Mythic dungeons in WoW: Legion will be a bit more challenging. Additional modifiers make the instances more exciting.
Ongoing issues in mythic instances
Instances in World of Warcraft have had a significant problem since Classic. Either they are quite difficult (like at the start of Cataclysm) or they are extremely easy (Mists of Pandaria). Either way, the issue is that as players’ gear increases, the once challenging instances lose much of their difficulty and thus fun. In Legion, they want to solve this problem a bit more creatively than they did with the Challenge Mode.
Those who desire can use so-called Challenge Stones in mythic instances in Legion to further increase the difficulty of the dungeon. These stones are initially socketed in item slots – once that is done, a timer begins for the instance during which it must be completed. However, the time limit is not the real hurdle, but the special properties of the stone. Completing the dungeons makes the stone more powerful, and you can reuse it. The more powerful the stone used, the harder the dungeon, and the better the additional rewards waiting at the end.
It gets really exciting when the stone reaches level 3 or level 6, as then the mythic dungeons gain additional “properties” that turn the instance visit into a real torture and challenge all players significantly.
Level 3
- Tyrannical: The bosses of the instance are stronger and have more health.
- Empowering: Killing trash mobs empowers other trash mobs nearby.
- Enraged: Trash mobs deal double damage when their HP is low.
- Swarming: Additional trash mobs and patrols populate the instance.
Level 6
- Necrotic: Opposing melee fighters inflict a debuff that reduces healing received and deals damage over time.
- Volcanic: Enemies create volcanic eruptions under all ranged attackers that deal additional damage.
- Nervous: Tanks generate much less threat.
- Decay: All group members suffer constant damage throughout the entire instance.
Depending on the combination, this can become relatively difficult for healers, tanks, or DPS. Blizzard is currently gathering player feedback to find out which modifiers and combinations are enjoyable and which are just “annoying”.
The goal in Legion will be to make the stone and its modifications continuously stronger to secure the best rewards. However, caution is also advised: A failed attempt means that the stone will be reset. At least this is the current plan, which may change during the beta.
For more news and articles about Legion, you can visit our World of Warcraft theme page.
