Before you pay anyone to run a Mythic+ key or sell you a carry, you should be able to open their Raider.IO profile and read it in about ninety seconds. The site aggregates every timed and untimed key a character has completed, scores it, and breaks it down by dungeon and role. Most "scam" stories in trade chat come down to a buyer who never checked the seller's actual recent activity. Here is exactly what to look at and what each number is really telling you.

The headline score: what the big number actually means

The number at the top of a profile is the current-season Mythic+ score. It is the sum of a character's best timed and best untimed run in each of the season's eight dungeons, with the timed run weighted heavily and the untimed run adding a smaller amount. Because it's a per-dungeon best, you cannot inflate it by spamming one easy dungeon — you have to perform across all eight.

Rough reference points for the current retail seasons: anything under ~2000 is solid-but-casual, 2500+ is the range where Keystone Master portals are earned, 3000+ marks genuinely strong players, and 3500+ is title-range pushing territory. If someone is selling you a +10 carry, you do not need a 3500 player — you need someone comfortably above the key level you want, ideally by several hundred points, so your run isn't their personal limit.

Read the runs, not just the rating

Click into the "Mythic Plus Runs" tab. This is where a profile stops being a marketing number and starts being evidence. Three things matter:

  • Recency. Raider.IO shows the date of each run. A 3200 score from runs three weeks ago means the player was good when the meta or affixes were different. Look for keys completed in the last several days. Active sellers have fresh timestamps.
  • The "+" chevrons. Each completed key shows how far inside the timer it finished: one chevron (+1) means barely timed, two means timed with time to spare, three (+3) means the group beat the timer by 40% or more. A wall of +2 and +3 runs at your target key level is a far stronger signal than a single lucky +1 at a higher level.
  • The actual key levels. Sort by level. You want to see a stack of completed keys at or above the level you're buying, not one outlier they're using as a billboard.

Best Runs vs. Recent Runs

Profiles default to "Best Runs," which cherry-picks the highest-scoring key per dungeon across the whole season. Switch the view to recent or all runs to see the honest picture. A player whose best runs are all +12 but whose last fifteen runs are +7s has either fallen off the meta or borrowed/boosted those best keys. For a carry, recent form beats a stale personal best every time.

Role matters more than people think

Raider.IO tracks score and runs per role. A 3000 player who earned it entirely as DPS is not automatically a good tank or healer — and in a carry, the seller's role determines how much of your run's success rests on them. If you're being carried as the fifth body, you want the tank and healer in the group to be the high-score anchors, because those two roles dictate whether a pull lives or dies. Check that the people doing the heavy lifting actually have the role-specific score, not just a raid-logging main spec.

This is also where you spot a common bait: a seller advertises their DPS score but plans to tank your key on an undergeared offspec. The role breakdown exposes that instantly.

Cross-check the raid and gear tabs

A legitimate high-key player almost always has a matching raid history and item level. Raider.IO pulls raid progression (e.g., current-tier Mythic boss kills) and you can cross-reference armory item level. If a profile claims a 3200 score but shows no current-tier raiding, a thin run history, and a freshly transferred character, treat it as a red flag — it may be a piloted or recently purchased account being resold. Consistency across tabs is the signature of a real player.

Alt vs. main, and the "carried" tell

Open the character's account-wide view if it's public. Someone whose main sits at 3400 and whose alt you're hiring at 2800 is a safe bet — the skill is clearly there. The opposite pattern, a lone character with a high score and no supporting alts, raid history, or guild, deserves a second look. You can also spot "passenger" runs: if a profile's high keys were all completed with the same four other players who each massively out-score them, that person may have been the one being carried, not the one carrying.

When buying actually makes sense

Reading the profile isn't only about avoiding bad sellers — it tells you whether you even need to buy. If your own profile already shows timed keys one or two levels below your target with clean +2/+3 chevrons, you're close enough that a few pug attempts will likely get you there, and you'll keep the gear and rating honestly. Buying is the sensible time-for-money trade in narrower cases: you want the Keystone Master mount or seasonal portals before a deadline, your schedule won't allow assembling a reliable group, or you're stuck on a specific dungeon's timer and a strong group will clear it in one run. In those situations, paying a verified high-score group is buying back evenings, not skill.

If you do buy, vet the way you'd vet anything else: recent runs, role-correct scores, matching raid and gear history, and a real account footprint behind the headline number. A reputable boosting service should be happy to show the exact characters running your key so you can read those profiles yourself before any gold or money changes hands. The ninety seconds you spend on Raider.IO is the cheapest insurance in the game.