Understanding the MDI interface or how to support Mandatory when you know nothing about WoW
You want to support our Mandatory WoW team, but you don't know anything about it? No problem! Even among fans of World of Warcraft, many people may not know how the MDI works. To help you follow the matches, we explain how to understand the competition interface.
If you don't even know what MDI is, we advise you to read this article first: "What is the World of Warcraft MDI?", then come back to understand the interface.
The interface of an MDI match
This is what the interface of an MDI match looks like.
There are a lot of icons and a lot of information all over the place. That's why we're going to zoom in on each of the elements so that you know where to find the information that's important to the understanding of a match.
The teams
It's not rocket science, but it's the name of the two teams playing each other. Basically, if it says Mandatory on one side or the other, you have to raise your arms, turn your chair and support until the end.
The score of the match
These numbers indicate the number of points in the current match. As a reminder, a team earns a point when it finishes a dungeon faster than its opponent.
The timer for each team
This is the dungeon completion timer for both teams. Both teams of course start at 0:00, but every time a player dies, they add 5 seconds of penalties to their team's time. When both teams complete the dungeon, the slower time wins.
The number of bosses killed
This number indicates the number of bosses killed by each team. The number of bosses depends on the dungeon. All bosses must be killed to complete the dungeon and end a match.
The percentage of enemies killed
In addition to killing bosses, teams must also kill a number of common enemies. The number changes depending on the dungeon. The gauge indicates in real time the percentage of enemies killed necessary to validate a time. A time is only validated if all the bosses and all the necessary common enemies have been defeated.
The players
These are the 5 players in the team. The large rectangles represent their HP gauges. The colour of the rectangle symbolises their class.
Shaman - Hunt - Demon hunter - Death knight - Warlock - Druid - Warrior - Evocative - Mage - Monk - Paladin - Priest - Rogue
The 5 spells displayed under each player are the spells with the highest recovery times. Players have more spells of course, but these particular spells are the ones that have the most impact in battle and capture the team's play style.
The Battle Res and the Bloodlust
The two icons to the right of the life bars are a kind of wild card. The upper icon shows the number of resurrections possible in battle. A player resurrected in this way will not need to go all the way back to his teammates. However, resurrecting a player in this way does not cancel the 5 second penalty.
The second icon represents Bloodlust. This is an extremely powerful buff that a team can trigger at any time. It increases the haste of the entire team by 30% for 40 seconds. Haste is a stat that increases attack speed and reduces spells casting time and cooldown. Once Bloodlust is cast, it is subject to a 10-minute cooldown.
The damage gauge
As the name suggests, these gauges clearly show the amount of damage inflicted by each player. They are a measure of which players are the most successful in battle. Comparing the gauges doesn't make much sense within a team, as not all players are tasked with doing maximum damage to enemies. Instead, you should compare these gauges from one team to another to see which is more effective.
The healing gauge
Just like the damage gauges, the healing gauges show the total amount of healing done by the players. A good healer's mission is to keep all their allies alive, if possible with a maximum of health points. It is important for a team to balance its players between those who do damage and those who heal to be effective. A team full of DPS will do a lot of damage but quickly die. A team with a lot of healers will not die, but will struggle to eliminate the enemies.
The key of the dungeon
The dungeon key is the difficulty modifier applied to the dungeon. The higher the key, the more powerful and resistant the enemies are. These bonuses are exponential and therefore have a strong impact on the strategy to be adopted by the players, always with a view to find the perfect balance between healing and damage.
The bonuses are as follows:
| Key level | Bonus HP and damage |
|---|---|
| +2 | +0% |
| +3 | +8% |
| +4 | +17% |
| +5 | +26% |
| +6 | +36% |
| +7 | +47% |
| +8 | +59% |
| +9 | +71% |
| +10 | +85% |
| +11 | +104% |
| +12 | +124% |
| +13 | +146% |
| +14 | +171% |
| +15 | +198% |
| +16 | +228% |
| +17 | +261% |
| +18 | +297% |
| +19 | +336% |
| +20 | +380% |
| +21 | +428% |
| +22 | +481% |
The Affixes
These are the four affixes applied to the dungeon. Affixes are significant enough modifiers to force players to change their strategies from one game to the next. Among these affixes are :
- Affix of the Season: Lightning
Players are regularly targeted by lightning. They receive positive or negative charges that increase their power and healing by 30% respectively. Players with opposite charges must make contact to cancel the effect of the affix. If two or more players do not clear their charges within a certain time, all players still charged are struck by lightning, causing them to be severely injured and paralyzed for 5 seconds.
With 5 players per team, one player can keep the positive effect of Lightning and use it in combat. It is therefore a very technical affix, but if used properly, it can give a team the upper hand.
- The Enemy Affix
Each dungeon has an affix that passively boosts the enemies. There are two possible affixes and only one of them is applied at the beginning of the game. The Tyrannical affix increases the bosses' health by 30% and their damage by 15%. The Fortified affix increases the health of non-boss enemies by 20% and their damage by 30%.
- A major and a minor affix
The last two affixes are selected randomly from two different pools. These catteries can have extremely varied effects which determine the strategy of the players.
Timers
These timers show which team is ahead of the other. Each time a boss is killed, the timer at the moment the boss died is locked. This time takes into account the time penalties caused by player deaths. With a glance at these timers, you should be able to determine which team is ahead of the other.
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