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Play Like the Pros: Import This Week's High Mythic+ Routes



Do you love Mythic+ but are too busy throughout the week between school, work, family, or raiding to see what routes the top players are running on streams?

We’ve got you covered with our new series: Play Like the PROS!

Today, we share some of the advanced Mythic+ routes that we have seen on Twitch streams this week to help you optimize your weekend key pushing sessions! Read on to import dungeon routes by the pros and maybe learn some new tech.



Table of Contents






Dragonflight Season 1 Route Transcriptions - Fortified





ALGETH’AR ACADEMY



Dungeon Run: Algeth'ar Academy +25
Team: Palclap, Zmegma, Сафен, Chuiearabbit, Papasnack
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Palclap for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:

  • The largest pull in this route is the first one. It’s actually easier to pull everything together simultaneously rather than separating it out or chaining; this is because everyone will have all of their cooldowns on pull. The most important thing here is ensuring that the tank gets aggro on everything before the DPS players open up on the pack. To accomplish this, the tank will ideally pull 2 Vile Lashers on the left and 1 DPS player should pull the Lasher on the right. As the mobs are engaged, let all the mobs funnel into the center. Since Aggravated Skitterflies jump on DPS players most of the time, make sure to stand near the tanking spot to maximize DPS uptime on the Skitterflies.
  • Some additional tank tips for this first pull: Use Potion of Shocking Disclosure for generating additional (initial) threat. Rotate all defensive CDs. For example, as a Protection Warrior, you start with Demoralizing Shout + Avatar + a healer external. When you start feeling squishy, begin rotating your big cooldowns such as Last Stand, then Shield Wall, etc. Never overlap your defensive cooldowns. Once the Hungry Lashers die, you can chain the far Aggravated Skittferflies into the pull, but make sure your health is stabilized first.
  • Fighting the Guardian Sentry by itself takes some time, but if you have a Rogue in your party, you can snap the three mobs in G14 by having the Rogue use Tricks of the Trade on the tank, aggro the pack, and Vanish so that they can take the airstream back to the party.
  • If you have any DPS that can funnel for priority damage, try not to burst the Territorial Eagles down immediately so your DPS can use the extra targets to make the pull go faster as a whole. This same mentality works on the Arcane Ravager packs too by letting the Arcane Foragers live longer. Make sure to still focus down the Spellbound Scepter while always kicking Mystic Blast and stunning Arcane Rain.
  • It's also important to stop Severing Slash from the Spellbound Battleaxe. It’s a big upfront hit with a large bleed that really shreds the tank. This is what makes the dwarf racial Stoneform particularly powerful in this key.
  • Arcane Ravagers are always going to jump on the furthest target. If you can manage to line-of-sight his Vicious Ambush, it wont jump and will instead cast its Riftbreath towards the tank from wherever it already was. Keeping the Ravager in melee and minimizing movement speeds up how quickly you can kill him.
  • All the mobs around Vexamus’ area have important abilities to interrupt/stop. Makes sure to assign interrupts for the Corrupted Manafiends. Be ready to do AOE stops or single-target stuns. Again, make sure to stop the Severing Slash on the Spellbound Battleaxes. Stop the Monotonous Lecture cast on the Unruly Textbooks. Also, there's one more Spellbound Scepter there that must have its Mythic Blast interrupted to avoid a wipe. Try to stop Arcane Rain cast too in order to avoid dodging rain puddles.
  • Since there’s a bit of role play after killing the last pack and waiting for Vexamus to spawn, save time by turning around and killing the next Arcane Ravager pack.
  • Once you reach the last area before Doragosa, the Spectral Invoker’s Arcane Missiles can be really deadly for your tank so be sure to assign a two-kick rotation to stop every one. The Alge’thar Echoknight has its Astral Whirlwind ability, but you can easily avoid this if you group them on top of the stairs and stand below them. The way you handle Pull 14 on our route is to focus down the Invoker and chain in the other packs once the Invoker is dead. Lastly, the four-pack at the door can be dragged into the boss as long as the Invoker is interrupted. During Power Vacuum, there might be overlap with the Astral Whirlwinds from the two Echoknights. Be ready to use AOE stops or single-target stops on them during this overlap.
  • Bloodlust Timings: 1st pull, Crawth, Vexamus



