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Dragonflight Season 1: Mythic+ Affixes

By Dratnos — Dec 12 2022 16:56 UTC


Welcome to our Dragonflight Mythic Plus Affixes post! Here we’ll describe how every affix works and provide some strategies and resources to help you deal with them!



Get alerts for each week's affixes with our Raider.IO Discord Alerts and find routes for each dungeon in The Weekly Route series.





Fortified — Level 2+ [back to top]


"Non-boss enemies have 20% more health and inflict up to 30% increased damage."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Fortified is a straightforward affix that is active every other week. It empowers the trash mobs throughout the dungeon with 20% more health, and most of them with 30% more damage, though specific difficult enemies can have this second multiplier reduced.


TACTICS:


Fortified encourages groups to focus more on AOE damage and crowd control than Tyrannical. Many groups adjust their Bloodlust timings during these weeks to use them on the most challenging trash pulls, though the hardest bosses in each dungeon are generally still worth saving cooldowns for.


USEFUL LINKS:





Tyrannical — Level 2+ [back to top]


"Bosses have 30% more health. Bosses and their minions inflict up to 15% increased damage."



WHAT IT MEANS:


One out of every two weeks is a Tyrannical week, alternating with the Fortified ones. Instead of empowering trash mobs, this affix affects the boss encounters, adding a lot more health and a little extra damage.


TACTICS:


Saving cooldowns for bosses, especially the most difficult ones, is vital for success on Tyrannical weeks.

You may also want to adjust your setup to be more focused on single target than on Fortified weeks – just beware that you’ll still need to kill the trash quickly in order to time higher level keystones, and the extra time you’ll spend on bosses may force you to pull more trash at once in the rest of the dungeon.


USEFUL LINKS:





Bolstering — Level 4+ [back to top]


"When any non-boss enemy dies, its death cry empowers nearby allies, increasing their maximum health by 15% and damage by 20%."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Most trash mobs throughout the dungeon will apply one stack of the Bolster buff to each other enemy that is in combat within 30 yards. This buff stacks additively, so an enemy with five stacks has twice the health and damage of an enemy with none.

Some enemies, such as specifically coded very small enemies and most enemies spawned by abilities will not apply stacks of Bolster when they die but will still receive Bolster stacks from other dying enemies. A small number of enemies, such as Bosses and seasonal affix mobs, will neither give nor receive stacks of Bolster.

The buff also has a limited duration.

When a damaged enemy gains a stack of Bolster, its current health remains the same percentage of its maximum health.


TACTICS:


You must be very careful during Bolstering weeks to avoid unintentionally pulling extra enemies, or starting the next pull before all the enemies in the previous one are dead. Bolstering also dramatically reduces the feasibility of pulling trash into bosses, though it is still possible for coordinated groups.

The default strategy against this affix is damage prioritization – apply damage to each enemy proportional to its health, such that all the enemies die at the same time. This is easier said than done, especially when the health pools of the enemies in a pull are very different from one another.

Another strategy is to use crowd control to separate enemies with different amounts of health from each other. You can also make use of the 30 yard range on Bolstering to avoid stacks being applied, though this often requires a good deal of finesse. You can also kite or simply wait out the Bolster stacks.


USEFUL LINKS:





Bursting — Level 4+ [back to top]


"When slain, non-boss enemies explode, causing all players to suffer damage over 4 sec. This effect stacks."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Whenever a monster is killed, all players will get a stack of Burst which deals shadow damage over four seconds. The amount of damage scales with the keystone level rather than maximum health, and is a Magic debuff, which means that it can be dispelled.

Immunity abilities such as Cloak of Shadows and Ice Block will remove all current stacks and prevent future stacks from applying.


TACTICS:


The most straightforward approach to Bursting is to avoid pulling too many small enemies at once to prevent an unhealable amount of stacks from being applied. This is a very powerful strategy to use in less coordinated groups, as it can be entirely managed by one player (the tank). As a healer, remember that you have a dispel that can remove all stacks of Bursting from one player!

In groups with more coordination, synchronizing the deaths of enemies to avoid too many stacks of Bursting is an effective way to make pulls safer. Five stacks of Bursting is much easier to deal with than three stacks of bursting which ticks a few times then gets extended into four stacks, which ticks a few times and then extended into five stacks.

If you want to pull an amount of enemies that would represent a lethal stack of Bursting, staggering your group's damage is the way to go – kill a few enemies, then stop damage, let the bursting fall off, and kill the remaining enemies. This can be tricky to coordinate and is much harder for damage over time based classes, but the reward is well worth it.

Finally, strategies that revolve around acquiring and then trivializing massive stacks of Bursting are popular among top groups. Tools that make this possible are massive healing cooldowns, immunities, and/or AoE dispels. By using enough of these all at once, it's possible to successfully handle a massive pull, though if things go even slightly wrong there's a very good chance that everyone will quickly die.


