The mythic keystone dungeons (“Mythic+”) are some of the toughest PvE challenges in World of Warcraft. This week, the affixes Bursting and Explosive await you – a fairly easy combination. MeinMMO gives you tips on the affixes and shows which dungeons work best.
Which affixes are active this week? On each keystone you receive, there can be up to four affixes that apply to the entire dungeon. The following affixes are active this week:
- Tyrannical (Level 2+) – Bosses have 30% more health points and they and their minions deal up to 15% more damage. The affix was nerfed in early February 2021.
- Bursting (Level 4+) – Regular enemies leave a damage-over-time effect on all players upon death, which deals damage for four seconds and is stackable.
- Explosive (Level 7+) – Enemies regularly drop explosive orbs during combat that detonate after a while and deal 50% of the maximum health of all players as fire damage. They are immune to area attacks like Blizzard.
- Prideful (Level 10+) – Once you have defeated 20% of the enemy forces, a manifestation of Pride will appear that you must defeat.
An explanation of what exactly affixes and Mythic+ are can be found above in our guide to the malicious/volcanic week for WoW.
How long does the affix week last? The Bursting/Explosive week starts on Wednesday, January 10 and ends on Wednesday, February 17.
Those who are not used to the affixes or do not yet know them will probably have difficulties with them. Both can be incredibly lethal if mishandled. Fortunately, they are relatively easy to master. We give you tips on how to play each affix correctly and in which dungeons it will be a bit easier for you this week.
The best dungeons this week
Where can I easily get through? This week there are no absolutely impossible dungeons, although everything is generally a bit harder due to Tyrannical. As in almost every week, the Mist of Tirna Scithe and the Halls of Atonement are the easiest dungeons.
In both, the timers are quite manageable and you have enough space to play the affixes. The bosses won’t get significantly harder, although you should be careful with the first boss in the Mists as he can ruin your run.
Otherwise, thanks to further nerfs for many dungeons, Plaguefall and the Necrotic Wake are quite doable this week. If you’re still missing keys here, you should give it a try this week.
These dungeons are more difficult: Theater of Pain and Sanguine Depths are traditionally two of the toughest instances and remain so this week. In the Theater, particularly Tyrannical makes some bosses quite tough, foremost Bloodluster.
The Sanguine Depths are generally considered the hardest dungeon in Shadowlands, and with Tyrannical, the bosses become even more challenging. If you have the choice, you should avoid these two dungeons.
Additionally, The Other Side is relatively demanding this week. Despite the nerfs, Merchant Xy‘exa is a major challenge and can wipe your group. Be cautious and do not underestimate how strong the bosses still are despite the nerfs.
Tyrannical and Prideful – What you need to watch out for
What kind of affixes are those? These two are a bit out of the ordinary. Fortified rotates weekly with Tyrannical. The two affixes either strengthen normal enemies or bosses.
Prideful, on the other hand, is the seasonal affix. For the entire first season of Shadowlands, this affix will be active starting at level 10.
How to best handle the affixes: Fortified and Tyrannical have no special mechanics. You should just try to have a manifestation of Pride for each boss and have your cooldowns ready for it.
With Pride, however, you need to handle it properly. Defeating the manifestation grants you a damage buff for one minute, which you should ideally use against particularly tough enemies.
Try to reach a 20% mark before a hard fight and then defeat the manifestation before you look for the next fight. Make sure that the manifestation does not appear in the middle of a fight. Addons like Mythic Dungeon Tools show you how much percentage an enemy is worth and even let you plan routes.
- Here you can find Mythic Dungeon Tools on curse.
Bursting and Explosive – What you need to watch out for
How to best handle the affixes: Both affixes prevent you from pulling too large groups or killing enemies simultaneously. This can quickly lead to a wipe and cause you to miss the timer.
Bursting is an affix that the whole group must pay attention to. Coordinate with the healer regarding how many stacks of Bursting he can heal and never kill too many enemies in quick succession. In case of doubt, wait with an absolute damage stop until the stacks have worn off.
Here, communication and teamwork are important. While the tank determines the group size, the DPS players must pay attention to how the targets die. Make precise calls or use raid markers to mark enemies. Too much AoE damage can also be lethal here.
Explosive, on the other hand, is quite easy, especially if you have a melee in the group. The orbs appear near enemies and have low health points.
Assign your melee or a hunter to kill the orbs – a few abilities will suffice to destroy them quickly, and they do not need to interrupt their spells for that.
It is important that you react quickly. Use either WeakAuras with the Addon WeakAuras, which we recommend anyway.
Which classes have it easier? Generally, no class is necessarily at an advantage, but melee characters have a significantly higher chance of being included this week. Melee characters can handle the Explosive orbs easily and are thus particularly valuable for the group.
In particular, classes with abilities that can quickly destroy the orbs are popular here. Ideally, these abilities should cost few resources and not interrupt the player’s rotation. Possible specializations include:
- Arms Warrior
- Outlaw Rogue
- Marksmanship Hunter
- Spell-classes with strong instant spells
Which classes have it harder? Explosive is particularly annoying for groups made entirely of spell classes that all have to cast spells. Casters must interrupt their spells to switch to the orbs and thus potentially lose a lot of their output.
However, the week is particularly bothersome for healers. If your DPS players cannot keep their feet still, the stacks of Bursting can quickly become incurable. Especially healers without very strong group healing can quickly struggle here. This week is annoying for:
- Healers without strong group healing like Paladins
- Classes with long casts like Affliction Warlocks or Fire Mages
If you still have difficulties with Mythic+ dungeons, you can find two tools in our guide on MeinMMO that will help you get the most out of your character in WoW.
