The War Within: Dungeon and Affix Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Greetings!

With The War Within beta now underway, we are excited to share additional updates regarding dungeons and the affix system.

Heroic & Mythic Dungeons

In Dragonflight Season 4, we experimented with our existing dungeon difficulty progression to offer additional endgame options for players who enjoy more methodical dungeon gameplay. This updated dungeon difficulty progression is also an opportunity for players that do enjoy Mythic Keystones to have a place to build mastery over dungeons before the pressures of a timer kick in. You can read more about those changes in depth here. We plan to continue this model of progression into The War Within with some exciting updates!

  • Normal
    • This difficulty is unchanged.
    • This difficulty always includes our 8 War Within dungeons.
  • Heroic
    • The tuning and rewards of this difficulty are increasing to be equivalent to a baseline Mythic (Mythic 0) dungeon in the previous system.
    • New mechanics and other adjustments from Mythic will not be present in this difficulty.
    • This remains a queueable experience.
    • Starting with Season 1 of The War Within, Heroic dungeon difficulty will feature our roster of seasonal dungeons.
  • Mythic
    • The tuning and rewards of this difficulty are increasing to the equivalent of a +10 dungeon with affixes in the previous system.
    • There are no timers, affixes, or limitations on changing specializations or talents while in the dungeon.
    • The goal is to create a mega-dungeon like difficulty for this experience. This difficulty should present a meaningful challenge and provide commensurate rewards without the pressure of the Mythic+ system.
    • Starting with Season 1 of The War Within, Mythic difficulty will feature our roster of seasonal dungeons.
    • Mythic difficulty will be unavailable until with the War Within Season 1 begins.
    • Mythic difficulty will now have a daily lockout, changed from weekly in the previous system.

The seasonal dungeon roster for Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+ difficulties in Season 1 of The War Within includes the following dungeons:

  • The Stonevault
  • The Dawnbreaker
  • Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
  • City of Threads
  • Grim Batol
  • The Necrotic Wake
  • Mists of Tirna Scithe
  • Siege of Boralus

Mythic+

The Mythic Keystone system will carry forward changes from Dragonflight Season 4 with updates to the position of affixes in the system and updated affix buckets.

  • The Mythic+ system will have rewards up to level 10, with +2 starting from what would have been a +11 in the previous Mythic+ system.
  • A +5 should be as hard as a +15 and +10 should be as hard as a +20 in the previous Mythic+ system etc.
  • We intend to better align reward and difficulty increases in the Mythic+ system by updating the introduction points of affixes in Season 1 of The War Within.
    • +2 - Fortified/Tyrannical
    • +4 - A new set of passive affixes
    • +7 - Bursting / Bolstering etc.
  • Dungeon ratings should be equivalent to what they represent in the current system.
  • There should be a smaller range of Keystone levels to find groups for, and more meaningful progression between each level.

Affixes

Before we dive into the specifics of the new affixes, we would like to outline our goals and the purpose these affixes serve. Our overarching goal is to minimize the mechanical overlap between affixes and dungeon trash design in the current +4 affix bucket. We aim to achieve this through a more passive approach, focusing on the following objectives:

  • Shift the source of challenge to the dungeon itself by simplifying affix design and emphasizing creature abilities.
  • Reduce visual noise, nameplate clutter, and the cognitive load on players during trash combat.
  • Allow for varied and context-specific gameplay decisions depending on the dungeon they are applied to.

Additionally, these affixes will include a positive effect. The aim of these positive effects is to highlight different damage types each week, allowing each specialization additional opportunities to excel during the season.

  • These effects should feel like a bonus, offering an advantage for different damage profiles each week without being essential to complete a dungeon.
  • Players will have an opportunity to flex towards different talents, gearing options, and consumables to capitalize on these effects.

New Affixes

  • Reckless
    • Non-boss enemies without mana ignore 20% armor with their attacks, but their armor is reduced by 30% and they take 10% increased Arcane damage.
  • Thorned
    • Non-boss enemies without mana inflict Physical damage to their attackers when attacked, but take 10% increased Holy and Shadow damage.
  • Attuned
    • Non-boss enemies with mana inflict 20% increased magic damage, but take 10% increased Nature damage and 30% increased damage from Bleed effects.
  • Focused
    • Non-boss enemies with mana have 30% increased Haste, but take 10% increased Frost and Fire damage.

