Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound is this week's Mythic+ affix. These Void Emissaries spawn every so often in Mythic+ keys, causing mobs to take reduced damage. Unless you deal with this affix, mobs won't die, and keys are sure to be overtimed. Here's a concise guide explaining the Voidbound affix and best strategies in keys:
Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound is one of the four new affixes in The War Within. Every 75 seconds, Xal'atath will summon a Void Emissary with a large shield equivalent to the average health of a mob for that key level. In a level 10 mythic keystone, the Voidbound Emissary will have 14.1 million health.
Unfortunately, the Voidbound affix also has some additional rules that players have to be aware of:
The Void Emissary has an aggro table and must be picked up by the tank
The Void Emissary must be directly targeted. It can't be cleaved down
The Void Emissary reduces enemy mobs' damage by taken by 10% every 3 seconds that it's alive
The Void Emissary often spawns at the end of combat or in between packs in M+
The Void Emissary's shield cannot be AOE purged
When the Void Emissary dies, enemies receive the Blessing from Beyond, increasing cooldown reduction by 20% and healing taken by 10% for 20 seconds
One of the first things player will notice in keys is that the Void Emissaries aren't static ghosts like the Incorporeal affix from Dragonflight. Void Emissaries have an aggro table and must be picked up by a tank. Although the mobs don't melee, DPS or healers who aggro the emissary can run away with them and prevent them from being defeated.
Additionally, Void Emissaries need to be directly targeted in order to do damage. They won't automatically start taking cleave damage when it spawns in a pack. Since Void Emissaries continually reduce the damage mobs take, there's no point cleaving when the mob is active. Players should directly target the Void Emissary and do single target damage to defeat the mob as soon as possible.
The Void Emissaries spawn every 75 seconds, and it must be defeated for it to go away. In Dragonflight, when incorporeal spawned, they would despawn if the group was close enough to being out of combat. Unfortunately, the Voidbound affix doesn't work the same way. Once the mob spawns, it must be defeated. Maybe Blizzard will rework the affix in the future.
Void Emissaries spawn with a health pool equivalent to regular mobs in the dungeon, meaning emissaries will spawn with 14.1 million health in a +10 key. Blizzard tried to buff their health by 133% this week, but later reverted the change.
Certain classes have extra utility when it comes to the Voidbound affix. Blood Death Knights can save stacks of Exterminate to quickly defeat the mobs. Windwalker Monks can spam Touch of Death on emissaries, making easy work of them.
The new Voidbound affix is already making keys take longer. It feels like the affix is always spawning at the end of a pack or in between them, adding another minute or more of combat each time it spawns. To minimize how long the emissary stays active, tanks should quickly pick up aggro and all the DPS should hard swap, dealing single target damage until the mob is defeated.
You may also be interested in these World of Warcraft: The War Within articles:
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