Season 4 Guide

The season 4 of World of Warcraft Dragonflight is about to start! It includes all 8 initial Dragonflight dungeons (understand no DOTI). With the return of all 3 raids, it also means a big item pool to choose from.

Dungeon Pool

The new dungeon pool includes all the 8 dungeons that came with the expansion release. This should be a more balanced dungeon pool when it comes to the difficulty of the dungeons. There were several rounds of nerfs and changes that will be discussed upon in the dungeon guides. Overall, they go in the direction of fun to play, so that's great news. Dragonflight dungeons stay more complicated than previous expansions still, and there are quite a few mechanics in the encounters. Coordinating AOE CC will be very valuable to handle pulls, that may be quite bigger this time around.

I think it is safe to say that the key mechanic for this dungeon pool is Bleed. It is as if the first class able to dispel them was added in this expansion. Evokers, this is your time to shine.

Finally, 1-shot should not be the biggest problem this season as keys progress, but you should really expect to have more throughput challenges, as in longer stretches of healing, with many mechanics spawning over more than 8-10 seconds. There are some very challenging encounters to heal, and Tyranical weeks will still be where you find the biggest hurdles. Vexamus, Magmatusk, Forgemaster Gorek, Khajin the Unyielding, Sentinel Talondras and more are all back in shape, but now you have a Key & Heal guide to help you out!

Trinkets

This should be a good season for trinkets. Consider this: all 3 Dragonflight Raids, and all their trinkets available at a vendor at a rate that looks to be 1 per week. And of course, all the dungeon trinkets.

Let's take a look at them! For convenience, we will skip the trinkets that have no chance to see play in Mythic +. Should I be wrong, I'll add them later :)

Stat Sticks

Stat sticks are passive trinkets that will give you some extra stats. They are generally strong, and do not change your gameplay, which makes them easy to use. I would wait a little bit to see which ones are stronger for your spec before buying them, since there are so many good options. The class discords will probably evaluate which are the best numerically, which is almost all that matters with these. I would personally give an edge to Broodkeeper's Promise and Rashok's Molten Heart as versatility is extra valuable in key.

Broodkeeper's Promise - Vault

An extraordinary trinket in season 1. It provides you and someone else with tons of versatility, which is really valuable in keys for both damage and survival. It seems that it is less impressive this time around, definitely a solid placeholder while you wait for stronger trinkets!

Whispering Incarnate Icon - Vault and Ominous Chromatic Essence - Aberrus

Simple and strong. Which one is best depends on what is picked in your group. If you play with a team, make sure you talk about it, if not, I would probably default to OCE as it is more flexible, and the tank is unlikely to want to play any of these two?

Screaming Black Dragonscale - Aberrus

A great source of critical strike, which some specs (hello resto shaman) really like more than others, so it could be a spec-specific choice.

Rashok's Molten Heart - Aberrus

The return of the king. It will be in competition with the promise, for a good source of extra versatility. The mana has been reduced, but that was never the reason to pick it up for M+. It could gain value as keys go up.

Pip's - Amirdrassil

Similar in its simplicity to the Icon or the Chromatic Essence. It seems to be less strong however. A good placeholder if you just happen to loot it.

Survival

I include here all trinkets that give you an extra button (off the GCD) to save someone, by providing some sort of external (or personal) cooldown. These are generally poor in raid, but strong in M+. You have a lower pool of player, which makes the single target healing more important, and scaling damage means your kit may eventually need some extra tools.

Miniature Singing Stone - The Nokuhd Offensive

It is an okay trinket, that can be versatile in its usage. You can use it on the tank to create a (small) shield on the whole group, or just use it as an external on a non-tank. It will suffer from the competition.

Ward of Faceless Ire - Aberrus

If you liked Leaf last season, you will love the ward. The secondary effect is different (damage in this case) but the shield is great. And it gives you intellect as the base stat. This is a very good prog trinket, probably the most important for healing m+ this season.

Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart - Amirdrassil

A tanking trinket. But it is so good at providing yourself an extra defensive button that everybody has used it by the end of season 3. Since it is also versatility-based, it still provides somewhat useful stat. This is not a weekly key trinket, but rather a solution if you start being in trouble to survive in the highest keys.

Damage

Iceblood Deathsnare - Vault

It was a good damage trinket in season 1. It is still good at stacked cleave situations.

Beacon to the Beyond - Aberrus

Beacon is of course a powerhouse, but it does not reach the heights of the next trinket it appears.

Belor'relos, the Sun Caller - Amirdrassil

Probably one of the best damage trinkets. it will find value in every "totem" mechanic.

Augury of the Primal Flame - Amirdrassil

It is slightly RNG, but it can do a lot of damage in AOE. Some specs make better use of it than others.

Tome of Unstable Power - The Azure Vault

This does ungodly amount of damage right now. If you can get one, that's probably the strongest overall damage option. It cannot be controlled however, which is not the best. Healers damage is especially valuable when it adds to specific target. But it looks good on details, if you like that, go for it :)

Cantrips

Cantrips are all items other than trinkets that have an effect. And there are plenty with the loot from all three raids available.

Seal of Diurna's Chosen - ring - Vault

This will give you some extra flat damage if you can find sources of Fire Damage (more on that later), which is always very valuable as a healer.

Seal of Filial Duty - ring - Vault

Unsure that this ring will be as valuable, it could give you some extra survival, if you need it. I do not believe it is worth chasing from the start, unless the stats also work very well for you.

Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle - weapon - Amirdrassil

Since Iridal, the Earth's Master will not be accessible on Myth Track, we are looking for a replacement. Dreambinder is an active ability that can do some good damage on a pack as well as providing some control.

Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno - weapon - Amirdrassil

This is the other contender to replace Iridal. It is passive, which makes it simpler to wield, and more than anything, it has synergy with Seal of Diurna's Chosen as the damage is Fire! So that makes it the best combo easily this tiers!

Please, never wear Voice of the Silent Star and never let anyone do that in your groups. The lost stamina is just horrible in progression keys.