Slaying Agatha 101
Here is my personal advice and what I believe is the easiest way of completing the Fury Warrior Mage Tower Scenario for your new artifact appearance. There are various ways of successfully completing this scenario but this is what I found to be the best way for me and others have confirmed as well. I was able to complete this scenario on release day in around twenty or so attempts.
Mechanics & Abilities
- Agatha's Fury (Dark Fury)
This is an infinite interruptible channel that begins when Agatha's energy bar reaches 100. During this channel she deals ticking damage and receives an absorb shield that you must damage through before being able to interrupt the channel. It is crucial to break through the shield and interrupt the channel as soon as possible as she gains a stacking buff which increases the damage of the channel as it goes on. Luckily when her channel is interrupted and she casts it again later in the scenario, the stacking buff is reset and starts once more at zero.- Imps
Throughout the scenario Agatha will summon various types of imps. The imps by themselves are relatively easy to deal with but when overlapped with other abilities it can quickly become overwhelming. Here are the imps listed in order of kill importance:
Umbral Imp
The Umbral Imps are usually spawned in pairs by Agatha and while alive provide her with an immunity buff. Due to this, it is crucial that these imps are killed off as quickly as possible. These imps will also at times teleport away in attempts to kite you.
Fuming Imp
The Fuming Imps are spawned solo and after a moment begin to chase after you. If they reach you, they will start to cast an uninterruptible spell (can be stuned or feared) named Plague Zone. Once this cast goes off, the imp will explode dealing damage to you if you're nearby and also leaving a patch of ground that deals damage to you and slows if standing over it. These patches will persist throughout the entire scenario. It is possible to burst the imp down before they can get the cast off, stun them or even kite them around with Piercing Howl. As long as they don't reach you they will not cast.
Imp Servantt
Occasionally two Imp Servants will spawn on the other end of the cavern. They will both begin to run towards Agatha and once reaching her will start an interruptible channel that feeds her energy and heals her for a minor amount. You can out DPS the healing two imps channeling on Agatha will do but anymore you will be unable to. You should kill these imps off as soon as you can after taking care of the Fuming Imps and Umbral Imps.
Smoldering Imp
These imps will usually spawn when Agatha spawns a pack of Umbral Imps as well. These imps simply cast Fireballs at you but gain a stacking buff which increases their damage. You shouldn't worry too much about these imps but you should kill them off as soon as you're done dealing with the other imps as the damage they deal can really ramp up.- Boulders
Once Agatha reaches 50% she will teleport to the back of the room and boulders will begin to drop for the rest of the scenario. These boulders will come down one at a time and either be on the left, right or middle of the room. If you are hit, you will be stunned and almost one shot.- Translocate
During the boulder phase, Agatha will cast Translocate every time she loses 10% of her HP. This cast simply teleports her to the other end of the cavern.
The Scenario
- Phase 1
During Phase 1 Agatha will be in the center of the cavern. As soon as you pull her, she will spawn 2-3 Smoldering Imp's. You can just pop Battle Cry and Odyn's Fury to burn them down as you continue doing single target damage to her. After a little while she will spawn two Imp Servant's by where you spawned when entering the scenario. At the same time she will also spawn a Fuming Imp under her which will chase you. Deal with the imps as you like (refer to the section above on Fuming Imps) as long as you just don't let them drop patches of Plague Zone in the middle of the path. You want to go ahead and kill the two Imp Servant's channeling on Agatha as soon as you can after you finish dealing with the Fuming Imp. Once they are dead, she'll likely be at high energy and do her first channel of Agatha's Fury (Dark Fury). Damage through her absorb and interrupt the channel. Afterwards she'll likely spawn another Fuming Imp and a set of Umbral Imps alongside Smoldering Imps. Prioritize killing the Umbral Imps first, dealing with the Fuming Imp second and then finishing off the Smoldering Imps last. Two more Imp Servant's will also likely spawn during this as well.
Throughout the entire phase all these things will keep happening and repeating, sometimes overlapping each other. The worst overlap that can happen is when you have Agatha channeling her spell, Umbral Imps granting her an immunity buff and trying to not drop Plague Zone in sub-optimal areas from the Fuming Imps chasing you around.
- Phase 2
Once Agatha reaches 50% she will Translocate to the back of the room and boulders will begin to fall at the area she is at. These boulders are of utmost importance and getting hit by them can also guarantee you failing the scenario. Throughout this phase she will continue using her channeling ability and summoning the various types of imps at about the same frequency as in Phase 1. It is even more important during this phase that you do not drop plague zones around her as it'll make it infinitely harder for you to dodge the boulders due to the slow. It is also very important that you kill the Umbral Imps off fast whenever she is channeling as the damage during this phase will be higher due to the damage buff she gains as the scenario progresses. Every 10% she will Translocate to the other end of the cavern and she'll continue repeating her abilities.