USEFUL LINKS:





Raging — Level 4+ [back to top]


"Non-boss enemies enrage at 30% health remaining, dealing 50% increased damage until defeated."



WHAT IT MEANS:


This is a straightforward affix that makes enemies deadly when they reach low health. This enrage effect will remain even if the enemy is later healed above 30% health, and if the enrage is removed it will eventually be reapplied if the enemy stays alive.


TACTICS:


Enrage effects can be removed by a variety of classes that have abilities (often Talent options) to purge them off. If your group contains one or more of these specs, you can often rely on them to handle the most deadly enemies and remove most of the pressure from the rest of your group, though your tank and healer will still need to watch out for auto attacks from low health enemies.

In particularly dangerous pulls, it can be important to focus enemies down such that they don’t all reach low health at the same time. You can also benefit by saving stuns for when enemies reach low health rather than using them near the start of the pull.


USEFUL LINKS:





Sanguine — Level 4+ [back to top]


"When slain, non-boss enemies leave behind a lingering pool of ichor that heals their allies and damages players."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Most enemies will drop Sanguine pools when they die. Some smaller enemies do not. These pools last for 20 seconds (down from 60 last expansion) and heal enemies for 5% of their maximum health per second, while damaging players for 15% of their maximum health per second as Shadow damage. Sanguine stacks up to five, so if enemies are standing in five or more Sanguine pools they’ll heal for 25% of their maximum health per second.


TACTICS:


Sanguine is primarily handled by the tank, who must keep enemies moving as they begin to die to avoid any healing on the remaining enemies. The other members of the group can help by using displacement effects, and by avoiding any stuns or heavy slows as enemies reach low health.

From a strategic perspective, pulling enemies and fighting them in places where you don’t mind dropping Sanguine pools is a great idea, as it can be very annoying if you drop Sanguine where you then intend to fight a boss or pull the next pack.


USEFUL LINKS:





Spiteful — Level 4+ [back to top]


"Fiends rise from the corpses of non-boss enemies and pursue random players."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Most enemies (generally the same set of enemies that drop Sanguine or apply Bolstering or Bursting) spawn Spiteful Shades when they die. These enemies have a sizable health pool, but they lose 8% of their health every second, meaning they die in 13 seconds if you don’t sink any damage into them. When one spawns, it fixates a random member of your group and chases them. If it reaches them, it’ll begin meleeing them for tremendous amounts of damage.


TACTICS:


This affix is very easy to handle when it fixates upon ranged players, as they can simply kite without too much difficulty. Melee players may instead need to lose damage in order to avoid getting killed. Some specs can pop defensives to completely negate the incoming melees, such as Die by the Sword or Evasion, but these abilities have long cooldowns and can’t be used for every shade.

Spiteful Shades can be crowd controlled, so knockback effects, slows, and stuns are very effective to hold them off until they run out of steam.


USEFUL LINKS:





Explosive — Level 7+ [back to top]


"While in combat, enemies periodically summon Explosive Orbs that will detonate if not destroyed."



WHAT IT MEANS:


While enemies are in combat, Explosive Orbs will spawn near them that you’ll need to kill. They last for six seconds, and if they aren’t killed they’ll explode for half of everyone’s health. They have a very small health pool and can generally be killed with one ability, but the more enemies you’re fighting, the more Explosives will spawn, causing you to get quickly overwhelmed in very big pulls.


TACTICS:


Generally one or two players in your group will be the primary Explosive killers. These are the players who have the easiest time swapping to and deleting the orbs, typically tank players and melee dps. When more than a couple of Explosive orbs spawn at once, the rest of your group should jump in and help.

Explosive orbs can also be handled with line-of-sight – this can be especially useful when you’re pulling lots of enemies from multiple locations: have the rest of the group stay back behind a doorway, the tank runs in and grabs the enemies and returns to the group, and you don’t need to worry about Explosives that spawn spread out in that room.


USEFUL LINKS:





Grievous — Level 7+ [back to top]


"Injured players suffer increasing damage over time until healed."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Whenever a player is below 90% health and in combat, they’ll gain stacks of the Grievous Wound DoT, up to four stacks. When healed by certain spells they’ll lose one stack, though they’ll never fully clear the debuff except when they make it above 90% health again, when the entire debuff will go away.

Outside of combat, any Grievous Wounds will continue to do damage, but no new stacks will be applied.


TACTICS:


Triage is the name of the game against Grievous – healers must stay vigilant and quickly top players before Grievous becomes too much of a problem, and other members of the group can help out by healing themselves and avoiding damage while the healer is focused on someone else.

