State of the Meta: West Time Trials #2

Today we’re taking a look at the results from the second week of the Mythic Dungeon Invitational Time Trials West, featuring teams from Europe and North America. This is the third of six weeks of competition (three weeks for each division, alternating). This weekend the East will compete in their second Time Trials. Meanwhile, the West’s Top 8 teams are facing off in West Cup #2.

For this analysis, we’re only considering the best runs for each team, and only looking at runs that were completed in time.


Important Note: this is the high end of Mythic+. If you’re reading this article wondering whether you need to run triple melee, including double Rogue, to time your weekly +10, the answer is simple: No. The relative strengths of each spec become increasingly evident at the high end, but pretty much any group of competent, geared players who understand the dungeon and affix mechanics can successfully time a +10.

Overall

If you’ve been following the State of the Meta, you won’t find any surprises here. Despite keys getting bumped up level from +18 to +19, the same specs continue to reign. The dominance of Protection Warrior, Restoration Druid, double Outlaw Rogue, and bring-me-for-the-class-buff Windwalker Monk continues unabated.

There are few specs that find their way into a specific dungeon or affix combination. For example, this week Unholy Death Knights found a spot in The MOTHERLODE!! (Tyrannical, Teeming, Grevious, Reaping) thanks to their slow-ramping AoE damage that scales with the size of the pull and shines when large pulls take a long time to die, something that the MDI has been showcasing. And, as anyone who ventured into The MOTHERLODE!! knows, there’s a lot to pull in the The MOTHERLODE!!.

In last week’s Cup, we saw Unholy Death Knights do insane amounts of damage (even breaking 1 million DPS on some pulls). They will remain a great second-Rogue replacement for dungeons and affixes where they can shine on enormous pulls.

Though the Time Trials give players complete class and spec flexibility, the Cup does not. Because teams can only swap one character between games, the general meta of Protection Warrior + Restoration Druid + Windwalker Monk + Outlaw Rogue + (flexible spot, defaulting to a second Outlaw Rogue) is pretty much invariant. One wonders if we’ll see future MDIs allow greater flexibility to showcase players who can effectively multi-class, or even if we’ll see a pick-and-ban style system to try to mix up the meta. For now though, this meta doesn’t look like it’s going to change for this MDI.

The other notable difference in this, the second week of the West’s Time Trials, is that far fewer teams are able to complete +19s in time. The first week of the West’s Time Trials featured 294 timed keys; this week there are only 78 timed keys.

And this isn’t just because the key is a +19 — total attempted runs are also precipitously down: from 395 to 112. In short, only a quarter of the competitors remain to contest the field of battle.

Dungeon Statistics

How’d the dungeons stack up this week?



Tol Dagor (Tyrannical, Bursting, Necrotic, Reaping) and its cannons proved easiest. Temple of Sethraliss (Fortified, Bolstering, Quaking, Reaping) was, as expected, in the middle of the pack (particularly without its fearsome bosses being empowered by the Tyrannical affix). Not surprisingly, the MOTHERLODE!! (Tyrannical, Teeming, Grievous, Reaping) proved the most difficult, consistent with what’s seen on the live realms. Teeming made it particularly challenging, given the MOTHERLODE!!’s overabundance of trash to pull in the first place.

Tank and Healer Representation

Almost 90% of the best attempts from teams used Protection Warrior + Restoration Druid. For timed runs, Restoration Druid was the only healer used. No other healing specs timed a +19 key in the West Time Trials #2. There isn’t much more to say here.

Team DPS Composition

The triple-melee meta continues unchanged. Take one Outlaw Rogue and then add your choice of two from this list: another Outlaw Rogue, a Windwalker Monk, an Unholy Death Knight, or a Havoc Demon Hunter.

Here are the common DPS compositions used by 5 or more teams:

Count	DPS 1	DPS 2	DPS 3
33	Outlaw Rogue	Outlaw Rogue	Windwalker Monk
8	Outlaw Rogue	Unholy Death Knight	Windwalker Monk
7	Outlaw Rogue	Outlaw Rogue	Havoc Demon Hunter
5	Outlaw Rogue	Havoc Demon Hunter	Elemental Shaman

In terms of making the top 8 for each of the three dungeons in the West Time Trials #2, only 2 out of the 24 top timed runs even had a Ranged DPS.

Take a look at the spec representation for Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Tanks, and Healers:

Faction Rivalry

Out of the 78 timed runs with faction information, an overwhelming 94% were Alliance. At the high end, all the top 8 runs for each dungeon were Alliance, largely because of Shadowmeld’s ability to drop Reaping and its use in skips.

Looking Ahead

There are three more weeks of Time Trials. This weekend has the West’s second Cup and the East’s second Time Trials.

Unless there’s a drastic shake-up in the meta, I’m going to pause analyzing the Spring MDI’s Time Trials with this article, as it looks like the current meta is unlikely to change for the rest of the Time Trials or the Cups. Best of luck to all the teams competing, and for fellow fans, let’s have fun cheering on our favorites as they tackle the tough challenges ahead.