# Voidscar Arena +10 — TIMED 21:02 · +2, 30% under the 30:00 par · 1 death · affix 162, Tyrannical, Fortified *2026-09-09 · 20:58 · `WoWCombatLog-090926_174915.txt`* > **AI-WRITTEN ANALYSIS** — The numbers come from the combat log. The verdict and notes were written by an AI reading them, and can be wrong in ways the numbers cannot. Written by Claude (Opus 5), from the combat log and the archive. ## Same dungeon, same key level, same 78 talents as two days ago and 22.5% more damage - the Divine Arbiter prompt built that afternoon took proc conversion from 44% to 95%. Timed with 6:58 to spare on a 30:00 par, one death, nothing went wrong. That makes it a boring key to grade and an unusually good one to read, because Voidscar Arena +10 was also run on 2026-09-07 with the same character on the same build - so for once the comparison controls almost everything. Against that run Hyporock did 22.5% more damage per second. Gear moved 1.9 item levels and the talent string is byte-identical, so this is play, not power. Almost half the gain traces to one buff, and this key is best read as a deliberate test that passed. Divine Arbiter had been going off roughly forty times a key and being cashed less than half the time. Earlier the same afternoon its rule was pinned down - the buff records which Holy Power spender granted it, and it pays out on the OTHER one, exactly once - and a HUD prompt was built to say which spender to press. This is the first Mythic+ key with that prompt live. Conversion across the seven graded Ret keys before it ranged 27-49%. This key: 95%. The buff went from 3.5% of his damage to 11.3%. Blade of Justice, the other thing the new layouts prompt on, moved in the same direction on the same night. **What to change** 1. Keep the Divine Arbiter prompt exactly as it is. 95% conversion against a 27-49% band is the largest single-key change in this archive, and the rule behind it - press the spender you did NOT just cast, once - is now measured rather than inferred. 2. Run one more Mythic+ key before treating 95% as the new normal. Seven keys sat in a 27-49% band; one key above it is strong evidence, two is a fact. A key above +12 would also settle the Blade of Justice half, which key level can still explain. 3. Nothing to change on Blade of Justice cadence this key - it was the tightest on record and only one gap exceeded thirty seconds. 4. Ignore the 26.4% Holy Power overcap. It is a constant across every graded Ret key: half is Hammer of Wrath flooding past the cap in AoE and a fifth is passive autoattack generation. Neither is a button, and the figure barely moved on a key where everything else did. 5. Read the 97 on damage as about half yours. Your own output rose 22.5%; the rest of the jump from 1.10x to 1.59x the peer median is that this party's other two damage dealers were weaker than the last one's. 6. Nothing to change on Mending Void either, which is worth saying because the first version of this page said the opposite. Ten of eleven channels were stopped. The grader could not see them; the group could. ## The run | | | |---|---| | on the clock | **21:02** — 19:46 fighting | | deaths | **1** — timer agrees (1.07 implied) | | party damage taken | **211,641,968** — 178,480/s while fighting | | enemies killed | **128** | | interrupts | **42/56** — 75% | | dispels | **1/2** — 392,322 came through | ## Players | player | spec | role | ilvl | DPS | HPS | taken/s | deaths | grade | |---|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|:---:| | Doryhunky | Veng DH | tank | 317 | 103,349 | 43,952 | 77,572 | 0 | **B-** 72 | | Holy Priest | Holy Priest | heal | 310 | 9,361 | 96,101 | 24,754 | 0 | **B+** 82 | | Hyporock | Ret Paladin | dps | 318 | 253,384 | 6,679 | 23,236 | 0 | **A-** 88 | | Arcane Mage | Arcane Mage | dps | 316 | 191,665 | 2,243 | 21,467 | 1 | **C+** 69 | | Demo Lock | Demo Lock | dps | 280 | 125,641 | 1,325 | 20,221 | 0 | **C-** 60 | *Gear and M+ score are from Raider.IO. No Warcraft Logs percentiles: not on warcraft logs (nobody uploaded this key).* ### Doryhunky — Veng DH — B- (72/100) *M+ score 3,219* **Where the points went** - **-12 utility** — scored 0: 0 used of ~4 the kit offered - **-6 damage (rank)** — scored 67: 103,349 dps, 54% of the average DPS - **-5 interrupts (rank)** — scored 83: 22 stops vs 20 expected
All axes - **survival− 100** [no charge] — 0 death(s) - **mitigation 91** [w 27%] — 98% uptime of the 100% this kit can hold, 100% of worst windows covered - **damage~ 67** [w 18%] — 103,349 dps, 54% of the average DPS - **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 83** [w 27%] — 22 stops vs 20 expected (group stopped 86% of what it could reach, not scored here) - **activity 84** [w 15%] — 97% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 0** [w 12%] — 0 used of ~4 the kit offered - _never pressed: Darkness, Imprison_ - _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Felblade, Fracture, Soul Cleave, Soul Fragment, Throw Glaive_
