I’m a semi hardcore casual nowadays due to irl commitments. I play 1-2 hours a night, usually more on the weekend and in most of that time I either quest, do dailies, or run some low keys.
I main ww monk which is an absolute blast, but I have an issue with dying a lot in mythic+ dungeons. Truthfully it’s all due to mechanics and me being unfamiliar with most of them. I know the obvious don’t stand in bad and whatnot, but it’s very difficult for me to pump when I’m constantly worried about not getting 1-2 shotted by trash or dying due to some unknown boss mechanic.
As dps, am I expected to watch YouTube videos breaking down the mechanics for each mythic+ dungeon that I’m running? Is that a part of my job? In older expansions I only did that for certain raid bosses, most dungeon bosses would be self explanatory, but now I feel like every boss and even trash have annoying mechanics tied to them.
My dps drops significantly on certain fights where I’m just fighting to stay alive. I’m 372 ilvl so definitely not on the lower end, but still had a hard time staying alive in a +7 yesterday. Keys upto +5 are easier but it gets significantly harder after that. Can’t even imagine what +15/20 looks like.
So how do I get better? Is it just a matter of learning ALL the fights and practice over time?
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Firstly, don’t panic. Everyone starts somewhere! Don’t worry so much about being one shotted, instead learn what can one shot you so you can prepare for it instead. Don’t forget you have a group, it’s not just you that everything is on 
Reading up on fights is always a good idea if you’re unsure.
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Best thing you can do with a limited time commitment? Watch a top player do high keys.
I don’t know of a windwalker streamer, or I’d name’em.
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spam it as much as you can is the answer tbh
Littlewigs(bigwigs for dungeons) can point important interupts and mechanics. With that installed youll learn overtime. You could also watch videos to speed up that process.
Also from what i remember, mythic dungeon tools lets you look at mob abilities for all the dungeons. Might be worth poking around with that to learn important trash abilities
Keep running the dungeons until they’re second nature.
Keep getting better gear from other sources.
Master your spec.
Are those better than DBM?
You will need to learn all the fights yes. Things you can power through become relevant as key levels rise… all of them. You can probably use videos but I can also recommend the addon mythic dungeon tools. It’s a bit more about tank routes but it does have mob abilities on it.
Other piece of advice: run the same dungeon several times in a row. It’ll help you focus on the smaller things that are happening.
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Don’t pug and build a group. Don’t set you goals too high. No one of us will ever get the 0,1% title so just chill and try to improve slowly. It’s a game if you are feeling like hitting a wall take a break. Mental health is important
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They both do the same thing its really just up to what you like more.
I would also check mythic dungeon tools out if you want to look at trash abilities
Your best option is to join an active guild who does m+. Pugging is just miserable.
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Yes. This applies to basically everything too.
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Start your own groups with your own keys so you aren’t wasting time trying to find groups. Keep spamming your own key and lowering it so it doesn’t get too high. Slowly work your way up with what you are comfortable with.
Keep on playing. But start to figure out which mechanics kill you. Monk has tons of utilities to prevent death. I made this Monk toon too in case my Main wont do well in DF. It so happened my Main is an MM Hunter and she is perfectly doing well.
My MM Hunter is also Casual at +7 like you. And she dies a lot last week. I keep blaming on the healer. ROFL. And this Hunter has 3 abilities to prevent her from dying… plus add Warlock’s Healthstone and Healing Potions… (now there’s 5 things that would prevent me from dying). My current goal right now is always to use up those 5 things first before dying. So far, I have fewer deaths now and sometimes I dont die anymore. And I realized some of the core mechanics which killed me previously.
Yeah, identify which mechanics killed you and start identifying how to prevent that. Now, I am improving. I felt more of me is carrying the PuG group than being a burden. I can safely say I am confident to branch up to +8/+9 with my MM Hunter.
it’s pretty much the same as DBM but a lot prefer little wigs and big wigs over it
read guides, watch videos, and practice practice practice!
This is good advice for raiding too. Use those defensives up. It’s better to use an ability that you know will keep you alive now rather than hold it for some future unknown catastrophe.
A lot of classes have abilities that can straight up cancel out mechanics. Like mage having difficulty with the dathea explosion? Use blink to immediately put yourself back on the ground or ice block to not get knocked at all.
Same thing with paladin bubble and its ability to overcome pretty much every mechanic ever (only thing I can think of it not working is falling into a chasm)
Yes. It’s part of your responsibility to know the content.
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If you decide to use Littlewig, DBM, or a dungeon-bundle Weak Aura - I have some cautionary advice. Spend some time customizing the audio queues and disabling stuff.
These type of “one stop shop” addons are WAY WAY over bloated for the average M+ player. They will become addon soup, where you aren’t really gaining anything useful. I think this is one of the biggest hurdles that keeps players from progressing. There will be a point, when you’ll want perfect information about what’s going on around you - but unless you’re in the 20-25 range you’re better off having 2-3 very good notifications you’ll latch onto instead of 40+ bells and whistles going off.
Step 1 of getting better: Know why you died. I’m at the point in my M+ career that I pretty much always know why I died, and often I can call my own death 1-2 seconds before it happens.
There are 3 tools in my kit to accomplish this:
- Mythic Dungeon Tools. In MDT you can Right Click on any mob and get a list of all their abilities.
- Autologger and personal logs. I upload a fair bit of my M+ to Warcraft Logs. If I’ve had a particularly rough dungeon, I’ll review the logs to get concrete data. MDT & Dungeon journal don’t show you things like how frequently an ability is used, or how it’s targeting works. Logs do.
- Recording my Games. Screencap yourself if you have a rig able to do so. This gives you the ability to truly review what tools you had available when you died. Were you out of position? Was your camera facing the wrong way? Did you die with a defensive unused?
After you know what’s killing you, then you need to start customizing your audio queues and Weak Auras. This is the better approach.
Finally, once you are at a point where you are the last-to-die on any given wipe, then you start to try and maximize your throughput. It’s easier to train yourself to play better after you are a safe player – than it is to train a reckless pumper to play safer.
Again logs can be very powerful for making sure you are using your offensive CDs, and you can compare your logs to other top player logs. If you cast Lava Burst 20 times in a 30 minute dungeon and they cast it 100 times, you can start to deduce issues in your rotation.
My last bit of advice is that trying to truly improve your game play in PUGs is doing it on extra hard mode. If you want an easier time of it, try and either join a guild or a discord group or something to get a static group 5-6 players you regularly Key with. This will accelerate your learning and minimize frustration.
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