If you’ve attempted to run high key Mythic+ dungeons in WoW Dragonflight, you’ve probably run into the Explosive affix. Well, not anymore, as coming into the MMORPG‘s next season World of Warcraft‘s most frustrating affix has been removed, while others have been shuffled around to keys that better suit them.
Explosive, an affix released with Legion, basically summons huge explosions that detonate and, if you’re too close to them, wipe 50% of your health. While they have health bars and can be destroyed, they’re immune to any AoEs, meaning you have to pull off of the mobs or boss that you’re fighting to destroy them.
Sure, this adds a whole new level of challenge to your keys, but the issue I’ve always had with Explosive is that it’s more an annoyance than a skill test. It never really enhanced runs or made the gameplay more complex, it just sort of… existed and was irritating.
Well, not anymore, as Blizzard has revealed that it’s removing the affix for WoW Dragonflight season 2. A blue forum post from developer ‘Stonekey,’ states “as we continue to watch everyone play Mythic+ on the PTR and take in your feedback, we wanted to share additional changes to this week’s PTR. Our changes this week aim to further lessen the impact of affixes on Mythic+ dungeon gameplay and to match our more challenging affixes to later keystone levels as players progress through the system.”
The most important of these is that “Explosive will be retired for Dragonflight Season 2 and replaced by Volcanic.” Whether or not this means the affix is gone entirely remains to be seen but, for now, at least Blizzard has listened and you won’t need to deal with it.
Other changes include periodic affixes (Incorporeal, Storming) being added at key seven instead of key 14, and affixes that trigger on death or health ranges (Spiteful, Sanguine) being swapped to key 14 instead of seven.
WoW Dragonflight affix changes
Below are all of the affix changes that are currently in place on the WoW Dragonflight PTR, courtesy of Blizzard.
Keystone affixes
Periodic affixes are now added to keystones at level 7 (was 14).
- Afflicted
- Incorporeal
- Volcanic
- Entangling
- Storming
Affixes that trigger on death or health ranges have been moved to level 14 (was 7).
- Spiteful
- Raging
- Bursting
- Bolstering
- Sanguine
Affixes Updates
In addition to the change above, we’ve also reviewed the impact of our affixes and made tuning adjustments with the goal of lessening their overall impact on dungeon gameplay.
Level 7
Explosive
- Explosive will be retired for Dragonflight Season 2 and replaced by Volcanic.
Incorporeal
- Incorporeal Beings now fade away when combat with non-Incorporeal Beings has ended.
Entangling
- Entangling’s snare effect has been reduced to 30% (was 50%).
- Entangling now has a visual indicating the maximum range of the vine.
- Entangling now has a distinct sound cue when applied to players.
Afflicted
- Afflicted Souls health no longer scales after keystone level 20.
Level 14
Spiteful
- Spiteful Shades melee damage reduced by 10%.
- Spiteful Shades health and damage no longer scale after keystone level 20.
Raging
- Raging now grants enemies immunity to crowd control effects for 20 seconds upon reaching 30% health remaining (was 50% increased damage done until defeated).
Bolstering
- Bolster no longer increases the health of affected enemies (was health and damage).
Sanguine
- Ichor puddles now last for 12 seconds (was 20 seconds).
If you, like me, are infinitely thankful for these changes, be sure to check out our WoW Dragonflight tier list if you’re looking to dive back into the fray. We also have a list of the best WoW addons to help your dungeon adventures go smoothly.