### Holy Priest — Holy Priest — B+ (82/100) *M+ score 2,280* **Where the points went** - **-8 activity** — scored 54: 82% engaged while alive in combat - **-5 utility** — scored 62: 11 used of ~30 the kit offered - **-4 throughput** — scored 90: covered 83% of the 113,926,178 that needed an outside heal (46% of the party's intake was self-covered or overkill); 3,587,113 absorbed
All axes - **survival− 100** [no charge] — 0 death(s) - **throughput 90** [w 41%] — covered 83% of the 113,926,178 that needed an outside heal (46% of the party's intake was self-covered or overkill); 3,587,113 absorbed - **response 99** [w 29%] — put back 56% of the 67,755,713 that landed in the party's worst windows - **mechanics− 94** [−0.8 pts] — 2% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts** — n/a. no interrupt on the bar - **dispel** — n/a. too few known-dispellable debuffs to judge - **activity 54** [w 18%] — 82% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 62** [w 12%] — 11 used of ~30 the kit offered - _never pressed: Desperate Prayer, Guardian Spirit, Mass Dispel_
### Hyporock — Ret Paladin — A- (88/100) *M+ score 3,206* **Where the points went** - **-6 activity** — scored 78: 94% engaged while alive in combat - **-5 interrupts (rank)** — scored 83: 12 stops vs 10 expected - **-1 damage (rank)** — scored 97: 253,384 dps, 159% of the other damage dealers' median
All axes - **survival− 100** [no charge] — 0 death(s) - **damage~ 97** [w 42%] — 253,384 dps, 159% of the other damage dealers' median - **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 83** [w 32%] — 12 stops vs 10 expected (group stopped 86% of what it could reach, not scored here) - **activity 78** [w 26%] — 94% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 79** [w 0%] — 3 used of ~63 the kit offered - _never pressed: Blessing of Sacrifice_ - _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Crusading Strikes_
### Arcane Mage — Arcane Mage — C+ (69/100) *M+ score 2,580* **Where the points went** - **-11 interrupts (rank)** — scored 67: 3 stops vs 6 expected - **-10 damage (rank)** — scored 77: 191,665 dps, 102% of the other damage dealers' median - **-5 activity** — scored 79: 95% engaged while alive in combat
All axes - **survival− 72** [−5.0 pts] — 1 death(s) - **damage~ 77** [w 42%] — 191,665 dps, 102% of the other damage dealers' median - **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 67** [w 32%] — 3 stops vs 6 expected (group stopped 86% of what it could reach, not scored here) - **activity 79** [w 26%] — 95% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 0** [w 0%] — 0 used of ~50 the kit offered - _never pressed: Alter Time, Ice Block, Remove Curse, Spellsteal_
### Demo Lock — Demo Lock — C- (60/100) **Where the points went** - **-24 damage (rank)** — scored 43: 125,641 dps, 56% of the other damage dealers' median - **-8 interrupts (rank)** — scored 76: 5 stops vs 6 expected - **-8 activity** — scored 69: 92% engaged while alive in combat
All axes - **survival− 100** [no charge] — 0 death(s) - **damage~ 43** [w 42%] — 125,641 dps, 56% of the other damage dealers' median - **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 76** [w 32%] — 5 stops vs 6 expected (group stopped 86% of what it could reach, not scored here) - **activity 69** [w 26%] — 92% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 0** [w 0%] — 0 used of ~25 the kit offered - _overcapped Soul Shards: 91 of 615 generated (15%)_
