Underrot Mythic+ Updated on the Patch 10.1 PTR – Reduced Kick Requirements

Underrot Cast Behavior Changes

The cast behavior of several abilities were adjusted in Underrot, generally making abilities easier to disrupt and less frequent. (Listed cast frequency numbers were approximated from log data and may not be exact.)

Interrupts and BfA Mythic+ Dungeons

Battle for Azeroth dungeons were known for many things, but one feature in many dungeons of this era was a high volume of high-impact and interruptible abilities on trash enemies as well as a high volume of important stops. In many cases, high-impact and interruptible abilities would immediately recast if stopped with miscellaneous crowd control abilities instead of a proper interrupt. And, when taken together, these trash mechanics provided a large incentive to use melee-heavy compositions to mitigate these mechanics for these dungeons, with their shorter interrupt cooldowns and generally larger amount of stops. The Underrot was one dungeon that had many of these features.

Cast Change Implications

Initial Trash

The initial area changes are the least significant, since this area did not have particularly high interrupt requirements in the first place, but having Dark Reconstitution and Harrowing Despair no longer recast when stopped with a non-interrupt ability is a welcome quality of life change.

Barbed Spear being used at a 10 second frequency instead of a 6 second frequency, in addition to removing its ability to recast (with the same change being made to Hooked Snare), allows players to significantly lower the damage they take from this spell with good ability usage.

While it did not have a direct effect on enemy interrupt requirements, less casts of Warcry will limit haste buff uptimes on enemies in this section with disruptable abilities.

Cragmaw’s Room

Cragmaw’s room is, perhaps, most well known for its build-your-own-trash-pack layout. It provides a very large quantity of enemies that can pull independently, where your pull size is limited by what you can handle. One of the main factors limiting your pull size was having enough interrupts to stop Decaying Mind casts; a 30 second stun that could be removed by disease removal effects or some amount of healing. This ability was reused when stopped with anything but an interrupt and, when it was previously used around a frequency of every 16 seconds, you were generally limited by your number of “melee kicks” that could consistently stop all casts from a single enemy. Otherwise, this ability going off was consequential enough that it could very easily lead to a wipe, especially when combined with the dangerous Feral Bloodswarmer enemies that are also in the room. Feral Bloodswarmer enemies themselves have an AoE Sonic Screech cast that was used at a high frequency, but there were often more important abilities that needed to be disrupted in this area of the dungeon.

Now that Decaying Mind is only being used at a 28 second frequency and the ability does not recast when stopped with non-interrupt abilities, these casts will be much easier to manage regardless of group composition. And, with this freed up crowd control, Sonic Screech should be much easier to disrupt with a 24 second cast frequency instead of a 13 second cast frequency in addition to not recasting after being stopped with on-interrupt effects. Not to mention the lower cast rate of Thirst For Blood from Feral Bloodswarmer enemies putting less pressure on non-tank players. While Wave of Decay is no longer interruptible or stoppable, this ability was generally a trap to commit resources to since it was easily avoidable, while there are other trash mechanics being used in this area that are dangerous.

After Cragmaw

Significant sources of cast behavior change implications after Cragmaw are as follows:

1. Grotesque Horror
   These enemies used to chain-cast Death Bolt with no cooldown, which, appropriate to its name, would quickly decimate groups with AoE damage if a chain of interrupt and crowd control abilities were not used to shut them down. Given the amount of disruption these involved (in addition to the fact that they cannot be moved), they greatly limited what other enemies you could be in combat with at the same time.

   Now, with Death Bolt being remade into the much more mild Death Bolt, which only targets a single player, has a 5 second cast frequency, and doesn’t recast when stopped with non-interrupt abilities, the disruption requirements on these enemies have been greatly reduced. Granted, they have been given an additional AoE ability called Dark Echoes, but it can only be used as frequently as every 20 seconds and it does not recast when stopped by any means.

2. Bloodsworn Defiler
   These enemies used to rotate through multiple dangerous, but interruptible, abilities. In particular, Withering Curse at a cast frequency around 25 seconds and Shadow Bolt Volley at a cast frequency around 15 seconds.

   Now, with the cast frequency of Shadow Bolt Volley being changed from 15 seconds to 26 seconds, it is possible for most combinations of two players to shut down all important casts from Bloodsworn Defiler enemies, where two “melee kicks” were needed to do this before. Additionally, the third ability from this enemy, Summon Spirit Drain Totem, has been changed from an interruptible to a non-interruptible ability; since the effect of this totem was easily avoidable, it was arguably a trap to use an interrupt on this ability over the other two.

3. Fallen Deathspeaker
   These enemies had one dangerous non-interruptable ability, Wicked Frenzy, which had a max cast frequency around 15 seconds and would empower a Reanimated Guardian to attack twice as fast and apply a dangerous DoT effect with their attacks; Wicked Frenzy would always recast, so the main counter to it was to quickly dispel the effect after the cast completed. They also had the interruptible Raise Dead, that was used on a 26 second cooldown, would recast when stopped with non-interrupt abilities, and would summon a full health Reanimated Guardian. Raise Dead was more of a loss of time than anything.

   Now, Wicked Frenzy has a 25 second cast frequency instead of a 15 second cast frequency, it is interruptible, and it does not recast when stopped with non-interrupt abilities. The new effect of the ability is potentially more dangerous, but it should be much easier to disrupt. Raise Dead has also been replaced with Wicked Assault, an instant cast random target DoT effect, so, while their interrupt requirements have gone down, they may now be more dangerous than before.

4. Faceless Corruptor
   These enemies are relatively unchanged in their mechanics, but the cast frequency of their Abyssal Reach and Maddening Gaze abilities has been changed to 17 seconds from 12 seconds, so they will put less pressure on players when they are juggling multiple mechanics.

Conclusion

As a result of these changes, Underrot trash abilities should be significant easier to manage and counter regardless of your group composition. These updates will make the interrupt requirements of Underrot more in line with the other Mythic+ dungeons showing up in Season 2 of Dragonflight.