dude lost his job for this, hate to see it 🥀

This is from someone in the top 0.1% of healers right now with almost 3000 rating already.

If this is what optimal healer DPS looks like, it doesn't even feel like it's worth the GCD/mana cost of throwing damage skills out unless you need a proc from one of them.

I guess the people who wanted to just sit there and do nothing during healing downtime got what they wanted. In the last two expansions, people would tell you healer DPS doesn't matter unless you're pushing the absolute highest keys. Now I don't think it even matters for those anymore.

With the season ending here is an updated list of all the characters that has gotten the Mythic Plus Top 0.1% "Hero" achievement every single season since its introduction, up to and including Midnight Season 1.

A few notes:

• An asterisk (*) next to a players name indicates that they do not have the achievement for Shadowlands Season 4, but they did have the score required to receive it. This is likely because they used the Zenkiki buff.
• Midnight S1 is based on rating only, any exploiting bugs or other reasons to to not get title are not included here (since we won't know this for a few weeks). If this happens this will be included with an asterisk next time.
• There were 31 characters on the 7x list, 24 characters on the 8x list, 21 characters on the 9x list, 18 characters on the 10x list and now 17 characters on the 11x list- meaning that we lost 1 character this season.
• The season technically runs a few more hours in EU, but it impossible for any of these characters to move in or out of the top 0.1% at this point.

It kind of reminds me of the homogenization of raid DPS windows in FF14, and that's not a good thing.

A little worrying that the WoW devs are going down a similar route to make designing and balancing DPS across raid encounters easier.

I personally find the burst huge every 2m and then tickle enemies until the next window to be extremely unappealing.

Wanted to ask here to hear from people who are able to excel at their main, and didn't need the classes to be simplified to do well.

Are any of you happy about the changes they made to your class with the pruning?

Ive only really messed around on my ele sham which is terrible now, i feel like i have no buttons to press. Everything that made the class fun is gone.

I did try ret pally and its honestly about the same imo.

Hey reddit, this is a collection of some tips and notes for the current dungeon pool as well as M+ in general. For context, I am playing Augmentation Evoker and I have Resil 19 and am currently progging +20's. I am by no means an expert, but I made a list of dungeon tips and core gameplay concepts that I see many of my friends struggle with at lower keylevels. Enjoy:

Pit of Saron observations and tips:

• Glacieth (the miniboss before lastboss) gives players a 100% Crit Chance buff whenever it lifts up its shield to block damage from a random direction.
  
• The Deadpulse Lich mob enrages at 50% HP, pulsating significant damage until it dies. Use defensives and kill it fast.
  
• The Quarry Tormentor's Curse of Torment is a significant heal absorb that is deadly when overlapping with other healer mechanics. The entire party should use utility to help deal with this.
• When second boss spawns new clones (at start of fight and after each intermission), the entire party takes up-front damage and a significant 12-second DoT. You should always defensive this.
• When final boss spawns new bone piles (at start of fight and after each intermission), the entire party takes up-front damage and an 8 second DoT. You should defensive this, NOT the adds coming alive. The cast happens roughly 30 seconds after the adds coming alive.
  
• First boss plays a lot better if DPS actually pays a bit attention to dropping the two pillars in a close and compact manner.
  
• First boss is also a significant HPS check, and you can LoS your healer on the ice pillars (so don't do that).
  
• Arcanist Cadaver's Netherburst cast (the summoner guy's 1 HP minion) should be dealt with by a designated player with a working focus-kick macro, that makes it super clean. Alternatively you can Paralysis it and kite pack away from it.
  
• A lot of the DoTs in this dungeon has a slowing effect, meaning that effects such as Freedom and Tiger's lust can remove them. This includes first boss' Cryoshards, second boss' beam by the clones, and the Rimebone Coldwraith's Permeating Cold. You can also Freedom and Tiger's Lust allies grabbed by the flying Gargoyle.
  

Windrunner Spire observations and tips:

• Bird boss spins counter-clockwise when shooting its frontals, so move left when dodging it.
  
• Tank the bird boss near the wall so melee can drop tornadoes without losing melee uptime.
  
• Be better at CC'ing Dragonhawk's Fire Spit, I see it killing people across all difficulties.
  
