1. Establish current official context
Blizzard's Midnight Season 1 schedule identifies Delves Tier 8+ and weekly Great Vault rewards. Its 12.0.5 preview says the World-content row includes Delves alongside Prey and Ritual Sites. The Journeys overview says Delves tracking moved into Journeys and provides access to Great Vault progress. These pages are primary evidence for current structure; none supplies LootCalc with a permanent numeric item-level, slot-threshold, or reward-probability table.
Blizzard: Midnight Season 1
Blizzard: 12.0.5 content preview
Blizzard: Journeys overview
2. Freeze expansion, season, patch, and region
Record the exact client patch, expansion, season, region, character, verification date, and local time. Do not use “current season” as the only identifier. A screenshot should show the relevant UI and, when possible, the client version. When any value changes, preserve the old plan as historical and create a new one.
3. Read the current World-row progress
Open the current Journeys or Great Vault interface and copy the row progress exactly as displayed. Because the current World row can include Delves, Prey, and Ritual Sites, this existing amount may be mixed-source progress. Enter it once as the starting state. Do not reinterpret all existing units as Delve completions.
4. Capture all three thresholds
Copy Slot 1, Slot 2, and Slot 3 thresholds from the same UI state. The planner requires them to be strictly increasing. If the client uses a different presentation—points, activities, ranks, or another rule—preserve that unit in the source note and do not translate it through an old guide. A screenshot is better evidence than a third-party table without a versioned Blizzard reference.
5. Verify the chosen Delve qualifies
Record the exact Delve, tier, and current eligibility statement. Confirm how much World-row credit one qualifying completion grants under the current rules. A tier label in the calculator has no executable meaning and cannot select a credit amount. Failed, abandoned, below-threshold, or otherwise ineligible runs must follow the rule you record rather than being counted because they consumed time.
6. Separate the plan from the current state
Planned qualifying Delves are a whole-number future count. Progress added equals that count multiplied by observed units per qualifying completion. Projected progress adds the result to the current row. Do not add planned Prey or Ritual Site progress to a “Delves-only” plan. If you want a mixed World-row plan, change the label, list every source, and use a model that represents their distinct credit rules.
7. Audit the slot arithmetic
progress added = planned qualifying Delves × progress units per qualifying Delve;projected progress = current row progress + progress added;- a slot is unlocked when the applicable progress meets or exceeds its entered threshold;
remaining units = max(0, threshold − projected progress);runs needed from current = ceil(max(0, threshold − current progress) ÷ units per run).
The model does not infer item level, reward track, chest contents, Bountiful eligibility, boss drops, or reward choice. “Slot unlocked” means only that the user-entered progress condition is met under the scenario.
8. Use a complete planned time boundary
Include travel, setup, queues or group assembly, loading, combat, deaths, recovery, inventory work, and return to a comparable state. The planner divides full batch minutes by planned runs and calculates runs per hour. Those throughput figures do not value the reward or rank a tier. Comparing two plans is fair only when both clocks use the same boundary.
9. Keep reward facts outside progress arithmetic
If the client shows an item level, track, or reward preview, store it in the evidence note or screenshot. Do not average a minimum and maximum item level and call that expected value: item level is not a currency payoff and no probability distribution has been supplied. Soulbound gear also has no automatic gold value. A reward comparison needs a separately declared personal progression objective.
10. Compare one change at a time
Save the baseline URL, duplicate it, and change one variable such as planned runs or measured full time. If tier, group, companion, gear, patch, thresholds, eligibility, and route all change, the outputs describe two scenarios but cannot isolate a cause. Do not call the faster plan “optimal” unless you define the objective and examine all feasible alternatives.
11. Keep a real progress log
verified_on,region,expansion,season,client_patch,character_or_warband,current_world_row_progress,slot_1_threshold,slot_2_threshold,slot_3_threshold,delve,tier,qualifying_units_per_completion,planned_runs,completed_runs,failed_or_ineligible_runs,full_batch_minutes,screenshot_or_source,share_url,notes YYYY-MM-DD,region,expansion,season,exact patch,identifier,0,0,0,0,name,tier,0,0,0,0,0,path or URL,URL,record real observations only
This is an empty schema. It is not evidence that LootCalc completed Delves, verified a reward item level, or measured a route. Never add invented rows to make the planner appear tested against gameplay.
12. Preserve corrections
Earlier LootCalc pages used The War Within values after Midnight, marked multiple seasons active, cited third-party tables as though they were official, and repeated fabricated observations. Those pages now redirect here. If a future Blizzard page publishes a numeric rule, add a dated evidence-ledger record and update the model only to the exact extent the source supports.
Use the progress planner
Enter the current values in the WoW Delves Weekly Progress Planner, then save its URL beside the screenshot and log.