A +24 Maisara Caverns has been timed in Midnight Season 1, and the really spicy part is that it happened before Blizzard removed Crest caps. In other words, this was not a fully unleashed, post-cap-removal, everyone-has-maxed-everything kind of run.
This was done while players were still operating under gearing limits.
That raises a very awkward question: is Midnight Mythic+ too soft, or are the best players simply operating in a different species bracket?
Maisara Caverns Just Became the New Benchmark
According to Icy Veins’ report on the run, players timed a +24 Maisara Caverns before the uncapped Crests hotfix went live. That makes the achievement even more impressive, because the group did it before the late-season upgrade floodgates were fully opened.
Maisara Caverns has already been one of the more watched dungeons in Midnight Season 1, partly because of how routes, timers, and trash efficiency have evolved over the season. Wowhead’s Maisara Caverns overview lays out the dungeon’s place in the current Mythic+ rotation, and high-end groups have clearly been squeezing every second out of it.
That is what top players do. Give them a timer, a dungeon, and a few weeks of practice, and eventually someone will turn the whole place into a choreographed workplace accident.
The Crest Cap Detail Matters
The timing matters because Crest caps were still active when the +24 happened.
Blizzard has since removed the cap on upgrade Crests, which we covered recently when WoW opened up the late-season upgrade grind. That means players can now push gear upgrades much harder than before.
So if a +24 was already possible before that change, the obvious follow-up question is: where does the ceiling go now?
Not for ordinary players, obviously. Most groups are not casually strolling into +24 keys like they are picking up groceries. But at the top end, every extra item level, every refined route, and every tiny optimization can move the boundary.
The cap removal does not automatically make +25s and beyond trivial. It does, however, make the “this is the limit” conversation feel a little premature.
Is Mythic+ Too Easy, or Are Elite Players Just Absurd?
This is where the debate gets messy.
Some players will look at a timed +24 and say Midnight Season 1 scaling is too forgiving. If the best groups are already pushing that high, maybe the dungeon difficulty curve is not biting hard enough.
Others will argue that judging the entire Mythic+ system by the top fraction of the top fraction is a little ridiculous. The players timing these keys are not the average pug warrior wiping to a frontlet because someone typed “just blast” and pulled half the room.
Both sides have a point.
High-end clears do matter because they show where the system can be pushed. But they do not always reflect the experience of the broader playerbase. A +24 timed by elite players is not proof that your Tuesday night +10 pug is suddenly undertuned. It is proof that the top end is very, very good at dismantling Blizzard’s homework.
The Real Issue Might Be the Reward Ceiling
The bigger problem may not be whether players can time a +24. It may be what the game asks players to care about after the meaningful reward structure has already stopped.
For many players, Mythic+ progression is tied to gear, rating, portals, seasonal mounts, and personal goals. Once those rewards are secured, higher keys become a self-imposed challenge. That is great for competitive players, but it also makes scaling debates strange.
If Blizzard tunes around the very top, the wider playerbase suffers. If Blizzard tunes around the wider playerbase, the very top will eventually crack the system open and dance on the pieces.
That has always been the Mythic+ problem. The mode has to serve casual pushers, weekly vault players, serious rating climbers, and esports-level dungeon scientists at the same time.
Good luck balancing that without developing a thousand-yard stare.
The Ceiling Is Probably Still Moving
The +24 Maisara Caverns run is impressive, but it probably is not the end of the story.
With Crest caps removed, more gear upgrades available, and routes continuing to improve, Midnight Season 1’s upper limit may still climb. That does not automatically mean the season is broken. It does mean Blizzard will be watching the top end carefully, especially if key levels keep rising faster than expected.
For everyone else, the lesson is simpler: Mythic+ players will always find the edge of the system, then ask if the edge can be timed with two seconds left.
Maisara Caverns just became the latest proof.
The question now is whether Blizzard sees that +24 as a celebration of player skill, or as an early warning that Midnight’s dungeon scaling may need sharper teeth.
Post a Comment