WoW 12.1.5 Mythic+ Dungeon Difficulty Tier List

The short version of the WoW 12.1.5 Mythic+ tier list: Altar of Fangs is still the hardest key in the pool, The Blinding Vale and Kings’ Rest sit right behind it, and Murder Row is still the dungeon you time while half asleep. Patch 12.1.5 ships on October 13 with zero dungeon tuning in its notes, so the order you have been suffering through since August walks into the patch untouched.

This ranking is accurate as of October 4, 2026, and covers Season 2 keys from +10 to +15, where both weekly modifiers stack and deaths start costing real time from +12. S means the most pain, D means the least. It is built from Raider.IO timed rates through September 21, the Icy Veins opening week verdicts from +13 and +14 keys, and every Blizzard hotfix since Season 2 opened on August 18.

The Ranking at a Glance

Eight Midnight Season 2 Mythic+ dungeons, five from Midnight and three dragged out of storage. One per tier would be tidy. Reality is not tidy.

Tier	Dungeon	Timer	Timed rate, Sep 21	Verdict
S	Altar of Fangs	30 min	89.37%	Every boss is a healer exam.
A	The Blinding Vale	30 min	89.09%	Lowest timed rate in the pool, bleeds and poisons everywhere.
A	Kings’ Rest	33 min	92.86%	The worst tank dungeon in years, comfortable for everyone else.
B	Ruby Life Pools	28 min	89.21%	Short, but the timer forgives nothing.
B	Den of Nalorakk	32 min	89.94%	Simple trash, bleeding birds, one wall check.
C	Temple of Sethraliss	32 min	92.23%	Two hard bosses, then a free walk.
C	Voidscar Arena	30 min	91.50%	A route check pretending to be a dungeon.
D	Murder Row	34 min	93.61%	Roleplay with occasional combat.

Dungeon	Origin	Bosses in order
Altar of Fangs	Midnight, The Coiled Isle	Rav’i, The Writhing Coil, Zul’jan
The Blinding Vale	Midnight, Harandar	Lightblossom Trinity, Ikuzz the Light Hunter, Lightwarden Ruia, Ziekket
Kings’ Rest	Battle for Azeroth	The Golden Serpent, Mchimba the Embalmer, The Council of Tribes, King Dazar
Ruby Life Pools	Dragonflight	Melidrussa Chillworn, Kokia Blazehoof, Kyrakka and Erkhart Stormvein
Den of Nalorakk	Midnight, Zul’Aman	The Hoardmonger, Sentinel of Winter, Nalorakk
Temple of Sethraliss	Battle for Azeroth	Adderis and Aspix, Merektha, Galvazzt, Avatar of Sethraliss
Voidscar Arena	Midnight, Voidstorm	Taz’Rah, Atroxus, Charonus
Murder Row	Midnight, Silvermoon City	Kystia Manaheart, Zaen Bladesorrow, Xathuux the Annihilator, Lithiel Cinderfury

S Tier: Altar of Fangs

The only new dungeon of 12.1 is also the hardest Mythic+ dungeon in Midnight Season 2, and it is not close. On launch day only 78.38% of runs were timed against an 89.22% average, with a 21.15% wipe rate on Rav’i and 14.81% on Zul’jan.

• Rav’i is a knowledge check where Hydrastrike flattens tanks and a missed carrion pile turns into Feeding Frenzy.
• The Writhing Coil demands an interrupt on every Toxic Atrophy cast in a chain of three, and nobody gets to skip a kick.
• Zul’jan runs Ritual of the Fang beam soaks whose venom explodes after 50 seconds unless physical hits clear the stacks.
• Trash before the first boss drops pulsing totems with healing absorbs, so the healer starts tired.
• Ula’tek’s Chosen and High Evolutionist cast Mass Envenom, which must be stopped every single time.

The August 21 hotfix cut Hydrastrike by 33%, slowed Ritual of the Fang to a 5 second cast, halved the opening hit of Paralyzing Shots and halved the attack speed each Ravenous stack grants. The timed rate jumped almost 9 points and still sits third from the bottom. Nerfed, yes. Fixed, no.

