Most Popular Mythic+ Group Compositions (TWW Season 1 / Week 1)

Hello Mythic+ fans! The War Within Season 1 is officially underway, and with Week 1 coming to an end, let’s take a look at the top group compositions we’ve seen at the various keystone level thresholds.

For a quick reminder, here’s how the Mythic+ Affixes work in The War Within:



For our Data Dive, we’ll be looking at the most popular group compositions used for timed keystones completed for the following ranges:

KEYSTONE LEVEL	AFFIXES
+2 to +6	Xal’atath’s Bargain + Fortified or Tyrannical
+7 to +11	Challenger’s Peril
+12 and Up	Xal’atath’s Guile + Fortified and Tyrannical

Table of Contents

Keystone Levels: +2 to +6

This graph shows the top 5 group compositions used during Week 1 for timed Keystones between levels +2 and +6, inclusive. This is the first threshold of keystones where the affixes faced are one of four possible Xal’atath’s Bargain (added at +2) and either Fortified or Tyrannical (alternating each week, added at +4). For the above graph, the affixes were Xal’atath’s Bargain: Ascendant and Tyrannical.

At this level range, we’re seeing a pretty wide variety of tank options. For healers, however, it’s the   Restoration Shaman show. In fact, we don’t see a healer spec other than Resto Shaman at this level range until the 38th most used composition.

For DPS, there’s a wider choice of specs, but   Retribution Paladins,   Arcane Mages, and  Fury Warriors are all pretty prevalent. At the lower key levels, groups tend to prioritize AoE damage and speed over survivability, so that can often play a hand in spec choices.

Keystone Levels: +7 to +11

This graph shows the top 5 group compositions used during Week 1 for timed Keystones between levels +7 and +11, inclusive. This is the second threshold of keystones where the affixes faced are the same as the first level range, with the new addition of Challenger’s Peril. For the above graph, the affixes were Xal’atath’s Bargain: Ascendant, Tyrannical, and Challenger’s Peril.

Similar to the prior level range, we’re still seeing a pretty wide variety of tank specs being used, minus the continued lack of Protection Paladins and Brewmaster Monks. Healing also looks the same, with Restoration Shamans being the sole choice amongst the most popular group compositions.

DPS compositions are fairly similar, with   Retribution Paladins,   Frost Death Knights,
Fury Warriors, and   Arcane Mages seeing a lot of play. Interestingly enough, we do see   Assassination Rogue make it into the top 5 group comps once we hit this key level range.

Keystone Levels: +12 and Up

This graph shows keystones completed at levels +12 and up, which is where the affix situation changes dramatically. Xal’atath’s Bargain gets removed and replaced with
Xal’atath’s Guile, which removes the beneficial aspects of the affix and makes enemies 20% more difficult. Challenger’s Peril remains, and additionally both Fortified and   Tyrannical are present. At +12 and up, Mythic+ dungeons do not change from week to week, so their difficulty remains the same. It will be very interesting to see how these statistics change as the Season progresses!

We can immediately see pretty significant differences in the +12 and up range compared to lower keystone thresholds. Firstly, we had very few of these dungeons actually completed on Week 1 (only 30 in total), as they are immensely difficult, especially for current gear levels. Kudos to those of you who were able to accomplish a timed keystone at +12 or higher!

We also now see the return of the Augmentation Evoker, a staple in high-key pushing from Dragonflight after the spec’s introduction. They bring significant utility to both survivability and damage amplification, which becomes very important at this level. Also interesting to note is that Mage presence remains high, but with a spec change from
Arcane to Frost. We also see our first Warlocks and even some Protection Paladins!

Restoration Shamans are still riding high, present in all but 2 of the 30 dungeons completed in time at +12 or higher in Week 1, which were healed by a Mistweaver Monk and a Preservation Evoker, respectively.

Keep in mind that this is a very small sample size due to it being so early in the Season!

Insights

The first week of a new expansion is always incredibly volatile when it comes to group compositions, and very few players actively aim for pushing beyond a certain gearing threshold. Keys are spammed for The Great Vault rewards and gear, and class popularity itself as well as class performance during the TWW Beta are some of the biggest contributing factors to the most played compositions this early on.

It is no surprise to see Arcane Mage be so prevalent, as it has been the most hyped up class coming out of TWW Beta. Retribution Paladin has typically been the single most popular spec and class combination in the entire game, with Hunter, Warrior and Death Knight following Paladin in the number 2, 3, and 4 spots, respectively.


While Hunter is one of the most popular classes in the game, it has not been doing well throughout the TWW Alpha and Beta cycles, which could explain why we have seen so few Hunters compared to Fury Warrior or Frost Death Knights in this first week of Mythic+.

Another large factor that plays into representation in the +7 and up bracket specifically, is the makeup of most raid guilds. Keystones of level +7 and above have been very difficult this week, and the vast majority of people tackling these keys have been gearing up in raid prior to playing Mythic+. As such, the spread of classes is not dictated nearly as much by class popularity as a whole, but is also offset by the popularity of classes in raids. While we’ve seen many raids bring multiple Mages or Warriors – sometimes as many as three or four – Hunters have seen much less play.

As a whole, it is definitely too early to try and read too much into meta developments from the current makeup of Mythic+ groups, but with how high-performing and popular classes like Mage, Death Knight and Shaman have been in the higher key-levels, these trends may certainly continue if Blizzard does not nerf these classes for their high raid performance, which would inevitably lead to nerfs to their Mythic+ performance in tandem.

Stay tuned for more Data Dives, coming soon!

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