wow The Great Mythic+ Challenge: From Zero to Hero

[Petko 7]

Join our Mythic+ guru Petko as he embarks on a journey to earn the Tormented Hero: Shadowlands Season 2 achievement on a fresh character before the end of Season 2!

The Great Challenge, from Zero to Hero

Hey guys, Petko here! I have decided to challenge myself before the end of the current season, and earn the Tormented Hero: Shadowlands Season 2 achievement on one of my fresh characters, and since I have done it multiple times in the past, I will guide you through every step of my journey.

In the mini-series, I will show you how to increase your current Mythic+ score. But of course, it wouldn't be interesting if I took the traditional path, that's why I have created some unique rules and restrictions for the challenge.

Rules of the challenge

I have decided to put some general rules to ensure maximum difficulty and to make the challenge more entertaining. To make things fair, all of my runs will be live broadcasted on my Twitch channel, and all Mythic+ score will be obtained on stream. Below is a list of restrictions and rules for the challenge:

• I must start with a fresh character with the bare minimum item level, just after I hit level 60 in the game.
• I am not allowed to group up with any of my friends or with people I know, the score must be obtained only through the LFG tool in-game. I am, however, allowed to add people on my friend list if I meet them in a pug group, and therefore group up with them.
• No Korthia whatsoever, that means no grindable sockets or max item level conduits.
• No cinder farm, so I can't upgrade my legendary higher than Rank 4 (which was the maximum rank during the release of Shadowlands), nor get any sockets from them.
• My main character must not be linked on Raider.io, so people won't accept me due to my main having a high score rather than my actual alt.
• No PvP whatsoever, older items from Season 1 are allowed but anything from Season 2 onward is not, therefore I will not have an option to obtain high item level trinkets.
• No raiding, that means I am not going to be able to get Domination sockets and Domination pieces, nor have easy access to gear.
• It has to be an Alliance character since it is a lot harder to find people through the LFG tool!
• I will also rename my character so nobody will recognize and invite me just because they know who I am.
• I am not allowed to queue or accept people with a higher difference in the Mythic+ score than 200.
  • For example, if my current Mythic score is 1500 I can accept or queue up with people at a maximum score of 1700).

Why did I start the challenge?

First and foremost, I want to spread awareness and teach people how to get better at Mythic+. I have always enjoyed producing educational content for the Warcraft community and since this is by far the most ambitious project I have ever done, I want to share it with as many of you as possible.

Over the years of playing Mythic+, I've heard many excuses as to why players don't do Mythic+. These include:

• "I don't play WoW all day to be able to do that"
• "I don't Mythic raid therefore I can't play keys past +15 level difficulty".
• I have no group to play with and people from the LFG tool won't accept me".
• "I don't play "meta" class, therefore I can't get into keys".

I've heard it all!

While all of the above statements are not necessarily wrong, I want to show the world that with dedication and hard work you can achieve anything. I started just like you, many years ago, so if I can do it, you can get something out of this challenge too!

Main goal

My main goal is to obtain the Tormented Hero: Shadowlands Season 2 title, which is only awarded to the 0.1% of the player base of your faction. The character will be deleted after the title has been earned. Mythic+ titles are distributed at the end of each Season, leaving me with a few months to earn the "Tormented Hero" title. You can expect new episodes of the miniseries every week supported by a YouTube video where you can watch the highlights of the current week and all the importer tips/tricks there!

Chapter 1, Episode 1

Immediately once I earned level 60, I focused on a couple of things, the first being getting my Legendary and increasing my item level without stepping into a dungeon through the Auction House. And no, I am not talking about buying expensive Epic Items, but some base items are quite cheap and can get you closer to 180-190 overall item level before having a Legendary item. Once I'm done with that, I'll start farming as many Valor Points as possible and obtain all of my spec-specific conduits. Below, I outlined some of the next steps of the journey.

• Start by running a Mythic+ 0 dungeon of my choice, I usually choose the ones that will be most rewarding per time spent (item and conduit wise).
• Once I complete my Mythic+ 0 dungeon, I will be awarded a Mythic+ keystone, which will increase by+2 at the time.
• My goal is to not try to join pugs. Due to my low score, I'd be sitting in a queue forever.
• Instead, I'll focus on pushing my Mythic+ key, which is easy up to +5 and requires just basic gear around item level 200.
• I'll try to complete every single dungeon, to gain all of my conduits, increase my Renown level and also get my Mythic+ score.

The main goal of the week

My main goal was to push all keys to at least +10 level. You don't need great keys to do so and you can do it by solely pushing your key, rather than pugging, which is the biggest mistake of the majority of the players in this game. To improve my gear from Mythic+ to max item level (246), I must have a collective Mythic+ score of 2000, which is a combination of both Fortified and Tyrannical keys. I also focused on timing as many keys as possible to gain more Valor Points and also increase my Renown levels, which will ultimately make me stronger and therefore capable of timing higher keys.

The most important things to pay attention to ("Elo hell")

The single most important detail to pay attention to in keys below Mythic+ 15 is just one thing. More damage is all you need. Stop forcing complicated routes and don't expect people to know the basics of the dungeon (that includes boss mechanics). You can have +40 deaths and you can still end up timing the key, as long as you have the damage to carry on. Here are a few tips that helped me out in my journey on the lower end of keys:

• Don't expect people to know how to play specific affixes or know what they do.
  • For example, Sanguine heals the enemies that stand on top of them, etc.
• Don't expect people to use consumables such as Invisibility Potion or so, hence why simple routes and killing everything is going to be the best bet around those key levels.
• Don't expect people to use their tool-kit that also includes interrupting spells, hard-CCs like stuns or disturb effect, you can do your best to interrupt the most important casts or crucial boss spells, but other than this, you are in for a solo ride (at least in the most cases).
• Don't be too picky with what classes you bring, as long as they have a somewhat decent item level, anything will work for under +15 runs. I tend to choose experience over item-level, which usually does the job well.

How to get to a +15s the quickest way?

This might come as a shock to you but, pugging your key to a +15 will be the fastest way. The majority of the time you'd be spending in the LFG waiting to be accepted, while you should rather push your key and enjoy the process. You will also learn how to play your class/spec properly since it will be more time-consuming. On top of that, you will earn more Valor Points and practice the basics of Mythic+ before stepping into a +15.

Along the way you might also find people to play with and potentially be able to invite them again in the future, almost all of my friends came from LFG at some point, that is the only way! Focus on improving your DPS since that is what can carry the key the most. Usually, as a tank you have the biggest power in the dungeon, focus on improving the routes and exclude the complicated options, and don't overcomplicate things.

End results

I finished the week with a 1353 Mythic+ score, a lot of upgrades, a huge chunk of Valor points, and mostly all spec-specific conduits at +226 item level. I feel a lot more powerful and I am sure, as soon as next week hits, I will be able to get +15s done for my weekly vault. Once I obtain the Shadowlands Keystone Master: Season Two achievement, I will be able to upgrade my gear to 246 with the right amount of Valor. I will attach the full episode as a YouTube video if you are interested to see the whole detailed process in action.