Mythic+ Affix Guide — Updated for Dragonflight Season 1

Mythic+ Affixes are special effects that are active in all Mythic+ dungeons each week. These serve to make dungeons more difficult, and they will change your approach to them from week to week.

For more information on how Seasons and other Mythic+ systems function, check out our main Mythic+ Overview page below.

The Thundering Seasonal affix will not be active until the start of Season 1 of Dragonflight, the 13th of December.

Season 1 will introduce a brand new seasonal Mythic+ affix: Thundering. The affix will appear only on keystone level +10 and above and it might be one of the most punishing affixes, yet simplistic, that we have ever played so far. Let us dive deep and find out how exactly Thundering works!

It is first important to note that any key with the Thundering affix present will increase the health pool of all enemies by 5%. Whether you run +11 or +25, they will get +5% HP. Beyond that, every 75 seconds Thundering will begin, first spawning multiple circles on the ground that stun you for a short period of time and dealing damage.

This is followed by giving all players from your party the Primal Overload buff that grants 30% increased damage and healing, and lasts 15 seconds. Now here comes the tricky part. there will be 2 unique buffs: Mark of Lightning (marked with the yellow arrow on the screenshot below) and Mark of Wind (marked with the red arrow). Upon making contact with the opposite Mark, the buff is neutralized.

What happens to the 5th person if only 4 people can "clear" the debuff? Well, nothing really; you just keep the full duration of the Primal Overload bonus with increased damage and healing, as long as every other party member has cleared their debuff. However, if more than 1 member is left with the Primal Overload buff after its duration is over, the remaining players that have not cleared its will get stunned for 5 seconds and take Nature damage (that scales with the keystone level) in the meantime. There is one exception though; if you are at least 100 yards away from each other you will not get stunned. Beyond that, running to the same "Mark" will not neutralize your Primal Overload and also will not punish you, so you can freely cross each other until you get to your allocated party member. Finally, you can "immune" the effect if worse comes to worse and more than 1 player is unable to clear their "Mark", such as with Ice Block or Aspect of the Turtle.

Figuring out how to maximize Thundering is not a simple question to answer, as it really depends on the situation. Sometimes it might be punishing for a melee player to run in and neutralize the debuffs due to ground animations so it is best if Ranged can move it. I have always left the highest performing DPS to retain the buff the longest since that will speed up the overall pace of the dungeon, unless a healer or a tank needs it at that particular moment.

Another heads up is that when you plan your routes or big pulls around Thundering, knowing some of the packs are going to be harder than others, you can "manipulate" the Primal Overload by considering that it comes every 75 seconds. It is also a great idea to sync it with boss fights, as it will speed up the process of defeating them.

Thundering is a simple affix to start the new expansion, however it will require team coordination and the ability to not be greedy for the valuable seconds it is giving you the Primal Overload buff. Doing so might end up failing the mechanic, which then stuns not only you but the people that you have affected. I believe a sort of universal WeakAura will probably be the solution for all PUG players, that will help you remind when the Primal Overload is coming, what sort of "buff" you have ( Mark of Lightning or Mark of Wind), and how long it remains until the mechanic fails.

Every week, all Mythic+ Keys of level 2 or higher — in other words, every key — will be either "Fortified" or "Tyrannical". These two affixes alternate every week. These affixes are by far the most impactful on any given week, and will fundamentally affect how you approach the dungeon and how you set up your character in many cases.

Having Fortified present will increase the difficulty of non-boss enemies by 30% and their health by 20%. Pay attention to the size of each pull to prevent your group from being overwhelmed by the extra risk.

Tyrannical is an extremely dangerous affix, despite having been nerfed from 40% to 30% increased boss health. However, bosses still also deal 15% more damage on weeks with this affix. All in all, make sure to save your offensive and defensive cooldowns for the dungeon's boss fights when this affix is present.

From the start of the new season in Dragonflight (13th of December) Inspiring and Necrotic are removed.

Bolstering activates whenever most non-boss enemies die, increasing the damage of all nearby enemies is by 20% and their health by 15%, stacking with each death. This is a particularly troublesome affix for PUG groups and notoriously known to be one of the hardest. One easy way to deal with it is to watch the quantity of each pull. The more mobs you have, the harder it becomes for them to die at the same time. Knowing when to stop using AoE-damage abilities and focus more on priority-damage instead will also make this affix easier to deal with.

