The Weekly Route: Tyrannical, Bolstering, Storming, and Prideful
This week’s affixes are Tyrannical, Bolstering, Storming, and Prideful.
It’s a challenging set of affixes that can feel extremely punishing to misplays. If your keystone level is low enough that the timer isn’t a challenge for you then it’s still a manageable week - just go through the dungeon slowly and carefully. However, if the keystone level is similar to the highest ones your group has timed on other weeks, there’s a good chance that the timer will be prohibitive this week as Tyrannical extends the duration of boss fights and Bolstering forces a slower path through the trash.
You can save some time with clever usage of CC to make bigger pulls possible by CCing lone mobs with different health values than the rest of the group, but this strategy is extremely composition dependent in Shadowlands - if you fight much more than five enemies at once it becomes very hard to deal damage equally to all targets due to the target cap which most dps specs face, but if your group is fortunate enough to be made up mostly of the uncapped specs then a lot of doors open back up this week.
Risen Warlords can be very one-shotty if they’re affected by their enrage and several Bolstering stacks at once, so make sure to soothe the enrage effect off or kite them until it expires. Beyond that, you’re mostly looking at Tyrannical as the operative affix, so make sure to have Prideful and all cooldowns for every boss fight you can manage.
Read more on De Other Side Dungeon Abilities.
There are a few pulls where you’ll need to be careful to avoid Bolstering - most notably Toiling Groundskeepers, which should be either pulled separately or brought in as the previous pull is getting low. Echelon is likely the hardest boss, depending on your group, so consider setting up Prideful and/or Lust for it - our route with skips offers a path that lets you Prideful 3 out of 4 bosses and lust 2 or maybe 3 of them.
Read more on Halls of Atonement Dungeon Abilities.
This is one of the dungeons least impacted by Bolstering, though Tyrannical means the first boss in particular can become a marathon and can be very punishing if you’re going deep into phases before pushing. Make sure to have all of your cooldowns ready to try and minimize the amount of time you’re on the fight, but particularly in the later phases you should use them to push the tree and not just save everything for the burn.
Read more on Mists of Tirna Scithe Dungeon Abilities.
This is a tricky Bolstering dungeon where it’s impossible to avoid pulls that require finesse. It’s worth mentioning that Gushing Slimes in the first boss room do bolster, and need to be potentially pulled as two or three pulls rather than one giant pull unless you’re confident in your damage prioritization. Plagueborers that appear throughout the dungeon DO bolster, but the ones that spawn infinitely during the gauntlet do NOT!
Read more on Plaguefall Dungeon Abilities.
If you’re without a Venthyr this dungeon will be super tough this week as you’ll be missing the extra damage to take care of Executor Tarvold. Even with a Venthyr, it’s a nasty one, especially with Storming in the narrow corridors and several naturally different health enemies in pulls.
Read more on Sanguine Depths Dungeon Abilities.
As a dungeon where the dominating strategy is generally to walk through and pull one pack at a time, this is relatively unaffected by Bolstering so you’ll find Tyrannical to be the operative affix. The third boss in particular can be rough - check out Undadtv’s Tip from a recent Titanforge Podcast on how to manage its spellqueue.
Read more on Spires of Ascension Dungeon Abilities.
If you can afford to, this dungeon should be pulled carefully and slowly this week, with weapons used on the very hardest of trash pulls only if absolutely necessary and otherwise saved for the bosses. This strategy will eventually be made impossible by the timer, but for most groups it will provide the best chance of success against Bolstering and Tyrannical.
Read more on The Necrotic Wake Dungeon Abilities.
Slow and steady wins the race, with Storming in particular being surprisingly nasty in several of the trash pulls and even a few of the boss fights. If your group can all dodge Xav’s combo with movement abilities, you should consider ignoring the banners to save a bunch of extra time by dealing all the damage to the boss instead.
Read more on Theater of Pain Dungeon Abilities.
