The affixes in World of Warcraft are once again completely thrown out the window and really good, thinks iGV demon Cortyn.
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In World of Warcraft, a large part of the endgame takes place in the dungeons of the "Mythic+" difficulty. These become harder and harder, but also receive socalled "affixes" that add further difficulties. Many affixes were a thorn in the side of the community, as they "played more the affixes than the dungeon".
With The War Within, Blizzard wanted to revise the affixes and received a lot of criticism for the first proposal. Now they have completely revised the system once again – and it looks really, really round.
What has been changed? Blizzard has taken the feedback from the community and, above all, the harsh criticism to heart. Therefore, they now present a revised system for affixes with many new ideas that take into account several wishes of the community:
- A similar experience (in terms of difficulty) every week.
- Affixes that have both good and negative properties.
- Affixes that have little impact on gameplay.
- Affixes that fit the current theme of the story.
These plans result in new affixes and a new distribution of them.
Xal'atath appears in the dungeons
Starting with M+2, there will be a new, thematically appropriate affix of Xal'atath in the future. The affix changes every week – just like before.
- Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant – During combat, Xal'atath rains down orbs of cosmic energy to empower nearby enemies with speed and movement speed. If players interrupt these orbs, they can receive the bonus themselves.
- Xal'atath's Bargain: Frenzied – Nonbosses experience a frenzy of rage when they drop below 30% health. This increases their speed by 40%, but also increases their damage taken by 20%.
The affixes thus strengthen enemies in different ways, but at the same time also grant players an advantage.
Stay Tyrannical and Strengthened, coming from level 4
The two "basic affixes", which strengthen either bosses or trash mobs in a dungeon, will remain part of the new system. From level 4 onwards, one of the two affixes is activated. Sometimes the bosses are reinforced (Tyrannical) and sometimes the trash mobs are particularly tough (Reinforced).
From M+10 onwards, the second affix of this type will also be activated.
Only one affix at level 7 – Without game mechanics
Also new is the affix that all dungeons from M+7 onwards will receive. It is called "Challenger's Peril" and increases the penalty that triggers dying in dungeons. Usually, the death of a character reduces the remaining time of the dungeon by five seconds – the affix increases this time to 15 seconds.
A wipe of the whole group then costs a whopping 75 seconds, in addition to the walking distance. Many deaths can quickly ensure that the timer of a dungeon can no longer be met.
M+10 brings the second default affix
From level 10 onwards, another affix becomes active, namely either Tyrannical or Strengthened – logically always the affix that is not already active from M+4.
This leads to the fact that from M+10 onwards, Tyrannical and Enhanced are always active at the same time every week. This will keep the highest dungeons with the best rewards at a comparable level, and prevent "extra easy" and "extra hard" weeks.
Soft Limit from Level 12
If you reach a difficulty of M+12, there is an additional hurdle. This is likely to count as a "soft cap" for many, because the difficulty is drastically increased here.
From Mythic+12 onwards, the Xal'atath affixes (from M+2) are deactivated. Instead, there is "Xal'atath's Guile". The affix ensures that all creatures in the dungeons have another 20% more health and deal 20% more damage.
Note that level 12 is not necessary for any game-relevant reward, this is all about prestige and purely about "showing off" – i.e. proving that you are the best of the best.
Dungeons as they should be
Even though the tests will only show how well the combination of Tyrannical and Enhanced really works, I am completely enthusiastic about the basic idea of the new and revised affixes. It feels like Blizzard now has a clear vision of where they actually want to go with a big pillar of the endgame.
In the eyes of many players, Tyrannical and Enhanced are affixes that should be completely abolished – but I am very happy with the change. The result of the new affixes is a keystone system in which the dungeons play a little differently every week, but especially the hardest dungeons (i.e. +10 and above) offer a comparable difficulty from week to week.
As a nice side effect, all the unpopular affixes like Bloody or Bursting are thrown out. You really can't complain about that. Not even me.
The times are probably over when there are "Push Weeks" with particularly simple affixes and "Dead Weeks", in which the affix combination is so disgusting that you'd rather not log in at all.
Sure, this new direction will still need some balance changes to make it feel really wellrounded. But the general design idea behind it is exactly what Mythisch+ needed. The dungeons seem to be really solidly prepared for The War Within now it's basically just the whole story that has to convince.