what m+ garbage do i have to deal with this week?

what garbage affixes do i have to deal with this week?

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Changelog

A small changelog of what's been updated recently. You can see all the commits on Github.

Affixes

Legend: easy difficulty | medium difficulty | hard difficulty

What is an "affix"?

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.


Level 2 affixes
(these occur on all keystones, alternating weekly)

  • Fortified

    Non-bosses have more health and deal 30% 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 30% 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.

Level 7 affixes
(one affix will occur at +7 per week)

  • Afflicted

    While in combat, Afflicted Souls periodically appear and seek the aid of players. They must be healed to full or dispelled before their cast, Afflicted Cry, goes off or they will reduce all players haste by 100% for 10 seconds.

    Note: any dispel works. Afflicted Cry can be line-of-sighted, and has a 60 yard range.

  • Incorporeal

    Incorporeal beings periodically spawn and cast Destabilize. If the cast goes off, player damage and healing is reduced by 50%. The debuff stacks The mobs do not take damage and can only be crowd controlled.

    Note: this affix is garbage, or was at the time of writing. I hope they adjust the spawn rate by the time 10.1 comes out.

  • Volcanic

    Enemies cause eruptions of flame near distant players. Additional volcanoes may appear near existing volcanoes.

    Note: Keep an eye out for the volcano animation under your feet or near you. Sometimes you may not have to move! Knocks you high in to the air in addition to doing damage scaled to the keystone level.

  • Entangling

    Entangling vines periodically appear and slow players. Moving away from the vines will snap the vine and remove the debuff. If players do not move from the vine before the debuff expires, players are stunned for 3 seconds.

    Note: movement immunities like Freedom, Posthaste, etc will remove the debuff.

  • Storming

    Tornadoes spawn around enemy creatures while in combat.

    Note: Grey swirlies appear on the floor indicating where a tornado will spawn. If a player is hit by the tornado, they take damage and are knocked back. The tornado disappears a player comes in contact with it.

Level 14 affixes
(one affix will occur at +14 per week)

  • Spiteful

    Spirits rise from the corpses of non-boss enemies and chase down random players, dealing HEAVY melee damage.

    Note: Whenever an enemy dies, it spawns a Spiteful Shade that will fixate on a random player. Their health and damage scales with keystone level. They lose 8% of their HP every second and can be crowd controlled.

  • Raging

    Non-boss enemies enrage at 30% health, becoming immune to crowd control other than interrupts.

    Note: enemies with high damage targeted abilities or high damage AoE abilities become deadly with this affix. Be sure to focus fire enemies down so there aren't multiple enraged enemies at once. Soothe effects remove the enrage!

  • Bolstering

    Non-boss enemies buff nearby allies on death, increasing damage by 20%. This effect stacks.

    Note: it's important to kill all the trash in a pull as closely together as possible with this affix so enemy damage doesn't become unmanageable. Enemies spawned by another enemy or boss ability do not trigger bolster. Bolstering stacks fall off 20 seconds after they were applied.

  • Bursting

    Non-boss enemies explode on death, causing all players to suffer flat damage that scales with keystone level. This effect stacks.

    Note: This effect stacks, so it is safest to let the stacks drop before killing multiple enemies. Typically only elite enemies trigger bursting. Now dispellable!

  • Sanguine

    Non-boss enemies will leave a pool of blood on the ground on death. This pool heals enemies and damages players for a percentage of their maximum health.

    Note: The pool's radius is 8 yds. Pools last 12 seconds.

Weekly schedule for affixes

The following table shows the expected affix schedule for the entirety of the current season.

Just kidding, Blizzard hasn't published the schedule yet!

Baseline 2 (+7) 3 (+14)
Tyrannical Storming Raging
Fortified Entangling Bolstering
Tyrannical Incorporeal Spiteful
Fortified Afflicted Raging
Tyrannical Volcanic Sanguine
Fortified Storming Bursting
Tyrannical Afflicted Bolstering
Fortified Incorporeal Sanguine
Tyrannical Entangling Bursting
Fortified Volcanic Spiteful

Group Considerations

Group makeup barely matters at low keystone levels. There is little reason to sweat your group composition on keys below 15. Bring the player, not the class.