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






COURT OF STARS



Dungeon Run: Court of Stars +27
Team: Equinoxmonk, Dxm, Layeesha, Shantiana, Tjuanalpha
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Equinoxmonk for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:

  • As Dreams mentioned in another Play Like the Pros article, our group also pulls the first Duskwatch Guard, but for a slightly different reason. The main reason why we bring this mob into the first pull is that it starts our combat timer to line up our Thundering and have the buff at preferred times.
  • On Sanguine week specifically, we pull G9 in with the very first pull instead of doing it with the 2nd pull of the dungeon just to maximize our space when we head across that first bridge.
  • Our DPS Warrior pulls the Sentries with Taunt to Spell Reflect the Torch dot for some free damage.
  • We pull the first boss with G24 and we leave the mana wyrms up so that our Subtlety Rogue can funnel his damage into the boss. This is also useful if you have a Shadow Priest, Feral Druid, or Enhancement Shaman in your group.
  • Like most Court of Stars routes, while Patrol Captain Gerdo is drinking the poisoned Phial at 25% HP, the healer runs past the Guardian Construct and up those stairs to the Inquisitor on the other side. This triggers the doors at the beginning of the dungeon to open at which point the healer can die and respawn beside the team who is doing the dock pull.
  • If you get two activation powers due to RNG (as explained here), you can do 1 less Felbound Enforcer and instead pull G35, as they both give 10 enemy forces of count.
  • Bloodlust Timings: 1st pull, Baalgar the Watchful, Advisor Melandrus



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






HALLS OF VALOR



Dungeon Run: Halls of Valor +26
Team: Equinoxmonk, Dxm, Layeesha, Shantiana, Tjuanalpha
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Equinoxmonk for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:

  • For the first pull, we Shroud past the very first two mobs so that our group can go up the stairs and Sap the Thundercaller #1. As the tank, I start mounted and grab aggro on the first 2 mobs, drag them up the stairs, and we kill Thundercaller #2 before pulling in the sapped Thundercaller #1.
  • Since it’s Sanguine week, it’s very important that, as the tank, you SLOWLY kite the mobs in the first pull backwards as they die. Once all the mobs die and there’s one Thundercaller left (#1), we drag it into Hymdall to save time.
  • You’ll need 1 melee kick on each Mystic for Holy Radiance and 2 people on one Runecarver to handle Etch. When there’s a Thundercaller, you need 2 melee kicks to control its Thunderous Bolts.
  • For Shieldmaidens, a tank tip is that you can slowly walk out of the Breach Armor and Mortal Hew by taking a few steps backwards and then walking back in. This also works for the Champions on their Power Attacks. With your defensive cooldowns up it’s fine to face-tank some and keep the pack stationary for your DPS, but outside of that they can shred a tank in just a few hits.
  • After Pull 4 going into Pull 5, we Shroud past everything in the hallway going to Hyrja and double-Sap the two Shieldmaidens (#1 and #2).
  • In Pull 5 (G11 and G12 together), the Purifier needs 3 melee kicks. The Aspirant only picks ranged players if they are in line-of-sight when their cast begins (the yellow swirl around a player), so if the cast starts on a ranged player and the player line-of-sights this down the stairs, that cast will cancel and the Aspirant will never jump out of the pack and will stay safely in melee range forever.
  • For the two mini bosses, always start with Solsten since it’s the most important one to die. On the second Eye of the Storm cast from Solsten (halfway through the cast), we pull in Olmyr and late-kick his Searing Light cast. This helps prevent dangerous overlaps while still allowing both mini bosses to be cleaved together (cleaving off of Solsten till he’s dead in order to skip the 3rd Eye of the Storm cast). We were too fast in this key, but on Fortified we would usually Bloodlust these two mobs.
  • After Hyrja, we double Sap again and Shroud out.
  • Going into Pull 8, we Shroud again and I come out of stealth alone to get aggro on G16 and go through the portal to Fenryr’s area. The mobs will then snap through the portal so we can play them with the Storm Drake shown in this clip here. At the end of the pull, we pull in 3 Stags since the Drake eats them. It’s better to pull these in right before the Drake dies so you never have to deal with the buff it gets him.
  • Pull 9 is a really dangerous pull. We do 10 wolves and 1 stag with our healer doing the lamp post trick, as shown here.
  • Pull 11 is just a hard pull for the tank since it’s kited the entire time. The best advice I have here is to try and kite in a wide circle to keep things grouped together as long as they are slowed by something. We had Crippling Poison from our Rogues.
  • Leading to God-King Skovald, we do 3 Kings at once. Essentially, pick up two beer items, and throw one at King Haldor. 2 seconds later, throw the other beer at King Bjorn, and then activate King Ranulf and drag it onto Haldor. Wait till it’s aggro-d and drag it to King Bjorn. When the beer wears off of King Haldor, make sure someone is spam clicking to activate him. You do the same with King Bjorn with someone else assigned to spam click him. This is how we activate 3 kings at once to save time. As soon as you kill King Ranulf, activate King Tor and focus him down so ideally all 3 Kings die at the same time and never share their powers with each other. You’ll need 1 melee kick for each of the three remaining kings for Unruly Yell.
  • Bloodlust Timings: 1st pull, Hyrja, Steeljaw Grizzlies, Odyn intermission