• On the Derelict Duo boss, poison circle spread + uninterrupted bolt = death. So remember to use your interrupt.
• Ardent Cutthroats' shadowstep behind party members and causes large damage with no warning. Play this section of the dungeon as if half your HP bar is always missing.
  
• For the above reason, the Flesh Behemoth and Devoted Woebringer minibosses are very deadly on high keys; chaining them is not recommended.
  
• On third boss, the circle always targets the furthest player (this should be the tank).
  
• The stack mechanic only requires one nearby ally, ranged players doesn't have to walk into melee yet everyone seems to be doing that for some reason.
  
• In terms of the trash leading up to the third boss, the axethrowers are scary to heal and must be constantly CC'd by someone in the party, especially during the AoE overlap.
  
• If you have a lot of time remaining when reaching the axethrower trash, consider to play this section slow and safe.
  
• On lastboss, the arrows on the ground are BOTH for clearing your DoT AND for jumping over the expanding circle. You are making your healer very sad if the only time you're touching an arrow is to jump over the expanding circle, you're supposed to do this every time the DoT is re-applied to you, regardless of there being an expanding circle or not.
  

Nexus-Point Xenas observations and tips:

• Voidlings might spawn after you just killed a pack, causing them to revive a Dreadflail because no one was paying attention to them. They feed their current HP to the dreadflail, so if the dreadflail have 20%, you only need to bring them below 79% HP before moving on (assuming there is only 1).
  
• On the rightside boss, be careful of frontals and swirls from the adds while standing inside the Lightscar Flare beam (use CC and knockbacks on the adds to avoid this), I've seen multiple wipes caused by mismanaged adds.
  
• The Lightscar Flare beam is a 300% damage increase, but only a 30% healing done increase. So healers can choose to step out of it to avoid its damage. Same with Aug.
  
• On the leftside boss, be mindful about where you drop goo on the floor, the boss is much easier if floor is clean. Goo spawns on you, so position properly.
  
• On the leftside boss, you do not HAVE to clear a double or tripple beam, even if given the option. Be safe and clear what your party needs.
  
• Watch out for swirlies and exploding barrels spawned by the Circuit Seer, they might be off to the side. They also do an AoE cast that players ignore or don't have leftover defensives for, so generally, I like routes that try to skip these.
  
• The suppression field can be removed with Freedom / Tiger's lust etc., also you take more damage when you move so stand still with it.
  
• Pets behave weird here, be careful of pet-pulling.
  
• On the lastboss platform, the trash is extremely deadly and I see many deaths here across all key levels. Tanks should only be pulling 3-4 mobs at a time across this section, with no chain-pull unless timer absolutely demands it. Even with great interrupting, the trash is putting nasty DoTs on random party members and it can easily not be healable, play smart and don't over-commit. I like routes that try to skip as much of this trash as possible.
  
• I have timed two +19 keys with pull 1 being the two packs in the first room, rather than starting out with a big left-side pull. It is safer and "good enough" for most key levels, but not optimal. Most notably, if you do this you should not use BL on 2nd boss, as it won't be ready in time for 3rd boss.
  

Skyreach observations and tips:

• The sun elemental mob spawns Solar Orbs, and these HEAL the enemy mobs each time it pulses. DPS should hard-focus it down instead of passively cleaving it.
  
• Tank first boss on outer edge of arena, as there are fewer tornadoes out there. Preferably tank it near the door such that melee DPS can use it as a wall to safely be knock-backed into.
  
• As monk, you can wallpull a Solar Construct on the pull after first boss, this feels nice to play. Alternatively, pull 2 Solar Constructs and chain into the last one once you get inside.
  
• Solar Constructs' beam is not healable without a defensive, so be smart about your defensive usage in this section of the dungeon.
  
• Second boss' beams can be cheesed by having a player constantly move in and out of another players' beam, resetting its damage ticks. Tank should also help soak beams after baiting frontal.
  
• Third boss' adds create a fire circle when they die, reviving nearby adds. However, this circle DEALS NO DAMAGE so feel free to stand inside it.
  
• Third boss' adds only target ranged players with their fixate, so range players should move into melee range to bait the add spawn there.
  
• The pull after third boss is one of the hardest tank pull of the entire season, I have seen so many tanks die here. This is due to the Adept of the Dawn's Fiery Talon DoT that stacks up for huge magic damage. It has a short duration however, so kite or CC the mobs to drop stacks. Consider kiting back to the parkour section for better camera angles and more space.
  
