The Weekly Route Series showcases Mythic+ strategies that are tailored towards the Beginner and Intermediate levels of Mythic+ with the following criteria in mind:

• Easy to execute - particularly in pick-up-groups (PUGs)
  
• Good tradeoffs between skipping the most difficult enemy forces while not requiring overly complicated strategies or “tech” to do so

This week, the affixes are Tyrannical, Afflicted, and Bolstering.

Tyrannical + Bolstering will mean that trash dies quickly and you are much more likely to stack Bolstering. DPS players have complete control over Bolstering stacks and everyone must have a way to monitor each target’s stacks. The mismanagement of Bolstering stacks will be the primary challenge for your key groups this week.

During Afflicted weeks, up to two Afflicted Souls will appear every 30 seconds. Afflicted Souls will cast an uninterruptible Afflicted Cry that must be stopped by dispelling the Souls or healing them to full health before the cast is completed.

For handling Afflicted, classes that can dispel are your friend:

• Poison Dispel (Druid, Evoker, Monk, Paladin, Shaman)
  
• Disease Dispel (Monk, Paladin, Priest, Evoker)
  
• Curse Dispel (Druid, Mage, Shaman, Evoker)

If you need a refresher on the affixes, be sure to check out our affixes guide!

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Read on to import our Weekly Routes with pull-specific notes, tips, and recommended Bloodlust Timings!

Table of Contents

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ATAL’DAZAR

When blasting bigger AOE pulls, be mindful of Bolstering stacks, especially given some of the particularly nasty mobs. Be especially wary of the Dazar'ai Colossus and Dazar'ai Juggernaut pulls on the way to Priestess Alun'za, as well as the Reanimated Honor Guard and Zanchuli Witch Doctor pulls on the way to Vol’kaal, which deal a lot of high group damage.

This week, you’ll want to use the standard “left first” route. Remember that on Priestess Alun'za, your healer will need to save their dispel for Molten Gold, leaving DPS responsible for Afflicted.

Dazar’ai Juggernauts can absolutely decimate your group, even on Tyrannical weeks, if your positioning is sloppy. Learn some handy tricks to manage these mobs more carefully with our RIO Snapshot:

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BLACK ROOK HOLD

Make sure you are frequently using your personals or defensives on trash pulls this week, as Black Rook Hold’s trash is notoriously painful!

This week with Bolstering, be sure to focus damage into the Ghostly Protectors due to Sacrifice Soul and Risen Arcanists due to Arcane Blitz, as both are extremely dangerous. Everyone needs to be hyper aware of any Afflicted spawns and be ready to help the healer handle them quickly, as healers may need to save their dispels for Sacrifice Soul on the Protectors or for managing the stacking Soul Blade debuffs that the Ghostly Retainers cast on party members.

Try to be at full health before each of Smashspite the Hateful’s Earthshaking Stomps. This mechanic is consistent throughout the fight, and is unavoidable damage that can become more challenging as the fight progresses and the room fills with Fel Vomit.

This is a great week to burn down the first boss, Amalgam of Souls, with this cool trick from our RIO Snapshot series:



You’ll want to manage your personals carefully this week on Tyrannical Kur’talos Ravencrest with the tips in this RIO Snapshot:

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DARKHEART THICKET

Upon starting the dungeon, your first pull will have a Festerhide Grizzly which will be your primary target for damage; a highly Bolstered Maddening Roar is terrifying! This dungeon already has four Tyrannical bosses; don't create a fifth for yourselves.

Some groups utilize an invisibility potion for their Darkheart route. Did you think one Grizzly was bad? Ok, now there are two Grizzlies. The double Festerhide Grizzly pack before the first boss is also super scary with Fortified, as there is a high chance that you will have a bad overlap on double Maddening Roars, so some groups may prefer to take a shortcut around them. If you’d prefer to avoid these nasty bears, check out the clip below to see the skip in action (REMEMBER to dismiss pets):



Shade of Xavius is a chaotic and punishing fight. After 50%, do your party a favor and rotate personal defensives or immunities if you are chosen by Feed on the Weak. This is a channeled spell that can become more challenging to heal as the fight progresses and your healer needs to move out of Apocalyptic Nightmare or stack with the group for Waking Nightmare.

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DAWN OF THE INFINITE: GALAKROND’S FALL

There is way too much trash in this place! Unless you want to be at ~120% enemy forces before the end of the dungeon, we advise skipping the first several packs or the last several packs of trash with an invisibility potion.

Have your interrupts, personal defensives, and any supportive party cooldowns (like Rallying Cry) ready for the particularly stressful Manifested Timeways room! When blasting massive AOE, be mindful of Bolstering, as a Bolstered hit can mean lights out if you are also targeted with a Coalesced Moment’s Tainted Sands or Timestream Anomaly’s Bloom. Bloom will always go on one DPS and the tank. Healers must dispel the DPS affected by Bloom immediately!

Manifested Timeways is an extremely challenging boss to heal, so please make sure you have a way to track your own debuffs. You will cause major damage to your group if you do not know when you have the Chrono-Faded debuff. Here is a Chrono-Faded WeakAura to help you track the duration on your debuff; be sure you are moving to the LIGHT-colored pie slices before being dispelled, or your resulting Chronofade ring will be truly dangerous to your teammates! I prefer to prioritize dispelling in this order: Healers first, followed by Hunters, Shamans, Priests, Druids, and Evokers. I choose not to dispel Demon Hunters, Rogues, or Warriors when grouped with other classes. Note that this boss is extremely difficult for healers, with several demanding priority dispels; DPS should plan to assist the healer with Afflicted dispels here.