A Tier: The Blinding Vale and Kings’ Rest

The Blinding Vale holds the lowest timed rate in the season as of September 21. The first boss wants the whole group in every Lightblossom Beam soak, Underbrush Stalkers stack bleeds, and the Potatoad Matriarch adds poison. The August 25 hotfix raised required enemy forces from 655 to 686 while doubling the Matriarch’s value, which sounds generous until you count the extra pulls.

Kings’ Rest is the strange one. Raider.IO says groups time it 92.86% of the time. Tanks say otherwise. King Dazar pairs Blade Combo hits with constant movement and a Gilded Destruction that eats healer cooldowns, and the scaling at higher keys gets ugly fast. It stays in A because this list covers the keys where tanks quit, not the keys where everyone carries.

B Tier: Ruby Life Pools and Den of Nalorakk

Ruby Life Pools is the shortest dungeon of the season and the one with the least room for error. Its 28 minute timer started at 92.86% timed on day one and sank to 89.21% by week four. Erkhart Stormvein keeps stacking Stormslam on the tank, which needs a magic dispel, and Flamegullet enrages need a Soothe or a Tranquilizing Shot.

Den of Nalorakk is easy trash with two exceptions. The birds before the first boss stack bleeds, and Nalorakk expects the group to form a wall during Fury of the War God. Miss either and a comfortable key becomes a deplete.

C Tier: Temple of Sethraliss and Voidscar Arena

Temple of Sethraliss front loads all of its difficulty. Merektha and her Burrow are lethal on higher keys, and Galvazzt punishes anyone who skips a Lightning Spire soak. After that, Avatar of Sethraliss dies in about two minutes at +13. Survive the first half and the rest is a walk.

Voidscar Arena is a route check. Before the first boss the right hallway is easy, after it the left side is. Get it backwards and you wipe on trash that should not exist. The real late threat is the Devouring Brutalizer, which has to die before its Devour cast finishes. Charonus adds Gravitic Orbs that fixate DPS, and freedom effects help.

D Tier: Murder Row

The easiest dungeon to time in 12.1.5 is Murder Row, at 93.61% and climbing since week one. It is also the most played key in the pool, mostly because it is the least work. The worst it offers is the giant golems after Xathuux the Annihilator with their heavy AoE, plus Zaen Bladesorrow and Murder in a Row, where you hide behind barrels. The rest is roleplay. A lot of roleplay.

What Moved Since 12.1 Launched

• The August 21 hotfix nerfed Altar of Fangs across the board and moved it from outlier to merely bad.
• The August 25 hotfix removed a High Evolutionist from Altar of Fangs and two Earthwhisper Tenders from Den of Nalorakk.
• The same hotfix made Lithiel Cinderfury target 4 players instead of 5 with Fingers of Gul’dan in Murder Row.
• Kings’ Rest gave the Shadow of Zul mini boss longer cooldowns and marked its mummies as elites.
• Ruby Life Pools swapped a Chillweaver near Draghar for a weaker Deepstone Earthshaper.
• September brought bug fixes only, so the ranking froze in place for a month.

What 12.1.5 Is Expected to Move

Anyone hoping for The Promise of Tomorrow Mythic+ overhaul gets a bug fix. The only dungeon line in the patch notes stops Zaen Bladesorrow from assigning the safe spot to the wrong barrel. Everything else in the patch belongs to Kith’ix, the Labyrinth and the Aqir Invasion.

No dungeon tuning appears in the 12.1.5 patch notes. Blizzard only promised targeted adjustments for difficulty outliers when Keystone Myth returns, without numbers or dates. Our bet: Altar of Fangs and The Blinding Vale are first in line, and this ranking will likely shift after the October 13 reset.

If 12.1.5 dungeon tuning arrives, it will land as a hotfix. Watch the first two weeks after the patch. That is when Blizzard usually acts on the bottom of the timed rate table.

The Gap Between Tiers

At launch the gap was a canyon. Altar of Fangs sat more than 10 points below the season average. By September 21 all eight dungeons fit inside 4.52 points, from 89.09% for The Blinding Vale to 93.61% for Murder Row. S is no longer a separate category. It is the top of a tuning range one hotfix could reshuffle.