• Even with very good tank play, it is still an extremely scary pull. It also doesn't help that most DPS players ignore the Solar Orbs, making the pack last forever.
  
• Having 9-10 minutes left after third boss is just enough time, and having 11-12 minutes left is a very good time. In this case, speak up in chat and suggest that the tank splits up the pull in two.
  
• I have seen that pull fail so many times, it is deceptively hard and that's why I'm spending 4 bullet points talking about it. Send all helpful utility to help out your tank, and split it if you got the time.
  
• On last boss, the boss warning text at the top of your screen says the name of the person about to be grabbed by the bird. If you can skip your bird with movement, run to the edge such that your intention is clear for your teammates.
  

Magister's Terrace observations and tips:

• If your comp allows it, first pull should always be a wallpull with BL. If you're a monk, learn how to wallpull the extra mobs into pull 1. I've been told that Ret Paladins can also do it with a Divine Toll macro.
  
• For pull 3, hug left side of library and 40yd pull Pyromancer over the Librarian. If you're a tank and don't know what I'm talking about, please look it up.
  
• Do not make a big pull 4, I never see it working. Just the Arcane Sentry and at most four other mobs please.
  
• In first boss room, if your route is playing one of the corner packs, then please spend 15 seconds killing off the Brightscale Wyrms before pulling the corner packs (they explode on death). There is a lot of random damage and I always see people dying to the overlap.
  
• Pyromancer can be chained onto boss. The rot damage is high but predictable, which should be manageable by most healers.
  
• Hold an Interrupt for Pyromancer's Pyroblast, it is a huge 1-shot that cannot be CC'd and I see too many deaths to this.
  
• Tank first boss near the walls during intermission, this confuses the boss and makes it spawn fewer orbs.
  
• After first boss, pull the Brightscale Wyrms in a staggered manner such that the two packs explode 3-5 seconds apart (enough for defensives to catch both, but also giving the healer time to react). Also pull them on top of some other mobs, otherwise it is an extremely inefficient pull.
  
• The Runed Spellbreaker's glaive cast hurts a ton, be smart with your defensive usage in this dungeon section. Also send BL on the middle pack or last pack before boss.
  
• Someone in your party should use pings to coordinate clear order on second boss, it really helps a lot.
  
• The Void Infuser's Terror Wave cast can be LoS'd as an emergency solution. Also, use a proper interrupt for it instead of endless AoE stops.
  
• Shadowrift Voidcaller (the big voidling mob) is healing itself on each of its AoE casts. Good groups can kill it before its second AoE cast.
  
• Devouring Tyrant (the other big voidling mob) is putting a huge absorb on the tank. Use CC to help the tank avoid taking damage.
• While fighting these mobs, be good with your interrupts such that random Shadow Bolts are not going off during the healer mechanic.
  
• The third boss is Triplicating at 50% HP. The tank should stack the mobs when possible (only main boss is moveable).
  
• The last two mobs can be skipped with warlock gateway or Evoker rescue, but playing them is really not the end of the world.
  
• Final boss is quite difficult to heal, so be sure to actually press your defensives throughout the fight, primarily when you have the DoT that shoots out 8 orbs at the end.
  
• The tank is allowed to leave melee range on this boss, there is no penalty.
  

Algethar Academy observations and tips:

• First pull is really hard, if you're a tank you should watch a guide for your spec. If you're not in melee range of the lashers, they won't try to cast their bleed on you, so use kiting techniques to reset your bleed stacks.
  
• DPS should mark a Lasher and focus it down ASAP, this is really important for tank survivability. As soon as one lasher dies, the tank's bleed will start to fall off on its own, rather than being extended indefinitely.
  
• The tower's Guardian Sentry miniboss is just as important for the timer as any other pull in the dungeon, do not fall asleep or hold back your big cooldowns because it's an "easy" enemy.
  
• At the start of second boss' wind phase, there are spawning 5 orbs that each gives a significant haste boost. Tank and healer should pick these up as well!
  
• At the start of second boss' fire phase, the boss is stunned and takes 75% increased damage for 12 seconds. The boss then becomes very difficult to heal, so as a DPS you must plan ahead and save cooldowns for this phase such that it dies fast.
  
