The Weekly Route Series showcases Mythic+ strategies that are tailored towards the Beginner and Intermediate levels of Mythic+. In other words, the following route imports are designed with the following criteria in mind:

• Easy to execute - particularly in pick-up-groups (PUGs)
  
• Good tradeoffs between skipping the most difficult enemy forces while not requiring overly complicated strategies or “tech” to do so

This week, the affixes are Fortified, Storming, and Bursting.

Fortified + Bursting is a more difficult affix combination for 14-19 key levels than it is at higher levels. Mobs with lower health pools are more easily defeated which can lead to refreshed or high stacks of Bursting. Conversely, as your key scales, so do the health pools of Fortified trash mobs, meaning they live longer and are less likely to accidentally refresh Bursting stacks during your cooldown windows.

DPS players have complete control over Bursting stacks and everyone must have a way to monitor your group’s damage taken. WeakAuras are available to aid in this process. 1-3 stacks are manageable for most healers; however, a surprise stack of 6-8 will almost certainly cause a death if your group doesn't plan properly.

For more tips and resources to help with Bursting, check out our breakdown here

Read on to import our Weekly Routes with pull-specific notes, tips, and recommended Bloodlust Timings!

Table of Contents

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BRACKENHIDE HOLLOW

Before your key, ask in your party chat if anyone has a Disease Dispel (Monk, Paladin, Priest, Evoker) and a de-enrage (Druid, Evoker + Oppressing Roar, Hunter, and Rogue).

Storming can be tricky here, as you may find yourself landing in some nasty area denial, such as a Bonebolt Hunter’s Toxic Trap, a Bracken Warscourge’s Ragestorm, or a Wilted Oak’s Stomp.

There are several Decaying Cauldrons located in the dungeon that will help you remove disease debuffs with an extra action button, but activating the Cleansed Rot requires that a player in your group has at least 25 points in Alchemy. Decaying Cauldrons are helpful for removing your personal Withering debuff if a Witherbolt interrupt is missed.

Save any de-enrage effects such as Soothe, Shiv, or Tranquilizing Shot for the Bracken Warscourge’s Ragestorm. Prioritizing de-enrage abilities for Ragestorm will allow your team to stay reasonably grouped for as long as possible, maximize DPS, and stop the Claw Fighters from fleeing.

If you do not have a way to de-enrage the Bracken Warscourge’s Ragestorm, run out to avoid damage from this whirlwind melee mechanic. Claw Fighters will fixate a player with Vicious Clawmangle, which appears as a pair of red eyes above your head. If you are targeted by a Clawmangle, run away or be prepared to face heavy incoming damage.

Stinkbreath will need extra care this week on Fortified. Watch out for Stinkbreath’s two main abilities: Stink Breath and Violent Whirlwind. Stink Breath is a cone that will disorient a fixated target. We recommend standing near melee in order to sidestep Stink Breath when the cast goes out. If you are the fixated target, stand still and allow your group to move away from you. Additionally, Stinkbreath’s Violent Whirlwind will do physical damage that knocks you back, but it can be easily outranged.

When approaching Decatriarch Wratheye keep an eye out for Fortified Fetid Rotsingers. Fetid Rotsingers use a combination of the two toughest abilities from mobs earlier in the dungeon: Decay Speakers’ Rotchanting Totem and the Bracken Warscourge’s Pack Tactics. Fetid Rotsingers will summon totems and buff enemies with Pack Tactics.

This route will help you utilize more Decaying Cauldrons than before since the disease debuff can be a hefty thing to manage on Fortified weeks. If your group has a Priest, feel free to Mind Soothe as many mobs as possible. This allows your team to focus priority mobs without any accidental body pulls. If you Mind Soothe, be careful of the Bracken Warscourges’ True Sight.

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FREEHOLD

Be mindful of your trash damage, because Fortified and Bursting will punish you heavily if you choose to ignore mob health during large pulls in this densely packed, AOE-friendly dungeon.

Storming will be particularly dangerous this week. Make sure to dodge or watch timers because you don't want to be knocked into the air just in time for a frontal or ground effect to be directed at you. Being caught in the air during many of Freehold’s frontals or area denials will spell certain death.

Use personal damage reduction cooldowns for Irontide Enforcer’s Shattering Bellow, as it can be especially nasty on Fortified.

