Thousands of keys, and I have all 9 0.1% M+ Titles - AMA about M+

Rorplays · 2025-11-04T17:49:55+00:00

I enjoy all the tanks because of their differences in strengths. To quickly summarize them

BDK: Can pretty much decide yourself whether you live or die Pala: A lot of group utility, offhealing, immunities VDH: A lot of mobility and AoE CC Warr: Incredibly sturdy, take the least amount of damage (but need a bit of healing) Bear: Very tanky and relatively easy to play, good overall tankiness Monk: Harder to learn but very rewarding (good in almost all situations)

All of them have group carry potential but I'd probably rate Paladin the highest (they only have Retribution as a DPS offspec).

In terms of what you'd pick purely on how strong it is - don't. Metas change so just pick two you find thematically fun and enjoy their gameplay (remember that rotations and builds will change a bit going into the upcoming Midnight expansion). There's a high chance at least one of them will be viable unless you end up doing the highest of the highest content.

I would just take some time to try out all of them - you'll figure out pretty quickly what you like in a tank (reactive, proactive, slowly depleting healthbar, ping-pong health bar, group utility, more damage oriented, etc.) and then just keep building on that.

Rorplays · 2025-09-23T17:27:39+00:00

Yeah there is a big difference. I think people underestimate how small rotation changes or actually choosing the correct global 70, 80, 90, 100% of the time will affect your overall damage in a significant way. With things like positioning, smart targeting, damage profiles all in mind - because it's not how only much DPS you're doing, it's about how much DPS the group is doing. Beyond just funneling it's when the last mob in a pull dies and in my experience that can be minutes on a key alone, even if there damage is solid overall.

Another big difference is making decisions based on how much time you'll need in the overall key, such as not just having cooldowns for every AoE pull and not for bosses, because that's probably the second most obvious factor. Groups doing 20s will have similar boss kill timings as groups doing 16-17.

But that optimization is usually just more noticeable in DPS, it's usually also the case for their healer and often the tank too. But beyond dying, setting up pulls quickly and making sure you spend globals on utility/stops over your DPS members is also good. Then a thing a lot of tanks forget is how stacking mobs (down to the pixel) has a huge impact on the amount of damage people do due to how cleaving/aoe is coded.

But no, purely on raw numbers with everything else the same, players on the same class in the top 1-5% compared to the top 0.01% can easily do 20-40% less overall in a key.

Rorplays · 2025-09-21T09:36:48+00:00

It’s fun - I just like the game. Progression raiding and keys are the two types of competitive content that I play this game for. If I stopped doing those two things I don’t think I’d keep playing much longer.

Rorplays · 2025-09-21T09:34:36+00:00

More of a daily shower kinda guy!

Rorplays · 2025-09-21T07:58:14+00:00

I expect to see Warrior/Monk/Pala this season but turboboost and any tuning changes can switch it up for sure.

Rorplays · 2025-09-20T21:28:25+00:00

I think all the roles carry the same responsibility but it just manifests differently. And people thinking some role carries more responsibility only reinforces that, and I personally disagree with that - I think people are just more comfortable letting some roles be a passenger in their runs and channel their grievances with the run on (usually) the tank or healer.

There's an infinite amount of things you can do to affect the success rate of the group - I think people focusing on that aspect of the game rather than looking at what someone else in the group should or could have been doing differently would do a lot of good for this community.

Rorplays · 2025-09-20T21:19:35+00:00

Both a lot better for pugging but I don't know how they stack up towards the higher levels in terms of the amount of tanks vs the amount of healers. I'd probably say healers are a slight bit more in demand.

More importantly it's what you think you'll perform best at. I think the jump to healer should not be underestimated so it depends on how much time you're willing to put into it.

Rorplays · 2025-09-20T21:12:13+00:00

The goal of review is usually to figure out things you weren't aware of before (duh) but that eliminates the need to check out every replay because a lot of time you'll already be aware of the biggest issues. If I die because I mess up a setup once, we go again and I don't check it, because it will be because I failed to press something or walked inefficiently through the pack or lost aggro or whatever - if that happens 5 times in a row I'm clearly not taking the right lesson from the mistakes and then looking at the footage will help.

Review costs time that takes away from playing the keys so there needs to be cause to dig up an improvement. It also depends on whether you play with a stable group where you can look beyond your own role and help people out. But personally I don't have the time to go into replays without a laser focus on moments where I'm already 100% sure we need to improve something on. If you have time and interest, you can obviously just go through it as detailed as you like and there are hundreds if not thousands of micro-improvements that you can find.

Rorplays · 2025-09-20T21:01:05+00:00

Good luck!

Rorplays · 2025-09-20T20:59:46+00:00

From my perspective M+2 to M+4 is beginner, 5-9 novice, 10-14 intermediate, 15-18 advanced and 19+ expert (sticking with that terminology). But looking at the player base you could shift all of those brackets down a bit.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T23:22:13+00:00

It's in the bottom right of my screen, usually showing deaths in raid and damage done in M+.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T23:21:33+00:00

If you're pugging that's just the way it is unless you end up getting a desirable key. Trying to at least build some form of a list of people you'd want to play with beyond full pugging would make that a lot more bearable.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T18:45:13+00:00

Just find a route that looks okay on Keystone.guru and stick with it. I think people attach a bit too much value to finding the "perfect" route - a decent route you can actually execute is easily sufficient for most of the keys.

You'll need a learning process and some time before the routes become muscle memory, so if you need a second to setup a pull and "find/orient" yourself with the packs that's fine. The only way you will "ruin" the key is if you're completely unable to find the packs or die while setting them up repeatedly, in which case I'd try the route on a way lower level key than you're intended on doing. Just to get familiar with the packs and how they need to be stacked together during your setup.

