Originally added in Dragonflight Patch 10.0.5 to smooth out the reward level disparity between early and late raid bosses, the Myth track was restricted to three (later increased to four) upgrade levels. This allowed more gear progression and broadened gearing from its emphasis on late boss drops, but also resulted in a lot more time spent gathering upgrade materials. Now going up to 6 upgrade levels lengthens that process even further.
- The main benefit of this change is that allows more gear to be potentially useful, as regular drops can be upgraded to match the item level of Very Rare items which previously stood a few item levels above everything else. Although those very rare items will probably still be highly sought after due to their effects, this makes gearing a little more flexible, as not every class and spec will necessarily value them for item level alone.
Very Rare drops like this ring from Queen Ansurek are now 6/6, instead of just permanently higher item level than other pieces of gear.
- The major downside of this change is that it will take longer to fully upgrade and maximize all of your gear. Combined with crests requiring higher Mythic+ keys in The War Within, players will need roughly twice as many timed Mythic+ runs or raid boss kills to fully finish gearing out their characters in Season 1.
Regular raid drops range from Myth 1-4, requiring significantly more crests to fully upgrade.
Whether this is strictly a good or a bad thing is up to interpretation. Many players considered the power progression in Dragonflight to be a bit too quick, resulting in maximizing gear long before most guilds completed the raids, and making the game feel unrewarding that much earlier in the season. That said, this change doesn’t just make upgrading take longer – it becomes grindier as well, particularly for players who get their Aspect Crests predominantly from Mythic+.
In a recent video, Dratnos covers this change in further detail, discussing crafted gear, which is now 10 item below the max upgrade level, and comparing the pros/cons for players who mainly get their Myth track gear from the Great Vault against those who raid.
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