This week’s affixes are Tyrannical, Raging, Necrotic, and Void-heavy Beguiling.

Every three weeks, the Beguiling pattern rotates to this Void-focused pattern. This is very bad news for several dungeons that now feature Void emissaries in packs that were already hard, or in chokepoints that make common skips much more difficult to execute. Any week with this Beguiling pattern is a hard one to push keys. The other affixes are also challenging in their own right, but there are options for counterplay against them, such as enrage dispels for Raging, kiting for Necrotic trash, and DPS taunting to help your tank reset Necrotic stacks during the Tyrannical boss encounters.

If you’re interested in a set of routes aimed at very high level players, check out Lashga’s. He’s designs a set of very thorough routes for this week for his own push group, so they’re specially tailored for Alliance players as they feature skips that work well with Shadowmeld. These are quite complicated strategies, though they also have explanations for most of the tricky stuff. If you’re confused by anything in there, stop by his stream and ask him about it! Note that his routes usually go up on Wednesday, around when the European servers reset.

Atal'Dazar [back to top]

Numerous tough Void spawns make Atal’Dazar one of the worst dungeons this week relative to the other Beguiling patterns. The pack in front of Vol’kaal is the biggest offender - there’s no good way to deal with this pack besides a death skip (unless your group has access to Shadowmelds). Necrotic/Tyrannical Vol’kaal is another challenge - you’ll probably need to have a DPS or healer taunt the boss and run away for a few seconds to facilitate your tank dropping stacks at some point during the fight. Having lust for that boss is very important this week.

Read more on Atal’Dazar Dungeon Abilities.

Freehold [back to top]

Freehold’s Void-heavy pattern isn’t catastrophic, but Tyrannical (especially with Necrotic) can be - you absolutely need to have Bloodlust ready for the first and second bosses, and you may want to consider Stamina Flasks, and/or Versatility or Stamina food if you’re attempting this dungeon at a high level, as the first two bosses can easily get into one-shot range.

Read more on Freehold Dungeon Abilities.

Kings' Rest [back to top]

There are some problematic Voids here too, but they can be handled with death skips - depending on your composition, this may require you to get through the tough Tyrannical boss fights without using more than a couple battle rezzes, which can be a big challenge. Focus down the raptors when fighting King Dazar to help your tank out with Necrotic.


Read more on Kings’ Rest Dungeon Abilities.

Shrine of the Storm [back to top]

The most annoying Void Emissary here is the one adjacent to Windspeaker Heldis, preventing most common skips of her and also having no nearby line-of-sight spots. The safest strategy here is to pull Heldis back and kill her before fighting the void, but this is quite slow. If you’re doing this key at a high level, you’ll likely want to come up with faster strategies to skip this and other bad Voids - doing big death skips forward into the dungeon and then pulling enemies from behind you is a creative solution that may work for you.

Read more on Shrine of the Storm Dungeon Abilities.

Siege of Boralus [back to top]

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

All things considered, this is an okay week for Siege. The Void pattern doesn’t add any prohibitive emissaries, and Raging is actually a buff to strategies involving using the Ashvane Spotter to kill trash. Tyrannical and Necrotic make some of the boss encounters very challenging - be sure to help your tank reset stacks whenever an opportunity arises!

Read more on Siege of Boralus Dungeon Abilities.

Temple of Sethraliss [back to top]

The Temple of Sethraliss is closed this week. There are Void emissaries impeding every common skip, so you’ll need to turn those shrouds into death skips, which generally cost valuable time and battle rezzes. After you execute those skips, you’re rewarded with Tyrannical/Necrotic versions of some of the expansion’s hardest bosses.

Read more on Temple of Sethraliss Dungeon Abilities.

The MOTHERLODE!! [back to top]

This is another fairly good dungeon for the week - Tyrannical is usually better than Fortified here, and the open layout makes most of the worst emissaries skippable. Advanced strategies already used death skips here, since many of the enemies naturally have true sight, so Voids being sprinkled in those areas don’t add any time to the key.

Read more on The MOTHERLODE!! Dungeon Abilities.

The Underrot [back to top]

The Underrot is among the least sensitive to each affix week and Beguiling pattern rotation - in fact, the only emissary that requires a special plan to deal with is a Tides next to a pair of Defilers - the Voids aren’t placed too punishingly. Make sure your tank back away from Zancha during its Festering Harvest cast - it still autoattacks during this time so you need to outrange it to drop Necrotic stacks.

Read more on The Underrot Dungeon Abilities.

Tol Dagor [back to top]

Annoying Voids that block the path exist on every week in Tol Dagor, the good news is that there’s always line-of-sight available. Depending on the key level, you may want to break the Raiders out of the cages before engaging Jes Howlis so that you’ll have less Necrotic to worry about during the fight.

Read more on Tol Dagor Dungeon Abilities.

Waycrest Manor [back to top]

Lord and Lady Waycrest is a very rough boss this week with Necrotic and Tyrannical active. Try to facilitate a stack-drop before the Lady appears, and save your biggest defensive cooldowns for then. None of the Voids in here are too bad - all of the ones near tough trash offer easy line-of-sight to trivialize them, just make sure to use these spots liberally to save your healer a lot of work!

Read more on Waycrest Manor Dungeon Abilities.