This week’s affixes are Fortified, Bolstering, Grievous, and Awakened.

This is a challenging set of affixes that will slow down most dungeons and punish groups that are not prepared. Fortified and Grievous will make trash packs lethal, and Bolstering will require your pulls to be carefully planned and/or require your damage to be divided with discipline. Even without Tyrannical active, Grievous will add difficulty to boss encounters, and the Awakened minibosses are tougher with Grievous and Bolstering active - the little enemies bolster each other, but they do not bolster the minibosses themselves. To time keys at a competitive level with other weeks, you’re likely going to need to find ways to fight an Awakened enemy with most end bosses, which can be tricky with Grievous active but is still very much doable.

Atal'Dazar [back to top]

The most painful Bolstering pulls in this dungeon can often be the Toxic Saurid pulls - though be careful not to fall into the trap of leaving the Saurids themselves up for too long in order to avoid bolstering the Skyscreamers - five non-bolstered Saurids leaping around are often far deadlier than one bolstered Skyscreamer. Making good use of “snap spots” can go a long way this week, especially if you can set up some CC on Skyscreamers, handle the Saurids first, and then clean up all the CC’d Skyscreamers.

Read more on Atal’Dazar Dungeon Abilities.

Freehold [back to top]

Freehold is not bad this week - most enemies are fairly well sized for Bolstering, and the Fortified bosses shouldn’t be too bad - though with Grievous active your healer will need to quickly top people who are targeted by abilities to avoid falling behind.

Read more on Freehold Dungeon Abilities.

Kings' Rest [back to top]

Minions of Zul bolster, so you need to be careful to not get them involved in the middle of a pull. Grievous Fortified Shadow of Zul is a very serious threat that will likely require all your cooldowns and perhaps the tank to kite. Outside of that, the dungeon isn’t too awful this week, though Grievous in general makes much of the dungeon more lethal.

Read more on Kings’ Rest Dungeon Abilities.

Shrine of the Storm [back to top]

Bolstering is painful here, but luckily Awakened gives us the choice of which enemies to fight and which to skip. If you’re an advanced group, you can find efficient ways to pull most parts of this dungeon, but for most groups the trickiest Bolstering challenges are posed by the minibosses that are surrounded by Tidesage Initiates. The Weekly Route is therefore skipping these altogether this week - though you will have to pull the Ritualists that we normally skip instead.

Read more on Shrine of the Storm Dungeon Abilities.

Siege of Boralus [back to top]

Our Siege of Boralus route is based off the Horde pathing and will require some modification if you’re Alliance.

Siege is rough this week - you need to deal with many tough Bolstering pulls, and with Grievous active there’s no true respite for the whole dungeon. A strategy not in our route, keeping a Spotter alive, is likely to be your best bet to time the key at a high (level 20+) level, though this can be taxing for healer mana pools this week - Bolster it all the way up and use it to kill a bunch of trash, then at some point die to reset it.

Read more on Siege of Boralus Dungeon Abilities.

Temple of Sethraliss [back to top]

It’s not a bad temple week - Grievous makes for tough boss fights for your healer, but Bolstering isn’t awful here since most of the trash is about the same size. Bloodlusts on the first, third, and final bosses will go a long way to helping end the fights before your healer runs out of mana - and look for opportunities to top yourself out of Grievous if your healer starts to struggle.

Read more on Temple of Sethraliss Dungeon Abilities.

The MOTHERLODE!! [back to top]

This is a very hard dungeon this week, as so many of the most efficient packs are full of enemies with different sized health pools. Try to avoid Bolstering any Addled Thugs or you may end up getting one-shot. Also be aware that Mechanized Peacekeepers will bolster twice when they die!

Read more on The MOTHERLODE!! Dungeon Abilities.

The Underrot [back to top]

Bolstering is really only a problem in here if you make a mistake and add enemies in at unexpected times - otherwise it’s fairly easy to fight only packs of similarly-sized foes. Grievous can also be rough on all bosses except Elder Leaxa, as they all do substantial damage to the whole group.

Read more on The Underrot Dungeon Abilities.

Tol Dagor [back to top]

Watch out for Bolstering in the cannon area now - we’d recommend looking at the clock when you make it to the ramparts and judging just how aggressively you need to use the cannons in order to beat the timer. If you’re doing well on time, just use each cannon to clear one group rather than attempting to kill multiple, as that can be a recipe for a wipe. Also be sure to clear the Parasites that patrol the first area before engaging the boss, otherwise you risk pulling them mid-fight and bolstering it!

Read more on Tol Dagor Dungeon Abilities.

Waycrest Manor [back to top]

Grievous is the operative affix in this dungeon - many trash pulls and bosses are made far harder by it. Bolstering, by contrast, only really comes up in the courtyard. Be sure to avoid pulling too many enemies at once if the pull contains smaller enemies, such as Piglets that will quickly die and add Bolstering stacks to the entire pull.

Read more on Waycrest Manor Dungeon Abilities.

Mechagon Junkyard [back to top]

There are a few nasty enemies in here that can easily start one-shotting with a few Bolsters - prioritize pulling slowly if necessary, since it’ll cost you time in the long run if you lose the Shock Bot buffs you’ve found so far due to deaths.

Read more on Operation: Mechagon Dungeon Abilities.

Mechagon Workshop [back to top]

For the most part, this dungeon plays itself. You will need to use some finesse when dealing with the Living Waste pulls - especially the one that contains a Dog, as that enemy has 10 times the health of a Waste. Crowd Control and careful management of which enemies are fought at the same time can help avert a Bolstering disaster here.

Read more on Operation: Mechagon Dungeon Abilities.