That being said, your group composition will always be one tank, one healer, and three DPS. Multi-tank strategies are not viable, no matter how much you think they should be.

It's important to build a group that is well rounded in order increase your chances of completing a keystone within the timer. This means bringing consumables to make up for gaps in your group composition.

When considering your group composition, it is important to consider what each class can bring to the table. Does your group have:

  1. ways to dispel buffs on enemies?
  2. ways to dispel debuffs on allies?
  3. multiple interrupts or other CC to stop enemy casting?
  4. strong CC for difficult trash pulls?

Selecting your group carefully matters mostly for higher level keys where the difficulty of the run is often very high. For lower level keystone runs, group makeup is not as important. Just saying. Do what you want. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Consumables

Mandatory (at least above keystone level 10)

  1. Current food
  2. Current phials
  3. Current potions
  4. Repair mount/Auto-Hammer/Jeeves/Reeves

"Missing a class" consumables

  1. Drums (any tier is fine, they all give 15% haste [source]): sorta makes up for no Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp/Hysteria, but the nerf from 25% haste to 15% really hurts the value of drums.

Optional/niche/high key consumables

  1. Invisibility potions (used for skipping troubling trash packs at high key levels)
  2. Augment runes

"No one will invite me to a group!"

It sucks to apply to 50 groups and get declined from every single one.

Most of the time when you apply to a key, 100 other people apply to the same key and your application gets buried.


Fig. 1: this is why you can't get in to low keys.

Unfortunately, lots of people want to do keys and people running groups have the luxury of choosing people that may be better geared than you or have a higher Mythic+ rating than you.

There are a few ways to ensure you can get into keys:

  1. Start your own group with your own key. This gives YOU the luxury of forming the group and is the only guaranteed way to get into a key.
  2. Look for groups with "chill run" in the title
  3. Play a tank or healer (or force a friend to)
  4. Join a group finding Discord
  5. Join a guild that is active and Mythic+ focused
  6. Shoot your shot. Apply to a bunch of keys, even keys that you think may be one or two levels too hard for you

Grinding out score can be frustrating when it takes 45 minutes to find a group, especially when it's a key you need and the group disbands after one mistake. All you can do is try your best. I got declined from over 600+ Mythic+ group applications throughout Shadowlands. I promise not everyone out there is an elitist that's out to get you.

Keystones

Complete a keystone run within the timer to upgrade a keystone to the next level.
Example: Your group completes Halls of Infusion +6 in 36 minutes and 32 seconds. The par timer is 38 minutes, the keystone levels up from level 6 to level 7 and rolls a new random dungeon.

Complete a keystone run with 20% of the timer remaining and upgrade the keystone 2 times in one go.
Example: Your group completes Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr +5 in 30 minutes and 54 seconds. The par timer is 38 minutes, so the keystone levels up from level 5 to level 7 and rolls a new random dungeon.

Complete a keysone run with 40% of the timer remaining and upgrade the keystone 3 times in one go.
Example: Your group completes Halls of Infusion +2 in 19 minutes and 34 seconds. The par timer is 38 minutes, so the keystone levels up from keystone level 2 to keystone level 5 and rolls a new random dungeon.

Didn't beat the timer? That's ok. Your keystone just levels down by 1 and rerolls the dungeon.
Example: Your group completes Neltharus +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.

There's also a vendor named Lindormi in Valdrakken that will 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 an Azure Vault +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.

Time penalty for deaths

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.

Instance Timer and Requirements for "Level Jumps"

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
Brackenhide Hollow 35:00 28:00 (7:00 left on the timer) 21:00(14:00 left on the timer)
Freehold 30:00 24:00 (6:00 left on the timer) 18:00 (12:00 left on the timer)
Halls of Infusion 35:00 28:00 (7:00 left on the timer) 21:00(14:00 left on the timer)
Neltharus 33:00 26:24 (6:36 left on the timer) 19:48 (13:12 left on the timer)
Neltharion's Lair 33:00 26:24 (6:36 left on the timer) 19:48 (13:12 left on the timer)
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr 35:00 28:00 (7:00 left on the timer) 21:00(14:00 left on the timer)
Underrot 30:00 24:00 (6:00 left on the timer) 18:00 (12:00 left on the timer)
Vortex Pinnacle 30:00 24:00 (6:00 left on the timer) 18:00 (12:00 left on the timer)

The Great Vault and You

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 PVP.