In order to skip the single Infinite Infiltrator on the way to Blight of Galakrond, check out this RIO Snapshot:



If your group has a Rogue & Distract, a Hunter, or Shadowmeld, you’ll have a few extra tricks to use to get around this Infinite Infiltrator.

Iridikron can be terrifying on high Tyrannical keys, so arm yourself with the tricks imparted in our RIO Snapshot:

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DAWN OF THE INFINITE: MUROZOND’S RISE

On the first platform there are three mini bosses: Valow, Timesworn Keeper, Lerai, Timesworn Maiden, and Spurlok, Timesworn Sentinel. Focus damage into these mini bosses to manage Bolstering stacks. You must defeat these three mini bosses in order to trigger the boss’ 30 second RP event. If you are pushing key levels, remember to focus-fire these named mobs to progress the time-gated event quickly. Your healer will likely need to save their dispel and all their attention for these dangerous pulls, so DPS should plan to handle Afflicted mobs here.

We all know sections of this dungeon are very RP-heavy; to save yourself some time, check out our RIO Snapshot on skipping through the RP in the portal room:



Note that the trash on the portal platform is especially intense for healers. Your healer will likely need to save their dispel for Timestream Anomaly’s Bloom and will have to dedicate their attention to the massive damage output this trash is capable of, so DPS should be especially careful in watching for frontals and handling Afflicted.

Is your team struggling with Time-Lost Battlefield? This boss can be brutal if you’re not handling the mechanics correctly! Check out our RIO Snapshot to avoid critical mistakes on this finicky fight:

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THE EVERBLOOM

Everbloom has some of the nastiest trash out there, so trash-buffing affixes like Bolstering can be terrifying! Bring your health potions and be on point with your defensives during the many massive, dangerous trash pulls.

Everbloom has a lot of extra trash, so we will need to take advantage of a wall hug to skip some trash near the second boss. No special tricks or abilities are required; all you need to do is walk your character into the wall and slowly inch your way towards the other side of the room. This skip is marked with a gold exclamation point (!) on our weekly route. Check out the clip below to see this skip in action:



Ancient Protectors is where pugs are feeling the most pain. Before you engage the boss, try to coordinate two critical interrupts: Toxic Bloom cast by Earthshaper Telu, and Revitalize cast by Life Warden Gola. I prefer to have the tank interrupt for Telu and the healer interrupt for Gola, if possible. Everyone else should be liberal with both their interrupts and personals. Remember to watch your feet: each time the tank gets the big green Noxious Charge and runs it out, the rest of the group will also get green swirlies at their feet. Noxious Charge occurs roughly every 15 seconds until Dulhu dies.

Yalnu is a relatively easy boss, but it’s also easy to pull him early and wipe the group! Avoid this mistake with help from a quick RIO Snapshot:

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THRONE OF THE TIDES

DPS must be aggressive about handling Afflicted during trash pulls. The healer will often need to save their single magic dispel to handle the Lightning Surge debuff from the Naz'jar Tempest Witch. Be diligent about Bolstering and don't rush your key with huge AOE pulls.

Take a look at Roiben’s sketch below to help manage Lady Naz'jar’s Focused Tempest:



TL;DR: Make certain that the group organizes into a diamond surrounding the boss/tank. Every player needs to be spaced evenly, taking up positions at the corners, and keeping the tank as the closest player to anyone positioned along the diamond’s perimeter.

Erunak Stonespeaker casts a brutal magic debuff called Flame Shock, which deals burst damage upon application and leaves a heavy-hitting DoT. Healers will do their best to dispel quickly, but Flame Shock is cast every 6 seconds, while most healers have an 8-second cooldown for their single-target Magic Dispel. Be kind to your healer and rotate your personals on Flame Shocks! The initial damage is surprisingly painful on Tyrannical, so be prepared to use personal defensives or healing potions if you aren’t at full health when the cast goes out. Your healer will likely need to save their dispel and all their attention for this dangerous boss, so DPS should plan to handle Afflicted mobs during this fight.

For some quick tips on handling Ozumat, take a peek at our RIO Snapshot:

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WAYCREST MANOR

We all love Waycrest for the big pulls, but be careful to avoid pulling too many enemies with smaller health pools, such as Gorestained Piglets, that can refresh Bolstering stacks on larger mobs. There are a number of mobs who are scary when Bolstered, so it’s important to interrupt targeted spells. Heartsbane Runeweaver’s Etch is especially terrifying as it cannot be interrupted, so remember to use a personal defensive or a health potion if you are the unlucky victim of a Bolstered Etch. Proceed with caution in your trash pulls this week!

On Tyrannical weeks, most groups prefer to use Bloodlust on the first pull, with bonus points if you can get that extra damage on a boss. However, did you know there is a quick way to proceed directly to the Heartsbane Triad? Take a look at our RIO Snapshot to find out how:



When Soulbound Goliath has high Soul Harvest stacks, the tank will take increased damage. The tank may move the Goliath into a fire patch to reset the boss’ stacks. The resulting Burning Brush deals massive group-wide damage and spawns untargetable Burning Souls who will fixate players, hitting them with Burning Fists if they are within melee range. Use personals for the fire and avoid red ghosts; don’t forget to stay close to the boss in the event that you are targeted by Soul Thorns!

Would you like to master the final boss, Gorak Tul? Check out our quick RIO Snapshot for the specifics:

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