at +17 instead of at +15 keystone level. To earn your Dreaming Banner of the Aspects, you will need to clear both of the Time Trial Dungeons, in-time, at +17 or higher.
Have no fear – we’ve got Mythic+ routes ready to go for you! Below you will find some of the fastest completed runs of each dungeon on Live servers, with the same affixes, at +17. Follow these Mythic+ routes, and you’ll be laughing all the way to your exclusive Banner toy!
Time Trials: Advanced Routes
The Time Trial dungeons will have a maximum cap of +23 keystone level, so teams that wish to qualify for the Group Stage will first have to raise their keystones to from +17 to +23, and then run those dungeons as fast as they can on +23. The top 16 teams will be those who complete both dungeons in the fastest combined time.
Whether you’re a seasoned MDI player, or just trying out the competitive side of the esport for the first time, we’ve got some routes prepared to give you a leg up. These are some of the fastest runs completed on Live servers of both Time Trial Dungeons, at +23 keystone level. These can be a great starter route to make sure you get your runs completed, and from there you can iterate and improve using your unique team’s composition and strengths!
Auto Route Creator for MDI
We’ve compiled some of the fastest routes available on Live servers for the Time Trial Dungeons with the same affixes as on the Tournament Realm, but you have even more route options available to you via the Auto Route Creator!
This feature launched last year, and works with Keystone.Guru technology to automatically generate a route from a completed dungeon that you can then manipulate and easily export directly into MDT in-game. We’ve got some tips on how you can use this feature to help you on your quest to MDI qualification!
⚠️Live Tracking via the Desktop Client is required for the Auto Route Creator⚠️
If you’re looking for a good starting place for a route, you can easily use one of the ones provided above…but what if you want one tailored to your group composition or at a different level? That’s easy with the ARC! First, navigate to the Leaderboard for each Time Trial Dungeon, and make sure you select the correct affixes.
Find a run with the same group composition as yours with the Route Available icon on the right hand side – this means someone on that team used Live Tracking during that dungeon and has allowed their route to be public. Select that dungeon, and then hit View Route in the top right corner. This will automatically generate a Keystone.Guru route! From there, you can open it directly into KSG to further manipulate and iterate on the map and make changes, or you can import it into MDT in-game.
Or maybe you and your team tried something different during one of your practice runs, and you want to see what that looked like… go find your team page (found at the top of the Teams Tab) and you can see your dungeon runs on the Tournament Realm. From there you can use the Auto Route Creator to pull up a map of your own dungeons right after you complete them! Note that the ARC only works on completed dungeons - so if you hearth out and reset, it won’t work on that run.
With the fact that this is a competition in mind, we’ve included privacy settings that allow you to make use of the ARC feature and create routes from your own dungeons, while preventing other users outside of your group from doing so.
Mythic+ Replay System for MDI
The other new feature that we launched last year, the Mythic+ Replay System, is an incredible tool for teams looking to push their qualifying dungeons faster and faster. Practice during MDI and Time Trials is all about making small changes to result in incremental improvements in time. Using the Mythic+ Replay System, you can see in real-time if the adjustments you’ve made are having the desired impact.
⚠️Live Tracking via the Desktop Client is required for the Mythic+ Replay System⚠️
You can now accurately see if changing those cooldown timings actually ended up with a faster time on the boss split, or if your trash count was higher at an earlier stage! The Mythic+ Replay System is easy-to-use, and you can use it to replay against your own dungeons to track your improvements, or you can replay against other groups’ runs! In order to access your Tournament Realm dungeons, find your Team at the top of the Teams Tab, and your TR dungeons will be listed there. Note that only completed dungeons function with the system, so if you reset before finishing, it will not be visible on your Team page.
We’ve also made sure to include appropriate privacy settings that will allow you to make use of the Mythic+ Replay System to run against your own completed dungeons, but preventing others not in your group from doing so.
Get the Competitive Edge with Keystone.Guru
Our Auto Route Creator feature is proudly powered by Keystone.Guru technology…but that is not where the benefits of KSG end for those of you trying to qualify for the MDI Group Stage!