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






RUBY LIFE POOLS



Dungeon Run: Ruby Life Pools +27
Team: Mordrîm, Jdotb, Gruty, Phýlo, Античка
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Mordrîm for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:

  • Ruby Life Pools is a tough but rewarding dungeon. It requires a lot of coordination and awareness, which makes you feel good when you time it. In terms of routes, I would say it’s relatively straightforward, although there are many different viable routes. The one we chose for our +27 is quite simple. The only tricky part is successfully dodging Thunderhead upstairs while doing the packs on the left-hand side of the ring. Indeed, seeing the silver dragon fly a few yards away from the pack you are killing can give you quite a fright! That is why I strongly recommend you to play the packs on the small platforms in order to not pull him by accident. The main reason we skip the silver dragon in high keys is that he simply deals too much damage with Rolling Thunder and can easily cause a wipe and, as a result, a deplete.
  • On Melidrussa Chillworn, use defensive cooldowns during the intermission and destroy the shield, not the adds. The shield is the utmost priority. Don't pad and be a teamplayer!
  • When you get upstairs, you will encounter a lot of Primalist Flamedancers. Make sure you stop their Flame Dance ability: it deals a lot of damage to your tank and can cause a wipe if the Flamedancer channels its ability to the end.
  • Use Bloodlust on Flamegullet when he reaches 50% HP. This dragon is way easier to deal with than the silver one. Tanks have to be careful, though: the Fire Maw ability deals a lot of damage, especially to a Brewmaster. Use strong defensive cooldowns before the initial hit.
  • On Kokia Blazehoof, make sure you never bait the Molten Boulders in the direction you'll be kiting the boss. If you decide to skip the silver dragon, remember you'll have to use the right-hand side of the ring.
  • In the last room, make sure you always kick the Flame Channelers. When engaging the last pack before the boss, try to use a Purge ability on the Primal Thunderclouds that High Channeler Ryvati is spawning in order to remove their shields. The High Channeler will consume any shields left and, if not destroyed in time, will kill the entire group.
  • On Kyrakka and Erkhart Stormvein, make sure you use strong defensive cooldowns if you are targeted by the Flamespit: it deals a lot of damage. Also make sure you drop the fire at the edges of the room, but always try to stay towards the center of the room. If you go at the very edge to drop your puddle, Kyrakka will land off of the ledge where the fire was dropped instead of landing at the center of the room, which can be a significant dps loss and increase the risk of stepping in the fire.
  • Bloodlust Timings: 1st pull, Flamegullet at 50% HP, High Channeler Ryvati



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






SHADOWMOON BURIAL GROUNDS



Dungeon Run: Shadowmoon Burial Grounds +26
Team: Plkapal, Bussbussglug, Azunaz, Twicks, Tsukima
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Plkapal for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