Bursting is an affix that will potentially punish you for defeating too many enemies at once. This affix causes most enemies to apply a stack of Burst to the entire party upon death. This effect stacks and its duration is refreshed with each additional stack. However, rather than dealing damage based on a player's maximum Health, it is a finite value that scales with the keystone level and caps out at +15. In addition, Burst is considered a magic debuff and can therefore be dispelled by any Healer specialization. As a result, one of the most common strategies upon reaching high stacks is to use a Priest's Mass Dispel to remove all stacks of Burst from the party at once.

Raging causes most non-boss-enemies to gain 50% increased damage as soon as they reach 30% health left. It is highly recommended to have an Enrage Dispel in your party in the form of a Hunter's Tranquilizing Shot, A Druid's Soothe, or a Rogue's Shiv when combined with Numbing Poison. Make sure to use your group's utilities to help with survival.

The Sanguine affix is one that emphasizes defeating enemies all at once, as when most non-boss enemies are slain, a pool of Sanguine Ichor is left behind that will heal all enemies within it for 5% of their maximum Health per second. These pools will last for 20 seconds. In addition, a player standing in this pool will take 15% of their maximum Health in damage per second. Both of these effects stack if multiple pools are overlapped. One of the easiest ways to deal with this affix is by making use of knockback effects such as Thunderstorm, Typhoon, and Ring of Peace as soon as an enemy's death creates a pool or the remaining mobs in a pull approach any Sanguine Ichor.

Spiteful is an affix that will catch you off guard if you are not careful. Whenever a non-boss enemy dies, a Spiteful Shade will spawn and fixate a random non-tank player. This is perhaps the hardest affix for players that play in melee, as each Shade's melee attack hits incredibly hard and can quickly prove lethal. However, their own health gradually reduces over time through All-Consuming Spite until the Shade eventually dies on its own. As such, a common strategy is to use crowd-control abilities to slow them down or to drag remaining enemies away from the Shades that have spawned.

Explosive is an affix that will require you to actively switch targets in a dungeon by spawning Explosive Orbs while in combat. Their health does not scale with the keystone level, meaning that their health will be the same whether you are running a +10 key or a +25. However, if an Explosion cast goes through it deals 40% of your maximum health in damage, so it is crucial to target the Explosives. Unfortunately, they are immune to damage from AoE abilities, so you will have to make use of single-target abilities instead. On an interesting note, stunned enemies are incapable of spawning Explosives which can make their use a valuable strategy. In addition, you can line of sight any existing casts of Explosion and completely negate the damage. Otherwise, pay attention to the pull size and always be mindful when this affix is present; the more enemies in combat, the more Explosives will spawn!

The Grievous affix is one that will make healing more important than usual. When present, players receive a Grievous Wound that deals damage and stacks whenever they fall below 90% health in combat. However, the damage from Grievous Wound is a static amount that scales with each keystone level up to 15 rather than being based on the player's maximum Health. In addition, direct heals on the target also remove a stack of Grievous Wound. Heal-over-time effects will not. It is also important to note that Grievous Wound also can stack up to four times on a player. Therefore, having good self-sustain is crucial in weeks with this affix active to either remove stacks with your own healing effects or negate them entirely by climbing back above 90% health.

Quaking periodically appears every 20 seconds as a circle around every player, even when not in combat. If a player is casting when this Quake effect finishes 2.5 seconds later, they will be interrupted and locked out of that spell school for 4 seconds. In addition, if you are within the circle of another player when the affix occurs you will be hit for 40% of your maximum Health. Otherwise, it does no damage. It is important to pay attention to any nearby allies, as "clipping" eachother will punish your team severely. Similarly, a healer being interrupted by this affix at a key moment can be deadly. Otherwise, Stay spread and keep a reasonable distance between everyone. A common strategy to more easily handle this affix is to have a balanced composition between ranged and melee.

An affix originally introduced Shadowlands, Storming is quite tough for any melee players looking to play it. While present, tornadoes are created and spiral outward from enemies when in combat. Coming into contact with these will cause damage and knock you into the air. Similar to the Explosive affix, pulling large amounts of enemies at once will result in more of these tornadoes spawning at once. If you are a ranged player, stay out of melee and you will have an easy time dealing with it. In addition, when the mobs are under the influence of a stun they will not spawn any tornadoes!

Volcanic acts as a ranged counterpart to the Storming. When in combat with an enemy Volcanic Plumes will occasionally appear under players. Failing to move out of these plumes in time will deal a small amount of damage and knock you up. This is one of the easiest affixes to play with, but it can turn deadly if combined with any other dungeon mechanic. One important note to keep in mind is that the more enemies you fight, the more spawns of Volcanic Plume you will see! In addition, these plumes can only appear under a player that is not in melee range of an enemy.