Ludwig Von Tortollan scales with Fortified, and is extra dangerous with Storming cyclones to avoid, so you must create extra space for Shell Bounce. Pay close attention to your location in the arena and avoid running up or along the wooden border of the Ring of Booty; if you travel too far up the sides of the arena, fans will throw Rotten Food at you, causing certain death. Storming may also knock you right out of the ring, where you will certainly die to Rotten Food. It’s best to tank Ludwig closer to the middle of the room this week.

On the way towards Harlan Sweete, keep an eye out for the Painful Motivation casts from the Irontide Ravager and Irontide Officer. Painful Motivation buffs the mobs’ damage done by 50%; if you are pulling multiple packs together, your group should definitely interrupt the Painful Motivation cast!

The Irontide Officer will apply Oiled Blade on the tank, which reduces healing received by 75%. This debuff is very scary on these final large trash packs, so be sure to dispel Oiled Blade on the tank right away!

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HALLS OF INFUSION

Before your key, ask in your party chat if anyone has a Poison Dispel (Druid, Evoker, Monk, Paladin, Shaman). Poison dispels are helpful for the second boss area and trash due to the Gulp Swog Toxin cast by the Curious Swoglets and the Gulping Goliath.

Also, ask your party if anyone has at least 25 points in Engineering or Herbalism. Engineers can click the Orb on the northern loop of trash before the first boss which unlocks a “budget” group-wide cheat death called Limited Immortality. Only one person with Engineering must interact with the Orb for everyone to receive the buff. Herbalists can unlock several Infused Mushrooms located in the hallway after Gulping Goliath that will help greatly with the fixated Curious Swoglet debuffs during the long boss fight.

On the way to the first boss, focus and interrupt Expulse from the Containment Apparatus mobs. These will do immense, unhealable amounts of AOE damage to the group if left unattended. Additionally, interrupt the Refti Defenders when they cast Demoralizing Shout; otherwise, your group will be in a world of pain on these packs during a Fortified week. Melee should avoid getting cleaved by the Refti Defenders’ Gushing Wound frontal.

Primalist Geomancers will leap randomly to a ranged target with Seismic Slap, which can be a one shot. Best to give Storming some respect here; if you are caught in Storming and then targeted for Seismic Slap, you will most certainly perish. Ranged dps should try to bait Geomancers close to the group by standing near melee, thus allowing melee to keep DPSing, maximizing your group’s output.

There are a pair of mini bosses between the first boss and the second boss: Squallbringer Cyraz will charge around, summon smaller adds, and do a pulsing AOE to nearby players, Flamecaller Aymi will root a player with Molten Subduction and then Magma Crush them. Healers must dispel the roots from the affected player before the crash lands. Try to stay loosely spread so that you don't clutter the Magma Crush area with too many Stormling spawns. Interrupt Flamecaller Aymi as much as you can; however, prioritize saving an interrupt for her heal, Cauterize.

Glacial Proto-Dragon casts a frontal called Oceanic Breath and does rapid pulses of damage. Pay close attention to whether the Glacial Proto-Dragon suddenly turns towards you and always sidestep its frontal. Glacial Proto-Dragon’s Deep Chill is cast every 30 seconds. Consider Fortified again here; you want to make sure that you focus down the Proto-Dragon to minimize the number of Deep Chill casts. Be sure to dodge the Primalist Earthshaker’s Rumbling Earth, Primalist Galesinger’s Thunderstorm, and Glacial Proto-Dragon’s Oceanic Breath. If your group has a Priest for Mass Dispel on the Glacial Proto-Dragon’s Deep Chill debuff, this pack is suddenly far less of an issue. In higher keys, some teams pre-Mind Soothe nerf were opting to Mind Soothe the trash between Gulping Goliath and Khajin the Unyielding, skipping these nasty pulls entirely; post-nerf, teams are now utilizing this new solution:

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NELTHARION’S LAIR

Before your key, ask in your party chat if anyone has a Poison Dispel (Druid, Evoker, Monk, Paladin, Shaman). Poison dispel is helpful for the third boss, Naraxas’s Toxic Retch.

You may have noticed popular key runners jumping down between 2-5 seconds before their key begins. To learn more about this particular time-saving skip, check out our RIO Snapshot video below:



All ground effects are affected by Fortified, so focus on your character's feet this week and be ready to move quickly. One tick of Tarspitter Lurker’s green Rancid Ooze puddle on a 20+ key is 100k damage every fraction of a second. You could easily lose your entire health pool before the full visual of the green puddle forms. If you are ranged, watch out for their Submerge; Lurkers will pop up behind you, and then drop green puddles of Rancid Ooze on you. Fortified makes these Lurkers particularly deadly this week!