TEMPLE OF THE JADE SERPENT



Dungeon Run: Temple of the Jade Serpent +26
Team: Mordrîm, Jdotb, Gruty, Phýlo, Античка
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Mordrîm for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:

  • In terms of routes, Temple of the Jade Serpent is relatively simple in that almost all mobs must be killed in order to reach the 100% count. The only pack you generally avoid is the first one as you enter the library because it is too dangerous and not efficient in terms of percentage. So make sure you have an invisibility potion at your disposal or use Shroud if you have a Rogue in the group.
  • The first pull of the dungeon is not the easiest and can easily cause a lot of deaths, or even a deplete, if not handled correctly. The Corrupt Droplets do a lot of damage to the entire group and can be a deadly combo alongside the Corrupt Living Water’s Tainted Ripple. Therefore, I recommend using Bloodlust here as well as strong personal defensives in order to survive. It might also be a wise idea to use AoE stuns on the droplets to prevent them from dealing too much damage to the group for a few seconds. Your healer will thank you for it. Moreover, I recommend the tank to always position the elemental near a corner to allow the party to break line of sight behind the wall to avoid the Tainted Ripple damage.
  • Before Peril and Strife, it is very important, depending on the key level, to prevent The Golden Beetle from casting Golden Barrier which, when it explodes, inflicts significant damage to the group and can even cause death if a player is hit by a blue swirly at the same time. The beetle must be the priority target.
  • In the second half of the dungeon, you will encounter Lesser Shas, who deal substantial amounts of damage to the group when they die. As a result, I recommend either killing them at the same time if you have defensive cooldowns ready, or killing them one at a time if you don't have anything ready.
  • Haunting Sha’s and Minions of Doubt’s abilities (Haunting Gaze and Dark Claw, respectively) must ideally be stopped in order to help your tank survive. Depending on the key level, these two abilities can be extremely dangerous. For example, letting one Haunting Gaze or Dark Claw go through in high TJS keys can deal up to 70 to 75% of a Brewmaster’s hp. Help your tank by using stops/stuns, etc.
  • On the Sha of Doubt, I recommend the group to converge to a single point before the images appear in order to group them up quickly and safely.
  • Bloodlust Timings: 1st pull, 1st Shambling Infester, Last pull



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






THE AZURE VAULT



Dungeon Run: The Azure Vault +25
Team: Bodegawar, Lernè, Babysp, Glizzygordo, Hopefulx
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Bodegawar for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:

  • You’ll need to coordinate your team’s individual stuns or stops for any Piercing Shards that cast and your AoE stops for the Mystic Vapors since you won’t have enough kicks for the 6 or 7 Conjured Lashers in the first two pulls.
  • Bloodlust timing doesn’t change from Tyrannical to Fortified, so you’ll lust the big first pull and then continue using lust on cooldown for the rest of the dungeon to get the most uses out of it.
  • Routing in Azure Vault is extremely diverse and multiple routes can time you the highest key, but mainly this route has us using Mind Soothe to skip the last two Drakonid Breakers because they are incredibly inefficient.
  • Also a huge shoutout to Bore’s Money Crew who just competed in Group B of the MDI, they are my inspiration.
  • Bloodlust Timings: 1st pull, on cooldown on 2nd ring, on cooldown during frog trash, Umbrelskul.



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






THE NOKHUD OFFENSIVE



Dungeon Run: The Nokhud Offensive +25
Team: Tattman, Bobbywoke, Camou, Nightclaws, Vildiepi
Affix Combo: Fortified, Sanguine, Volcanic, Thundering



We had the privilege of speaking to Tattman for some insights into his team’s Mythic+ route. Here’s what he had to share:

