Two players queue Mythic+ every week and walk away with completely different goals. One wants their name on the ladder, a high score next to their character, and the bragging rights of clearing a brutal key on time. The other just wants gear, fast, with the least friction possible. Both are doing "M+," but they're playing two different games, and if you're thinking about buying a boost, picking the wrong one wastes your money.

This guide breaks down key pushing versus Great Vault farming in the War Within / Midnight era, what each actually gets you, and which kind of boost matches your goal.

What the Great Vault actually rewards

The Great Vault is your weekly chest. For the Mythic+ slot, it hands you reward choices after you complete keys during the reset, with unlock thresholds at 1, 4, and 8 timed (or completed) dungeons. Run one key and you get a single option. Run four and a second slot opens. Hit eight and all three slots are live.

Here's the part most people miss: the Vault doesn't reward your average performance, and it doesn't simply reward your best. Each slot is tied to the difficulty of a specific run in your sorted list, your first option scales off your highest key, the later slots off lower ones. In practice, the system looks at your eight best keys and builds the choices from there. That means consistency beats heroics. Eight steady mid-tier keys often give a better, more flexible Vault than two heroic pushes and six pugged-out runs.

The item level of your reward choices is pulled from your highest run of the week. So you don't need to time eight punishing keys to cap your Vault ilvl, you need one solid high key plus seven completions to fill the slots. That distinction is the whole ballgame for choosing a boost.

What key pushing rewards (and doesn't)

Key pushing is about your Mythic+ rating and the title/portrait/mount rewards tied to season milestones. Pushing high keys earns you a score, seasonal achievements, and the prestige of a clear, but the loot that drops at the end of a single high key is one item, and end-of-dungeon gear caps out lower than your Vault's top end.

In other words: pushing makes you look good and proves you can clear hard content. Farming fills your bags. A player chasing a 0.1%-style score and an exclusive seasonal mount is on a different track from someone who just wants their tier set and a few best-in-slot upgrades before raid night.

  • Great Vault farming goal: maximum gear per week, minimum stress. You care about the chest, not the leaderboard.
  • Key pushing goal: rating, title, seasonal rewards, and personal skill validation. The loot is secondary.
  • Both: some players want a geared character and a respectable score, the boost can be staged.

Match the boost to the goal

If your goal is gear: buy a Vault-focused run

For pure gear, the smart purchase is a package that fills all three Vault slots while pushing your highest key high enough to max the ilvl bracket you're after. You don't need to overpay for a heroic-level clear if your ilvl cap is reached a few key levels lower, you just need volume plus one anchor run. A good service will:

  • Time enough dungeons to unlock the 1/4/8 thresholds (eight completions for the full chest).
  • Push one key to the level that hits your target Vault item level.
  • Spread runs across dungeons you still need rather than farming the same one.

This is the cheaper, higher-value option for most buyers. You're paying for completions, not for a hero carry. If you're weighing options, the Mythic+ boosts at PewPewShop are structured exactly this way, with a "fill my Vault" tier separate from the score-pushing tier, so you're not paying ladder prices for gear you could get from steadier keys.

If your goal is rating: buy a key-push carry

For a title, a seasonal mount, or a specific score, you want a timed high-key carry, ideally on your own character so the rating sticks to you. Here the price reflects difficulty: a group that can time keys several levels above the soft cap is worth more than one grinding eights. Look for:

  • Clear confirmation it's a timed run, not just completed, score requires beating the timer.
  • Selfplay vs. piloted options, selfplay lets you learn the routes and keeps your account in your hands.
  • An honest target, a reputable seller won't promise a 0.1% title in one evening if your character can't survive the mechanics.

The honest trade-offs

A boost saves time, that's the real product. What it can't do is make you better overnight, if you buy a high score but can't perform at that level afterward, your future pugs will notice. That's why many players choose selfplay key pushing: you get carried and you learn the dungeons, so the rating you bought becomes one you can defend.

For Vault farming, the trade-off is patience. The chest is weekly. A single boost won't gear you instantly across an expansion, it gears you this reset. The most cost-effective approach is a recurring weekly Vault fill during a gearing push, then stopping once you're raid-ready.

A quick gut check before you buy:

  • "I want loot for raid night." → Vault fill, eight completions plus one anchor key.
  • "I want the title/mount/score." → Timed key-push carry, selfplay if you'll keep playing the character.
  • "I want both." → Stage it: Vault fill first to survive higher keys, push the score after.

Bottom line

Key pushing and Vault farming look identical from the outside and reward completely different things. Pushing buys you status and proof of skill, farming buys you gear and weekly value. Decide which one you actually want before you check out, and you'll pay for the result you care about instead of the one that came bundled. When in doubt, gear first, then push, a stronger character makes every future key cheaper and easier to time.