Note that these tooltips indicate whether the affixes apply to creatures with or without mana. These affixes will not affect every creature.

With our new passive affix bucket set to replace the current +4 affix bucket, the following affixes will be retired for Season 1 of The War Within:

  • Afflicted
  • Incorporeal
  • Entangling
  • Storming
  • Volcanic

To match the number of affixes in our level 4 affix bucket and align with our affix goals in The War Within we will be retiring the Spiteful affix for Season 1 of The War Within. The +7 affix bucket includes the following:

  • Raging
  • Bolstering
  • Bursting
  • Sanguine

Tyrannical and Fortified Affixes

We are still experimenting with how these affixes fit in with our updates.

We believe these changes will offer a refreshing experience for players at all levels each season and redefine how the Mythic+ affix system influences dungeon gameplay. We look forward to your feedback and discussions on these topics and we’ll see you in dungeons!
This article was originally published in forum thread: The War Within: Dungeon and Affix Updates started by Lumy View original post
Comments 77 Comments
  1. eel's Avatar
    Is the post just confusing and the only thing that changes compared to DF S4 is the affixes?
    Or are they actually squishing the levels again and +5 in S1 TWW is comparable to +25 in S3 DF? (and +15 in S4 DF)
  1. thunderdragon2's Avatar
    you have got to be kidding ppl did 8s because we didnt want to deal with blostering.... now its in form 7 while the vault is 9....... bad change

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Rageonit View Post
    Playerbase as usual overreacting.
    Do you people honestly believe than on a Reckless week only arcane mages and balance druids will get invites? Wonder where they'll all come from. Not to mention the fact that 10% buff probably won't be enough to surpass the damage of bis classes.
    if the player base will have anything to say about it, yes we do
  1. Eazy's Avatar
    Promoting one type of classes each week for the bonus increased dmg, lmao
  1. thunderdragon2's Avatar
    i think blizzard might actually have killed m+ with this for 90% of the player bases
  1. Ereb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Novaice View Post
    So why cant I play the all new dungeons at least at heroic level or (mythic 0)
    that seems dumb.
    If it's like Dragonflight you can. Just not all of them will have the 'season's gear'
  1. Rageonit's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by thunderdragon2 View Post
    if the player base will have anything to say about it, yes we do
    For some people it seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
    But it's fun to think that parallel to my universe, where players simply run dungeons with different comps, there is yours, where five groups run dungeons and fifty other are unable to fill up the roster, waiting in the group finder indefinitely.
    If only somebody could let them know that a 3% damage buff to arcane mage doesn't make or brake a run...

    I like to think that Blizzard does those things on purpose, to mess with you people.
  1. trapmaster's Avatar
    Them blizzard softie about mythic+ funny change but okay, whatever works from blizzard's dart board.
  1. thunderdragon2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rageonit View Post
    For some people it seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
    But it's fun to think that parallel to my universe, where players simply run dungeons with different comps, there is yours, where five groups run dungeons and fifty other are unable to fill up the roster, waiting in the group finder indefinitely.
    If only somebody could let them know that a 3% damage buff to arcane mage doesn't make or brake a run...

    I like to think that Blizzard does those things on purpose, to mess with you people.
    they dont care wither or not it would 1st few weeks sadly even if i were to try and make my own grps the likeliest outcome would be no1 signing
  1. Relapses's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by eel View Post
    Is the post just confusing and the only thing that changes compared to DF S4 is the affixes?
    Or are they actually squishing the levels again and +5 in S1 TWW is comparable to +25 in S3 DF? (and +15 in S4 DF)
    Lol no. It looks like they lazily copy and pasted that text from the Season 4 patch notes. When they refer to the "previous system," they're talking about the system which was in place in DF Season 3 and before.
  1. Baraden's Avatar
    Just remove affixes for fuck sake and make the difficulty in M+ come from the actual damage and dps checks of trash and bosses

    Have one seasonal affix but no more

    Just let us play the fucking dungeon, christ

    At the very least actually remove the two affixes people hate, bursting and bolstering, and scrap the bullshit kiss/curse affixes - either they're impactful enough where you're gonna get declined every group as a frost mage on the + fire damage week, or they're not impactful enough so why have them at all