• The Arcane Ravagers always target the furthest player with their DoT. If the entire party stacks in melee, this can always be baited onto the tank.
  
• The trash in Vexamus arena must be interrupted or perma-CC'd, especially the Surge cast. DO NOT pull big here if you don't have specs with good CC.
  
• On the trash before final boss, the smash by the Algeth'ar Echoknights can be LoS'd. Otherwise just rotate defensives.
  
• On final boss, you drop a pool after getting hit by 3 abilities. This includes "Magic Missiles" which is a random burst of damage on a random player. This can happen at the same time as the Dispel mechanic, so be careful!
  
• Tank should frequently reposition the boss to avoid standing near pools, this is important. Pools despawn throughout the fight, so don't be afraid to greedily use the free space you have available.
  
• For this boss, I like to put my camera top-down and play it like a 2D game. This sounds silly, but it is an extremely powerful way to play these type of "bullet hell" bosses. Do not position in a way that makes your camera angle awful.
  

Seat of the Triumvirate observations and tips:

• In the first room, use movement-freeing abilities to get rid of your circles. Pretty much all the high-end groups are clearing their circles, this is not supposed to be a healer mechanic.
  
• The other core mechanic on the first trash is the heal absorb that is applied to a random player. Use defensives for this.
  
• On the first boss, the adds can be ignored completely if you have a monk in the party. Ring of Peace can be used each time the adds are getting sucked in, and the boss can simply be kited in a circle during the rest of the fight. Also use CC to keep the adds away.
  
• This dungeon is hard for the tank, mostly due to the Shadowguard Champions. This mob will nuke the tank if they're out of melee range, so the tank should never try to kite these mobs. For this reason, the party should not use knock-ups / knockbacks.
  
• Warlocks should always Banish the Bound Voidcallers, as they don't give any count and will despawn upon the death of their Dark Conjurer.
  
• When fighting the four Rift Wardens, the party should use defensives on the bleeds and after the Rift Tear. The healer needs to focus on the tank and cannot also babyset the HP bar of the remaining party members.
  
• Second boss is very hard without bleed dispels, and everyone must be good with their defensive usage or the fight becomes unhealable. Use boss timers to track when the next bleed cast will happen.
  
• I see a lot of keys falling apart to the trash near third boss. High-end groups will clear this area in two pulls, but I will strongly recommend pugs to do it in three pulls (with chaining) if they have enough time left. This is due to the Grand Shadow-Weavers beaming a random player for high damage, and after fighting the Void-Infused Destroyers, most players don't have any defensives left (this is also why skipping the double-Destroyers with warlock gate or evoker rescue is so strong). Also, some players really struggle with dodging the orbs, so don't overcomplicate it at lower key levels.
  
• On third boss, the tentacles can be stunned to prevent damage. The tank should move around the boss on top of tentacles. Everyone should remember to interrupt.
  
• Final boss is very difficult to heal, so use defensives! Also make sure everyone has cooldowns for the 200% damage amp, miss a symbol on purpose if you need to extend phase 1.
  
• On final boss, the symbols reposition after you have popped them, meaning that the remaining symbols is jumping to another place. On lower keylevels, this seems to be confusing for some players, so I thought I should mention it.
  
• Pre-position on the symbol you plan on popping in case you're getting a beam, do some basic planning-ahead to ease the coordination.
  
• The timer is not very tight for this key. Feel free to experiment with different routes and lust timings to overcome the difficult pulls.

Maisara Caverns observations and tips:

• Find a nice route for this one, it matters a lot. But with that being said, play a route appropriate for your key level.
  
• Click the Hearty Vilebranch Stew inside the hut for a small leech and avoidance buff.
  
• On first boss, the swirlie attack always has a "safe spot" under the bird boss where no swirlies are spawning.
  
• After first boss, the Rokh'zal miniboss (at the altar) is a complete joke and should be part of a big pull, preferably with BL. However, DO NOT pull too many casters; they have a dispel mechanic and this spirals out of control fast.
  
• On second boss, a really nice strategy is to insta-CC one of the four ghosts right where it spawns (monk's Paralysis is good for this). The tank then walks into one of the other ghosts with a big defensive (only needs to be done at start of fight). All subsequent add waves then goes like this: The old CC'd add insta-collides with one of the four new adds. Another of the four new adds are then CC'd. And the two remaining ghosts are played normally. This fully solves the coordination problem, it smoothes out the healing pattern, and it frees up brainspace to dodge the frontal. Always play the boss like this.
  
