wow New Mythic+ Affixes and Dungeon Changes Coming in the War Within

[Staff 1,488]

Blizzard dive into all the dungeon changes coming with the expansion. From big changes to Heroic and Mythic, to the dungeon roster for Season 1, and brand new affixes coming to Mythic+, let's dive in.

Dungeons and Affixes (Source)

Greetings!

With The War Within beta now underway, we are excited to share additional updates regarding dungeons and the affix system.

Heroic & Mythic Dungeons

In Dragonflight Season 4, we experimented with our existing dungeon difficulty progression to offer additional endgame options for players who enjoy more methodical dungeon gameplay. This updated dungeon difficulty progression is also an opportunity for players that do enjoy Mythic Keystones to have a place to build mastery over dungeons before the pressures of a timer kick in. You can read more about those changes in depth here. We plan to continue this model of progression into The War Within with some exciting updates!

• Normal
  • This difficulty is unchanged.
  • This difficulty always includes our 8 War Within dungeons.
• Heroic
  • The tuning and rewards of this difficulty are increasing to be equivalent to a baseline Mythic (Mythic 0) dungeon in the previous system.
  • New mechanics and other adjustments from Mythic will not be present in this difficulty.
  • This remains a queueable experience.
  • Starting with Season 1 of The War Within, Heroic dungeon difficulty will feature our roster of seasonal dungeons.
• Mythic
  • The tuning and rewards of this difficulty are increasing to the equivalent of a +10 dungeon with affixes in the previous system.
  • There are no timers, affixes, or limitations on changing specializations or talents while in the dungeon.
  • The goal is to create a mega-dungeon like difficulty for this experience. This difficulty should present a meaningful challenge and provide commensurate rewards without the pressure of the Mythic+ system.
  • Starting with Season 1 of The War Within, Mythic difficulty will feature our roster of seasonal dungeons.
  • Mythic difficulty will be unavailable until with the War Within Season 1 begins.
  • Mythic difficulty will now have a daily lockout, changed from weekly in the previous system.

The seasonal dungeon roster for Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+ difficulties in Season 1 of The War Within includes the following dungeons:

• The Stonevault
• The Dawnbreaker
• Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
• City of Threads
• Grim Batol
• The Necrotic Wake
• Mists of Tirna Scithe
• Siege of Boralus

Mythic+

The Mythic Keystone system will carry forward changes from Dragonflight Season 4 with updates to the position of affixes in the system and updated affix buckets.

• The Mythic+ system will have rewards up to level 10, with +2 starting from what would have been a +11 in the previous Mythic+ system.
• A +5 should be as hard as a +15 and +10 should be as hard as a +20 in the previous Mythic+ system etc.
• We intend to better align reward and difficulty increases in the Mythic+ system by updating the introduction points of affixes in Season 1 of The War Within.
  • +2 - Fortified/Tyrannical
  • +4 - A new set of passive affixes
  • +7 - Bursting / Bolstering etc.
• Dungeon ratings should be equivalent to what they represent in the current system.
• There should be a smaller range of Keystone levels to find groups for, and more meaningful progression between each level.

Affixes

Before we dive into the specifics of the new affixes, we would like to outline our goals and the purpose these affixes serve. Our overarching goal is to minimize the mechanical overlap between affixes and dungeon trash design in the current +4 affix bucket. We aim to achieve this through a more passive approach, focusing on the following objectives:

• Shift the source of challenge to the dungeon itself by simplifying affix design and emphasizing creature abilities.
• Reduce visual noise, nameplate clutter, and the cognitive load on players during trash combat.
• Allow for varied and context-specific gameplay decisions depending on the dungeon they are applied to.

Additionally, these affixes will include a positive effect. The aim of these positive effects is to highlight different damage types each week, allowing each specialization additional opportunities to excel during the season.

• These effects should feel like a bonus, offering an advantage for different damage profiles each week without being essential to complete a dungeon.
• Players will have an opportunity to flex towards different talents, gearing options, and consumables to capitalize on these effects.

New Affixes

• Reckless
  • Non-boss enemies without mana ignore 20% armor with their attacks, but their armor is reduced by 30% and they take 10% increased Arcane damage.
• Thorned
  • Non-boss enemies without mana inflict Physical damage to their attackers when attacked, but take 10% increased Holy and Shadow damage.
• Attuned
  • Non-boss enemies with mana inflict 20% increased magic damage, but take 10% increased Nature damage and 30% increased damage from Bleed effects.
• Focused
  • Non-boss enemies with mana have 30% increased Haste, but take 10% increased Frost and Fire damage.

Note that these tooltips indicate whether the affixes apply to creatures with or without mana. These affixes will not affect every creature.