If you’ve fought Rokmora with Volcanic before, you know to be extra careful with Storming and Crystalline Ground! Crystalline Ground coding doesn’t know the difference between a player intentionally moving vs being popping into the air with an affix, which can be deadly. It’s best to quickly sidestep a Storming during Crystalline Ground versus gambling with extended damage as you’re in the air plus fall damage when you land.

Mightstone Breakers have a channeled cast called Avalanche which summons rocks to fall from the ceiling. However, Avalanche is not too troublesome when your group knows that they can sidestep this mechanic! As soon as you see Avalanche being cast, you should move to the side (ideally away from any other player’s Avalanche) to avoid taking damage.

On the way to Naraxas, stun the Tarspitter Grub’s Metamorphosis to avoid more Rancid Pools. Vileshard Crawlers will drop Acid Splatter on death, which can make that small boss room feel much more crowded.

On the way to Dargrul, the Emberhusk Dominators need damage reduction cooldowns during Frenzy and Ember Swipe, especially on Fortified week. An organized group may plan to skip these very dangerous packs, as we demonstrate in our RIO Snapshot below:

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NELTHARUS

Before your key, ask in your party chat if anyone has a Curse Dispel (Druid, Mage, Shaman, Evoker). The last boss, Warlord Sargha, will put a stacking curse on each player who interacts with his trinkets around the room.

Before the run begins, ask in your party chat if anyone has 25 points in Blacksmithing. Once Forgemaster Gorek is defeated, a Blacksmith can click the Blazing Aegis for a big single-use extra action button that deals AOE damage to enemies.

On the way to Magmatusk, the Qalashi Thaumaturges should be your priority damage and stun target due to their Magma Conflagration casts. FortifiedMagma Conflagrations will be catastrophic.

Overseer Lahar patrols around the room and you can engage him whenever you are most comfortable in that hallway. Overseer Lahar needs space when leaping around the room with Eruptive Crush. Organized groups may choose to avoid Overseer Lahar altogether on Fortified. However, with the PUG environment, it’s usually best to play it safe this week and just plan to fight him.

For the trash on the way to Chargath, Bane of Scales, there will be several interactable piles called Burning Chains. You can learn how to utilize these chains to speed up your run in our RIO Snapshot]RIO Snapshot below:



The Qalashi Lavabearers’ Lava Drip will scale with Fortified, so getting popped into the air in a Storming tornado means you could land in some pretty spicy lava.

On Forgemaster Gorek, positioning for the Blazing Aegis is key, as shown in our RIO Snapshot video below:

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ULDAMAN: LEGACY OF TYR

To find Uldaman, take the portal to The Badlands in Valdrakken, shown on the map below:



Before your key, ask in your party chat if anyone has a Poison Dispel (Druid, Evoker, Monk, Paladin, Shaman) or Disease Dispel (Monk, Paladin, Priest, Evoker).

The Stonevault Geomancers in the first few pulls should be your focus interrupt target when they cast Chain Lightning. The Hulking Berserkers’s Brutal Slam and Diseased Bite will get nasty with Fortified. Make sure to try to give Hulking Berserkers extra room in the small hallways to dodge or soak Storming properly.

Refti Custodians will get a stacking buff called Ancient Power. Thankfully, Antique Construction allows you to stun the mob to reset this stacking buff, and the Custodian will take 50% additional damage due to their Systemic Vulnerability. However, keep in mind that the tank may need to kite these mobs on Fortified to completely avoid the Custodian’s Jagged Bite. The tank kiting to outrange Jagged Bite is more beneficial the higher the key level. If your group has a paladin, Blessing of Freedom is helpful for your tank during kiting.

After Emberon, there is a wall hug skip to avoid a painful Ebonstone Golem. No special tricks or abilities are required – all you need to do is walk your character into the wall and slowly inch your way towards the other side of the room. This skip is marked with a gold exclamation point (!) on the route below. Check out this clip to see the skip in action:



Infinite Timereavers on the way to the last boss cast a magic debuff called Stolen Time. Stolen Time can be avoided through line-of-sight or dispelled with Mass Dispel, Purge, Arcane Torrent, etc. If your group has a Priest for Mass Dispel, you will easily manage Stolen Time.

