WoW: M+ rotation in Dragonflight – Hazzikostas calms Min-Maxer

As we have now learned from multiple sources, the instance pool of Mythic Plus instances in WoW Dragon Flight consist of eight dungeons, however, four of these eight dungeons are chosen from old expansions. In Dragonflight Season 2, the Mythic Plus dungeon pool consists of four different Dragonflight dungeons from Season 1, plus four more dungeons from a different old expansion.

This raised some questions in the community and hardcore players drew attention to issues with this new approach to dungeon rotation. Min-Maxers see the main problem in the fact that certain Season 1 dungeon best-in-slot items could also be BiS in Season 2 and players feel forced to wear old items or have to farm these items in order to get the most out of their character. Game Director Ion Hazzikostas commented on this problem last week in the official WoW forum.

Dragonflight Mythic-Plus dungeon rotation an itemization issue? Hazzikostas reassures players

“Thanks for considering this! The itemization is definitely a big part of how this all has to fit together to make it work, and the goal would be for each season’s dungeon pool to have meaningful and diverse loot options. In some cases this could mean that we need to modify or add to the loot from the dungeons in older expansions.

For example, if we were to mix M+ versions of dungeons from Mists of Pandaria with new dungeons from Dragonflight, we would ensure that the resulting seasonal pool had full coverage of all types of items. We probably would too Examine dungeon trinkets from MoP closelywhich weren’t necessarily built or tuned with peak performance in mind (since dungeon difficulty at the time was limited to heroic and challenge mode offered only cosmetic rewards).

When we encounter a situation where a particular item from the previous season’s dungeons outperforms the higher item level alternatives from the following season, we make adjustmentsto correct that. One shouldn’t have to worry that “missable BiS” is a thing. On the other hand, we’ve had tons of feedback about re-collecting Soul letting rubythe dice trinket from The Other Side, etc. hasn’t exactly felt like a compelling progression experience every season, so we’re excited for the chance to make a change here.

Aside from a complete refresh of items from season to season, we hope the dungeon gameplay itself feels fresher and the community has new puzzles to solve each season. We’ve had very mixed (often negative) experiences in the past when adding brand new dungeons to an existing pool of dungeons that the community has already mastered and trying to match them in terms of difficulty and rewards.

And while the hardcore M+ community may not experience this issue firsthand, it cannot be overstated how daunting it can be for someone trying to get into M+ PUGs or deep into an expansion for the first time trying out new roles like tanking when the mainstream community is mostly focused on routing micro-tweaks and time-saving tech, and groups are likely to adopt a full baseline knowledge of all boss mechanics, positioning, targeting priority, and so on.

We’re aware of the risk that not experiencing the M+ versions of all eight new Dragonflight dungeons in Season 1 could be disappointing, but we’re hoping that the inclusion of some dungeons that have never before had an M+ component (e.g. Shado-Pan Monastery) will make for a fun new experience there, and that full rotation will make for a much healthier and more dynamic Mythic+ experience over the course of the entire expansion.” – Ion Hazzikostas, Game Director of World of Warcraft (buy now )

The most important part for min-maxers or players worried about needing to loot Season 1 items in a limited time window is highlighted here in bold.