Time for another m+ affix rework

Gameplay Dungeons, Raids and Scenarios
1

The first rework to affixes was a good step in the right direction. However, we still have weeks that are just miserable to play. There are specific affixes that need to go imo.

Afflicted and Incorp - I’m combining these two into the same boat because they force groups to play certain comps and discourage bringing certain classes. They are also too punishing if failed. If you have the right comp and players these can be handled, but if not it just becomes annoying to deal with. Overall just cause too much friction in keys and need to be removed.

All On Death Affixes - I’m going to break them down as to why, but overall these have bad interaction with mobs that have very very low hp in some dungeons. They also cause annoying challenges like remaining in combat after a pull. Not allowing you to mount, eat or drink. I would like to see this whole row of affixes removed.

Bursting - This is a weird affix that has reverse difficulty. In lower keys trash have less health and die faster. So you end up stacking Bursting faster in lower keys and gradually stack less as mobs get more hp. This is the only affix that I know of that has this reverse scaling in difficulty.

Sanguine - This affix is one of the few, if only, that has a huge affect on the timer. It’s not as bad as it once was, but it’s still annoying to deal with. Again there are ways to deal with this to make it easier for sure. But overall this affix is more annoying than interesting.

Spiteful - These can just die in fire. I’ve never liked spiteful. They keep you in combat for too long. They slap for way too much hp and are generally annoying. As with anything you can deal with these or ignore them. They just cause too many problems in keys.

Bolstering - Nothing better than this getting carried over into a new group, or getting clapped by the boosted Abomination in EB. This affix is just annoying, always has been.

Raging - Not really an on death affix, and only becomes a true affix at high keys. But it’s in the row it’ got to go.

Blizzard has already said Fort and Tyran are not going anywhere. So what I would like to see in the future is this.

Keep the 3 affix rows, maybe move the 3rd to 15 instead of 14.
First row still Fort or Tyran, maybe make some changes in scaling for Tyran to reduce boss fight times and hp of add type mechanics (ie tree boss in WM as an example).
2nd row the remaining affixes (Entangling, Storming, Volcanic), maybe add a new one that falls in this group.
3rd a good seasonal affix that is thematic. We’ve had some good and bad seasonals, but the good ones were fun. Stuff that gives you a buff if you do a certain task, or allows you to move through the dungeon in different ways.

This is just my take. I know not everyone will agree and some will argue why they love afflicted for some reason lol. But what is your take and do you want to see a change in affixes in an upcoming patch or next xpac?

6 Likes
2

There isn’t a single affix I have an ounce of respect for in mythic plus. every single one of them is pure idiocy. id rather there be no affixes and only a seasonal affix at all difficulties.

Now I am healing on a priest and legit 99% of these are “a healer affix”, and that statement by the community automatically implies that affixes don’t make gameplay at all interesting with affixes because only one person in every group typically has to deal with them.

The rest of the group just plays the game, only the heals ever do affixes and that alone is horrible game design. The only affix that the entire group had to do was seasonal affixes, and people hate them.

5 Likes
3

Ignoring the first person to respond. Blizz did attempt a shorter boss battle raid back in BFA in Stormsong zone. It was two bosses. It did not go over super well. Perhaps it was the particular fight design, as it also introduced player specific game play that if failed caused major problems or wipes.

4

Yep, they need to delete affixes and just tune the scaling with perhaps just a seasonal affix. They cannot balance Tyrannical/Fortified + all these other garbage affixes on top of the already existing dungeon mechanics.

2 Likes
5

I feel like some people wouldn’t be happy unless they removed affixes altogether.

It’s meant to be hard, and offers weekly variety.

1 Like
6

Thing is, they’re not very hard. We just don’t like them and a lot of the responsibility to deal with them is usually offloaded onto the healer and sometimes the tank. As keys go higher they start to become more important than the pull you’re fighting, and there’s a lot of confusion and back and forth over whether blizzard actually wants that to happen or not. And affixes are not created equally. Some of them are a lot worse than the others.

If anything I’d like them to get reworked into a state where only you get screwed over if you don’t deal with it. Entangling could be an example of this, where unless you’re getting a party member to use some utility button on you, its on you to walk out of it. And then its over and solved. And that’s one of the reasons entangling is one of the least complained about affixes. You could say its because of the easiest affixes, and there’s probably truth to that. I think people just don’t like affixes. They’ve gotten old.

7

Honestly - Affixes are nice and keep the season interesting week to week. So they need to stay - id argue we should see a return of the season affix but thats just me…

The only affixes that truly are atrocious imho are bolstering - as a healer this easily gets out of control in pugs. and sanguine - mobs getting stuck in it during casts where they cant be pushed or pulled is endlessly frustrating.

the rest have decent counter play and enough of a variety of classes that can handle it that its just changes the weakly flavor a bit.

no affixes with the 4-5 month seasons just sounds like a great way to tire out the content even faster.