With our new passive affix bucket set to replace the current +4 affix bucket, the following affixes will be retired for Season 1 of The War Within:

• Afflicted
• Incorporeal
• Entangling
• Storming
• Volcanic

To match the number of affixes in our level 4 affix bucket and align with our affix goals in The War Within we will be retiring the Spiteful affix for Season 1 of The War Within. The +7 affix bucket includes the following:

• Raging
• Bolstering
• Bursting
• Sanguine

Tyrannical and Fortified Affixes

We are still experimenting with how these affixes fit in with our updates.

We believe these changes will offer a refreshing experience for players at all levels each season and redefine how the Mythic+ affix system influences dungeon gameplay. We look forward to your feedback and discussions on these topics and we’ll see you in dungeons!

[Dejo93 1,023]

some of these look extremely cancerous

 

not to mention that this will lead to a lot of specific classes during their week

 

not a good design imo

[Brightamethyst 104]

That is teeeeeeeeerible design. We've seen some questionable design choices over the years, but daaaaaaaaaaamn.

"We want it to feel like a bonus without being required." Um... have you guys ever actually met any real players? You'd better rethink these changes, fast.

[Dejo93 1,023]

18 minutes ago, Brightamethyst said:

That is teeeeeeeeerible design. We've seen some questionable design choices over the years, but daaaaaaaaaaamn.

"We want it to feel like a bonus without being required." Um... have you guys ever actually met any real players? You'd better rethink these changes, fast.

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Good luck being something like Warrior

[Q 200]

I don't understand why we even need affixes, just increase health and damage numbers while decreasing the timer the higher you go.

[Dejo93 1,023]

Just now, Q said:

I don't understand why we even need affixes, just increase health and damage numbers while decreasing the timer the higher you go.

The appeal and challenge from affixes has long gone

[Q 200]

43 minutes ago, Dejo93 said:

The appeal and challenge from affixes has long gone

Agreed, making dungeons more complicated with constantly changing variables is just annoying.

[Ragingwolf 310]

Fortified weeks are going to be a pain in the *filtered*.

[Brightamethyst 104]

2 hours ago, Q said:

I don't understand why we even need affixes, just increase health and damage numbers while decreasing the timer the higher you go.

Because that's not sustainable past a certain threshold. Affixes let you have a challenge without a hard "even BiS tanks get one-shot" cutoff at +12.

[Q 200]

2 minutes ago, Brightamethyst said:

Because that's not sustainable past a certain threshold. Affixes let you have a challenge without a hard "even BiS tanks get one-shot" cutoff at +12.

I suppose but the problem is the current affixes really force groups to take classes over players depending on the week which just feels bad when a week comes around and your class is useless because you can't dispel or you're a warrior

[Brightamethyst 104]

14 minutes ago, Q said:

I suppose but the problem is the current affixes really force groups to take classes over players depending on the week which just feels bad when a week comes around and your class is useless because you can't dispel or you're a warrior

Oh, don't get me wrong. I totally agree and think the affixes need a complete rework. But even in their broken state I think affixes are still a better option than just giving trash a billion HP.

[doublebrutal 29]

33 minutes ago, Brightamethyst said:

Because that's not sustainable past a certain threshold. Affixes let you have a challenge without a hard "even BiS tanks get one-shot" cutoff at +12.

This happens with or without affixes lol use your brain... M+ is infinite scaling AND has annoying affixes. It just happens sooner with annoying affixes.

[Hypersonic 119]

It looks I'll completely skip at least the first season.. these are terrible ideas indeed. I hope with time they will reconsider them

[Fungo 6]

Is it only the affected mobs that take increased damage, or is it everything?

[Pandabuffel 184]

8 hours ago, Brightamethyst said:

Oh, don't get me wrong. I totally agree and think the affixes need a complete rework. But even in their broken state I think affixes are still a better option than just giving trash a billion HP.

I agree with you. One of the biggest complaints in gaming community about difficulty changes in many games is that it's nothing more than bigger numbers. Just slap more health and damage on enemies and call it both a day and a difficulty. It's the most boring and lazy way to increase difficulty.

Now I admit that some (if not many) affixes aren't fun to play with and that's definitely something for Blizz to work on. But I don't think just increasing the numbers is going to be the most fun or interesting way to do it, there are definitely better and more creative ways.

[Prophet001 598]

I think this is kinda neat. Curious to see how it plays out.

Overall the first set of affixes seem like they're going to change the way you approach trash pulls without really crushing your group. Good idea imo.

Anything that's going to make it 'harder' is going to involve increasing damage intake and risk. I don't know how you make it more challenging without making things slap you harder. If you don't then there's no challenge.

Edited June 11 by Prophet001

[Melcahia 36]

 

and they pay someone to bring these ideas...is unbelievable.