Going into Dragonflight I am really hoping we will see some serious changes to M+ affixes. Apologies in advance… this is gonna be a long one.
I’ve made posts in the past about good & bad affixes, and more specifically about not having the same 4 affixes on every key for a week. And while I do want to continue that train of thought, I want to engage in a conversation about each individual affix. I’m not going to talk about their effects in specific dungeons necessarily, although some are far worse than others. But more the design of the affixes, how they feel, and whether they should be carried on into DF or replaced.
+2 Keystone Level Affixes
- Fortified
- Tyrannical
+4 Keystone Level Affixes
- Inspiring
- Bursting
- Spiteful
- Raging
- Bolstering
- Sanguine
- Teeming (Retired)
+7 Keystone Level Affixes
- Grievous
- Necrotic
- Volcanic
- Quaking
- Explosive
- Storming
- Skittish (Retired)
- Overflowing (Retired)
+10 (Seasonal) Keystone Level Affixes
- Shrouded (Current)
- Encrypted (SL S3)
- Tormented (SL S2)
- Prideful (SL S1)
- Awakened (BFA S4)
- Beguiling (BFA S3)
- Reaping (BFA S2)
- Infested (BFA S1)
- Infernal (Legion Timewalking)
I don’t necessarily have a problem with the current structure of adding additional affixes at the +2, +4, +7, and +10 levels, but with the current structure of the loot system, I think the final affix should be added at level +15. Doing +15’s can get the same loot as doing +25’s (and while that is another whole topic for conversation, I’m not going to get into a rewards discussion here). Therefore, +15’s should be the “toughest” to complete to get the best gear. Any levels after a +15 are strictly for player challenge and cosmetics.
So, should we add a 5th affix to +15 and higher keys? Should the levels change for when the affixes are added? (+2, +6, +10,+ 15?) I’m not sure and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Last thing before we get into each affix. I think the Seasonal affix should be moved to the +2 level. There are people who play WoW who love low level M+, and never get to experience the Seasonal Affix because it’s gated behind +10 level keys or higher. Instead of having every M+ key ever be Fortified or Tyrannical, let everyone play with the much cooler Seasonal Affixes.
Fortified & Tyrannical
For four years now, Fortified and Tyrannical have been active on every single keystone we have ever run. If you count +10 or higher keys in Legion, it is literally every key ever.
These affixes aren’t intriguing, they don’t make the dungeons more fun, and they don’t make meaningful changes to the dungeons often enough.
Yes, there are some trash pulls you do on Tyrannical and not Fortified, or you pull mobs into a boss on Fortified but not Tyrannical etc, but I really feel these affixes have overstayed their welcome.
I would propose to get rid of these entirely, but I would also accept just adding them to the standard Affix pool.
Inspiring
New to Shadowlands, Inspiring is actually one of the better Affixes in the game right now. There are ways to play around it if a pull is too hard with one in the mix, by CC’ing the inspired mob, or you can try to brute force through it.
Keep this affix.
Bursting
Bursting is… okay. Kill too much stuff at the same time and get punished for it, unless you have a way to immune the DoT (or your healer is a priest). Bursting makes you think about just cleaving everything down together, changes the way a dungeon can go sometimes.
Keep this affix
Spiteful
Also new to Shadowlands, Spiteful is kinda just a pain to deal with. When still in combat with other mobs I think it’s kinda cool, but it’s too easy to lose track of the Spiteful mobs (especially when you’re in melee range), and some classes have a much easier way to deal with, and kite them than others.
The most annoying part about spiteful, for me, is dealing with them after the trash is dead. I understand this is part of the affix, but I don’t think it’s a good part.
If this sticks around, I’d like to see the rate at which their health deteriorates increased once the regular trash is dead.
Raging
Raging has outplay with spells like Soothe, Tranq shot, etc. It’s primarily an affix that affects tanks, and doesn’t really have one shot potential until higher keys (usually). Outside of a few mobs scattered randomly in dungeons (Like the undying ones in DoS), this affix is generally ignored & not really played around. In it’s current state it will always be this way. Ignored outside of a few choice mobs.