When approaching the room before Chrono-Lord Deios, you can skip the difficult double Infinite Timereaver pack via wall jumping or jumping along the benches on the sides of the room.
Warlock, Priest, Evoker, and Potion of the Hushed Zephyr are also an option, although they are not necessary with the jump skip, which you can see below in our RIO Snapshot video:

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THE UNDERROT

Before your key, ask in your party chat if anyone has a Disease Dispel (Monk, Paladin, Priest, Evoker) and a Curse Dispel (Druid, Mage, Shaman, Evoker). Before Sporecaller Zancha, there is a double Bloodsworn Defiler pack where each mob requires a double melee interrupt rotation for their Shadow Bolt Volleys and Withering Curses. Assign one melee’s interrupt to each Defiler to avoid fatal Withering Curse stacks.
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Bloodlust this first pull and focus the Chosen Blood Matron. The matron is terrifying with Fortified, and Storming is very dangerous during her Savage Cleave because of the bleed she will leave on players if they are up in the air. This Savage Cleave can be easily side-stepped. However, be attentive if any players become rooted from Fanatical Headhunter’s Hooked Snare.

Devout Blood Priests have three casts that need to be locked down: Blood Bolt, Dark Reconstitution, and Gift of G'huun. Dark Reconstitution is a heal, so be sure to save an interrupt for this!

On the way to Cragmaw the Infested, save a stun for Fetid Maggot’s Rotten Bile frontal unless you are standing near melee to easily sidestep. If you can save stuns for the Feral Bloodswarmer’s Thirst for Blood fixate, this will help your team take significantly less damage during this challenging trash.

After Cragmaw the Infested, if you are trying to make up for lost time and want to double-pull mobs onto any Grotesque Horror, be sure to keep a stun or a quick interrupt ready for Dark Echoes since this is a very quick cast that will do massive damage if it goes off. Dark Echoes is deadly, so feel free to use stuns here!

Bloodsworn Defilers also cast Summon Spirit Drain Totem, requiring players to move out of the purple circle on the ground. The Spirit Drain Totem is mostly dangerous for melee and playing at max melee distance is advised.

On the way to the last boss, the Faceless Corruptors will summon dark purple tentacles called Abyssal Reach near a player's location. You can easily sidestep these tentacles’ cones, as the tentacle only slaps the ground where you were initially located. A small sidestep will help you dodge the tentacle and create more room for you to dodge the conal fear, Maddening Gaze.

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THE VORTEX PINNACLE

Before your key, ask in your party chat if anyone has a Poison Dispel (Druid, Evoker, Monk, Paladin, Shaman). Poison dispel is helpful for the Empyrean Assassin’s Lethargic Poison.

Most groups Bloodlust the first pack in this dungeon. Focus interrupt Wild Vortexes while dodging Armored Mistral’s Pressurised Blast. The Pressurised Blast is a large white circle that will knock you off the ledge to your death, if it doesn’t instantly kill you when Fortified.

Tanks and Healers should mark themselves to ensure they are always on opposite sides of mobs since the Lurking Tempests will go back to Lurking whenever a player is facing their direction. However, if all players’ backs are turned while in range, the Lurking Tempests will spring out of the ground and cast a Lethal Current, resulting in unnecessary group-wide damage.

The Young Storm Dragon is a mini boss about halfway through the dungeon. This dragon will summon a Healing Well upon engagement. The tank should move the dragon out of the green healing circle immediately, but ideally position it close to the circle’s edge. The Healing Well provides a massive healing buff to the group, and standing in the Healing Well will greatly counter the pulsing AOE damage from Icy Buffet. Take extra care this week with a Fortified Chilled Breath which will be very dangerous, if not deadly. Tank positioning and group movement is the key to defeating the Young Storm Dragon, as shown in our RIO Snapshot video below:



There is a massive trash pack before Altairus, which contains two Empyrean Assassins and several Turbulent Squalls. This pull is chaotic between the splash damage from the Turbulent Squalls’ Cloudburst/Storm Shield and Empyrean Assassins’ splash damage from Assassinate/Vapor Form. Place your back against the wall if possible, as this will eliminate any damage from the Empyrean Assassins’ Assassinate.

After Altairus, there are several triangular lightning grounding fields along the path. Go inside these lightning “tents” if the Minister of Air targets you with Lightning Lash. Lightning Lash is deadly after a few ticks this week on Fortified, so players should be extra careful. However, make sure to get out of the lightning tents when Overload Grounding Field is cast.

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