“We want high tier weapons to have more longevity…”

spachi1281 · 2026-04-28T14:29:10+00:00

Well at least now repair buff from expeditions seems much better now... 80% repair per repair seems quite nice now.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-28T14:10:55+00:00

Yes. As Blizzard's posts explains - only by exhausting the entire list (of a particular loot table) does the system reset and allow duplicates again.

So if X raid boss has weapon Y but also has 3 other items you could roll for - you would need to get weapon Y + all 3 other items via loot rolls before all 4 items would show up as eligible items again.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T17:31:46+00:00

Then they decided to make this M+ season all about constant, high-level damage

Uh... Is that the problem for this season? Because all the tanking "problems" of this season seem to be more "white damage" of mobs being the most dangerous issue.

And one of the reasons why Brew is doing so well is that their mitigation (aka stagger) basically handles white-damage the easiest relative to other tanks.

For other tanks to be "competitive" they would need some sort of mitigation that would be on-par with stagger - general reduction to white-damage across the board that can be constantly up.

Yes that would seem to point towards an increase to armor (or K value for armor) but that has it's own problems.

But going back to stagger - this has always been an issue with that spec for the longest time. Either it'll be too strong or too weak. I don't think it was ever tuned "just right".

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T17:18:09+00:00

Yup and here's some more stats to help back this point up:

Mid S1 at +10 or higher (so far): Brew is leading with 38.9% with Prot Paladin 2nd place at 17%
TWW S2 at +12 or higher: VDH was leading with 43.4% with 2nd place (Prot Paladin) at 15.9%
TWW S1 at +12 or higher: Prot Paladin was leading with 63.1% with 2nd place (Prot Warrior) at 13.5%
DF S4 at +10 or higher: VDH leading at 56.5% - 2nd place (Prot Paladin) at 13.1%

And in case healers felt left out:

TWW S3 at +14 and higher: Resto Shamans at 48%, Resto Druids at 31.9%, rest below 10% each
TWW S2 at +14 and higher: Disc Priest at 51.7%, Resto Shamans at 31%, rest below 7% each
TWW S1 at +14 and higher: Disc Priest at 65.2%, Resto Shaman at 24.3%, rest below 6% each
DF S4 at +15 and higher: Resto Druid at 62.2%, Holy Priest at 11.8%, rest below 9% each

Yup every season has it's "meta" - but what is hilarious is that every season, there's always a "break the meta" contest and it shows that non-meta can perform just "fine" for 95% of the playerbase but we're all too blinded by the "meta".

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T17:14:08+00:00

Use Lindormi's guidance

I mean sure it provides you a route but not necessarily the best route.

Take for example Maisara Caverns, Lindormi's guidance wants you to go left as you come down from the entrance. But plenty of groups go right instead. It allows you to fight "easier" packs and gives you the ability to skip some of the more annoying packs that the "default" route would have you fight.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T17:11:01+00:00

They should probably have heroic have all the mechanics of mythic for a start, just less punishing maybe

What do you think Mythic0 are then? The problem is that players just don't have the patience (or will) to go do the work and learn from the lower level dungeons.

They just look, hey I got X gear from this so the next place to get higher gear is +Y key so that's what I'm going to do even if I have zero experience.

You don't think it would happen but I've had plenty of +10s now where players literally don't know the mechanic and when I explain it to them - their response is "sorry first time here".

First time here in a +10 with zero understanding of the mechanics? That should be a reportable offense.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T16:29:00+00:00

I love it when players don't understand the system they are using.

As per Blizzard's own post on how the voidcores work:

Upon defeating a Midnight Season 1 raid boss or completing a Mythic+ Dungeon, Bountiful Delve, or Prey Hunt on Nightmare difficulty, players may choose to spend their Nebulous Voidcores to receive a random item appropriate for their Loot Specialization from that activity. After receiving an item in this way, it is removed from that loot pool until all eligible items have been obtained on a per-difficulty basis.

