New datamining for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has shown what could be the next new affix for Mythic+ dungeons. This new affix is particularly punishing and fits in with the theme, but it’s important to remember that it’s pure speculation and hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The affix in question is titled Prideful, and is one of many that affects non-boss enemies and trash mobs in general. While fighting enemies, players will gain stacks of Pride, which can stack into some pretty serious consequences.
These stacks can eventually form a Manifestation of Pride, another mob for players to need to contend with. While the power of this mob hasn’t been confirmed, it seems to be similar to the recent Reaping affix that players had to battle.
However, there’s also a perk to collecting stacks of Pride, as they can also help you do a considerable amount more damage – which, of course, contributes to killing more trash mobs and collecting more stacks of Pride in the process.
[embed]https://twitter.com/Wowhead/status/1290126161872207872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/embed]One of the effects causes the target to have their health increased by 100% and their damage by 25% per stack of Pride. Upon death, these stacks will inflict 100% of max health as shadow damage, split equally amongst all enemies within 8 yards.
Obviously, this is incredibly powerful, but the target of the effect seems unclear so far. Presumably, it will be given to the Manifestation of Pride that players can summon, causing players to need to strategically plan out their fight against mobs.
Moreso than even the trash mobs, walking into a boss fight with enough stacks of pride to trigger a Manifestation would undoubtedly be problematic. Fighting a boss only to be chunked away by the explosion of Pride stacks being expelled could be catastrophic for certain.
One other interesting application of this affix will undoubtedly be on the professional scene, such as the Mythic Dungeon Invitational. Given how many plays we saw of the teams pulling massive amounts of trash at once, constantly stacking Pride could be horribly difficult.
Although, we also don’t know how intense these stacks will be, how many are needed to summon a Manifestation, or how long they’ll last. Perhaps, like Bursting, they’ll only last a few seconds before fading!
There’s also, of course, the possibility that this isn’t a new Mythic+ affix at all, and is some sort of an isolated ability being datamined. Given that this is datamining, and datamining for a still-changing beta at that, there’s no guarantee this Prideful mechanic will appear at all!
As the release of the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands prepatch approaches, we’ll likely see more finalization of the title and what we can expect. With so many new abilities, features, and challenges coming, there always seems to be something new to read into.