We’ve been paying close attention to the discussion around the Midnight Season 2 dungeon pool. Some of that discussion has focused on returning dungeons with pain points from past seasons, and some has focused on the unique mechanics in the Midnight dungeons. That feedback is useful, and it lines up with the work we do internally when building a season. We want to take this opportunity to share more about how we choose dungeons, how we update them for Mythic+, and what we’ve already done for Midnight Season 2.

Choosing Dungeons

When we begin choosing dungeons for a Mythic+ season, the first thing we look at is which dungeons might fit the theme of the upcoming update. Sometimes that means reconnecting players with a story, character, or place that is relevant to the game’s current story. With L’ura threatening the Sunwell in March on Quel’danas, it was a great time to bring that character back and show the start of her relationship with Alleria in Seat of the Triumvirate. Other times, it is more about shared themes, like the connection between trolls, snakes, and the Curse of Ul’atek. Not every dungeon needs to point at the same story or tone, though. A dungeon like Ruby Life Pools can help the pool feel more varied by giving players a change of pace from the patch’s main themes, as can a dungeon like Skyreach from Midnight Season 1.

From there, we think about the shape of the full pool. Each dungeon should bring something distinct, whether that is its theme, layout, pacing, visual style, or mechanical identity. We want the season to feel varied from key to key, with a strong mix of different places, different problems to solve, and different reasons to be excited about each dungeon in the pool.

Updating Dungeons

Selecting a dungeon for a new season is a big commitment. We need to believe that the dungeon can contribute to the goals of the season, but we also must commit to addressing aspects of the dungeon that didn’t play out well last time it was featured in a Mythic+ season.

Once we know a dungeon is returning, we look at it from a few angles: feedback from its previous appearance, our own experiences playing the live game, our internal playtests, and early discussion during the current expansion beta.

Some older dungeons give us more of a blank canvas. In those cases, our goal is to capture the essence and themes of the dungeon without players feeling like it has become something entirely different. Pit of Saron is a good example from Midnight Season 1. We rebuilt it from the ground up while keeping its core themes, spaces, and mechanics in mind, so it still felt like Pit of Saron.

Every dungeon gets a full creature review. We look at health, damage, ability packages, cast frequency, enemy placement, and how each pull contributes to the dungeon as a whole. The goal is not for every creature to feel the same, but for the dungeon to have a balanced mix of challenges within itself and alongside the rest of the season.

We also look closely at how those challenges are distributed. A mechanic can be appropriate on its own but become frustrating if too many similar asks are packed into the same section of a dungeon. The density of interruptible spells is a good example of something we watched closely in Midnight Season 1, and it is the kind of thing we’ll continue to evaluate when building a new pool.