Tips & Tricks
- Talent Setup
Below is the talent setup I recommend running. War Machine is a given due to the uptime you'll have on the haste buff and how the movement speed will help you in kiting Fuming Imps and dodging boulders. You do have a choice between Shockwave or Double Time in the Tier 30 row but I picked Double Time so I could reach Umbral Adds faster and make use of Furious Charge more. Wrecking Ball I feel is stronger than Avatar due to the constant amount of adds spawned and needing to be killed off quickly. Avatar simply doesn't line up well in this scenario. Furious Charge is also a given due to the healing it provides and it's synergy with Double Time.
Spoiler:- Food
Many players have stated that using Spiced Wildfowl Omelet has made the scenario much easier due to it being a mini-lust for the encounter with basically 100% uptime. I have no used it myself but many players are like I said raving about it so here it is.
- Ability Usage
Throughout the encounter you'll want to make use of almost all your abilities to make the scenario much easier. The most important advice I can give is to always save Battle Cry and Odyn's Fury for when Agatha spawns a bunch of imps together like the Umbral ones. You shouldn't waste those cooldowns on Servant Imps or when only a few imps are spawned. Fearing the imps and/or using Piercing Howl on them is also very beneficial and will help you out in the long run so use those wisely. Whenever you are getting low on health you should make use of your Double charges and Furious Charge to gain back up. The damage you take shouldn't be too much of an issue as long as you are not getting exploded on by the Fuming Imps and are interrupting Agatha's channel.
- Trinkets
I'd recommend running AoE trinkets or stat sticks. Draught of Souls won't do you to well here as you won't have many times where you can afford standing still. Convergence of Fates will also not do you too well as you can't be using Battle Cry on cooldown due to having to save it for when she spawns multiple imps at once. The imp spawning anyhow lines up well with Battle Cry's natural cooldown.
AoE trinkets such as Terrorbound Nexus are very strong and so are statsticks (especially Mastery ones). These will help you dealing with the imps and helping you push out more damage without having to deal with the trinkets CDs or trying to determine the best place to use them. If you don't have any AoE trinkets, I'd just suggest using any trinket that provides you passive damage increase and/or gives you a lot of Mastery to compensate. Haste on your trinkets is not really needed as you'll almost always have War Machine running.
- Legendaries
In my honest opinion, there are three legendaries that shine in this scenario. Those being Prydaz, the healing bracers and the whirlwind belt. Prydaz is MVP in this scenario and will mitigate a lot of damage while also giving you more room for error due to it's large absorb. The healing bracers are what I think to be the second best legendary you can equip as it'll give you even more room for error due to the survivability boost it'll give you through it's healing combined with Furious Charge. Afterwards the whirlwind belt is a clear choice due to it's synergy with Wrecking Ball and there always being more than 3 adds up.
- Dealing with Phase 1
You can go about dealing with Phase 1 in different ways but this is what I found to be the most effective for me. I'd start the encounter by popping Battle Cry, Rampage and then Odyn's Fury to burn down the initial adds she spawns. Afterwards I'd continue to DPS her as the two Imp Servant's spawn and begin to walk to her. Even then when they start channeling on her I'd continue DPS as you should be able to out-heal them. During this time I'd also be kiting the Fuming Imp around the boss in a circle, keeping it slowed with Piercing Howl. Once Agatha spawns the umbral imps I'd proceed to pop Battle Cry and Odyn's Fury to burn them down instantly. You continue repeating this, making sure to always save BC and OF for when many imps are out and interrupting Agatha's channel as soon as possible.
- Dealing with Phase 2
Phase 2 can easily be the most challenging part of the scenario or the easiest. The challenging part of phase 2 is when you are in the upper half of the cavern where the boulders drop down right next to you. It becomes very difficult to kite the Fuming Imp around and if any Plague Zone is dropped in a bad spot there you can easily be done for due to the slow and being an easy target for a boulder. During phase 2 my strategy was to simply zerg Agatha. I'd still hold onto my cooldowns for the Umbral Imps but I wouldn't kill off any of the Servant Imp's unless there was more than two. This is because every 10% health she loses she teleports to the other side of the room. When she does this, using Piercing Howl on all the imps and Heroic Leap after her, creating a lot of distance between yourself and the imps. You should be able to continue zerging her, only dealing with the imps when you have your Battle Cry and/or Odyn's Fury up or if Umbral Imps are making her immune.
It's important to stay calm during this phase, prioritize dodging the boulders, making sure you don't drop Plague Zone's in bad spots, killing the Umbral Imps and interrupting Agatha's channel as soon as possible. I'd suggest lusting with drums once you get her to 20% as it becomes infinitely easier to nuke her once you can start executing.
BEST OF LUCK AND BE PATIENT!