Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive World of Warcraft. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’ve been bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, we look at going fast in Mythic Plus dungeons.

The shroud has dropped. You and four teammates are hugging walls, liberally using crowd-control abilities, and popping cooldowns like your virtual lives depend on it—because they do.

Mythic Plus dungeons include a fixed timer. The challenge comes in by dialing up the speed and damage to complete in time, with the addition of Affixes to make it even more challenging the higher the key.

This challenge is increased at the professional level, where it's not just about making the key in time—it’s about having a cleaner, faster run than your opponent. “Your characters are very slow; you can’t always be on a mount to round things up, and when you’re on a mount you can’t use abilities,” said Aaron “Sours” Shaffer, 2017 Mythic Dungeon Invitational (MDI) participant and current MDI caster. “Having stuff like Skystep [or Lightfoot] Potion to be able to use all of your class utility and defenses to stay alive while you gather a large number of mobs is very important for going fast.”

Holy what a game one, this is so good #MDIAllStars pic.twitter.com/5k46uV2LAo

— Aaron Shaffer (@ClassicSours) November 3, 2018

Any of the haste-increasing buffs—Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp/Ancient Hysteria, or the slightly less-effective Drums—are powerful cooldowns that teams plan Mythic Plus routes around. Planning around the 10-minute debuff from using one of these abilities is a key focal point, especially in dungeons like Freehold, where boss order can be mixed. On a Tyrannical week, that 30% haste buff can help squash the tremendous amount of risk involved in defeating a boss before their abilities become lethal, or around the necessary large pulls that help usher a team to victory within the timer.

Consumables often help tip the scales in your favor. As players, we've had the importance of consumables hammered into us for raiding since Onyxia took her first deep breath. Invisibility potions are instrumental, allowing your group to use skips to save time by avoiding unnecessary extra trash pulls, especially if there isn't a Rogue in the group to use Shroud of Concealment. Movement potions are often undervalued, but don't forget these utility potions have a 10-minute cooldown, so it's important to plan ahead when more than one of them needs to be used over the course of a dungeon.

All the preparation in the world will only get you so far. The next level is implementation. Practice as much as you can to really cement everything else as second nature. That way, you can focus on being cognizant of your surroundings, such as where the boss is facing. Strive to gain knowledge about your fellow players and classes so you can perform to the best of your ability together.

For more Endgame Moves, check out our previous story in the series—Lessons from Arena in 2018—and tune in tomorrow as we give you some pro tips for closing out a game of Arena.