This list might seem short. That's because there's really only two affixes that change every week - Xal'atath's Bargain and which dungeon buff you get first, Tyrannical or Fortified.
Challenger's Peril always shows up at 7, either Fortified or Tyrannical shows up at 10 (whichever one you didn't get first), and Xal'atath's Guile always appears at 12.
An affix is a modifier applied to a mythic keystone at set levels. Different combinations occur every week, with the combinations repeating on a set schedule.
Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant
Ten orbs appear every minute while in combat that must be interrupted, purged, knocked, or crowd controlled.
Note: If the orb cast goes off, enemies get buffed with 10% movement speed and haste per cast. If the orbs are interrupted, players get a stacking buff worth 2% movespeed and haste per stack.
Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound
A Void Emissary spawns while players are in combat and buffs enemies.
Note: Any mob that gets buffed takes reduced damage. This buff stacks. Killing the Void Emissary gives players a buff that gives them 53% cooldown reduction and 20% increased Versatility.
Xal'atath's Bargain: Oblivion
Crystals spawn and move toward an enemy while in combat.
Note: If the crystal reaches the targeted enemy, the enemy gets does 10% increased damage. If players absorb the crystals, they get a Mastery and Leech buff.
Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour
Players are periodically afflicted with a heal absorb while in combat.
Note: It's not really an absorb, players just need to be healed a certain amount while they have the debuff. Healing or dispelling the absorb gives players a stacking +2% health and +4% crit buff. Failing to heal or dispel the absorb will heal enemies for 10% of their total HP.
Fortified
Non-bosses have 20% more health and deal 20% more damage.
Note: interrupting and dodging any/all enemy abilities becomes an absolute priority with this affix. Most of the time spent in the dungeon will be fighting beefy trash.
Tyrannical
Bosses have 25% more health and deal 15% more damage.
Note: Boss abilities are no longer trivial. Boss mechanics need to be respected (don't stand in stuff!). Some fights become endurance tests because they last so long.
Challenger's Peril
90 seconds is added at the start of the key. Deaths cost 3x more time (15 seconds vs. 5 seconds).
Note: don't die. Seriously, don't die. Each wipe is worth 1:15 on the timer now plus the time it takes you to run back. You WILL fail to time keys if you die.
Other note: this affix is garbage and should be moved to +10 or higher. There's no reason PUGs should have to deal with this, IMO
Fortified
Non-bosses have 20% more health and deal 20% more damage.
Yes, you're reading this right. It's not a typo. You'll get both Tyrannical AND Fortified on +10 keys.
Tyrannical
Bosses have 25% more health and deal 15% more damage.
Xal'atath's Guile
All benefits from Xal'atath's Bargains are removed. All enemies have a flat 10% increase to their HP and damage.
Note: Ouch.
The following table shows the affix schedule for the entirety of the current season.
| Baseline | 3 (+4) | 4 (+7) | 5 (+10) | 6 (+12) |
| Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant | Tyrannical | Peril | Fortified | Xal'atath's Guile |
| Xal'atath's Bargain: Oblivion | Fortified | Peril | Tyrannical | Xal'atath's Guile |
| Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound | Tyrannical | Peril | Fortified | Xal'atath's Guile |
| Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour | Fortified | Peril | Tyrannical | Xal'atath's Guile |
| Xal'atath's Bargain: Oblivion | Tyrannical | Peril | Fortified | Xal'atath's Guile |
| Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant | Fortified | Peril | Tyrannical | Xal'atath's Guile |
| Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour | Tyrannical | Peril | Fortified | Xal'atath's Guile |
| Xal'atath's Bargain | Fortified | Peril | Tyrannical | Xal'atath's Guile |
Complete a keystone run within the timer to upgrade a keystone to the next level.
Complete a keystone run with 20% of the timer remaining and upgrade the keystone 2 times in one go.
Complete a keysone run with 40% of the timer remaining and upgrade the keystone 3 times in one go.
Didn't beat the timer? That's ok. Your keystone just levels down by 1 and rerolls the dungeon.Example: Your group completes Grim Batol +5 but misses the timer. Your keystone downgrades to a random dungeon at +4.
Don't have a keystone? Completing a Mythic difficulty dungeon will net you a key at the end of the run. This keystone will be one level under the keystone run level you complete, or +2 if you completed a Mythic +0.