Keep the affix, but maybe add something to it.
Bolstering
Credit where it’s due… 20 second timer on bolstering did alot to help how horrid this affix was. That being said, I still hate it. Aside from waiting, there is no outplay potential. It just is.
Remove this affix, once and for all, please.
Sanguine
Sanguine is a pain for everyone. The biggest problem with Sanguine though, has always been mobs with an un-interruptible cast that just sit in it and heal to full, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. I don’t mind the affix in certain scenarios, but in some instances with particularly tight hallways or the aforementioned mobs it’s just brutal.
Keep the affix, consider it in dungeon design process.
Teeming
Teeming is an old retired affix that added more mobs throughout the dungeon and increased the amount of trash you needed to complete the bar. I was a huge fan of teeming because it was just more fun. More mobs meant more numbers. It made route planning harder though, because 1 week out of the rotation different mobs would be needed for full count.
As fun as Teeming was, don’t bring it back as it was, and if it does come back, there should be a benefit added to killing the extra mobs.
Grievous
In my opinion, grievous is a good affix… until it’s still ticking out of combat and your healer died, so you also die because you can’t top yourself off. Its frustrating when this happens, and while the affix should stick around, it should also lose stacks once out of combat.
Necrotic
Necrotic weeks to me are simply known as “Weeks I refuse to tank.” When I tank a key I play blood DK, and my primary form of mitigation is healing. The entire kit is build around self healing and sustain. Other tanks are built around absorbing, shielding, and blocking and are not as affected by this as Blood DK. This affix is a direct counter to blood DK and feels terrible to play with.
Remove it… please.
Volcanic
As we will discuss the inverse in a moment with Storming, Volcanic is the affix that melee love to see in a rotation. In fairness, most ranged do as well. It’s simple, easy to see, and easy to play around if you’re paying attention. The downside to it is that is does absolutely nothing to how a dungeon is run.
The affix can stay, but consider making it more impactful?
Quaking
Quaking is a great affix. A little bit annoying, but when dealt with correctly provides no issues. It’s an affix that makes you think about current positioning and adjust accordingly.
Quaking should stay.
Explosive
Explosive is another one of those affixes that is not super well liked because it’s annoying, but I think it’s a good one to stick around. Obviously some classes/specs are more adept at dealing with them than others, but I think it’s perfect that they are killed in 1 hit. I think an interesting alternative to explosive would be a single, large orb that doesn’t die in 1 hit that would need to be focused down by the group.
Storming
As mentioned during the Volcanic discussion, Storming is the opposite. Less impactful to ranged, somewhat annoying for melee, but better now that the tornadoes despawn after being hit. It’s pretty simple to deal with, and has some outplay with abilities like Death’s Advance.
Skittish
We already have aggro issues. Don’t even think about it.
Overflowing
I had to look up what this did. Removed after Legion, overflowing didn’t allow for overhealing, by applying a heal absorb. Needless to say, it’s good that this is gone. Don’t bring it back either.
Seasonal Affixes
I’m not going to go through each of these 1 by 1 because they almost certainly won’t ever come back. So just in general, I think the seasonal affixes have been, for the most part, good. I also think the most recent two, Shrouded and Encrypted, have been two of the best. Spend time, get rewarded.
I’m personally not a fan of the ones that auto-spawn every 25% of trash, and I like the ones that you can choose to engage with or avoid based on your run. The general idea of kiss/curse is what I want to see continued.
So What?
Pretty clearly there are some problem affixes. There are some that are arguably too easy. And there are some that just need to go.
But in removing affixes, new ones could take their place. I would like to see more of the kiss/curse affixes, such as:
- Enemies spawn pools that deal damage to players, but increase damage/healing done.
Thanks for making it this far. I’m really hoping that this will create some meaningful discussion around reworking the current affix system going into DF.