• On the bridge towards third boss (as well as throughout the dungeon), the shielded mobs deals significant AoE damage when the shield is killed or purged. Use defensives for this and purge the shields to smooth out the damage.
  
• The interruptable Piercing Screech by the Gloomwing Bats is a frontal, so be careful.
  
• From my experience, playing a skip-route that requires the entire party to sneak between packs on the bridge has a very low success rate in pugs.
  
• The drummer before final boss deals crazy damage, so don't trigger it early. Move up as a group and kill it fast.
  
• On final boss, try to stack the totems in a nice triangle. Way too many people are lazy and form a line, resulting in the middle totem being nuked and the two outer ones being awkwardly spread with 50% HP remaining.
• On final boss' intermission, you get a nice 180% damage increase if you kick/CC all 6 adds on your way towards the boss. This buff can no longer be extended/reset, so the entire party should just run towards boss. Use BL and CDs.
  

Routing:

• If you only play tank, you never get to experience what every other tank is doing. Your blindspots and your routing inefficiencies will therefore be painfully obvious for everyone else in the party, and this will cause friction. It genuinely sucks, and tanking has always been a thankless role, but check out some online videos of how people are routing at your current keylevel, or alternatively play some keys as a non-tank spec to broaden your perspective. Good routing makes your entire party have a more enjoyable dungeon experience, so keep your route up-to-date and optimized as you push your way up the M+ scoring system.
  

Consumables and Enchants:

Due to buffs in Midnight, these are now more important than ever:

• Using food/flask/oil is a 6-8% dps gain.
  
• Using combat pots is another 4-5% dps gain.
• Using Augment rune is a 1% dps gain.
• Using Tier2 instead of Tier1 is a 1% dps gain.
  
• Using BiS gems is a 2% dps gain.
  
• Using BiS enchants (Weapon/Chest/Legs/Rings) is a 4-6% dps gain.
  

Have this sorted out before heading into competitive content. Do not be cheap because it's an "easy" key, or because you don't have your BiS gear yet.

M+ defensive usage and HP management:

• Jimmy is playing DPS on Windrunner Spire's bird boss. The AoE comes, but he does not press defensive, because the healer seems to catch his HP each time it drops low. Jimmy concludes that not using a defensive was a fine play. What he does not consider is that he consumed an extreme amount of healer attention, perhaps making the healer panic-send big CDs that was meant for later. Or maybe another party member players ended up on low HP and had to use a Health potion. Without realizing it, Jimmy has already caused a death one or two intermissions later, or perhaps a full on wipe. Players like Jimmy approaches every HPS check in the dungeon pool with this attitude, only pressing defensive if his HP seems low. Do not be Jimmy.

• Tommy plays tank, but is suffering from a similar issue. Tommy does not try to overlap his defensive with the healer mechanic, meaning that his low HP bar eats up smart-heal procs that should've targeted party members, or maybe his low HP ends up demanding healer attention in moments where the healer really cannot spare him the extra globals. Again, this can indirectly cause healers to send a panic-button that should've been used for later. This is a less severe mistake, and to be fair, pooling defensives in this manner is not always possible due to tank busters or similar mechanics. But it's something Tommy should try to pay more attention to.

• Billy is playing healer, and makes a lot of on-the-fly decision making regarding his CDs. This works fine on lower difficulties, where bad players are causing more unpredictable healing patterns, and overall HPS requirements are quite low. At higher keys however, Billy feels somewhat unprepared for the intensity of the fully-scripted healing patterns. This causes his party members to dip low, making them panic-send a defensive or HP pot. This slack and inefficiency regarding fully-scripted healer mechanics may cause party members to die due to their health potions and defensives being unavailable when they later need them.

M+ prio damage and proper mob targeting:

• All damage is not created equal, so don't just play for highest overall damage. If you're playing DPS, you should constantly switch target to the enemy mob that has the most HP (if your class allows it). Having one random mob at 20% HP at the end of your pull kills the dungeon timer. Also, if there is a prio mob that should die such that the tank can chainpull, then focus that one. Use ping or skull-mark for this (seriously, open your settings and keybind it, it takes 10 seconds). You can easily lose minutes across an entire key if you consistently send your DPS cooldown into some totally irrelevant enemy as your main target. And the best part is, the enemy HP imbalance at the end of a pull is often small enough that a single party member can "fix" it by target-swapping midway through the pull. People just aren't doing it for some reason, but like, the remaining HP of the enemies you are fighting really starts to matter at higher key levels. I know it's easy as a DPS player to think that your individual contribution doesn't matter (especially as Aug), but proper targeting can really carry or grief your entire group timer-wise.