    Blizzard simply NEEDS to rollback all these changes of the expansion will have a terrible season 1
  1. Thirtyrock's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ereb View Post
    There needs to be riots over this to make them change it before launch cmon people spam those official forums!
    I'm normally on the "Wait and see" side of things, but these affixes really look bad. I love the idea of each affix having a positive and negative effect, but the damage type buffs are bad, bad, bad. The difference between melee & caster weeks could also involve tanks having to have different routes for each week, based on pack composition. That's the biggest issue, to me. The best thing they have done for M+ in DF is simplify dungeon routing. These affixes could very well make for some weird pathing "requirements".
  1. Argorwal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Baraden View Post
    Just remove affixes for fuck sake and make the difficulty in M+ come from the actual damage and dps checks of trash and bosses

    Have one seasonal affix but no more

    Just let us play the fucking dungeon, christ

    At the very least actually remove the two affixes people hate, bursting and bolstering, and scrap the bullshit kiss/curse affixes - either they're impactful enough where you're gonna get declined every group as a frost mage on the + fire damage week, or they're not impactful enough so why have them at all

    Blizzard simply NEEDS to rollback all these changes of the expansion will have a terrible season 1
    They tried making the dungeons difficult on their own at release of DF s1 and s2 and the player base wouldn’t stop crying their eyes out it was too hard so Blizzard curb stomped the dungeons into the ground.

    Players just don’t want hard dungeons. They want easy, mindless aoe, smashes that give top tier gear.

    All feedback on mythic+ over the years leads to this.
  1. v0eid's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Argorwal View Post
    They tried making the dungeons difficult on their own at release of DF s1 and s2 and the player base wouldn’t stop crying their eyes out it was too hard so Blizzard curb stomped the dungeons into the ground.

    Players just don’t want hard dungeons. They want easy, mindless aoe, smashes that give top tier gear.

    All feedback on mythic+ over the years leads to this.
    S1 dungeons had 4 (FOUR) affixes - so they have not "tried" to do what you are suggesting, which is shifting dungeon difficulty away from affixes and into dungeons themselves - they actually did they exact opposite.

    I am guessing you haven't had the pleasure of doing a 25+ RLP with bolstering and sanguine while trying to find a guy to clear thundering.. or do a tree boss trash pull and then go afk pressing 1 on explosive for the whole pull.. etc, OTHERWISE you wouldn't make clueless posts.
  1. Argorwal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by v0eid View Post
    S1 dungeons had 4 (FOUR) affixes - so they have not "tried" to do what you are suggesting, which is shifting dungeon difficulty away from affixes and into dungeons themselves - they actually did they exact opposite.

    I am guessing you haven't had the pleasure of doing a 25+ RLP with bolstering and sanguine while trying to find a guy to clear thundering.. or do a tree boss trash pull and then go afk pressing 1 on explosive for the whole pull.. etc, OTHERWISE you wouldn't make clueless posts.
    So affixes are the reason Blizz butchered the dungeons themselves?

    Including season 2 dungeons which didn’t have a seasonal affix and which removed/gutted the affixes and added 3 nothingburger affixes?

    Blizz has been doing nothing but gut mythic+ difficulty the entire expansion at the request of the playerbase. Max rewards are almost at LFR levels.
  1. Baraden's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Argorwal View Post
    They tried making the dungeons difficult on their own at release of DF s1 and s2 and the player base wouldn’t stop crying their eyes out it was too hard so Blizzard curb stomped the dungeons into the ground.

    Players just don’t want hard dungeons. They want easy, mindless aoe, smashes that give top tier gear.

    All feedback on mythic+ over the years leads to this.
    Affixes are shit, only contrarians like them
  1. olzenkhaw's Avatar
    The old removed affixes is much much much better than the new affixeS!!!!
  1. v0eid's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Argorwal View Post
    Blizz has been doing nothing but gut mythic+ difficulty the entire expansion at the request of the playerbase. Max rewards are almost at LFR levels.
    Citation needed.

    Go round up some LFR players and have them do some +8s, then report back with your findings. Also report what you have learnt about making clueless statements that are pure hyperbole.

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