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This is a quick and dirty set of tips and advise I try to follow when doing my favorite content in the World of Warcraft - Mythic Keystone Dungeons, or “M+.” It’s not comprehensive, see [#Additional Resources] below.

General Advice

The general rules that apply to all World of Warcraft encounters apply in M+ dungeons. You as a capable and worthy gamer already know this, but it bears saying.

Again, communicate with your group. Use Discord or in-game voice chat.

Level 2 Affixes

Any keystone is going to have one of two affixes:

Fortified

Use DPS cooldowns as often as possible. Learn which mobs in each dungeon are especially problematic and focus those first. This is where you want to do your Big DPS AoE to kill the packs as fast as possible. Only save cooldowns for especially problematic bosses that have to be burned down ASAP to avoid big mechanics.

Be sure to stay on top of interrupts and use your instant cast crowd control to interrupt if your’s is on CD. Healing mobs are priority interrupts.

Wear your AoE items - Twilight Devastation corruption, Memebeam Azerite power, etc.

Tyrannical

Generally save your big cooldowns for bosses. Practice will tell you about how long it takes to clear trash packs, and how much time you have for your cooldowns to come back up. Depending on the dungeon and other affixes, the route your tank takes to clear trash, you may have time to use your cooldowns a couple times and they’ll still be up again for the boss.

Lust is often held for bosses in both Fortified and Tyrannical, and used on cooldown, but sometimes it’s held for a specific problematic boss. Work with your group and communicate if you have a Lust ability.

Wear your single-target items - Tentacle and Infinite Stars corruption, Breath of the Dying Azerite, etc.

Level 4 Affixes

Bolstering

This is a DPS affix

Bolstering is a very problematic affix and adjusts DPS behavior. It requires that the DPS coordinate so their damage kills mobs in packs as evenly as possible, otherwise you will end up with one or two mobs buffed more than bosses.

Ensure that your nameplates addon shows HP amounts, and is set to “stacking” rather than “overlapping” (this helps with Explosive, too, see below). Make sure you switch targets to the highest HP mobs first so everything gets cleaved down as evenly as possible.

Some dungeons have packs with one high-HP mob surrounded by smaller mobs. The Feasting Skyscreamers and Toxic Saurids in Atal’Dazar are a notable example. For packs like this, use single target rotations to bring the bigger mob down to the others, and then cleave them evenly with AoE. Killing all the little mobs on top of the big one can often mean a wipe. Only use AoE abilities if they’re essential for your spec’s rotation to have higher throughput for the single target (e.g., DH Eye Beam with the + Haste azerite proc).

Be especially mindful of your positioning and facing so that you don’t pull extra mobs that might become bolstered.

The tank should pull packs within their groups ability to cleave things down evenly and prevent one mob from getting too big.

Bursting

This is a DPS affix

Bursting is also a very problematic affix and adjusts DPS behavior. It requires that DPS coordinate so their damage kills mobs in a staggered fashion so that the bursting stacks don’t outpace the healer’s ability to keep everyonealive. Generally speaking, keep an eye on the bursting stacks and slow or stop DPS when it reachs 3 or 4 stacks. Be ready to use personal CDs to survive large bursting stacks (over 5).

Be especially careful on packs such as I mentioned in Bolstering where there’s little mobs. They can die very quickly and add 5+ stacks of Bursting and then wipe the group.

This is a good use for a WeakAura that reminds you to stop/slow DPS when you have higher stacks of Bursting.

The tank should pull packs within their group’s ability to cleave things down in a manner that staggers stacks for maximum survivability.

Raging

This is a Tank affix

While this affects the tank, everyone can help mitigate. Classes with a “Soothe” such as BM Hunters and Druids should dispel the raging from low HP mobs, especially ones that are problematic, or “minibosses.” Mostly this doesn’t change rotations for DPS, but it’s a good idea to ensure that you /assist your tank and kill things that are low HP as fast as possible.

Sanguine

This is an easy affix

Especially for ranged DPS. Melee DPS, position yourself to the side of mobs/packs so that when mobs die and the tank moves, you’re not constantly walking through pools of Sanguine Ichor. If you have a leap or fast movement cooldown use those to get past / through puddles. Also, try to kill packs of mobs at the same time so their pools drop in a smaller location.

Teeming

This is a Tank affix

Tanks need to know the routes to pull additional mobs on teeming weeks. There’s not much more to do for anyone else other than be mindful of additional mobs that patrol and whether those are specifically problematic.

This affix affects your enemy forces count.