To reduce confusion, let's just assume that you only play mythic plus and don't raid or PVP.

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.


wait, how many gear choices do I get if I do X number of keystone runs?


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.


tl;dr

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

Loot

Level End of Run Great Vault Crests to upgrade (End of Run, Great Vault)
2 402 415 Whelpling, Drake
3 405 418 Whelpling, Drake
4 405 421 Whelpling, Drake
5 408 421 Whelpling, Drake
6 408 424 Whelpling, Drake
7 411 424 Whelpling, Drake
8 411 428 Whelpling, Wyrm
9 415 428 Drake, Wyrm
10 415 431 Drake, Wyrm
11 418 431 Drake, Wyrm
12 418 434 Drake, Wyrm
13 421 434 Drake, Wyrm
14 421 437 Drake, Wyrm
15 424 437 Drake, Wyrm
16 424 441 Drake, Aspect
17 428 441 Wyrm, Aspect
18 428 444 Wyrm, Aspect
19 431 444 Wyrm, Aspect
20 431 447 Wyrm, Cannot upgrade

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. One piece of loot will be at the item level that corresponds to the level of keystone you completed and one will be at a lower item level.


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 +15, two pieces of 424 loot drop in the end of run chest. Later, your group fails to time a +15. One piece of loot drops at 424 and one drops at 421 item level.

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 +16 last week. This week at reset you get a +16 keystone from your chest. This week you don't time anything higher than a +16. Next week at reset you get a +15 key from the vault.

Gear that drops from keystone runs and from the Great Vault can be upgraded to a maximum item level of 441 using Flightstones and Crests. More info about Flightstones and Crests below.

It is best to complete a +20 every week to get the highest gear value from your weekly chest.


Mythic+ rating

Mythic+ rating is an indicator of a player's mythic+ experience.

Your rating increases as a result of the following:

  • each time you run a dungeon you haven't completed before
  • complete a dungeon at a higher keystone level than your previous best
  • beat your best time in a dungeon you've already completed.
Completing a key provides a rating based on two factors:
  • the level of the key
  • the amount of time it took to finish the run
Like Conquest and other similar systems, your Mythic+ rating will be reset at the start of a new season.

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.


Your overall Mythic+ rating is simply the sum of your ratings for all dungeons.


Getting Dragonflight Season 2 achievements and rewards

Dragonflight Keystone Explorer: Season 2 unlocks when you hit 750 Mythic+ rating and has no other reward.

Dragonflight Keystone Conqueror: Season 2 unlocks when you hit 1500 Mythic+ rating and awards the title the Smoldering.

Dragonflight Keystone Master: Season 2 unlocks when you hit 2000 Mythic+ rating and awards the Inferno Armoredon mount.

Dragonflight Keystone Hero: Season 2 unlocks when you hit 2500 Mythic+ rating and awards the Obsidian Aspectral Earthstone, which unlocks the mythic armor appearance for your Aberrus set appearances.

Additionally, timing a dungeon on +20 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.

Upgrading Your Gear

Rather than inundate you with a ton of information, I'm going to give you a brief rundown of the system and then link you to more in-depth sheets/documents.

I hate this system, haha! It's complicated! It has shit scattered everywhere! It takes up space in your bags! It requires you to keep so much information in your head regarding what activities will give you the crests you want! It requires you to consult a spreadsheet for details! It sucks!

A redeeming feature of this system (this may sound elitist) is that players finally have to do harder content to get better gear which is good game design, I guess.

I am a little bummed that this system effectively kills the "valor farm" groups that formed last season, as those were also ways to get new players to step into mythic plus, knowing they had the safety net of geared players to help them clear dungeons.

Sorry for the tangent, let's talk about this garbage.

Where do I get this new upgrade... stuff?

Shadowflame Fragments

Combine 15 fragments of a type (Whelpling, Drake, etc) to create a Shadowflame Crest of the same type.