*Axes marked ~ are ranked against the other players in this key, not measured on their own. Someone is always in the middle.* ## Deaths 1 death. ### Death · 19:14 · Arcane Mage · dps **19:14 · Arcane Mage · dps** — killed by **Void Cascade** for 389,928 from Charonus took **779,856** · in **0.4 s** · health at the start **47%** | when | what | damage | |---:|---|---:| | 5.6s before | ? | 57,556 | | 4.5s before | ? | 102,166 | | 3.6s before | ? | 115,192 | | 2.6s before | ? | 100,723 | | 0.4s before | Void Cascade | 389,928 | | at death | Void Cascade (killing blow) | 389,928 | | | 3 smaller hits | 68,444 | Prismatic Barrier · 20,136 healed · Holy Priest ## Where the time went | | seconds | | |---|---:|---| | combat | 1,186 | 19:46 | | routing | 71 | 1:11 | | death penalty | 5 | 0:05 | | lead in | 8 | 0:08 | Costliest pulls — *Cost is the time the pull lost: a wipe loses the whole pull, a pull that held loses only its deaths.* | pull | at | fighting | enemies | deaths | taken | cost | |---:|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:| | 8 | 18:24 | 2:41 | 1 | 1 | 30,312,763 | 0:05 | ## What the group left up **Casts that could have been interrupted and were not** - Lava Bolt: 11 of 26 got through - Shadowbolt Volley: 2 of 5 got through - Mending Void: 1 of 11 got through **Debuffs that could have been dispelled and were not** - Poison Splash: 1x, up for 5s in total, 392,322 damage **Damage one player took that similar players did not (check the raw hits before acting on this; a spell only one role can take looks the same)** - Holy Priest: 474,379 (mostly Forked Lightning) **Party damage eaten by shields on the enemies: 0.3% of what was dealt never landed (not graded)** - 2,500,503 absorbed of 864,785,829 landed - Brutal Slams: 2,500,503 - on: Brutal Overseer (2,500,503) **Hit most of the party (not graded: everyone took it, so nobody is charged for it)** - Dreadbellow: 5/5 players, 398 hits, 18,816,874 (9% of party intake) - Unstable Singularity: 5/5 players, 1120 hits, 12,953,778 (6% of party intake) - Cosmic Crash: 5/5 players, 282 hits, 8,159,654 (4% of party intake) - Insidious Aura: 5/5 players, 40 hits, 5,861,366 (3% of party intake) - Poison Splash: 5/5 players, 73 hits, 4,894,232 (2% of party intake) - Dark Bloom: 5/5 players, 16 hits, 4,553,992 (2% of party intake) ## Notes ### Why this key can be read as an experiment Voidscar Arena +10, 2026-09-07 20:33 and 2026-09-09 20:58. Same dungeon, same key level, same +2 upgrade, same 30:00 par, one death each, 133 and 128 enemies killed. Hyporock's talent blob decodes to the same 78 entries in both, with an empty set difference in each direction. Item level 316.0 to 317.9. The seasonal affix id differs (160 against 162) and the other four players are different people, which is the one loose end - but the other players cannot change his own damage per second, only the axis that ranks him against them. ``` metric 09-07 +10 09-09 +10 damage done 253,748,181 320,636,758 damage per second 206,853 253,384 Holy Power spenders 468 516 Blade of Justice / min 5.09 6.12 Holy Power wasted 25.9% 26.4% ``` ### Where the extra damage actually came from Per-spell, as damage per second, so the slightly different key lengths do not distort it. Only the movers are listed; they sum to the whole gain. ``` spell 09-07 09-09 change Divine Arbiter 7,248 28,705 +21,457 Execution Sentence 9,610 15,517 +5,907 Hammer of Wrath 15,846 21,172 +5,325 Highlord's Judgment 9,085 14,247 +5,162 Final Verdict 13,127 17,573 +4,446 Light Within 13,030 17,059 +4,028 Crusading Strikes 14,519 17,742 +3,223 Blade of Justice 9,798 12,418 +2,620 Divine Storm 48,590 46,401 -2,189 Sun's Avatar 16,255 13,789 -2,466 TOTAL 206,902 253,517 +46,615 ``` Divine Arbiter alone is 46% of the gain. The rest is the shape you would expect from generating and spending more: the builders and the riders all rise together, and Divine Storm falls slightly because more of the spending went into Final Verdict. ### Divine Arbiter: the test, and it passed The buff was never an uptime problem, and the intuitive read - keep it up - is exactly backwards. On 09-07 it was up 63.5% of the key and produced 118 damage events. This key it was up 24.8% of the key and produced 404. The rule, established earlier the same afternoon from three nights of logs and not guessed here: Divine Arbiter is granted by a Holy Power spender, and the buff records WHICH one. It pays out on the other spender, once, and then it is gone. Grant it with Final Verdict and the payout is on Divine Storm, and the reverse. Holding it banks nothing and blocks the next proc. A window counts as converted if the correct spender was pressed while it was up. Oldest first, Mythic+ only: ``` key windows converted conv median window Voidscar Arena +11 55 21 38% 19.2s Altar of Fangs +11 60 22 37% 20.0s Voidscar Arena +10 59 26 44% 18.2s Den of Nalorakk +15 73 20 27% 20.0s Voidscar Arena +13 69 25 36% 19.6s Ruby Life Pools +12 67 33 49% 17.7s The Blinding Vale +12 74 32 43% 