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The Weekly Route: Tyrannical, Bolstering, Explosive, and Awakened

This week’s affixes are Tyrannical, Bolstering, Explosive, and Awakened.

For the highest level teams, Bolstering and Explosive represent serious road blocks that slow down how much of the dungeon can be pulled at once, making the already tight Tyrannical timer impossible to beat at levels comparable to better weeks. For teams that aren’t coordinated, Bolstering and Explosive both have the potential to wipe an unprepared group. For teams somewhere in the middle, this week can work, just pull the dungeon carefully and make sure that someone or some combination of people have Explosives under control!

The Weekly Routes





Atal'Dazar [back to top]


The most painful Bolstering pulls in this dungeon can often be the Toxic Saurid pulls - though be careful not to fall into the trap of leaving the Saurids themselves up for too long in order to avoid bolstering the Skyscreamers - five non-bolstered Saurids leaping around are often far deadlier than one bolstered Skyscreamer. We’d recommend making use of snapping spots whenever you pull Saurids if you can - grouping them up and preventing them from leaping around can make it much easier to evenly damage them.

Read more on Atal’Dazar Dungeon Abilities.





Freehold [back to top]


Be very careful with Bolstering while fighting packs that include Cutwater Harpooners - one or two stacks on the Harpooners and their whirlwinding or fixating friends can easily lead to deadly combos of abilities on members of your group. If you have a member of your group that can full-time focus on Explosives, you can still do big pulls in this dungeon - just don’t pull so big that you’ll have to kite, as that can spread out the enemies and the Explosive spawns. Despite the Tyrannical setting, we continue to recommend an Awakened enemy with the last boss in this dungeon.

Read more on Freehold Dungeon Abilities.






Kings' Rest [back to top]


Be warned that Minions of Zul do bolster, and the set that spawn when the gong is activated can very easily patrol into you and put six stacks of bolstering on everything if you’re not careful. Watch out for Explosive spawns during the boss fights that have add or totem spawns - they can be easy to miss and you really can’t afford the extra damage on the Tyrannical encounters. This is especially important during the totem phase of Zanazal the Wise.

Read more on Kings’ Rest Dungeon Abilities.






Shrine of the Storm [back to top]


The Bolstering threat in here is Tidesage Initiates - particularly in the miniboss gauntlet near the start of the dungeon. To counteract this, our route just skips this section entirely with an Awakened portal, though there is still good count that can be obtained there if your group has the finesse to avoid any Bolstering nightmares.

Read more on Shrine of the Storm Dungeon Abilities.






Siege of Boralus [back to top]


Our Siege of Boralus route is based off the Horde pathing and will require some modification if you’re Alliance.

It’s a high risk, high reward week in Siege of Boralus, where Bolstering up an Ashvane Spotter is a strategy that can yield a very fast time in the dungeon, but one misstep during that process can set you back and deplete the key. Our route proposes a more traditional approach to the dungeon, but be aware that you can attempt the Bolster-A-Spotter strategy if you’re running into timer problems.

Read more on Siege of Boralus Dungeon Abilities.




Temple of Sethraliss [back to top]


The big challenge in here is the Tyrannical bosses, and Explosive on the last boss - to deal with them, you should assign one or two people to watch the far areas of the room for orbs spawning - mobile melee dps or ranged dps that can kill explosives in a global or two are ideal for this.

Read more on Temple of Sethraliss Dungeon Abilities.




The MOTHERLODE!! [back to top]


Bolstering is very tricky to deal with in the first quarter of this dungeon, as the enemies have wildly varying amounts of health. Tyrannical and Explosive are fairly tame in here though, so if you can get through that you should be in good shape.

Read more on The MOTHERLODE!! Dungeon Abilities.




The Underrot [back to top]


Bolstering up a Feral Bloodswarmer is the easiest way to mess up this key, besides of course dying to the challenging Tyrannical encounters, especially the middle two as they feature very high amounts of damage to the whole group.

Read more on The Underrot Dungeon Abilities.




Tol Dagor [back to top]


Watch out for Bolstering in the cannon area now - we’d recommend looking at the clock when you make it to the ramparts and judging just how aggressively you need to use the cannons in order to beat the timer. If you’re doing well on time, just use each cannon to clear one group rather than attempting to kill multiple, as that can be a recipe for a wipe. Also be sure to clear the Parasites that patrol the first area before engaging the boss, otherwise you risk pulling them mid-fight and bolstering it!

Read more on Tol Dagor Dungeon Abilities.




Waycrest Manor [back to top]


The biggest unknown Bolstering threat in this dungeon is Piglets, they have half or less of the health of the other enemies in that part of the dungeon, so any pull that includes a few of them and a bunch of other things is very dangerous this week.

Read more on Waycrest Manor Dungeon Abilities.




Mechagon Junkyard [back to top]


In North America, we believe Gunker will be inaccessible at the start of the run due to the hard mode enemy flying overhead. For European players, this shouldn’t be true, so you can use last week’s Gunker-first route if you’re in that region, but the route we have this week instead features a strategy that still gets the robots from that side of the dungeon before heading over to the other bosses first.

Read more on Operation: Mechagon Dungeon Abilities.




Mechagon Workshop [back to top]


Watch out for Bolstering in the Living Waste pulls - beyond that, you should be fine in the rest of the dungeon from both Bolstering and Explosive. Tyrannical, on the other hand, is a serious challenge in here, so consider playing a more single-target oriented build than you usually do in Mythic plus.

Read more on Operation: Mechagon Dungeon Abilities.







Links




About the Author


Dratnos hosts the The Titanforge WoW Podcast. He’s also an Officer in the World 36th guild poptart corndoG, and a commentator for events such as the MDI and the Race to World First! He streams on Twitch, where he likes to review his friends’ logs.



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