Mythic+ has been a staple feature in World of Warcraft. But the highly competitive environment, where players race against the clock to clear dungeons at ever-increasing difficulty levels, has seen some heavy criticism from the community in Season 1.
With the release of Patch 11.1, developers are making strides to improve the Mythic+ experience, with potential good news for players with off-meta specs.
WoW’s Senior Game Director Ion Hazzikostas discussed their efforts to address the issues, emphasizing two points: class and spec balance, and the accessibility of the content itself.
Hazzikostas said the team is working to ensure that players have more options when finding groups, making the Mythic+ more inclusive for all specializations.
One significant change in Patch 11.1 is a shift from how difficulty levels impact group formation. In the past, the pressure to start at higher keystone levels for meaningful rewards led to players becoming pickier about who they allowed into their groups. This exacerbated the meta-focused culture, where only specific specializations were deemed viable.
Hazzikostas did touch on specific ways Blizzard is addressing these issues in a Dexerto interview. He mentioned that ongoing class and spec balancing will continue, with a focus on buffing low performers rather than nerfing high-perfomers mid-season.
He acknowledged that nerfing top-tier specializations can be frustrating for players who might suddenly find themselves unable to achieve what they could before, so the team prefers to focus on improving the underperforming specialization instead, a philosophy very close to the one of the Diablo 4 class balance team.
This new approach, combined with the upcoming changes to Mythic+ difficulty and accessibility, aims to ensure a more balanced and inclusive environment for all players, regardless of the specialization and build they choose to play.
The War Within Season 2 begins on March 4! We’ll be closely monitoring how the individual specs perform on a weekly basis to see if Blizzard’s changes made any significant impact on the system.
For more details, you can read the full interview at Dexerto.
