Well, that did not last long.
When The Unbinding of Kith’ix first appeared on the Patch 12.1.5 PTR, its Mythic loot table looked almost absurdly generous. The single-boss raid was dropping item level 344 Myth 9/6 gear, putting Kith’ix alongside the very top rewards from The Venomous Abyss despite Blizzard describing the encounter as something closer to a mid-raid challenge.
Now Blizzard has reached for the tuning screwdriver. In the latest PTR build, Mythic Kith’ix loot has been reduced to item level 324, Myth 3/6. That is a substantial change from the loot table we covered in our original Kith’ix Myth 9/6 loot breakdown, and it completely changes the boss’s place in Season 2 gearing.
Mythic Kith’ix Now Drops Myth 3/6
The current PTR loot progression looks considerably more conventional:
- Raid Finder: Item level 285, Veteran 3/6
- Normal: Item level 298, Champion 3/6
- Heroic: Item level 311, Hero 3/6
- Mythic: Item level 324, Myth 3/6
Mythic drops can still be upgraded to item level 334, but doing so requires Crests and still leaves Kith’ix below the item level 344 rewards available from the very top end of The Venomous Abyss. That means Coiled Altar and Ula’tek once again occupy a special position at the top of the raid loot ladder.
And, frankly, that makes more sense.
Kith’ix Was Giving Final-Boss Loot for a Mid-Raid Fight
Blizzard has previously indicated that Kith’ix is intended to land roughly around the middle of The Venomous Abyss in terms of difficulty. Giving a boss at that level direct Myth 9/6 rewards created a rather strange situation where players could potentially bypass harder raid encounters and collect gear matching the rewards from bosses such as Coiled Altar and Ula’tek.
That would also have made the increasingly useful Venomous Abyss raid skip slightly less exciting. Why spend the evening fighting your way toward the most dangerous bosses in the tier if the new fellow next door is distributing item level 344 equipment after a considerably friendlier encounter?
The new numbers give Kith’ix a clearer role. He can still provide strong Myth-track gear, but the best raw item levels remain attached to Season 2’s hardest encounters.
The Cantrip Armor Is Still Very Interesting
The nerf does not make Kith’ix irrelevant, however. Far from it.
His four Cantrip armor pieces still occupy tier-compatible slots, which matters enormously because Midnight Season 2 changed how the Catalyst handles unusual equipment. As we covered in our Season 2 Catalyst breakdown, converted gear can retain both its original secondary stats and eligible Cantrip effects while becoming a class-set piece.
Several Kith’ix armor effects also gain additional benefits when paired with Venomcursed equipment from Ula’tek. That creates something much more interesting than a simple item-level comparison. A 324 Cantrip piece with the right interaction may still be preferable to a higher-level ordinary drop, particularly once players start testing exact combinations and running simulations.
Kith’ix also keeps his collection of special weapons, trinkets and the Mastery/Haste Cantrip ring. The boss may have lost his ability to shower Mythic raiders in instant 344 gear, but his loot table certainly has not become boring.
Patch 12.1.5 Is Still on the PTR
The important warning is that none of this is necessarily final. Patch 12.1.5 remains in testing, and Blizzard can continue changing item levels, effects and encounter tuning before the patch reaches live servers. The recent Heroic and Mythic Kith’ix testing is exactly when these sorts of adjustments are supposed to happen.
For now, though, the free Myth 9/6 buffet appears to be closed.
Kith’ix still has some extremely tempting loot. You will simply have to upgrade it like a normal person.
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