Lindormi will probably be around in the new city to give you a key based on your highest run completed, no dungeon run required.1
You can also get a key from the Great Vault based on the highest key you completed last week. If you did a 15 last week, you'll get a 15 this week from your vault.
If you do not complete any keystones for a week, the level degrades by 1 and continues to degrade by one for every week you do not do a higher difficulty keystone.2
[1] Example: you complete a City of Threads +7 - the chest at the end will have a random +6 key in it.
[2] Example: Your highest key you complete for a week is a +15, but you do not do a key the following week. Your keystone degrades to a +14 on the third week.
Five seconds are subtracted from the timer any time a player dies in a keystone run. While this may seem inconsequential at first, the time lost to death will add up quickly if players die to mechanics frequently. This can easily result in missing the timer. This time goes up to 15 seconds per death at keystone levels 7 and above.
The following table shows the amount of time you have to complete a keystone run and upgrade your key. The +2 and +3 columns show how much time you have to complete a keystone run in order to +2 or +3 a key.
| Name | Par time | +2 keystone levels | +3 keystone levels |
| Ara-Kara, City of Echoes | 30:00 | 24:00 (6:00 left on the timer) | 18:00 (12:00 left on the timer) |
| City of Threads | 35:00 | 28:00 (7:00 left on the timer) | 21:00 (14:00 left on the timer) |
| The Dawnbreaker | 30:00 | 24:00 (6:00 left on the timer) | 18:00 (12:00 left on the timer) |
| The Stonevault | 33:00 | 26:24 (6:36 left on the timer) | 19:48 (13:12 left on the timer) |
| Mists of Tirna Scithe | 30:00 | 24:00 (6:00 left on the timer) | 18:00 (12:00 left on the timer) |
| Siege of Boralus | 34:00 | 27:12 (6:48 left on the timer) | 20:24 (13:36 left on the timer) |
| Grim Batol | 36:00 | 29:12 (6:48 left on the timer) | 21:36 (14:24 left on the timer) |
| The Necrotic Wake | 32:00 | 25:36 (6:24 left on the timer) | 19:12 (12:48 left on the timer) |
You CAN get tier pieces from your vault.
Every week at reset you are eligible to choose ONE PIECE of gear from The Great Vault based on your accomplishments from the previous week. Completing more milestones does not get you more gear, but expands your choices for the ONE PIECE of gear that you can claim.
You will also receive a keystone based on the highest timed run you completed the week before, or one less than your highest untimed run. If your highest key was a timed +15 or an untimed +16 last week, you're going to get a +15 key in your vault this week.
Remember that you only get to choose one piece of gear from The Great Vault no matter how many activities you do.
There are three paths to expand your gear choices: mythic plus, raiding, and world.
To reduce confusion, let's just assume that you only play mythic plus and don't raid or do world content.
To get the most choices at gear by doing only mythic plus, you must complete 8 mythic keystone runs a week. Completing 8 runs a week will present you with three pieces of gear to choose from at reset.
That's the short version - to be able to choose from three pieces of loot from the Great Vault, you gotta do 8 mythic keystone runs. Now let's do the long version where we talk about how keystone level affects the item level of gear you can choose from.
If you do at least one, but less than 4 keystone runs: you get one piece of loot to choose from in The Great Vault. Its item level will be based on the highest level keystone run you completed. (Look at the table below to see what the item level will be.)
If you do between 4 and 7 keystone runs: you get two pieces of loot to choose from in The Great Vault. The first item's level will be based on the highest level keystone run you completed. The second item's level will be based on the FOURTH HIGHEST keystone run you completed.
If you do 8 or more keystone runs: you get three pieces of loot to choose from in The Great Vault. The first item's level will be based on the highest level keystone run you completed. The second item's level will be based on the FOURTH HIGHEST keystone run you completed. The third item's level will be based on the EIGHTH HIGHEST keystone run you completed.
One thing that I want to make clear now that you've read this: it doesn't matter in which order you complete your keystone dungeons, but it does matter how many keys you do. The game makes a list of all the keystone runs you completed and sorts them from highest level to lowest level, then selects the first, fourth, and eighth highest completed keystone levels. This means you can continue to do keystone runs past the 8 required for your weekly milestones to give you more options at higher level gear. You can NEVER LOWER the item level of the gear you're going to get since the list is sorted from highest to lowest.
