RETAIL
CLASSIC ERA
WRATH
RETAIL
CLASSIC ERA
WRATH
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The Weekly Route: Fortified, Sanguine, Quaking, and Prideful

This week’s affixes are Fortified, Sanguine, Quaking, and Prideful.

It’s the final week to push up your RaiderIO score for the season, as well as the last week to pick up any of the Keystone Master achievement series that you’re angling for this season! The good news is that it’s a good week to do it - not only is the affix combination favorable for high keys, it’s also pretty good for pugs. While Sanguine and Quaking can both be punishing if mismanaged, but they’re not especially punishing to specific classes or undergeared players in specific roles in a way that other affixes often can be. Also, recent Hotfixes dramatically buffed every tank spec except Vengeance, who received roughly offsetting buffs and nerfs. This should both catalyse even more competition at the higher levels and make mythic plus more accessible for tanks!



The Weekly Routes





De Other Side [back to top]


You need to be careful with the Night Fae urns when Sanguine is active - make sure to use them early in the pull so that everything isn’t still stunned when stuff starts dying or you might undo all your efforts! There are a few mobs in this dungeon that can be tricky with Sanguine, such as the Defunct Dental Drills, so be careful when your pull includes a Drill and other mobs.

Read more on De Other Side Dungeon Abilities.





Halls of Atonement [back to top]


Sanguine danger in this dungeon comes mostly from Houndmasters, who are not cooperative because they are not melee mobs, and because they love to leap around. Killing them first this week is a good idea, though you may still wish to focus Vicious Gargons for the good of your tank.

Read more on Halls of Atonement Dungeon Abilities.





Mists of Tirna Scithe [back to top]


These affixes are very easy in here - you have a tremendous amount of space in which to fight each pack, and the bosses don’t have any stack mechanics that Quaking might punish - though you should be careful of stacking up while avoiding the ground mechanics on those fights. The biggest potential Sanguine problem is Tirnenn Villagers, which you’ll fight 1 of if you can Night Fae skip at the start of the dungeon or 2 if you can’t. These mobs have more health than their friends and love to cast for a while while CC immune, so be careful to avoid dropping Sanguine directly under them.

Read more on Mists of Tirna Scithe Dungeon Abilities.





Plaguefall [back to top]


Sanguine management is very difficult and potentially punishing in here, as several packs contain stuff that should die first - especially ones that include Plagueborers that die early to explode the rest of the group. As with every on-death affix week, you should know that Gushing Slimes do trigger the affix, though it’s generally still worth it to pull that room quickly and accept some Sanguine healing rather than slow it down too much.

Read more on Plaguefall Dungeon Abilities.





Sanguine Depths [back to top]


This is a nasty dungeon for these affixes because the narrow hallways of the entire dungeon force you into close quarters, both with your group for Quaking and with the enemies for Sanguine. Especially whenever you are constrained on space by patrols, you need to carefully plan the direction you’re going to move as the mobs start dying - generally you should pull the pack forward at first and then kite backwards if you are unsure how much space you’ll need, as there’s generally a lot of space behind you where you’ve already cleared enemies out.

Read more on Sanguine Depths Dungeon Abilities.




Spires of Ascension [back to top]


WARNING: Our Route with Skips is not for the faint of heart! It can be modified to be easier by splitting several pulls in half, indicated in the notes adjacent to those pulls, but the Route as-is is probably our most ambitious strategy in any dungeon. If executed well, however, this path can be very fast and sets up several efficient Prideful timings while getting the dungeon done in relatively few pulls.

Read more on Spires of Ascension Dungeon Abilities.





The Necrotic Wake [back to top]


Aside from the necropolis at the end, this dungeon is fairly wide-open and shouldn’t prove too challenging with either affix, though of course you need to be aware of Sanguine to avoid healing up enemies in the middle of a pull. Try to avoid dropping Sanguine where you’ll want to fight the first or third bosses as well, though worst case you can always wait a few seconds before pulling a boss so that the pools clear up.

Read more on The Necrotic Wake Dungeon Abilities.





Theater of Pain [back to top]


Though this dungeon has narrow corridors, you can often pull enemies into wider-open areas and mitigate the affixes in so doing. You should be especially careful when fighting Sludge-spewers, as their random leaps can easily get them into Sanguine puddles if the group isn’t all aware of their positioning.

Read more on Theater of Pain 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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