Dungeon score, a version of Raider.io’s scoring, is coming in patch 9.1

If you’ve been running Mythic Keystones at all in the last four years you’ve probably run into questions about what your io score is. Raider.io is a website that would track all of the different Keystones you’ve run that season and then assign a point value to them, the higher the runs you’ve done the higher your score would be. Starting in patch 9.1, Blizzard is adding a system that is closely modeled on Raider.io’s formula to the base game. Now players will accrue an in-game Dungeon Score that will display when you ask to join groups in the Premade Group Finder.

It’s a system that players have used to varying degrees of success to try and make their random groups more likely to succeed when getting random people through the group finder. The higher the keystone level of the dungeon you were looking for, the group leader would be looking to make sure that your io score was suitably high. Now rather than having to use an addon or visit an external website that number will be displayed in a way for everyone to see as you’re building groups.

Not only are they adding the system but Blizzard developers even reached out to Raider.io to get the inside information on how their formulas put together point totals. Which is something that I don’t think I can ever remember Blizzard doing before.

The concept of an io score isn’t without its detractors though. It can be seen as another barrier to entry for players to get into groups, or has been used to set unreasonably high entry requirements for keystone levels that wouldn’t need them. If you’re running a level four key and you’re asking people to have a score that they’d only have for completing everything at 10+ — you may be setting the entry requirements too high.

It’s one of those situations where you need the groups to get the io score, but you can’t get the io score without the groups. For players who are routinely running the higher end of keys, this is streamlining will probably save them a little bit of time. For the players who are already running into issues getting into other people’s groups, this addition likely won’t change anything for the better.

So how is this going to work

As you run higher dungeons you’ll get more points for your score. These points are generated based on how high the keys level was, how fast you ran the dungeon, and whether the run was Tyrannical or Fortified. When you make groups or apply to join other people’s groups you’ll be able to see each other’s scores not only overall but their highest score for that dungeon as well.

Blizzard has also changed how the Keystone Master achievements will work to include the new point system. Where before you just needed to complete every dungeon at certain thresholds — +5 for Explorer, +10 for Conqueror, and +15 for Master — now you’ll need to earn a certain amount of points. Since both Tyrannical and Fortified will award some points to you, getting those achievements might mean having to run a few more keys than before. This should help to convince players to run more keys over the course of the season, rather than focusing entirely on the easier weeks of affixes.

There is also a bonus that has been built in to encourage you to help your friends push their ratings higher. If anyone in the dungeon gets points for keystone, everyone gets some bonus Valor points for having been a part of it — a rising tide will lift all boats. Now there’s a tangible reward for helping your friend out! Y’know instead of just doing it because you’re a nice person.

With patch 9.1 coming out on June 29, and Shadowlands season two starting on July 6th, we won’t have long until we get to play with our new point system. Until then make sure that you’ve gotten all of the rewards you want from Shadowlands season one since when it’s gone — those rewards are gone too.

Originally published 4/13/2021. Updated 6/18/2021.