Keystone.Guru is a site that allows for the creation of maps and routes for Mythic+ dungeons, and also serves as a massive repository of already-created routes. You can use KSG to find a route to suit your needs, or to make your own. You can also manipulate the route directly on the site. Additionally, KSG is browser-based, so you can have it open on your second monitor while you’re in the dungeon without having to block your view over and over with in-game addons, and you can make changes and theorycraft without having to be logged into the game! It also works in concert with MDT so you can easily import your KSG route into MDT in-game for on-the-fly adjustments and changes.
Another great feature available on KSG that will really enhance your MDI team’s efforts in Time Trials is the KSG Teams functionality! You can add your MDI teammates to your KSG Team, which allows all of you to collaborate and edit the same route on the site. Talk about teamwork! Hop onto the Tournament Realm, run a dungeon with Live Tracking, automatically turn it into a route using the Auto Route Creator, then open it up in Keystone.Guru for your whole team to see and edit…it’s that easy!
How to Use the Tournament Realm
If you’re new to the Tournament Realm, it can be a little daunting. To maximize your team’s practice time during the Time Trials, you’ll want to get everything setup ahead of time…and keep in mind that if you’re new to the process, it can take some time!
To help you out, we’ve prepared a handy Tournament Realm Guide including locations of vendors, how to craft profession items, and helpful addons.
MDI Practice Tips from the Pros
We asked a handful of MDI Pros to provide us with some of their best advice for players looking to qualify for the Group Stage, and this is what they told us!
“Try not to complete dungeons too soon into the Time Trials because it will tip other teams off to your timer. Unless you're on an insane run that you know you can't improve, maybe just don't finish your keys until you're ready to move on from the dungeon.” –Jdotb
“The biggest tip for practicing MDI would probably be to know when to keep practicing further pulls in the dungeon and when to reset the key.” –Hopeful
“I think having proper breaks where you step away from the PC and move around can go a long way. It helps you refresh your mental, relax and come back stronger.”
–Stove
“First thing I would say would be to use target markers and assign targets for kicks, etc., and make sure to use focus kick macros.” –Tobo
“It's important to not tunnel vision one particular strategy in a dungeon… try to think outside of the box in regards to everything you've seen in Live keys. There's multiple solutions to every problem!” –Wolfdisco
“TIME! Time is my best tip! Time is everything. You gotta put in time to have a chance in the MDI. It takes time to figure out good routes, good optimization and good comps. It takes a lot of testing, trying different stuff to find what works and what doesn’t. Also once you and your team are on TR and practicing, don't waste time on stuff that is not important. Make the best out of the time that you have, the more efficient you are the better.
That is a really big deal of going into MDI, be extremly efficient with the time you have and put in a lot of hours. Important also is to dismiss bad ideas and don’t spend time on weird things. That comes with a lot of experience to know what is bad and what COULD be worth to test.” – Lemike
Where to Watch & More Info
Time Trials are not broadcasted, but you might be lucky enough to find some teams streaming! Most teams prefer to keep their strategies secret, but there have been some in the past that openly stream their Time Trials or practice sessions, such as Echo.
The MDI Group Stage begins with Group A on February 16 - 18, 2024, followed by Group B on February 23 - 25, 2024. You can watch all of the action on the official Warcraft Twitch and YouTube pages!
Can’t wait until then and need some WoW Esports action? The first AWC Cup is taking place this weekend! Make sure to tune into the streams to cheer on your favourite teams as they go for arena glory…and keep your eyes peeled on Raider.IO for our NEW AWC Live Coverage, with updates and highlights from every match!
Links
- GUIDE: How to Use the Tournament Realm
- Register for all Official WoW Esports on Raider.IO
- Learn about the Auto Route Creator
- Learn about the Mythic+ Replay System
- Download the Raider.IO Addon
- Watch the MDI on Twitch
- Watch the MDI on YouTube
- Support Raider.IO on Patreon
About the Author
Hulahoops is the General Manager of Raider.IO and has been playing WoW since Vanilla. She has recently shelved Retail to go back and re-experience WotLK in all its glory, but will one day make her way back to the Dragon Isles. In her hey-day, Hulahoops could be found raid-leading in Mythic Progression, or competing in the MDI with her team Angry Toast. Hulahoops is a Holy Paladin in every sense of the term: she moderates the Hammer of Wrath Paladin Class Discord, and she was a practicing Lawyer for 7 years. Judgment isn't just a spell! Hulahoops decided to put the law books away and follow her passion for gaming and esports by joining the team at Raider.IO. In her capacity as General Manager, Hulahoops oversees events, content, and more!