Level 7 Affixes

Explosive

This is a problematic for everyone affix

Orbs are a priority target!! This cannot be stressed enough. Your group doesn’t care about how big your DPS meter goes when there’s a wipe on every pack.

As mentioned in Bolstering, ensure that your nameplates addon is set to “Stacking” as that will help show the Explosive Orb nameplates apart from the rest of a pack.

The best advice I have for Explosive is to create a mouseover macro for instant-cast abilities so that you can hit orbs easier. They can be tab-targetted now, but they are NOT cleaved by AoE abilities. Do not rely on your tank or melee to hit orbs, be a good citizen and be proactive to help with orbs. For an example mouseover macro, this is one I use on my Beast Mastery Hunter.

/use [@mouseover, exists, harm][] Cobra Shot

This allows me to mouse over an orb, hit Cobra Shot, and that usually kills it.

Grievous

This is a Healer affix

It’s actually an “everyone” affix - ensure you’re minimizing the damage that you take as much as you can. Use your defensive cooldowns liberally, especially with larger problematic packs that do group-wide damage. Get mage food, warlock healthstones (or the one from your WoD garrison proving grounds). If you have defensive or healing trinkets and Azerite powers, those might be worth using as well. Make sure you bring healing potions, too.

And please be nice to your healers on these weeks, it can be very stressful for them <3.

Necrotic

This is a Tank affix

Your tank is going to get stacks of Necrotic from melee mobs, which mean they have reduced healing. Use AoE slows like Hunters’ Tar Trap, Shaman Earthbind Totem, and AoE stuns to help your tank kite packs when they’re trying to drop stacks.

Quaking

This is an everyone affix

SPREAD OUT

This affix is pretty easy and was nerfed recently in BfA, but still try to stay spread out as much as possible, and be sure to stop casting when it’s about to go off so you don’t get locked for casting.

There’s an internal timer on Quaking that can be predicted and managed with a WeakAura..

Skittish

This is mostly a Tank affix

If you have a threat management ability like Misdirection or Tricks of the Trade, Focus the tank and use a focus cast macro. For example,

/use [@focus, help][] Misdirection

Use AoE stuns and other CC and personal cooldowns as needed if you steal aggro from the tank. If your nameplates addon can show threat, set that so you know whether mobs are coming after you.

And for the love of Azeroth, don’t do a full broadside AoE opener on every trash pack before the tank establishes threat. (Memebeam users and Demon Hunters this is you).

Volcanic

This is mostly a ranged affix

Periodically, volcanic plumes will appear under your feet. Step to the side when you see them happen. CANCEL YOUR CASTS. You deal 0 damage if you die. This affix is really easy to manage and avoid, though.

Level 10+ Affixes

Each season of the expansion has a new “seasonal affix” for level 10+ dungeons.

Currently, in BfA season 4, we have the Awakened affix that has different Obelisks/pillars that have to be handled. This particular affix affects the routes that are taken to complete the dungeon and often skip problematic trash packs. Work with your tank and group, and in particular, don’t go into the obelisk until they’ve entered (there’s a cast timer, so you can focus them and watch their cast bar).

Essential Addons

I consider the following Addons absolutely required for dungeon content. These are often required by guild raid teams as well, so you probably already have them. Right?? They are all available via Twitch.

There’s a wealth of information and other addons out there. See additional resources.

BfA Keystone Master Achievement

The achievement for Season 4 account-wide so you can complete dungeons on any character and it will count toward your progress. You can track this in the objective frame like other achievements by running this in game:

/script AddTrackedAchievement(14145)

This is a Feat of Strength achievement, so you can’t add it from the achievements UI in game. This will add a block like this:

Track BfA Keystone Master Season 4

Additional Resources

https://mythicpl.us - great site with consolidated information about M+ dungeons. It has more affix-specific information, plus other considerations like consumables and group abilities. If you’re serious about doing M+, read everything on this site.

https://raider.io - especially the “Weekly Route” news section.

https://raidbots.com - sim your DPS specs for the optimal gear in your bags. See your class guides for more information, or ask in their community Discord.

Your Class / Spec guides - this varies but guides are usually on Wowhead or Icy Veins, and many guide writers include a section on how to optimize for M+.

Speaking of Wowhead - they have lots of guides and information about each dungeon including the problematic mechanics and mobs that you need to know. There’s a LOT of information so it may be overwhelming. Take it easy, have fun, ask questions, and work with your group/friends/guild to improve.

https://youtube.com or https://twitch.tv - Find experienced streamers doing dungeons and making video guides if that’s your jam. It can be fun to watch others to see what routes they do.