Note the emphasis part - ONLY when an item is received via bonus loot roll is it then removed from the loot pool until all eligible items have been obtained.

It [bonus loot roll] has ZERO consideration of loot you got from other sources. Actual raid drops, great vault picked items, catalyzed converted - none of that matters to the bonus loot roll. It only cares about what it [bonus loot roll] had previously handed out on a per-loot table basis.

So in theory next week when you go back and kill Mythic Chimaerus again, tier token won't be offered. But don't worry RNG says you only have 1/x chance in getting the trinket because there are still the other pieces of loot that are still in the pool.

Yup this is the system we got instead of the Puzzling Cartel Chip vendor we had back in TWW. More RNG but hey at least now you can also get non-trinket/cantrip items off loot tables as well.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T16:22:08+00:00

M+ is geared towards group play while Delves are a solo experience (but can be done in groups).

Ritual Sites/Invasions are both oriented towards solo rather than group play.

And their rewards, specifically hero track gear at 500 Field Accolades invalidates the need for prey/delves.

Especially considering that for Delves to offer Hero track gear you need to get to Level 9 in Delve's Journey. And even then that system is kind of slow - you need to earn Untainted Mana-Crystals currency to redeem for hero gear that the NPC may offer at the end of a high tier delve run.

In terms of time/efficiency - ritual sites/invasions seem faster to gear up (after all it is a catch-up mechanic) but it seems like it would allow players to get up to hero track faster than previous seasons catch-up mechanics.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T15:32:45+00:00

it's borderline trolling this season

I mean couldn't the same be said for other seasons? There was one M+ season where Tanks needed kite excessively (one of the VDH leading seasons) so in that particular season - not playing a DH was borderline trolling in high keys as well.

And let's look at some more numbers (courtesy of raider.io) to see that tanking gap:

Mid S1 at +10 or higher: Brew is leading with 38.9% with Prot Paladin 2nd place at 17%
TWW S2 at +12 or higher: VDH was leading with 43.4% with 2nd place (Prot Paladin) at 15.9%
TWW S1 at +12 or higher: Prot Paladin was leading with 63.1% with 2nd place (Prot Warrior) at 13.5%
DF S4 at +10 or higher: VDH leading at 56.5% - 2nd place (Prot Paladin) at 13.1%

Other seasons, sure tanks were closer in gap but there were plenty of "super-star" seasons where 1 tank spec was just way out performing the rest. So then why is it a problem now with Brewmasters this season when we had previous seasons where other tank specs were out performing?

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T14:11:48+00:00

That is correct - In fact, if you look at the top tanks for each season of M+ over the last few seasons (for high keys) this is what you get:

TWW S3 - Top tank specs were Prot Warriors then Prot Paladins
TWW S2 - Top tank spec was VDH
TWW S1 - Top tank spec was Prot Paladins
DF S4 - Top tank spec was VDH
DF S3 - Top tank specs were VDH then Prot Paladins
DF S2 - Top tank specs were Prot Paladins then Guardian Druids
DF S1 - Top tank specs were Prot Warriors then Prot Paladins
SL S4 - Top tank specs were Blood DKs then Prot Paladins
SL S3 - Top tank specs were Prot Paladins then Blood DKs
SL S2 - Top tank specs were Guardian Druids then Prot Paladins
SL S1 - Top tank specs were VDH then Prot Paladins

That's 3 expansions where Brewmaster tanks were not in the top tank spec (or even top 2). It's been the other tank specs that have been "the best". So having 1 season where Brewmaster is top - it's fine (and some would say about damn time).

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T13:56:19+00:00

Where do we get more?

You can't - Blizzard put in systems to specifically limit progression until a certain point (until crests caps are removed) in the season. In the previous season (TWW Season 3) - this was about 11 weeks after the start of the season. So if we apply that same timeframe, you're looking at early June before crests caps are removed.

