I don't know about you, but I had a good time this week! The dungeons are overall pretty fun, and I think slightly more balanced than season 2? Atal'Dazar is taking the lead for easiest dungeon, while Throne of the Tides has some mechanics that scale a bit faster than the usual. I was pleasantly surprised with the DOTI dungeons, which were not crazy overtuned after all (in fortified at least, more about this later).

What were the pain points?

Let's do a quick recap per dungeon:

• In Atal'Dazar, the Toxic Saurid were more manageable than I had expected, even without cheese, but they will probably still require some tech as we push higher keys. Other than that, the dungeon does seem pretty straightforward, nothing felt too punishing.
• In Black Rook Hold, things were overall good, the last gauntlet before Smashspite can be rough, and I found it much easier to first kill the initial two Felspite Dominator, as the tank was melting when trying to pull all of them into the boss room, but that might be more coordination required. the Sic Bats! cast is an absolute menace however, and is pretty much a death sentence if you do not run away or control the bats the instant you are targeted.
• In Darkheart Thicket, to the surprise of no one, the cats, bats and dryads were rough. I have found the cats to be the worst of all, their leap does so much damage, and having 2/3 big Grievous Rip at the same time is always something. Do not do this dungeon without a poison dispel in the group by the way. Nightmare Toxin and Poison Spear both need to be dispelled quick.
• DOTI: Galakrond's Fall was just a mental test. The Timeways room is horrendous but the timer is so lenient that you can afford a few deaths here, but it certainly feels like the key is over sometimes! I think there is a bug with the small Intervals too. Chronoburst activates them, and their melee hit hard, but sometimes they are not targetable, and will rampage on your group. Have you seen that too? The Risen Dragon were also the first defensives coordination check for me, they did an incredible amount of damage. At least it is very regular, so a pure throughput check.
• DOTI: Murozond's Rise was okay really, the Time-Lost Battlefield encounter was a big surprise to me. The adds in particular do a ton of damage, and both the Axe Thrower/Archer and Warlock/Mage should be controlled and killed really really quick as just a few casts off can snow-ball into a wipe. Also, and that's really sad on the design side, but having more than 2 ranged for Chrono-Lord Deios makes the Infinity Nova mechanic really bad, since you cannot really assign a single person to handle them.
• The Everbloom was okay although the Berzerkers are a living nightmare for ranged. The good point is that the entrance respawn is not far.. All bosses but the first are pretty impressive in damage output however.
• Throne of the Tides had some expected pain points (Crushing Depths, Vicious Snap Dragon, the gauntlet, Ozumat) and some less expected, aka Erunak Stonespeaker who is a tank killer. This totem needs to die very very fast :D
• Waycrest felt overall balanced, with some mechanics and control checks however.

What to expect next week?

Tyrannical, Entangling, Bursting.

The first tyrannical week is always a great time for us healers, and usually there are a few days of suffering before some tuning happens. Coupled with Bursting (and the nerfs to Mass Dispel, and the nerfs to almost all AOE healing options, and mana changes), this should be an absolute great time. Expect the rest of the group to massacre the trash packs and be absolutely upset that you just cannot keep up the rhythm.

I don't expect Bursting to be that much harder, but I do expect it to be one or two notches more annoying than usual, as all counterplays seem to have been nerfed.

When it comes to the tyrannical side of the story, well I don't know about you, but the bosses already felt like the tough checks last week, so it should only get better ^^ Here are the fights I am not too serene about:

• Vol'kaal. a missed interrupt will really hurt next week. even 3 ticks will be a mess to heal.
• Smashspite might really scale into a disaster. Remember that the most important is to top off people before Earthshaking Stomp.
• Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest will also be hard with the additional HP, as it is an encounter that keeps getting harder in general.
• Manifested Timeways is one of my biggest worry (maybe because I play disc as my main). The healing and movement requirement is very high, definitely a lust timer next week? I am not entirely sure yet how it is best handled.
• Blight of Galakrond Corrosion worries me, the damage this week was already really high. Do not hesitate and instantly use a defensive when it is on you, and try to pass the memo to your DPS! You should also pass it to the tank quickly, but 3 ticks (if not 2 at higher levels) will take you down without anything on.
• Starting with the actually infinite fight versus Tyr, Murozond's rise will probably be a mess next week. Time-Lost Battlefield will take some superb control of the adds to be ok. Chrono-Lord Deios has so many hard healing checks that I am not sure where to start. You will need your team to help you out with the movement timings in particular.
• In the Everbloom, I think that once the Ancient Protectors and Archmage Sol mechanics are under control, the one boss that can really get tricky with key levels is Yalnu. We know from the Vortex Pinnacle experience how a scaling health pulsing AOE add can just scale into absurdity. Hopefully, your group will get back to their reflexes of coordinating cooldowns to burst them down! If you are lucky to have looted Iridal, think of using it!
• I think that Mindbender Ghur'sha will be one of the biggest problems. The amount of spot damage during the 1st phase is just really really high. The absence of one single big damage event makes it misleading, but do rotate your cooldowns from the start of the fight to stay ahead of the damage! Ozumat will not be fun, but that's not really news, is it?

What do you all think? Do you also expect to be challenged next week? Don't hesitate to join the discord to chat more about it all :D