  • Nokhud, a key which asks for good mob positioning in general, requires even more attention on a Sanguine week. This way, talents such as Menace or Typhoon are highly valuable.
  • For the trash before the first boss, you want to be wary about the Nokhud Lancemaster frontals. In general, we usually chain all melee mobs into the next pack; however, on an affix week such as Sanguine, chaining might be considered less valuable.
  • One thing worth mentioning about our route is that we used a trick for the trash in the first area, demonstrated here. Essentially, our Evoker gets on top of the pillar and Rescues our Priest to pull him up. Our Priest then grips our Boomkin up as well with Leap of Faith. This way, all ranged players are on top of the pillar. This means that the Nokhud Warspear’s Swift Stab just continually recasts and does not actually hit anyone with the charge or the bleed. Although this trick is a bit comp-dependent, it’s really useful on Fortified weeks to effectively handle some dangerous trash.
  • For the second boss area, you have to kill 4 totems to spawn the boss. We Bloodlust the so -called "waterfall" totem pull since it is considered the hardest. At higher levels, any of these spellcasts are deadly. Normally, you should assign melee kicks to rotate on the Stormcaller Zarii (Solongo, Boroo, Arynga). Our group generally has a Rogue solo the Stormspeaker casts with some occasional assistance. However, this week, I played the Disrupting Shout and Concussive Blow talents on his Warrior to compensate for our group having a Balance Druid and Priest (meaning that we did not have another melee kick to rotate on the named Stormcallers while our Rogue solos the Stormspeakers.)
  • The Primalist ArcbladesArcing Strike can easily be out-ranged by the tank by taking a big leap/roll/sprint etc. away from the mob during the cast.
  • As a Warrior on the second boss, you can walk out of melee range and the boss will cast Wind Burst, which is then Spell Reflect-able for massive amounts of damage output. Make sure to be quick to move back into melee range since the cast is deadly without Spell Reflect up.
  • The third boss area also contains a lot of interruptible casts. Volleys, minion summons, and “PI” buffs for entire groups of adds. The Deathspeakers AOE cast is a massive buff of 20% increased damage done and reduced damage taken on all mobs; this combined with all the frontals and demanding interrupts forces a lot of movement from your tank.
  • Chant of the Dead casts for a very long time, so on a Sanguine week like this, you should consider knocking mobs away early. It can save you a lot of time.
  • In front of the last boss, you have two adds called Batak and Balara, which usually get pulled when the boss is engaged if they are not already dead. However, you can skip these two mobs if you have a Rogue or a Night Elf (Shadowmeld) by doing the following: A Rogue can attack one of them, and the tank pulls the boss. As soon as boss is pulled, the Rogue can Vanish and the adds reset, but boss stays. Essentially, this trick de-syncs these two adds from the boss itself, allowing you to skip them.
  • Note: Keep in mind that we failed our original route that we had planned since someone body-pulled an unintended pack, so the route shown in the MDT import and the vod is not 100% what we would normally do.
  • Bonus tip: Another fun trick is that you can remove the Desecrated Bakar from the Ukhel Beastcaller in the route by pulling them whilst mounted. As soon as they aggro, you fly up into the air again. This way, they just simply despawn, demonstrated in this video timestamp.
  • Bloodlust Timings: 1st pull, Waterfall, Soulharvester Galtmaa, (Balakar Khan).



See the Mythic+ Route in Action:






Additional Resources



To further unpack the magic of high Mythic+ for yourselves, here are a few additional resources:

  • Subcreation – Find S-tier for ranged, melee, tanks, and healers. Also see their gear-equipped manager and top builds.
  • Twitch – Specific player PoVs in real-time and videos on demand. Twitch may also provide an opportunity for you to respectfully ask MDI players reasonable game-related questions directly!
  • Warcraft Logs – Data and replays: Cast queues, spell uptime, interrupt/stuns, etc.
  • Raider.IO - When watching high Mythic+ and the MDI, you can search one specific player’s name into Raider.IO to find character-specific info such as gear/legionaries, gems, enchants, soulbinds, conduits, talents, how many keys they have completed on time (5,10,15 for both Fortified/Tyrannical). Also, you may find links to each players’ socials, which can help you track down their personal addons, UIs, WeakAuras, etc.





Links




About the Authors


Biggerfish is a recovering Boomkin who has played WoW for 14 years and has been an avid Mythic+ player since it released in Legion. He mostly tanks, and can be found on most weeknights in the NA Group Finder bricking your keys.


VitaminP (VP) is the Content Manager of Raider.IO and has worked for the organization since the formation of the News Section in November 2018. Although VP is currently focused on pursuing her Masters of Business Administration, she specializes in tanking classes and has loved doing competitive Mythic+ on and off since early Legion.
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