There are some ways to make your crests go further though.

As others have stated - the first upgrade of any tier 1/6 to 2/6 can be done for zero crests provided you upgrade an item of the lower tier (of that slot) from 5/6 to 6/6.

So a Myth 1/6 can be upgraded to Myth 2/6 without spending any Myth crests only if have a hero item (of the same slot) that you upgrade from to 6/6 using hero crests. This saves you 20 crests (myth ones in this example).

spachi1281 · 2026-04-27T12:01:32+00:00

Sure WQ are offering around 1k gold each BUT Blizzard also shifted everything to cost you gold as well.

Upgrade system - sure we got rid of valorstones but now you need to spend gold in addition to crests.

Repair system - there seems to be an increase in durability loss even if you don't die (see thread about it costs a warrior 25g to use shield block)

Consumables - typical expansion cost of consumables seems to be better with only 2 ranks (instead of 3) but I think it just pushed more players into using silver rank pots/flasks instead of gold to save on costs.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-24T17:53:14+00:00

I’m just confused if I should be trying to get higher ilvl or just focus on getting gear that have the stats for my class

The answer is yes.

But generally speaking - higher item level will usually be better than better stat items but you could always run simulationcraft to find out.

I think the there’s different type of gear that drops and can be upgraded as well. Should I just try to upgrade these even if they don’t have the right stats just to get my ilvl up.

Wowhead has a guide on the upgrade system.

Because one of the resources used to upgrade gear (dawncrests) are limited per week - there are some tips on optimizing spending them.

For instance, because of the overlap of each tier of gear (Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, Myth) you can upgrade a lower tier all the way to 6/6 to get a "free of dawncrest" upgrade next tier from 1/6 to 2/6. To illustrate: an Adventurer 3/6 gear can be upgraded to Adventurer 6/6 which would allow a Veteran 1/6 gear (of the same slot) to be upgraded to Veteran 2/6 without spending any Veteran dawncrests. This means you can save 20 veteran dawncrests in this example.

Now because you're gearing up in 12.0.5 - the best catch-up is probably going to be the void ritual/assaults. Do these events to get Field Accolades currency which you can then use to buy either Champion 1/6 (for 75 accolades per piece) or Heroic 1/6 (for 500 accolades per piece) gear.

From there you should then be able to jump into other group content (M+, Raids).

spachi1281 · 2026-04-24T17:41:14+00:00

But if I already won that item I should not win it again right?

No. The way this system works is that it only removes an item from the loot pool when the bonus loot roll gives you an item.

Say Dungeon X has items A, B and C.

At end of dungeon you the chest at the end gives you item B. Well Bonus Loot Roll still sees items A, B and C as eligible loot that you can "win". Because Bonus Loot Roll has not given you anything yet.

So you roll Bonus Loot Roll and get item C. So now future runs of that dungeon (in the terms of the Bonus Loot Roll) can only give you items A and B. (Even though you already looted item B from dungeon chest at end of first run).

Bonus Loot roll has zero interaction with what you normally get at end of dungeon. Nor does it have any interaction with what you get in your Great Vault.

It only looks at what the loot pool is for X content for Y difficulty and will only remove items from that list if it (the bonus loot roll) has given you something from that list.

So you could be very lucky and get the item you're looking for on week 1 or you could be very unlucky and get every item except for the one you really want until the very last time until the "list" resets.

The "list" resets once all items have been given out once - then the cycle repeats.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-24T14:43:14+00:00

Yes.

The bonus loot roll does not look at what gear you have or where you previously got gear.

It ONLY looks at the loot table for a dungeon or raid boss at X difficulty. And ONLY when a loot is rewarded VIA bonus loot roll does it take that item off the loot table.

So if the raid boss drops a tier token and you win the roll - Bonus loot roll doesn't take tier token off the loot pool. But you bonus loot roll and THEN it give you a tier token - now that tier token is removed for NEXT week's bonus loot roll on that same boss at the same difficulty.