It’s a challenging set of affixes that can feel extremely punishing to misplays. If your keystone level is low enough that the timer isn’t a challenge for you then it’s still a manageable week - just go through the dungeon slowly and carefully. However, if the keystone level is similar to the highest ones your group has timed on other weeks, there’s a good chance that the timer will be prohibitive this week as Tyrannical extends the duration of boss fights and Bolstering forces a slower path through the trash.
You can save some time with clever usage of CC to make bigger pulls possible by CCing lone mobs with different health values than the rest of the group, but this strategy is extremely composition dependent in Shadowlands - if you fight much more than five enemies at once it becomes very hard to deal damage equally to all targets due to the target cap which most dps specs face, but if your group is fortunate enough to be made up mostly of the uncapped specs then a lot of doors open back up this week.
The Weekly Routes
De Other Side [back to top]
Risen Warlords can be very one-shotty if they’re affected by their enrage and several Bolstering stacks at once, so make sure to soothe the enrage effect off or kite them until it expires. Beyond that, you’re mostly looking at Tyrannical as the operative affix, so make sure to have Prideful and all cooldowns for every boss fight you can manage.
Read more on De Other Side Dungeon Abilities.
Halls of Atonement [back to top]
There are a few pulls where you’ll need to be careful to avoid Bolstering - most notably Toiling Groundskeepers, which should be either pulled separately or brought in as the previous pull is getting low. Echelon is likely the hardest boss, depending on your group, so consider setting up Prideful and/or Lust for it - our route with skips offers a path that lets you Prideful 3 out of 4 bosses and lust 2 or maybe 3 of them.
Read more on Halls of Atonement Dungeon Abilities.
Mists of Tirna Scithe [back to top]
This is one of the dungeons least impacted by Bolstering, though Tyrannical means the first boss in particular can become a marathon and can be very punishing if you’re going deep into phases before pushing. Make sure to have all of your cooldowns ready to try and minimize the amount of time you’re on the fight, but particularly in the later phases you should use them to push the tree and not just save everything for the burn.
Read more on Mists of Tirna Scithe Dungeon Abilities.
Plaguefall [back to top]
This is a tricky Bolstering dungeon where it’s impossible to avoid pulls that require finesse. It’s worth mentioning that Gushing Slimes in the first boss room do bolster, and need to be potentially pulled as two or three pulls rather than one giant pull unless you’re confident in your damage prioritization. Plagueborers that appear throughout the dungeon DO bolster, but the ones that spawn infinitely during the gauntlet do NOT!
Read more on Plaguefall Dungeon Abilities.
Sanguine Depths [back to top]
If you’re without a Venthyr this dungeon will be super tough this week as you’ll be missing the extra damage to take care of Executor Tarvold. Even with a Venthyr, it’s a nasty one, especially with Storming in the narrow corridors and several naturally different health enemies in pulls.
Read more on Sanguine Depths Dungeon Abilities.
Spires of Ascension [back to top]
As a dungeon where the dominating strategy is generally to walk through and pull one pack at a time, this is relatively unaffected by Bolstering so you’ll find Tyrannical to be the operative affix. The third boss in particular can be rough - check out Undadtv’s Tip from a recent Titanforge Podcast on how to manage its spellqueue.
Read more on Spires of Ascension Dungeon Abilities.
The Necrotic Wake [back to top]
If you can afford to, this dungeon should be pulled carefully and slowly this week, with weapons used on the very hardest of trash pulls only if absolutely necessary and otherwise saved for the bosses. This strategy will eventually be made impossible by the timer, but for most groups it will provide the best chance of success against Bolstering and Tyrannical.
Read more on The Necrotic Wake Dungeon Abilities.
Theater of Pain [back to top]
Slow and steady wins the race, with Storming in particular being surprisingly nasty in several of the trash pulls and even a few of the boss fights. If your group can all dodge Xav’s combo with movement abilities, you should consider ignoring the banners to save a bunch of extra time by dealing all the damage to the boss instead.
Read more on Theater of Pain Dungeon Abilities.
Links
- Find Dratnos on RaiderIO, Twitch, Twitter, or Youtube
- Download the WeakAuras Addon
- Download the Prideful/Spiteful WeakAura
- Download the Mythic Dungeon Tools Addon
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.