1 Like
8

The only affixes should be rework or removed are bolstering, sanguine and afflicted. I know I am Shaman but I am playing alts, what afflicted doing to the group comp is so bad. The group need 3 players with dispels when the healer need to dispel something from the mechanics. Afflicted is a completely design failures because it’s ‘pick the class, not the player’, Blizzard has been trying to avoid that.

9

Its infinitely scaling. Your take is wrong and bad.

10

Blizzard balances keystone difficulty / ramp based on the lower end (up until 20-30) based on difficulty.

Git gud brother.

11

I have never found affixes to keep the season interesting. Once you’ve done the affixes once, it’s no longer new. Let’s face facts that more than a few affixes are the same in how you deal with them. Afflicted and incorporeal? Same, target and press button, which is the same as explosive but less people can do them. Don’t stand in the swirlies or puddles.

People aren’t going to tire out because they are there for one of three reasons. 1. Loot- they are going to do the content regardless of affix until they get the loot they want. Removing affixes will not affect this. 2. Achievements- People looking to get KSM or KSH are going to again do M+ until they get them, slightly different affixes doesn’t change this. 3. To push as high as they can go, which is a relatively small group of people and they are going to push regardless of affixes or not, at their level affixes are trivial compared to the bosses one hitting.

I don’t know anyone playing M+ for the week to week variety, they have goals in mind and affixes are merely an annoying hurdle.

What you’re forgetting though is that affixes also keep people from playing M+. Any content that causes players to “skip” weeks is terrible content and that gap in play can cause them to re-think their sub. It also causes players to avoid the content to begin with because they don’t want to deal with affixes ruining the dungeon experience. Having to break from killing enemies to target a random ghost that pops up for no reason and push a button isn’t exactly immersive. I know more than a few people who don’t do M+ because of the anxiety of the timer and the affixes making dungeons annoying/stressful. Given Blizzard has only really developed the majority of progression content for M+ and Raids, this leaves those players to question why they play the game at all. It’s one of the reasons that WoW has been bleeding subs for so long, if you’re not into M+ or Raiding the content is few and far between.

Speaking for myself personally, I hate affixes. They have never once made a dungeon more enjoyable or fun and certainly never made it a “new” experience week to week. They are annoyances that detract from dungeon immersion and make me want to play M+ less. I play M+ for one reason only, the KSM mount. I find M+ as a whole an awful experience from wasting time finding groups, toxicity due to timers, incredibly poor class/spec/affix balance, to the immersion breaking and annoying affixes.

Don’t conflate hating affixes and wanting them gone with wanting it to be easy. I just want the difficulty to come from the dungeon itself and not from arcadey BS that pops up out of nowhere just cause.

3 Likes
12

achieves niether…

13

Bolstering paired with Fortified has made me unsub before. It’s about to do it again this week too.

1 Like
14

I write anyone off that really enjoys affixes, especially how they work currently, as a moron. Don’t care if they are an MDI player that outskills me. They just arent fun and are dogwater for gameplay and balance.

You want to keep a season fresh? Rotate more friggin dungeons in to keep players interested.

1 Like
15

Even the top rated players mostly seem to think affixes are absolute turd so anyone using the “skill issue bro” argument can eat a bag of…

1 Like
16

There’s a few of those around here. I really hope they are trolling, but doubt it.

17

While I believe there is a world where affixes could be abolished entirely and M+ would continue to live on, it doesn’t entirely make sense.

You listed nearly every affix as problematic but M+ is essentially synonymous with affixes.

I think it would be worth looking at maybe have one seasonal affix that is just consistent through every week. I do think it is flawed game design if people literally take an entire week or two off from the game because dungeons are ruined by inhospitable affixes.

18

By far the most unconscionable combination.

19

The tierlist of affixes on how good it is and does it need changes:
The good affixes: Entangling, Fortified and Volcanic.

The decent affixes and possibly need 1-2 small changes: Bursting (it’s close to good affix), Storming and Spiteful.

The bad affixes and need a moderate / big adjustments: Incorporeal, Raging and Tyrannical.

The worst affixes and need to be completely remove / rework: Bolstering, Sanguine and Afflicted. These affixes forced you to play the affixes rather than play the dungeons. These affixes makes people take an entire week off from the game because of these affixes. They should be 100% on chopping board.

20

M+ is synonymous with scaling content and is something you can run 24/7 for gear pieces throughout the week rather than be stuck with a raid lockout.

The affixes are just the garbage holding it back.