Blizzard will be adding in a massive injection of endgame PvE content with this upcoming weekly reset on Tuesday, December 8th. Earlier today, we discussed the implementation of Castle Nathria, the first raid of the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion.
But those that favor PvE content aren’t only getting the first raid to bonk their heads against. Along with the release comes the Mythic+ release, bringing in the endlessly-repeatable (as long as you can handle the grind) dungeon mechanic for Mythic keys.
This content will be releasing on December 8th as part of the release of Season 1, with the first seasonal affix of the Shadowlands expansion coming along with it – more on that later. First, the gear!
If you’re unfamiliar with the mechanic, Mythic+ dungeons are dungeons played on a more-difficult version of Mythic, the “hardest” available difficulty for dungeons. This adds a time limit, rewarding/punishing players depending on success or failure to complete the dungeon in that time.
It also adds considerable difficulty in stats – the higher the key level, the more buffed the enemies are, though players won’t receive any debuffs (affixes notwithstanding) regardless of the level of the key being used to run the dungeon.
Affixes, however, are a different story. These mechanics add special traits to the dungeon that can drastically transform it, sometimes even making the easiest dungeon unspeakably more difficult. They may add more mobs, make mobs more powerful, or add completely new effects to deal with.
Mythic gear ranges in drop level depending of the difficulty being used. At Mythic+2, the drops will be 187, a teensy bit higher than the 184 base Mythic dungeons drop. Up ahead at Mythic 15, however, drops come at 210 – better than Normal Nathria gear, not quite as good as Heroic Nathria gear.
However, Mythic+ dungeons also give a chest at the start of next week with a random item in it adjusted to the highest Mythic+ key you completed. This can go as high as 226 item level for a Mythic+15 dungeon, which puts it at higher than anything that can be obtained in even Heroic-difficulty Castle Nathria.
Mythic Castle Nathria gear will go as high as the 233 items that Denathrius drops, so current mythics don’t seem like they’ll be replacing raids. This also may need further examination as the expansion goes on and better gear is released with new raids in 9.1, 9.2, etc.
There’s new affixes, new dungeons, and most importantly, new gear, so this Tuesday is going to be bringing the biggest injection of content that the Shadowlands has yet seen! Get ready if you were planning on tackling endgame content – the next tier is coming in two short days.