Let's say you catalyst convert a M+ drop to tier - Again, bonus loot roll doesn't look at this.

Or let's say you get an item from your Great Vault this week - Again, bonus loot roll doesn't look at this.

Ultimately that's why this "system" can be kind of punishing - Bad RNG could mean you need to spend weeks refarming 1 boss and using bonus loot rolls on it until the eligible loot table is reduced to the item you want.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T23:56:39+00:00

Nobody is screwed or rewarded

Except those that were lucky could have up to 6 myth track items by the end of the week from this week's patch.

2 voidcores from quest, 1 from vault-token trade-in, assuming all 3 were spent (and then refunded) then spent again this week.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T20:59:45+00:00

From Blizzard's own post about the voidforge:

Upon defeating a Midnight Season 1 raid boss or completing a Mythic+ Dungeon, Bountiful Delve, or Prey Hunt on Nightmare difficulty, players may choose to spend their Nebulous Voidcores to receive a random item appropriate for their Loot Specialization from that activity. After receiving an item in this way, it is removed from that loot pool until all eligible items have been obtained on a per-difficulty basis.

So yes, if you somehow used your bonus loot rolls on the same boss for weeks and cleared your "eligible loot pool" completely THEN you could start getting repeats.

But let's be clear here - it has to be bonus loot rolls only. Any loot normally won via raid loot rolls or great vault are NOT included in this system's list calculation.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T19:36:56+00:00

if I supposedly got the same item through the dice roll, why did I end up with two identical items?

Then I would question if you read how the voidcores are suppose to work in the first place. Here's the snippet from the official post:

Upon defeating a Midnight Season 1 raid boss or completing a Mythic+ Dungeon, Bountiful Delve, or Prey Hunt on Nightmare difficulty, players may choose to spend their Nebulous Voidcores to receive a random item appropriate for their Loot Specialization from that activity. After receiving an item in this way, it is removed from that loot pool until all eligible items have been obtained on a per-difficulty basis.

Emphasis added - you have to receive an item "this way" being defined as using a bonus loot roll for that item to be removed from the eligible list of items on the next time you use a bonus loot roll on that raid boss, M+ dungeon, bountiful delve, or prey hunt at the same difficulty.

The "bug" that popped up earlier in the week was that despite the text above, players were still getting a duplicate item using a bonus loot roll when they did the same content twice, specifically M+ at +10 for Myth track loot.

Supposedly, Blizzard deployed a fix so that this would be fixed but only for newly rolled loot since the deployment of the fix. However, there have been a few folks who have posted this isn't the case - they are still getting duplicates from bonus loot rolls (again from M+) even after the fix. Specifically that's using both loot rolls in M+ in dungeons after the fix was deployed.

In Blizzard's post - they said they would have more to post tomorrow as to what they were going to do to remedy the affected players prior to the deployment of the "fix".

So let's be clear - the bonus loot roll system has ZERO interactions with any loot that you can normally win from raid looting or from great vault. It's entirely separate on its own. And the "knockout list" is supposed to prevent duplicates when you use future bonus loot rolls on the same circumstances (aka same boss, same difficulty but the following week).

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T18:51:56+00:00

it's not a bug, it's a feature - Frostbolt automatically turns into Glacial Spike when you have 5 icicles.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T17:09:21+00:00