Snapshot	Hardest	Easiest	Spread
First 24 hours	Altar of Fangs, 78.38%	Ruby Life Pools, 92.86%	14.48 points
Week 2, Sep 7	Den of Nalorakk, 85.30%	Murder Row, 91.45%	6.15 points
Week 4, Sep 21	The Blinding Vale, 89.09%	Murder Row, 93.61%	4.52 points

Affixes That Change the Ranking

The Midnight Season 2 M+ affixes stack on top of all this. Lindormi’s Guidance runs from +2 to +4 and removes the death penalty. One Bargain rotates weekly from +5. Fortified and Tyrannical alternate from +7 and both apply from +10. Xal’atath’s Guile at +12 removes the Bargain and takes 15 seconds from the timer per death.

Affix	What it punishes	Worst dungeon for it
Xal’atath’s Bargain: Ascendant	Groups without stops for the orbs	Altar of Fangs, already stretched on interrupts
Xal’atath’s Bargain: Voidbound	Groups that skip kicks on Dark Prayer	Kings’ Rest, where Hexers already eat every kick
Xal’atath’s Bargain: Devour	Groups relying on the healer alone to dispel	Ruby Life Pools, short timer and magic debuffs already
Xal’atath’s Bargain: Pulsar	Groups that refuse to stack	Voidscar Arena, where movement already decides runs

Devour deserves a warning. Healer dispels only cover two of the five shields, so every class and racial dispel in the group has to work. Tyrannical weeks make Kings’ Rest and Altar of Fangs worse, Fortified weeks make The Blinding Vale and Voidscar Arena worse.

What to Bring Without Rerolling

Nobody needs a new main. You need to know which button you already have and where it matters.

• Enrage removal like Soothe or Tranquilizing Shot handles Ravenous Descendants in Altar of Fangs, Shadow-Borne Champions in Kings’ Rest and Territorial Matriarchs in Den of Nalorakk.
• Bleed removal pays off in The Blinding Vale, Den of Nalorakk and Kings’ Rest more than anywhere else.
• Poison dispels belong in Altar of Fangs, The Blinding Vale and Voidscar Arena.
• Curse dispels clear Curse of Doom in Murder Row and Hex in Kings’ Rest.
• A disease dispel matters exactly once, when Rav’i’s Regurgitate hits someone.
• Freedom effects carry Charonus and the Twinfang Harrowers in Altar of Fangs.
• Stops and stuns matter most on Ascendant weeks and on the Uncoiled Writhes during The Writhing Coil.

Looks Bad on Paper, Fine in Practice

Kings’ Rest and Temple of Sethraliss read like nightmares in any guide and still post timed rates above 92%. Kings’ Rest hurts the tank, not the group. Temple hurts for two bosses and then forgives everything.

The reverse is worse. Ruby Life Pools gets called the easiest dungeon of the season and yet sits second from the bottom in timed rate. Den of Nalorakk looks like a weekly clear and quietly underperforms Voidscar Arena. Short dungeons do not mean forgiving dungeons.

Rewards Worth the Suffering

Most patch 12.1.5 Mythic+ changes live in the loot, not the dungeons. Ascendant Venomstones drop from +10 keys and above. Ten of them push a fully upgraded Hero, Myth or top quality crafted weapon, trinket or necklace past its current ceiling. Research completes and the crest cap lifts the week of October 20.

Ascendant Venomstone farming also works through Heroic and Mythic raid bosses, Tier 11 Bountiful Delves and Nightmare Prey Hunt champion chests. Keys stay the most repeatable source, which is why the dungeon ranking above still matters.

The Keystone Myth Season 2 rating requirement is 3600, up from 3400 last season. Midnight Keystone Myth: Season 2 awards the Venomous Contender title and the Timelost Saddle. Midnight Keystone Master: Season 2 still asks for 2000 and stays the realistic goal for most players.

Where This Ranking Comes From

• Raider.IO timed rates through September 21 count every key level, so low keys inflate the easy dungeons.
• The Icy Veins tier list from August 23 reflects +13 and +14 keys before the Altar of Fangs nerfs landed.
• Blizzard hotfix notes confirm what changed, not how much it mattered.
• No reliable per dungeon data newer than September 21 exists as of October 4, 2026.

Use the tiers for planning, not for arguing in group finder. A group that kicks and dispels will time the S tier. A group that does not will deplete Murder Row.