Some healers have an easier time than others against Grievous based on how their kit works and/or which spells are coded to remove stacks of the debuff (see Jeath’s tweet in the Useful Links section below for a few of the spells that can remove stacks of Grievous).


USEFUL LINKS:





Quaking — Level 7+ [back to top]


"Periodically, all players emit a shockwave, inflicting damage and interrupting nearby allies."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Every 20 seconds, the game will randomly decide whether or not there will be a quake. If there is, all living players, regardless of combat status, will have a circle appear around them and begin to fill up. 2.5 seconds later, the Quake will hit, interrupting any casts for all players and dealing 40% maximum health to any other players in the circle.


TACTICS:


Quaking only does damage when you stack up for it, so try to avoid standing in anyone else’s circle to avoid that damage. There are some dungeons where this can be tricky, such as Azure Vault, which features a few platform-to-platform rides during which you can quake your groupmates if you jump at the same time. There are also some boss encounters where you’re forced to make a difficult choice between taking damage from mechanics or from Quaking.

The damage isn’t the only threat of Quaking – the interrupt is also potentially deadly, especially if it catches your healer. The two WeakAuras listed below can help with this - one creates a bar that can predict when a quake might happen, while the other tells you when you need to cancel your cast to avoid an interrupt and a painful spell lockout.


USEFUL LINKS:





Storming — Level 7+ [back to top]


"While in combat, enemies periodically summon damaging whirlwinds."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Like Explosive and Volcanic, the number of tornadoes you’ll have to deal with will scale up as you’re fighting more enemies at once. Whenever an enemy spawns a tornado, your first warning will be a grey swirly, which will then turn into a grey tornado that can be tough to keep track of. It will travel outwards in a spiral, and if you get hit by one you’ll be knocked back and take damage. When a player gets hit by a tornado, it will de-spawn.


TACTICS:


The best defense against Storming is movement away from where tornadoes are. This will often look similar to how tanks move when Sanguine pools are dropping - continuous movement away from the areas that just became dangerous. Tornadoes spiral movement is predictable, especially for veterans of the first room in Kings’ Rest during BFA, so learning how they move can make it feasible to stay near them.


USEFUL LINKS:





Volcanic — Level 7+ [back to top]


"While in combat, enemies periodically cause gouts of flame to erupt beneath the feet of distant players."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Each enemy that’s in combat will randomly spawn volcanoes underneath players that are at range from them. These volcanoes take two seconds later, and then erupt dealing 20% maximum health in damage and a sizeable knockup to any players hit.


TACTICS:


Melee players don’t need to think much about Volcanic, as they only spawn under enemies that aren’t in melee range of the enemy that’s spawning the volcano. Watch out, however, as if you’re in melee range of five enemies but there’s another far away enemy that’s in combat with you, you could have a volcano appear under you when that enemy spawns one.

Ranged players need to watch their feet and move whenever volcanoes would hit them - they don’t always spawn directly under your feet, however, so sometimes it’s safe to stay put. Because of the knockup, it’s almost never efficient to get hit, since you’ll lose more damage from the airtime than you would have from the movement.


USEFUL LINKS:





Thundering (Season 1) — Level 10+ [back to top]


"Enemies have 5% more health. While in combat, players are periodically overcharged with primal power from Raszageth's unending storm. This power comes with great risk, and failure to discharge it quickly can have stunning consequences."



WHAT IT MEANS:


Thundering is the Seasonal Affix for Dragonflight Season One. It grants all mobs 5% additional health passively at all times, and also has a triggered effect that will happen throughout the dungeon.

Roughly once every minute, Thundering will Proc (though it will wait until you get in combat). At this time, swirlies will appear on the ground that stun and damage players who don’t avoid them. Players will also receive either a positive or a negative charge, which grants them 30% increased Damage and Healing and lasts for 15 seconds.

After those 15 seconds, any players who still have a mark will be stunned and take a lot of damage, but the marks can be cleared by running over someone with the opposite charge. If nobody is within 100 yards of you with an oppositely charged mark, the stun and damage won’t happen on expiration either, meaning that the 5th player doesn’t get punished for not clearing, and if players are on opposite sides of the dungeon for some reason (such as someone running back after dying) it’s also not a death sentence.


TACTICS:


The affix doesn’t require much strategy, the only big consideration is how long you want to wait before clearing your debuff. This answer will vary from group to group and pull to pull - more coordinated groups will generally want to wait longer to get more benefit from the damage buff, while in less coordinated groups it can be a good idea to clear quickly to avoid the stun!

It’s also important to take into account what the nature of the pull is: if there are a lot of frontals or CC effects that the mobs cast, you’ll probably want to clear a little earlier to avoid getting zoned out by those abilities at the end of the duration.


USEFUL LINKS:






Links




About the Author


Dratnos hosts the The Titanforge WoW Podcast. He’s also an officer in the Hall of Fame 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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