Summary
World of Warcraftrecently revealed the roster of dungeons players will challenge while progressing through Season 1 ofThe War Within, as well as tweaks to the Heroic and Mythic difficulties and the affixes found in Mythic+. These changes build on the adjustments made inDragonflightSeason 4, and will carry onward into the newWorld of Warcraftexpansion.
The War Withinis coming on August 26, with early access beginning for players who purchased theEpic or Collector’s Edition of the newWorld of Warcraftexpansionon August 22. That said,The War WithinSeason 1 doesn’t start until September 10, giving fans two weeks from launch to enjoy the expansion before diving into any raids or Mythic dungeons.
Now,World of Warcrafthas pulled back the curtain on what to expect inThe War WithinSeason 1.Like inWoW: DragonflightSeason 4, Heroic dungeons will be as difficult as Mythic dungeons were in earlier seasons. Additionally, the Heroic dungeons will be pulled from the Season 1 Mythic roster, which includes Grim Batol, The Necrotic Wake, Mists of Tirna Scithe, and the Siege of Boralus, plus four dungeons coming inThe War Within: The Stonevault, The Dawnbreaker, Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, and City of Threads.
Mythic dungeons, however, are receiving even more changes. As inDragonflightSeason 4, baseline Mythic dungeons will be the equivalent of a +10 dungeon in the old system, but with no timers, affixes, or spec and talent changing. Most importantly, Mythic dungeons will have a daily lockout inThe War WithinSeason 1, rather than a weekly one.
Keystone Mythic+ dungeons will match the same difficulty increase as Heroic and Mythic dungeons, but affixes will be changing as well, with many being shifted to avoid visual clutter, and to simplify the design so that the creatures’ own abilities are still the focus of dungeons. To that end,existingWorld of Warcraftaffixes like Afflicted, Incorporeal, Entangling, Storming, and Volcanic affixes are being replaced by Reckless, Thorned, Attuned, and Focused – new passives that grant power boosts to certain enemies, but make them take additional damage from specific types of attacks.
While players are excited about most of these dungeon changes inThe War Within, many fans have some concerns about the new affixes. Because each one makes certain enemies vulnerable to specific damage types, they fear players will exclude certain classes to get an edge in these dungeons. For example, Thorned enemies take additional Holy and Shadow damage, which may make it harder for Mages to find groups when those affixes are active. Fans will have to see how much these affixes change the Mythic+ dynamic onceWorld of Warcraft: The War WithinSeason 1 begins.
WoW: The War Within Season 1 Dungeon and Affix Update
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 depthhere. We plan to continue this model of progression into The War Within with some exciting updates!
The seasonal dungeon roster for Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+ difficulties in Season 1 of The War Within includes the following dungeons:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
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!
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
WHERE TO PLAY
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the ninth expansion pack for the iconic massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft.Dragonflight features an overhauled user interface, raises the level cap to 70, and introduces a new race and class.
