WoW: This is how the developers want to balance items from old dungeons in Dragonflight

As we have learned from several sources in the meantime, the instance pool of the Mythic-Plus instances in WoW Dragonflight will consist of eight dungeons, but four of these eight dungeons will be chosen from old expansions. In Season 2 of Dragonflight, the Mythic Plus dungeon pool will consist of four different Dragonflight dungeons than in Season 1, plus again four dungeons from another old expansion.

This raised some questions in the community, and hardcore players pointed out problems that arise with this new approach to dungeon rotation. The main problem min-maxers see is that certain best-in-slot items from Season 1 dungeons could be BiS in Season 2 as well, forcing players to wear old items or farm those items to get the most out of their characters. Game Director Ion Hazzikostas commented on this problem in the official WoW forum last week.

Mythic-Plus Dungeon Rotation of Dragonflight an Itemization Problem? Hazzikostas reassures players

"Thank you guys for being concerned about this! Itemization is definitely a big part of how this all needs to fit together to make it work, and the goal would be for each season's dungeon pool to have meaningful and diverse loot options. In some cases, that might mean we need to modify or add loot from dungeons in older expansions.

For example, if we were to mix M+ versions of dungeons from Mists of Pandaria with new dungeons from Dragonflight, we would ensure that the resulting seasonal pool provides full coverage of all types of items. We would also likely take a close look at the gems of the dungeons from MoP, which were not necessarily created or tuned with peak performance in mind (since the difficulty of the dungeons was limited to "heroic" at the time, and the challenge mode only offered cosmetic rewards).

If we run into a situation where a particular item from the previous season's dungeons outperforms the higher item level alternatives from the following season, we make adjustments to correct that. You shouldn't have to worry about "missable BiS" being a thing. On the other hand, we've received tons of feedback that re-collecting Soul Leaving Ruby, the Cube Trinket from The Andre Side, etc. hasn't exactly felt like a compelling progression experience each season, so we're excited for the chance to make some changes here.

Aside from a complete refresh of items from season to season, we hope that the dungeon gameplay itself will feel fresher and that the community will have new puzzles to solve each season. We've had very mixed (often negative) experiences in the past when we add brand new dungeons to an existing pool of dungeons that the community has already mastered, and try to rank them as equal in terms of difficulty and rewards.

And while the hardcore M+ community may not experience this problem firsthand, it can't be overstated how daunting it can be for someone trying to get into M+ PUGs or deep into an expansion to try a new role like tanking for the first time when the established community is largely focused on routing micro-optimizations and time-saving tech, and groups are likely to assume a complete baseline knowledge of all boss mechanics, positioning, target priority, and so on.

We're aware of the risk that not experiencing M+ versions of all eight new Dragonflight dungeons in the first season might be disappointing, but we're hoping that mixing in some dungeons that never had an M+ component before (Shado Pan Monastery, for example) will make for a fun new experience there, and that the full rotation will make for a much healthier and more dynamic Mythic+ experience in the long run throughout the expansion." - Ion Hazzikostas, Game Director of World of Warcraft (Buy Now )

The most important part for min-maxers or players who worry about absolutely having to capture items from Season 1 in a limited time window is highlighted in bold here.

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The developers are aware of this player mentality and the problem of itemization and will balance special items so that no FOMO (Fear of missing out) occurs. This may mean that the BiS gem may be toned down with the new season, but no one will be forced to play a season because of certain items. What do you think about the M+ pool being filled up with old dungeons? We are looking forward to your opinion in the comments.