This week’s affixes are Fortified, Bursting, Volcanic, and Prideful. This week’s routes are focused on the Prideful affix, and should work for any other accompanying affixes! They can also be used for keys below the Prideful level, though they were built with the affix in mind.

Prideful is the new Seasonal Affix and it will begin to appear on keys of level 10 or higher, so you may not encounter it this week, but if you can push that high, you will be rewarded with Item Level 203 gear! Pushing all the way up to +14 will be rewarded in your Great Vault next week, but don’t worry if you can’t get there this week, it’s very hard!

Prideful functions similarly to BFA’s Season 2 affix, Reaping, where every 20% of the Enemy Forces bar will spawn a Manifestation of Pride, which rewards the group with a serious Buff when killed. Learn more about Prideful in our Shadowlands Mythic+ Affixes guide!

This Week’s Routes are Simple Prideful Routes, designed to work on any Affixes to not require any complicated skips, but to set up good Prideful timings whenever possible. If you’re interested in some routes that use slightly more skips to set up even more favorable Prideful timings, check out Trell’s Basic Prideful Routes.

De Other Side [back to top]

De Other Side can have very favorable Prideful timings, such that you have the buff going into every single boss fight except Mueh’zala, by doing a simple zig-zag at the start of the dungeon and then pulling in a linear fashion for the rest of the run. Mueh’zala does not mess around, and is a great candidate for a bloodlust effect right as you’re about to depart for the four platforms.

Read more on De Other Side Dungeon Abilities.

Halls of Atonement [back to top]

Having a Ven’thyr player for this dungeon is very helpful, as they can mind control the Loyal Stoneborns found throughout the dungeon. If you don’t have one, just avoid those enemies instead - none are linked to any of the pulls in this route. This pathing facilitates Prideful buffs onto most of the bosses in the dungeon, but it’s very easy to accidentally pull extra enemies and mess up the timings, so be careful!

Read more on Halls of Atonement Dungeon Abilities.

Mists of Tirna Scithe [back to top]

It’s impossible to have a 100% consistent path throughout this dungeon, as the maze changes every time. It is somewhat predictable, however, as it will always have between 5 and 7 rooms, but you may find yourself with slightly more or less count from one run to the next. If that happens, just grab an extra pull from the other side of Tred’ova to trigger the final Prideful so that you’ll have the buff going into the last boss, or if you’re feeling confident you can kill the boss first and trigger Prideful afterwards to avoid having to kill it - this saves a tiny bit of time but makes the fight substantially harder.

Read more on Mists of Tirna Scithe Dungeon Abilities.

Plaguefall [back to top]

The trash near the start of this dungeon is pretty nasty, and it’s very easy to accidentally pull extra enemies, so be very careful in that section. Once you’re through there, you’re set up to have Prideful buffs on to every boss except the Third, but if you want the buff for that boss it is doable if you sneak through the pulls before her and then pull backwards until you’ve triggered the Pride. Be sure to have all your cooldowns for the last boss, as it gets very punishing with higher keystone levels.

Read more on Plaguefall Dungeon Abilities.

Sanguine Depths [back to top]

This challenging dungeon is difficult to time Pridefuls in, so you won’t have it for several of the bosses. On the flip side, much of the trash is very challenging as well, so having the Prideful buff for those encounters can be fantastic and potentially avert wipes. Make sure to burn down Grand Overseers whenever they’re in a pull!


Read more on Sanguine Depths Dungeon Abilities.

Spires of Ascension [back to top]

There are several pulls in this dungeon that can be absolutely brutal, especially on higher key levels. If you have a Kyrian player in your group, you can use spears found throughout the dungeon to make two of these pulls much easier, but the dungeon is still very difficult and it’s rarely possible to pull more than one pack at a time. It’s also difficult to set up Prideful on to bosses in this dungeon, though it’s possible if you’re willing to skip some pulls and fight more dangerous trash than you need to - if you’re interested in this kind of route, check out Trell’s Route.

Read more on Spires of Ascension Dungeon Abilities.

The Necrotic Wake [back to top]

Scattered throughout the Necrotic wake are several weapons, and these can be very very powerful, so several of them are marked in the route. Pick these up and use them if you can! Prideful naturally lines up on most of the bosses, but this is certainly a dungeon where the trash that’s in your way is also the most challenging trash, such as the miniboss Nar’zudah, so setting up some skips will absolutely pay off if you’re able to coordinate them.

Read more on The Necrotic Wake Dungeon Abilities.

Theater of Pain [back to top]

This dungeon is the only 5-boss dungeon in the Shadowlands, and it’s not possible to get Prideful buffs onto more than two or three of them, so buckle up for some challenging boss fights. For the Altars of Agony platform section, we recommend going right and then left to avoid the Soulforged Bonereaver, but you can pick up a little extra count while still avoiding that enemy by going left and then left, or pulling some of the optional mobs on the platforms. This may be necessary, as some reports indicate that Enemy Forces count may be slightly different in this dungeon than we expect.

Read more on Theater of Pain Dungeon Abilities.