With the first season of the expansion coming to an end and the majority of the data in already, we thought we’d start a new series of articles going over some interesting Mythic+ data. We’re starting with the dungeons themselves and checking in on how they ended up with the players. Which were the most picked? Which were the most completed? And why? Not only is this a nice little look back over the season, but it’s also a bit of a what to do and what not to for future dungeons!
What Is the Point of This Format?
Players all have their individual perception of how Mythic+ is doing. It’s the best season, it’s the worst season; we see raw numbers about general metrics thrown around all over the place. With articles like this one, we will try to give players a clearer breakdown of Mythic+. Both across the whole season and just recent weeks. We’ll also be highlighting issues with dungeons and affixes observable through the data.
How the Data Is Conceived
Raider.IO has been publishing leaderboards for each season, dungeon, region, all and timed runs etc. for 8 years now. Through their recently revealed “Stats” feature, as well as individual data analysis, it is possible to draw conclusions about overall as well as specific performance in Mythic+. Depending on how recent the data that has been scraped from the Armory API on US, EU, Korean and Taiwanese servers is, it can be used with pretty solid accuracy. The overall goal is to present the data with 98-99.5% accuracy.
The Charts
Let’s get right into it and take a look at The War Within’s Season 1 charts! First off we have the pick rate for each dungeon. The % signifies the total amount that particular dungeon was picked out of all runs made.
And then there’s the completion ratio:
The Best
Looking at the entire Season 1 so far, Mists of Tirna Sithe (16,05%) clearly stands out and was the #1. This is true for almost all the weeks of the season. This could be due to familiarity as an older dungeon. Not to mention that it already was the favorite dungeon for the first 3 seasons of Shadowlands.
It is followed up by Ara-Kara (14,10%), which just like Mists is only 30 minutes long with just 3 bosses. The DPS trinket that was long regarded as BIS is yet another reason to run this dungeon. Grim Batol (13,06%), which benefited from dropping the best-in-slot healer trinket this season, made it to #3. With 34 minutes it is almost the longest dungeon within the pool and also has the worst in-time ratio. So good loot can break the preference for short dungeons and high success rates. Siege of Boralus being a returning BfA dungeon also benefited from familiarity regardless of terrible tuning within the first few weeks.
The lower half is led by the Dawnbreaker (12,48%), which towards the end of the season became a safe bet for quick vault slots with a short run-time, high success rate, and an overall compact design. Necrotic Wake (11,73%) coming last among the returning dungeons might be due to its choke point in Surgeon Stitchflesh. A single boss, or rather just 1 ability, determining success or failure for the entire run can deter a lot of players. The Stonevault (10,96%) is known for its punishing trash mechanics – especially leading up to the first and last boss. The success rate seems acceptable, but overall it did not offer a lot of reasons to visit it.
The Worst
And with a massive distance behind everyone else: City of Threads (9,02%). Despite having an average success rate in most weeks, it has two major factors leading to players avoiding it more than any other dungeon since Lower Karazhan (8,45%) in Shadowlands Season 4. Each boss has at least one big fail check that can break the entire pull or even dungeon run. And the other reason is players do not like RP and forced travel routes. It feels like the clock is ticking and you can’t do anything about it. The generous timer being the longest for the season also doesn’t help here.
Familiarity and the Negative Combo of City of Threads
If we look at the major factors that can determine dungeon choices we have: run time, success rate, interesting loot, and familiarity. In many cases, a combination of positive outliers clearly shows why dungeons like Mists, Ara-Kara, and Dawnbreaker are favorites or why punishing dungeons like Grim Batol still pull ahead. Meanwhile, City of Threads is basically meeting all the negative aspects and was avoided throughout the entire season.
Looking through the last few seasons, familiarity shows a strong pattern and older dungeons often lead the pick rates. Regarding affixes, there can be large differences between dungeons depending on the weekly combination. Punishing one-shot abilities from bosses or trash only double down during Tyrannical or Fortified weeks for low-level keys. And soaking the Oblivion orbs is always hindered by narrow corridors with a lot of obstacles such as cornered hallways or assets cluttering up the floor. Both these factors can be observed in these specific weeks throughout the season.
The Runback Factor
One aspect of each dungeon that can’t always be taken from this data but also impacts player perception a lot is runbacks. This season we saw a dungeon with major convenience when it came to recovering from wipes. After dying in Dawnbreaker you never spend more than 15 seconds on returning to your previous position which makes wipes a lot more tolerable. Meanwhile, the notorious City of Threads has mandatory flybacks or long rides across large portions of the outside area. And those are followed up by a long walk through the final rooms of the dungeon.
The absolute outlier in this regard though has to be Grim Batol. Running back to Boss #1 and #3 you easily spend a minute each time if your class does not have any run speed bonus or displacement abilities. This can waste 3% of the entire timer on top of the 15 seconds per death. Is the healer trinket the only reason why anyone likes this dungeon?
In Closing
Mythic+ is a fight against the timer and any factor that complicates this but can not be affected by better gear ruins the general experience of this feature. Suggestions to cut down on these things have been given constantly and we can only hope that the developers improve upon these issues in the future.