18.5s Voidscar Arena +10 (this) 121 115 95% 2.4s ``` The median window length is the same fact from the other side. A window of 18 to 20 seconds is the buff running its full duration and expiring unspent; 2.4 seconds is it being cashed on the next press. Six of 121 windows went unconverted, against 33 of 59 on the identical key two days earlier. Seven keys inside a 27-49% band, then one at 95%. The count of windows also doubled, 59 to 121, which is the same behaviour seen a third way: spending the proc is what lets the next one arrive. For scale, the same measurement on a Ret Paladin - the second Retribution Paladin in this archive, 77 of 78 shared talents - runs 60%, 76% and 71% across the three keys he played alongside Hyporock. This key is above his best. ### The prompt that was built for this, and Blade of Justice Four Retribution HUD layouts in the working directory were authored on 2026-09-09 between 17:56 and 20:30 - the last of them 28 minutes before this key started. They carry both Divine Arbiter buff ids and a last-cast gate that names which spender to press, and they prompt on Blade of Justice. This is the first Mythic+ key run with them live, so the two things the new layouts watch are the two things that moved. Blade of Justice was the standing open item on this record: a tail of stretches over twenty seconds where the button simply stopped being pressed, against a same-spec control who had almost none. Same dungeon, same +10: ``` Blade of Justice 09-07 09-09 casts 104 129 per minute 5.09 6.12 median gap 9.11s 8.59s gaps over 20s 11 10 gaps over 30s 6 1 time lost to them 16.1 s/min 11.8 s/min ``` The median barely moves, which was always true - when he plays the button he plays it at normal speed. The tail is what closed: six stretches over thirty seconds became one. One honest caution on that half. Across his last five keys the time lost to long gaps falls steadily - 23.4, 19.3, 15.3, 18.5, 11.8 seconds per minute - but that series correlates with key level at r = 0.96, and this was the lowest key of the five. The like-for-like +10 pair is what carries it, not the trend. The Divine Arbiter half has no such problem: 95% against a 27-49% band is outside anything key level could explain. ### The group, and a grader bug this key exposed Nothing here cost the key. The party stopped 42 of the 49 casts four interrupts could physically reach. Eleven of twenty-six Lava Bolts got through, which is the usual Voidscar tax on a pull offering 56 kickable casts to four kickers. One Poison Splash was left up for five seconds and did 392,322. The death was Arcane Mage at 19:14 on Charonus: 779,856 of Void Cascade in four tenths of a second from 47% health. Nothing was reachable in that window and it cost five seconds on the timer. The interrupt numbers above are larger than the ones this key was first graded with, and that is the interesting part. Hyporock landed ten interrupts in the log and the board credited eight. The two it dropped were **Mending Void**, the Voidminder's twenty-second heal on the Devouring Brutalizer - a CHANNEL, which logs a cast success the instant it begins and never logs a cast start. The board was built entirely out of cast starts, so the spell was invisible in both directions: eleven channels absent from the denominator, and every stop landed on them credited to nobody. Fixed the same evening. Channels now enter the board from their cast success when the game data calls them channelled, with the channel's own duration as the window, and a caster killed part-way through is excused rather than counted as a leak. Re-graded, this key reads 42 of 56 rather than 32 of 45, and Mending Void turns out to have been handled well - **one of eleven leaked**, six stopped by an interrupt and four by a stun. Nobody's letter moved. What moved is that three players are now paid for work they were doing all along, and the highest-value kick in the dungeon is finally on the board. ## Method Each axis is scored 0 to 100 against what this run allowed, not against a fixed target. A player is only scored on things their spec can do. An axis that does not apply is left out and the other weights are scaled up. 100 means nothing was missed; a solid, even key usually lands near 75. Survival and mechanics carry no weight of their own: they start at 100 and take points off when something went wrong. *Generated 2026-09-09T22:00:26 · schema 7 · written analysis: Claude (Opus 5), from the combat log and the archive*