The thirteenth week of Mythic+ in this season is over, and Nightstalker314 is taking a look at the weekly data provided by Raider.IO. Patch 12.0.7 brought in the Sporefall raid and the two heroic tier zones. Both reward major gear upgrades for their respective content types. While players were busy farming Rotmire, spending their stacked-up bonus rolls, or solo-gearing their alts, M+ saw another major drop in its metrics. -27.71% is quite a substantial decrease, and this value for the entire week recovered from a much lower temporary performance. But let’s look at the details.
Weekly Total Run Performance Compared to Other Seasons
The global value of -27.71% is quite close to KR (-27.35%) and TW (-27.60%), while the EU (-29.06%) and CN (-29.13%) represent the lower end. The US (-22.60%) rarely leans into extremes in the drop-off pattern. US players don’t seem to gravitate towards min/maxing whatever a new patch has to offer. All three major regions only showed around 45% of their previous week’s comparative metrics for the first day. The biggest impact here would be the extended maintenance. For the remaining days, the US got closer to 80-90% of the equivalent in week 12. The EU and CN remained around 70-75%.
When comparing the four regular regions to previous seasons, the overall downward trend matches up. While TWW S2 and S3 got their activity boost later on, it was a bit more spread out for MN S1. And the more generous crest discount, as well as saving up on weapon and trinket upgrades with the voidforge, clearly reduced the required M+ grind. The announced changes to gearing in 12.1, with earlier and fewer bonus rolls, could shift the early and mid-season activity in the next tier.
Total Runs Across All Dungeons
The split across all dungeons shrank a bit. Skyreach and Spire swapped positions. The latter used to be the most popular dungeon early on, especially for bonus rolls. The reveal of the returning dungeons for S2, King’s Rest, Temple of Sethraliss, and Ruby Life Pools, had some players worried. But so far, major changes and adjustments are already up on the PTR.
The overall success rate once again dropped by 0.68 percentage points to 92.22%. The major contributor to this was once again the Ascendant affix. The dungeons that dropped the most are known for nonstop pulls and constant movement throughout the run. Nexus-Point is the perfect example, with two bosses that also require regular movement. Skyreach, which saw the lowest drop, is more defined by compact pulls on a stop-and-go pattern. Orb spawns from the affix rarely happen behind a moving group or in a prior room, out of line of sight. The affix needs yet another tuning pass, maybe by decreasing the number of orbs or increasing the cast time again.
Split Across All Key Levels
89.31% of all runs were completed at key level 10 and higher. +10 (30.39%) lost a bit of its relative share, while +12 (23.51%) and +16 (4.91%) remained rather stable. In absolute numbers, all key levels up to +17 lost between 25% and 31%. Activity only grew at key level +21 and upward. But we’re just talking about 2,347 additional keys, compared to week 12. We also saw the second completed attempt of a +25. And by now, in week 14, the top EU team managed to time the first +25 (Caverns) key for this season.
The success rate saw minor fluctuations, except for the +5 to +11 range. Here, drops up to 3.33 percentage points show that the devs’ changes to the Ascendant affix in 12.0 did not lead to a satisfying result. The largest improvements, on the other hand, happened in the high key level range. The uptick in the graph towards the highest key levels shows more ambitious completions, but also a higher number of abandoned bricked keys.
Conclusion and Week 14 Forecast
There are about 6.5 weeks left for this season. Gearing in M+ is taking a backseat to the latest additions to the game. And with 12.1, the usual M+ grind for the vault might have to compete with a heroic raid clear. The tuning issues with the Ascendant affix are reminiscent of TWW affix struggles. And while the devs are busy smoothing out returning dungeons, this affix should also get an extra look.
As of this writing, 120 hours after the US reset, hourly numbers for the major regions have been more stable. The major drop-off in week 13 was tied to the patch release. The US is behind by just 5.31%, the EU by 9.89%, and CN by 10.97%. In addition to the regular breakdowns, we will examine the individual dungeon performance and abandoned key metrics in future articles.