The second week of Mythic+ in this season saw major shifts, and Nightstalker314 is taking a look at the weekly data provided by Raider.IO. As per usual, the activity has dropped quite a bit after the first week, which was fueled by easy access to good loot and vault slots. Overall, the number of completed runs decreased by a whopping 29.46%. One of the biggest drop-offs early in a season. But the success rate improved, and the average key level was already at a level that we would see several weeks later in previous seasons. So, let’s look at the details.
Total Numbers and Regional Split compared to TWW S3
In week 1, we saw 25.61% more runs than in TWW S3. A lead remained in week 2, but it shrank to just 3.62%. So far, about 450 hours into the season, MN S1 is still about 15% ahead of TWW S3. The slight flat lines in both graphs, at 180-330 hours into TWW S3 and 105-120 hours into MN S1, are due to a lack of access to the Chinese API.
Asian servers showed a clear lack of interest in the regional split in week 1. By now, Chinese metrics haven’t dropped as much, and they might reach a long-term share of above 40% once again. Total runs for the four regular regions in MN S1 have remained ahead of the TWW S1 and S3 equivalent. If activity on the Chinese servers develops similarly, this season will set a few all-time records.
Total Runs Across All Dungeons
The split across all dungeons widened a bit more. The most and least favorite dungeons pulled away from the rest. Maisara Caverns might need some extra tuning. It is only the 2nd-hardest dungeon so far, but it has no other redeeming qualities when it comes to loot. Magister’s Terrace dropped by two ranks. The decrease in success rate, which seems to be heavily impacted by a Tyrannical first week, made it less attractive.
The overall in-time percentage improved slightly to 88.14% by 0.47 points. The biggest factor for this was the major improvement for Algeth’ar Academy. It was still the hardest dungeon that week, but it got a lot easier with the recent nerfs. Seat (91.59%) took first place this week. Pit of Saron (90.46%) benefited from the affix switch as an instance with massive trash pulls. Windrunner Spire (90.02%) saw the biggest drop in the in-time percentage. Bosses were getting a lot harder with Tyrannical first or a lot more trinket farm groups that didn’t care about depletion.
Nexus-Point (89.46%) and Skyreach (87.45%) remained solid, while Magister’s Terrace (87.45%) also dropped a lot, possibly tied to affix changes. Caverns (83.63%) was the third dungeon in decline. The risky pulls at the start, and before the final boss, make each run a bit of a gamble. Academy (82.54%) remained the hardest dungeon, but the success rate increased massively and might improve further in week 3 with an increased timer.
Split Across All Key Levels
71.48% of all keys were completed at key level 10 and higher. 38.04% at key level 10 alone. This is already a major switch-up compared to week 1. The equivalent values were at just 46% and 30.6%. A split like this was reached in week 4 in TWW S3, which was also a new record at the time. Levels 2 and 5 saw only 22% of the previous numbers. For other lower levels, this varied between 35% and 62%.
The opposite happened for high-end keys. Starting with 80% more runs at level 12, up to 31 times as many runs at level 19. While the total amount of runs dropped dramatically from week 1, the number of keys at 10 and higher increased by 9.78%. And we already reached a peak level of +21, which was first completed in week 5 of TWW S3.
The in-time percentage for low-level keys barely changed from last week. The only outliers would be key levels 2, 4, and 5. Players were just marching through towards their vault runs. This week, the percentage dropped by 1.1 to 1.7 points. Key level 10 and upwards saw increases of 3.05 to 9.6 points. And the jump from 9 to 10 had already inverted compared to week 1. The success rate increased by 1.67 points instead of dropping. The step-up from 6 to 7 still saw a major impact from the Tyrannical affix. The success rate decreased by 8.08 points. A trend that has existed since the changes in DF S4.
Conclusion and Week 3 Forecast
The big drop-off in total runs is not a sign of a bad season. It is just an indicator of the rapid shift towards high-end keys and vault farming. Given that this season is really easy, we have yet to see if the trend ahead of every other season remains. Many players become less active once KSM, KSH, and KSL are done. For others, this might be the first season where all of these goals are attainable. On the EU servers, 40% of all characters are already above 2,500 rating. This took 7 weeks in TWW S3. Maybe the developers are finally considering a reward between 3,000 rating and the top 0.1%.
As of this writing, 120 hours after the US reset, the hourly numbers for all regions have remained quite stable compared to week 2. The US servers are 0.45% ahead, while the EU and CN servers are 0.82% and 2.64% behind. The weekly dungeon event is boosting the numbers as usual. But this is a topic for next week’s breakdown.