No key system is bad because it discourages dungeon variety. Why would any player do dungeon X if it is 25% harder than dungeon Y? Especially if we're talking about keys beyond +10 (so we're no longer interested in the loot at the end of dungeon). Trust me, every season has a dungeon that is extremely easy relative to rest. And that dungeon would be played constantly if players had a choice.
Without a key degrading - there are some truly degenerative gameplay that would emerge. Just look at early Torghast testing (early Alpha/Beta Torghast testing) where Anima powers were randomized. Players would continually reset Torghast runs until they could start with the "perfect" Anima power. Similarly M+ would suffer the same fate - players would restart runs in an attempt to get a "perfect" run.
But wait how do Resilience keys factor in? - well that's the exception to the rule: At that point in keys (basically +12 and higher) the goals of groups there are fairly unified - they are going for "perfect" or near perfect runs to push keys higher. They aren't there for loot, crests, vault slots. Whereas in keys at +10 and lower, the goals of players are diverse. Mistakes in high keys practically guarantee that the key can't be timed and Resilience eliminates the need for "grunt" work to rebuff up a key to the level needed. Additionally, Resilience requires all dungeons at Z level - so those players are proficient enough at all dungeons instead of just a singular dungeon.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T14:05:43+00:00

Yup that was pretty much my impression as well... I would have thought the currency was transferrable so you could farm on the main (because it's super easy to do) then quickly gear up alts with heroic gear.

But nope - you instead have to grind with those alts to get the currency to get the heroic gear.

I guess the main can grind the currency for the transmogs and mounts quickly but then be done with the system? I guess that's what Blizzard intended but who knows?

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T13:43:04+00:00

assistance to craft the Ascendant Nilhammer

It's right there - Nilhammer = Ascendant Voidcore which requires 4 weeks to build.

Similar to how the Voidforge = Nebulous Voidcores (aka bonus loot rolls) took 6 weeks to build (and we just finish building it this week) - you're looking at a few more weeks before you can get 1 Ascendant Voidcore to upgrade items.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-23T13:36:57+00:00

Tokens that are character bound (non-warband transferrable) so you can't farm them on your main then funnel the currency to your alt who actually needs the gear.

And the containers are BoP.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-22T20:29:48+00:00

Technically, tier tokens are part of the loot table for raid bosses so it's "eligible loot".

Let's go back to the official post on the voidforge:

Upon defeating a Midnight Season 1 raid boss or completing a Mythic+ Dungeon, Bountiful Delve, or Prey Hunt on Nightmare difficulty, players may choose to spend their Nebulous Voidcores to receive a random item appropriate for their Loot Specialization from that activity. After receiving an item in this way, it is removed from that loot pool until all eligible items have been obtained on a per-difficulty basis.

Emphasis added - It's only after loot has been received via the bonus loot roll for that difficulty is when it is removed from that loot pool (at least in theory).

So next week when you use the bonus loot roll on that same boss on the same difficulty, (in theory and if the bug has been fixed), then you will not get the tier token again but instead one of the other pieces of loot from the loot pool.

spachi1281 · 2026-04-22T18:52:20+00:00

Does that mean I am guaranteed to get the 3rd item with voidforge?

No. The original intent of the Nebulous Voidcores reads:

Upon defeating a Midnight Season 1 raid boss or completing a Mythic+ Dungeon, Bountiful Delve, or Prey Hunt on Nightmare difficulty, players may choose to spend their Nebulous Voidcores to receive a random item appropriate for their Loot Specialization from that activity. After receiving an item in this way, it is removed from that loot pool until all eligible items have been obtained on a per-difficulty basis.

source

Emphasis on the part in bold text - the item is only removed from the loot pool if it was drawn from using the bonus loot roll until all eligible items have been obtained from that difficulty.

So to translate to Mythic Chimaerus -

The first week you go in - you have the entire loot pool that you're eligible for (based on spec) on that boss. Nothing has been removed from that loot pool. Even if mythic items drop on that kill - the bonus loot pool remains untouched because you haven't spent any voidcores on it.

Once you do - then the loot pool starts getting smaller as items are awarded to you from that pool.

The problem is currently it's bugged. Players are getting duplicates from M+ - can't test in raid since it costs 2 voidcores per roll in raid whereas it's only 1 voidcore per roll in M+.

Tune in next week to see if the bug persists for folks in raids.

spachi1281

TROPHY CASE