Endgame content runners rejoice! Blizzard has seen fit to nerf the Explosive mythic+ affix in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, knocking down one of the most obnoxious challenges in the game.
If you’ve spent a considerable amount of time running mythic dungeons and endgame content, you likely don’t need much more of an explanation to begin celebrating. The explosive affix has been one of the more annoying bits of content in recent time.
That isn’t to say it’s insurmountable, of course, but it was more than a bit of a headache. This challenge was only something that would appear as an affix for mythic+ dungeon keys, so it wasn’t something that affected the entire game, but it was certainly one that knocked down plenty of timed runs.
The affix causes small orbs to spawn that grow larger and larger, eventually exploding for a powerful bit of damage across the entire party. Players need to move to kill the orbs before they explode, as it only takes a handful to cause a party wipe.
With this new change, the explosive orbs will now have significantly less health – 97, at this moment. This makes them extremely easy to one-shot with the vast majority of abilities at max level, instead of players having to dedicate a decent bit of their DPS capability to knocking them down.
This alone makes the mechanic considerably easier to tackle. Previously, it could take several seconds and knock someone’s rotation out of whack to deal with them, with parties often assigning a member to take care of them instead of damaging enemies.
But the nerfs keep coming! Explosive orbs now spawn farther away – 4 to 8 yards instead of the previous 3 yards. While this is a bit of a headache for some melee classes, it makes them easier to spot overall.
Explosive orbs will also no longer have their health scale with keystone level, remaining at a steady amount throughout any key level. This makes it so that players are in for the same level of challenge from them regardless of their key.
They also will now have a sound effect when destroyed. This will help players be more clear on when they’ve killed them, where before they would simply slowly fade, giving a moment of uncertainty for players.
With this affix knocked down a few pegs, mythic+ dungeons are looking even better with Shadowlands approaching. While it’s still a considerable challenge, the knock-down to the Explosive mechanic is a fantastic thing to see.