Fragments drop from endgame activities (raid, keystone dungeons, endgame world content). The harder the content, the better crests you'll get.

  • Raid bosses drop 10 fragments.
  • Timed keystone runs drop 12 fragments.
  • Untimed keystone runs drop 5 fragments.
  • Keys between 2 and 5 and LFR drops Whelpling fragments.
  • Keys between 6 and 10 and Normal raid drops Drake fragments.
  • Keys between 11 and 15 and Heroic raid drops Wyrm fragments.
  • Keys 16 and above and Mythic raid drops Aspect fragments.

You can EARN 150 fragments PER TYPE PER WEEK, with the cap increasing every week (similar to the Valor cap).


Flightstones

Flightstones are the other currency you'll use to upgrade your gear. They come from pretty much any endgame activity.

A 60% account wide discount is unlocked when you get a higher item level piece of gear in a slot.


More info

Here's a couple of helpful sheets and documents that have more info than I am willing to type about this system:

Useful stuff

Addons

This is not a definitive list of THINGS YOU NEED, but a list of addons/WeakAuras that I like and find useful.


Addon Managers

A brief message about addon managers

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.

Timers

  • M+ Timer (WeakAura) - Mythic plus timer with a lot of bonus features, including auto-gossip/interact, MDT integration, and more!
  • Angry Keystones - Another take on the keystone/mythic+ timer. Displays affix rotation schedule and current affixes as well as providing chest timers and kill count % ingame.
  • iP Mythic Timer - A combo timer with a great deal of customization. Shows timer for +2 and +3, % per mob, total percent pulled, and more!

Dungeon information/boss mods

  • Dragonflight Dungeons - Comprehensive alerts for trash and boss abilities. Covers things bossmods do not. Optionally offers simple verbal queues such as "stack, spread, dance, etc." Absolutely invaluable.
  • LittleWigs - Requires BigWigs Boss Mods. A lightweight boss mod suite tailored for dungeons.

Keystone and group information

  • Mythic Dungeon Tools - Plan out routes, then use a shareable interactive map to make sure your group is on the same page.
  • Raider.io Addon - Hover over players in the world, guild, etc and get their raider.io score. The addon comes with an updater client to automatically get people's scores from raider.io!
  • Astral Keys - Shows keys for guild mates, Battle Net friends and alts.

Weakauras


Mechanical WeakAuras

General Information & Utility WeakAuras

  • Raid Ability Timeline - Creates a bar that shows upcoming boss abilities visually. Requires Deadly Boss Mods or BigWigs.
  • Dungeon RIO and Classes - Requires raider.io addon. Shows LFG group leader's raider.io score in group title, class icons under roles, and applicant raider.io score before their names.
  • Mythic+ Score Tracker - At-a-glance view to see your Mythic+ score, and what dungeons will most improve your score.

Stats, tools, and guides

  • raider.io - Raider.io has all kinds of tools including character specific M+ tracking, successful run comp tracking, and ranks for m+ dungeons. Their addon is probably the most useful group building/vetting addon you'll find as it uses their scoring system to show you how experienced players are.
  • Keystone Heroes - Analyze your logged keystone runs to see where you can improve.
  • Questionably Epic - Easy-to-digest dungeon guides and an addon that provides tips and strategy reminders throughout dungeons. Especially useful if you play druid or monk.
  • M+ Subcreation - Analyzes raider.io to determine the difficulty of dungeons with certain affix combos, as well as other statistics.

Discords and Group Finding

  • WoW Made Easy - Helping each other get KSM in a helpful, safe, non-toxic environment. Give this Discord a shot if you are turned off by the Warcraft playerbase at large, or feel anxious joining/applying to groups in group finder. US only. Official website.
  • Mythic+ Friends Discord - The largest Mythic+ Discord server aimed at helping players form groups and teaching new players about mythic plus.
  • No Pressure - Inspired by Wow Made Easy, No Pressure is a large EU community for finding non-toxic, stress-free groups to do content at every difficult level. Official website.

Patreon Hero Shrine

A dedication to everyone who gave to the Patreon over the years.

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