Example: You've been busy this week! You completed ten total keystone dungeons! Wow! The game has built a list of all the keystone levels you completed and sorted them from highest to lowest to determine what you're going to get for gear choices. Here's an example list:
+15, +15, +15, +15, +13, +12, +10, +10, +10, +9
The bolded numbers are the first, fourth, and eighth highest runs you completed. The item level of the gear you'll be able to choose from will be listed in The Great Vault's UI.
Let's say you want to raise the item level of one of your choices of gear, so you go out and complete some +12 runs. Using the example above, the +12s are injected into the list and cause your eighth highest run to become a +12. Here's what the new list would look like:
+15, +15, +15, +15, +13, +12, +12, +12, +10, +10, +10, +10, +10, +9
| Level | End of Run | End of Run upgrade level | Great Vault | Great Vault upgrade level |
| 2 | 597 | Champion 1/8 | 606 | Champion 4/8 |
| 3 | 597 | Champion 1/8 | 610 | Hero 1/6 |
| 4 | 600 | Champion 2/8 | 610 | Hero 1/6 |
| 5 | 603 | Champion 3/8 | 613 | Hero 2/6 |
| 6 | 606 | Champion 4/8 | 613 | Hero 2/6 |
| 7 | 610 | Hero 1/6 | 616 | Hero 3/6 |
| 8 | 610 | Hero 2/6 | 619 | Hero 4/6 |
| 9 | 613 | Hero 2/6 | 619 | Hero 4/6 |
| 10 | 613 | Hero 2/6 | 623 | Myth 1/6 |
The chest at the end of the run guarantees the GROUP two pieces of loot from the dungeon loot table, even if you don't beat the timer.
If you beat the timer, the group will be awarded two pieces of loot at the item level that corresponds to the level of the keystone you completed.
Example: Your group times a +9, two pieces of 613 loot drop in the end of run chest.
At reset, the Great Vault will have a keystone based on the highest level keystone run you completed the week before. However, the keystone will degrade if you do not continue to complete keystones at higher or equal levels to what you previously completed.
Example: You timed a +11 last week. This week at reset you get a +11 keystone from your chest. This week you don't time anything higher than a +11. Next week at reset you get a +10 key from the vault.
It is best to complete a +10 every week to get the highest gear value from your weekly chest.
Mythic+ rating is an indicator of a player's mythic+ experience.
Your rating increases as a result of the following:
In order to maximize your rating, you must complete every dungeon on both Fortified and Tyrannical weeks, as they are rated separately. Whichever of the two versions yields your higher rating for each dungeon will provide full points.
This doesn't seem to be true anymore! You just need to complete a key at a high level to get the most rating as you'll end up doing both Fortified AND Tyrannical on your keystone every week.
Your overall Mythic+ rating is simply the sum of your ratings for all dungeons.
The War Within Keystone Explorer: Season 1 unlocks when you complete a Mythic+ dungeon in time.
The War Within Keystone Conqueror: Season 1 unlocks when you hit 1500 Mythic+ rating and awards the title the Tempered.
The War Within Keystone Master: Season 1 unlocks when you hit 2000 Mythic+ rating and awards the Diamond Mechsuit mount.
The War Within Keystone Hero: Season 1 unlocks when you hit 2500 Mythic+ rating and awards the Luminous Nerubian Catalyst Stone.
Tempered Hero: The War Within Season 1 unlocks at the end of the season if your Mythic+ score is high enough for you to be in the top 0.1% of all players in your region (US/EU/KR, etc) and awards the title "the Tempered Hero".
Additionally, timing a dungeon on +10 unlocks a portal to that dungeon in your spellbook. All dungeon portals have a shared 8 hour cooldown, but the cooldown resets when you complete any keystone.
This is not a definitive list of THINGS YOU NEED, but a list of addons/WeakAuras that I like and find useful.
As someone who values their privacy online, I feel like it's important that I mention the Overwolf client is BAD and all of its privacy options are OPT-OUT by default, instead of OPT-IN. I encourage you to use an open source addon manager like wowup.io or instawow. Just my two cents.