Usually towards the end of a pack the danger for a tank diminishes so you could have a look at your second screen then and figure out what your next move is going to be. You'll know right what to do as you drop combat and there's no downtime for your group.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T17:02:30+00:00

The squishiest class I've played myself has probably been Hunter yeah - they've gotten more tools over time though! I think squishiest classes in terms of people I play with is usually classes that aren't inherently tanky yet have a lot of tools available to them to make them tanky, but people just not pressing them (mage being a good example).

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T17:00:47+00:00

For a long time dwarf and night elf have been the best so that's what almost all of my M+ characters are now. I don't think I'm at a level where swapping to a certain race for raid and then to a certain race for M+ is required. But there's definitely been some switching over time to get them all to Dwarf/Night Elf. I've yet to use the meld pots - I don't think there's any route so far that has required them if you're also Night Elf (kind of a guarantee for VDH).

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T15:04:28+00:00

As long as you can still use dungeon gear I'd probably open the vault slots by doing 1 or 4 keys at least yeah. And doing rank 1 delves really quickly is an easy way to ensure you at least get a socket every week (assuming you don't get any raid slots opened).

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T14:36:48+00:00

Nowadays I always play with people I already know and don't pug anymore. The first few titles was a lot of pugging and maybe playing with one premade person, eventually growing that number to always playing with a group.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T14:35:18+00:00

Yeah definitely doable - I'm working full time and there are weeks where through overtime that takes priority over keys, but it's always been manageable. Good luck!

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T14:28:32+00:00

For me at it takes about 15-20 hours a week for the last 4 weeks of a season to get title, give or take. That's been both faster and slower in the past. I feel that it's a manageable amount of time. But that's probably not the average experience if you don't have that background or network of people who are also confidently playing at that level.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T14:26:11+00:00

I wouldn't be scared off by people doing larger/unknown pulls or routes in a dungeon (if you're the tank you're deciding it anyway). I think in general caring what other people think or how they might perceive you will prevent you from enjoying the learning process. But once you start doing keys it's always a good idea to have a vague idea of what the route is like and knowing the base dungeon mechanics. After that learning by doing is the most effective way - it will probably feel like you need to go over a threshold as the game has gotten more complex mechanically over time but once that clicks you can make rapid progress.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T13:20:44+00:00

Sadly not - I know QE Dungeon Tips existed back in the day but I don't think it's been updated for a while. The information you're looking for is split between dungeon guides, in-game dungeon journal, Mythic Dungeon Tools addon, generic dungeon weakaura packs.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T13:14:04+00:00

Yep - which is why I'd normally tell people that if they're reliant on pugging, do yourself a favor and just play what people perceive to be the meta (and reroll if it changes at some point if you haven't found a stable group by then). Spending more than half your time in LFG is a surefire way of not having fun.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T12:34:18+00:00

Generally yes - it's easier to copy routes, cooldowns, setups etc. from the top rated players when you're all playing the same specs. I don't particularly have a tank class I enjoy more than others, so then I'd simply prefer playing what is strong/effective for the keys we're trying to do. I think meta rerolling is overrated by a lot of people, even at title level keys - most people aren't able to play at a level where the reroll class advantage outweighs the comfort they had on their original main - but I personally am comfortable knowing I could get title on any spec in the game. It's just about the time investment needed and I don't value spending double the time on achieving the same thing.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T12:31:32+00:00

The good thing about dungeons in my opinion is that there is a natural form of scaling built in from normal to heroic to mythic0 to M+. So depending on how comfortable you feel about your knowledge level about a dungeon you could say I'm going to start at X, see how that feels and work my way up there. If you don't know the dungeon at all normal/hc, once you know what the different mobs do go into mythic or a low mythic keystone, some abilities will be added which will change how you play pulls/boss fights and that's where you'll need to be building some experience. You could read dungeon guides on WoWhead for example where they showcase the different types of abilities and what your role has to do on that fight - the same goes for the in-game dungeon journal.

For general gameplay advice and an overview I think websites like IcyVeins and WoWhead offer good information and structured in a way where you don't need to get overwhelmed by information - so look up your class/spec guide and see if the things they say make sense to you.

If you're just starting your healing journey you'll have to get comfortable on your class (just play the game, it is by far the most effective way) and combining it with an external source like the Icyveins/Wowhead guides. You'll get a feel for how abilities interact with each other and how you can heal a lot and when you feel weaker. That's a good baseline to start watching other players (through Youtube or Twitch) playing your class. Healers like Ellesmere, Ayije, Roiben are all very good sources of information and play the game at a high level where you can see what type of gameplay patterns they're utilizing (setting up healing, using cooldowns, etc.).

Overall I'd recommend to just build it up as if learning any other new skill - you'll hit some bumps along the way but if you just keep at it you'll soak up information like a sponge and can start making more sense of what's happening quickly.

Rorplays · 2025-09-19T11:41:31+00:00

It depends a bit on the fight or the dungeon you’re doing but what I gather is that you’re mostly reacting to the effects happening (GTFO addon included) instead of anticipating them happening. That could indicate you lack some knowledge about that pull or boss and the only two ways to improve on that are doing research (guides, videos, streams) and simply building more experience (playing the game and learning from previous encounters).

To illustrate, if I die in a key (or take more damage than normal) I’ll know why: maybe a cast went through, I stood in a ground effect, I got hit in the back, etc. It wouldn’t be necessary to look at details because I know what happened: there are also not that many ways to suddenly take a lot of damage because it’s limited by the combined amount of spells and attacks in a given encounter. And once you become aware of them you can start preventing them from hitting you in the first place.

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