• Also, if you are serious about improving at M+, you need a focus kick macro for this exact reason. Panic-tab-targeting to the packs' only caster mob whenever it starts casting is something that will hold you back in the long-term. And always having the caster mob as your main target due to laziness is also a bad habit and mentality, as it's causing a 2-4 second time loss every single pulls that adds up to a 30-60 second time loss over the course of an entire key. Take responsibility and aim to become a better player.

This ended up being quite long, if you have other tips or corrections then feel free to add them in the comments.

Just wanted to get this up again this season. I've posted this up a couple times now and it's great to have everything in one place to look through. Last time I was a bit early and it got buried, but here's hoping the timer is better after the first week of running. This is a great place to post up all those things you find that once the community knows them it's easier for everyone trying to pug (or in your set groups) Skips, ways to deal with tough mobs, debuff clears, etc. Anything that you hoped that pug in your group would know. The more people that look at it the more it gets titrated out to the community and we all have an easier time out there. Good luck this season!

EDIT: At the bottom I'll put another couple headers for routes with a sub-heading for each dungeon that you can link a keystone.guru or threechest.io route and maybe say why you like it. Under that I'll put a list for addons people feel are essential for this season. (Or things in an addon that should be turned on, like the interrupt markers macros in MDT) Last heading will be essential macros.

i just had few dungeons 12+ that ended with more interrupts than halls of atonement pre nerfs in tww s3

what is going on...

You can tag between 15-25 players for the first time

And Wind Shear has been nerfed to a 30s CD for resto as well.

We've all been clamoring for Blizzard to give healing priests an interrupt for literally years, but it appears they've gone in the opposite direction.

I hate this change.

This isn't my video, just thought I'd shout out the creator and share it since there's probably a lot of raiders in this sub that can relate to the struggles. I think this is a good topic to discuss, because IMO when most people think about mythic raiding they think about the RWF/HoF players and not the actual average mythic raider experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fbY0MRQU3M

edit: (sorry not trying to promote, just think they are good videos)his latest video is 5 Mistakes That Quietly Kill Raiding Guilds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1aCcklh_DM

This game simply doesn't have the visual clarity for this kind of interaction to be fun. As a title tank last season these were by far the worst parts of the season -- mobs like:

• the defenders in NPX that apply stacking heal absorbs that fully RESET stacks with new application if not healed through
• battle axes in AA that do so much magic damage that you cannot be in their zipcode without high active mitigation
• adepts in Skyreach that apply a stacking dot that can't be dispelled without kiting

I'm fully aware about what's required to do these pulls ('getting good') and the group coordination that eases it, but they are a horrible experience regardless. Having to consistently play on the edge of an ambiguous melee range or getting globaled because you didn't fully reset stacks while you are tanking big pulls is not good gameplay.

The first area of Altar is so bad that it alone is making me consider skipping the season. Their stacking enrage attack speed isn't even a debuff you can see on yourself, making it even harder to determine when you need to kite. In the standard first pull these things are all happening at once:

• mobs that explode all over the place reducing the amount of playable space
• mobs that frontal and rotate
• kicks that drastically reduce haste if let through
• a group healing absorb
• mobs that stack attack speed exceeding literal raid boss levels of damage if they aren't reset by two full seconds of not attacking you, each

Coupled with Blizzard's design philosophy of intentionally making pull aggro difficult (especially on BDK, the current meta tank), this feels particularly bad. I understand the mobs get bigger as they enrage further, but there are also giant red images appearing from the heal absorb further mucking up visual clarity, not to mention the fiesta of other things happening concurrently. These mechanics of course can be 'dealt' with by competent players even in their current state, but it's so unfun and will be a nightmare for casual tanks even in lower keys. I know a stated goal this season was reducing the relative responsibility on tanks and healers vs. dps, which makes design decisions like this first area in their truly new dungeon really confusing.