WoW Progression: Raids, Delves, Mythic+ and the Great Vault

Everyone has a first-wipe story, and it is never flattering. Forty minutes in, eight bosses still standing, and a few raiders happily soaking up a puddle the tank had pointed at twice. Funny now, painful then. If you’ve never stepped into a raid, it probably looks like noise.

Underneath, the rules are short. Raids come in four difficulties, but they are only one corner of the week: Delves, dungeons and Mythic+ keys feed the same gear track and the same weekly chest. Plenty of groups work their way up alone, others get a hand from Midnight boosting, and either way the ladder works the same. Midnight Season 2 serves as the example below.

Four Difficulties, One Raid

Every raid ships in four versions: Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic and Mythic. You face the same bosses in every one of them, in the same arena. What changes is how hard the fights hit and what they hand over afterwards. The reward ladder looks like this:

A boss pays 10 crests per kill whatever the difficulty, and the later fights of a tier can drop the next crest up, so the table shows a starting point and not a ceiling.

Think of it as climbing stairs, not picking from a menu. Raid Finder sits at the bottom: you don’t need a guild or a free evening, just a queue and one look at each fight. By Heroic the group has to talk to each other. And on Mythic, one person looking at their phone at the wrong second can end the night.

This is also the stretch where a WoW carry tends to come up in conversation, because the best loot of the raid sits on the top steps.

Raids are one source among several. The same crest tiers also come from Delves, dungeons and Mythic+ keys. Icy Veins’ gear upgrading guide lays out the whole ladder:

One Chest, Many Activities

The Great Vault is where the whole week gets added up. It has nine places in three rows, and each row listens to different content, as Icy Veins’ Great Vault guide lays out:

The quality of the reward follows the best result in each row. In the Dungeon row, Mythic+ keys decide it: lower keys already reach Hero gear, and a +10 or higher pays Myth. A week doesn’t need all nine places. Nobody has to see every boss in a single sitting, and even a WoW booster running a group tends to plan the same way, with a set number of runs per session and no attempt at a marathon.

Where the Loot Goes: Crests and the Great Vault

Loot is only half of the picture. The Great Vault turns a week of mixed activity into one reward, and crests turn that reward into upgrades. Its item level follows the best result in each row, so a handful of Heroic kills beats a pile of Raid Finder ones, and a few good Delves can beat a weak raid week. That is why many groups treat the Vault, and not a single boss, as the weekly target.

Crests are the second currency. Gear is upgraded with crests of its own track, running Veteran, Champion, Hero and Myth, and a week at the right difficulty covers the next upgrade almost by itself. Short on evenings? Some players use WoW boosting services to bank a few of those crests, and the free hours go to fights worth learning.

Every class also gets a tier set each season. It comes from raiding, from the Vault, or from converting other endgame pieces at the Catalyst, and wearing several pieces turns on a set bonus.

Fitting Raids Around a Real Week

Try gathering ten people for three hours on a Tuesday. Somebody has a late shift, somebody has an exam in the morning, and a parent has to be home by nine. The tank cancels at six, the healer logs in twenty minutes late, and the pull never happens.

A lot of groups solve this the old way: one fixed raid night, and everyone knows it is untouchable. Others, in a week when half the roster is missing, look at a WoW boost so the night isn’t lost. Neither choice is wrong. It only helps to be honest about what each one gives. A run like that won’t teach the fights, and a regular guild night doesn’t have to be perfect to be worth showing up for.

Getting Ready Before the First Pull

Preparation wins more raids than reflexes do. Even a player lined up for a Midnight boost has an easier time when the fights aren’t a surprise, because every mechanic is simpler to follow the second time it appears.

A short list for the hour before the pull:

• Read the boss guide once and watch one kill.
• Agree who handles which mechanic.
• Upgrade the weakest piece first, since weapons, trinkets and rings give the biggest jumps.
• Bring the consumables the group expects.
• Keep notes on what killed the team last time.

Delves: The Solo Route to the Same Chest

Delves need no roster, which is their whole charm. A player goes in alone or with a small party, picks a tier and walks out with loot, and the evening still counts toward the World row of the Vault. Bountiful Delves ask for a Restored Coffer Key, so those runs are worth planning and not spamming.

Time is the usual limit here, not skill. Someone with one free evening and a long to-do list sometimes hands part of it to WoW carries and keeps the Delves they enjoy for themselves. The remaining evenings can go to whatever fits, maybe a Delve after work, and a glance at the chest before the weekend.

Mythic+: Keys, Timers and the Weekly Climb

A Mythic+ key is a Mythic dungeon with a timer and a level. Every level makes the enemies tougher, and every finished key feeds the Dungeon row of the Vault. Season 2 rotates through a pool of eight dungeons, so a group that learns a few of them well gets further than one that hops between all eight.

Nothing flashy here. Take the key you can already time, add one level, and keep the same group on the same dungeon until everybody knows where the pulls go. A finished lower key is worth more than a broken higher one. When the group is short a tank on the night the key was planned, some players look at a WoW boost service instead of cancelling, and the weekly climb stays alive.

When to Step Up a Difficulty

How do you know the next step is near? A few signs:

• Bosses die within a handful of pulls.
• Nobody dies to the same mechanic twice.
• The roster fills without begging.
• Gear already matches what the next difficulty drops.

When most of these hold for two weeks running, the move becomes realistic. A World of Warcraft carry can open the Heroic door a little earlier for those who don’t want to wait, though the goal isn’t to skip the learning.

A Mixed Week, Start to Finish

Take a normal week with a few evenings to spare. It can run like this:

1. Open the Vault on Monday and see which of the nine places are still empty.
2. Do the weekly Delves first, since they need nobody else.
3. Fit in a handful of dungeons, or a single key, to fill the Dungeon row.
4. Take the raid bosses the group can clear and write down one fix per wipe.
5. Put crests into gear that is staying in the bags for a while.
6. Take the Vault pick, choose the strongest reward and jot down what the week left unfinished.

Achievements make a handy side checklist, because each activity carries its own and they show what has not been tried yet. Raiding teaches patience, usually the hard way, and anyone who has watched a Mythic boss sit at one percent for an hour knows it. What helps is a routine that doesn’t depend on one lucky night. Even a player who orders a WoW Midnight boost gets more out of it with this routine, because crests only matter when they go into the right pieces.