A hallmark feature of World of Warcraft for nearly a decade, mythic+ dungeons (m+) received a huge revamp coming into the newest expansion, The War Within. Many touted this revamp as the best change ever to m+, allowing players that once found the game mode too hard or too boring to finally get into it. However, some fans are now switching their opinion, saying the revamp was not as good as initially thought and that m+ is now more inaccessible than ever. This post will discuss what changed with the revamp and how this revamp has affected this hallmark feature of WOW.

For those that don’t know what m+ is, it’s a game mode where players are able to add difficulty to the seasonal dungeons. The higher the m+ level, the harder it is. All these dungeons have a timer and completing the dungeon within the timer gives more m+ score, ranking players against others, effectively showing skill level of individual players in PVE content.

What changed with the Revamp?

M+ was once known for annoying, but manageable affixes that became easier as players got better and had more experience in the seasonal dungeons. With the revamp, the vast majority of these annoying affixes have been removed from m+ and replaced with other affixes that aren’t as bad at first glance but come with their own issues.

Every m+ dungeon has a new affix called Xal’atath’s Bargin, which makes player perform a mini game to receive a powerful buff. What the mini game is alternates each week, with examples being collect orbs moving towards the enemy or dispel a debuff; this mini game occurs about once every minute of the dungeon. However, failing a single part of this mini game gives the enemy the same buff at 10x effectiveness.

At level four m+ dungeons and higher, fortified and tyrannical are applied to the dungeon, alternating each week. These two affixes are the last remaining affixes from pre-revamp m+ – fortified causing all non-boss enemies to be 20% more health and damage, and tyrannical causing bosses to have 25% more health and 15% more damage. While these are somewhat boring, it is clear that these affixes will never be removed from m+.

At level seven m+ and above, the Challenger’s Peril affix is applied. This simply makes it so every death causes the timer to lose 15 seconds of time instead of five seconds. This means a full wipe that once cost 25 seconds of lost time now costs 75 seconds of lost time, plus whatever time it takes to redo the part of the dungeon that was wiped to. Overall, it is an extreme punishment for any mistakes.

At level 10 m+ and above, fortified and tyrannical are both applied not matter what week it is. M+ 10s and above have always been goal for casual players to reach because it gives unique achievements for beating them within the timer for the first time and gives them teleports to these dungeons. Not only this, completing 10s and above give max item level loot in weekly vaults. That being said, the difficulty that all these new affixes add in +10 dungeons makes this goal nearly impossible for casual players who may only have time to do a few m+ dungeons a week.

Lastly, in +12s and above, Xal’atath’s Bargin is removed and Xal’atath’s Guile is added. Guile replaces the mini game that gives a buff with just a flat 10% buff to all enemies within the dungeon. This is on top of the fortified, tyrannical, and challenger’s peril. While this high of a key is a stretch goal for most casual players, it is clear to see that these keys get exponentially harder the higher they go.

How the revamp has affected M+

 As hinted at above, this revamp looks good on the surface but does make the dungeons much harder than before. Xal’atath’s Bargin and Guile have been nerfed by 50% in recent weeks, so even the WOW developers know they have made it too hard. This difficulty has effectively locked most of the casual WOW community out of any decent rewards from m+ – decent rewards come from level eight (was nine until recently) dungeons and higher; the best rewards are from level 10 and higher dungeons.

This difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that healers and tanks were heavily nerfed at the beginning of The War Within. Good players can function past these nerfs with ease, but the average player in these roles are unable to function as need in these added difficulty m+ dungeons. Not only this, but each dungeon requires very precise communication with interrupts, cc, cooldown and defensive timings, etc. Meaning, on top of difficult affixes, the dungeons are already created to be harder than ever before.

All in all, casual players with only a few hours a week to do m+ may never reach their level 10 in each of the eight seasonal dungeons goal. Players with more time will still probably reach the level 10 goal, but it will take much longer than in previous seasons and expansions. Streamers and players that play WOW like a job (40+ hours a week) will still easily get their level 10 dungeons done but won’t be able to push nearly as high of keys as in past season; the current highest this season is a level 15 completed in time, while in past seasons 19s and 20s would have already been completed on time.

In conclusion, the revamp is good because most of the annoying affixes are gone, but the difficulty added by new affixes and dungeons in general have created a steeper climb than ever for any players that want to reach their seasonal goals.