The Highlord's Return Tips

[NanoNikk]

Anyone else have had Kruull do Annihilate twice right after eachother ? Just did a try where he did it, I stunned him when he was casting it and then he did it again right after the CC was over.. wasn't close enough to an orb to use it to CC him since i thought my stun would prevent him from using it...

[gegalfo]

Anyone else have had Kruull do Annihilate twice right after eachother ? Just did a try where he did it, I stunned him when he was casting it and then he did it again right after the CC was over.. wasn't close enough to an orb to use it to CC him since i thought my stun would prevent him from using it...

nah thats the way its supposed to be. had him annihilate and then netherstomp though....wasnt fun

[Deleted]

Hello. DH Vengeance 904 4 Tier Bonus With Archimonde trinket and Ring for leggies. 45 traits.

3 tries after nerfs. If anyone have any questions then ask.

[xjentai]

After 500 tries (of which 120 tries after nerf), i finaly got him down!
I think partially due to the neckless dropping in the raid before the attempts.

Unlike proving grounds 30 waves, i hated this.
Eventho the mindset is cool:
P1: add control
P2: Kill boss before he kills you.

[Melkirth]

Did it as a 906, 45 traits, Blood DK.

Consumables: Flask of the Countless Armies, Defiled Augement Rune, Azshari Salad, Potion of the Old War, Drums of Fury and Goblin Glider kit.
Explanation: Consumables to maximize dps and goblin glider kit for an extra life if you are unlucky with a knockback (bind it so you can use it fast, had mine on a mouse button).

Legendaries: Sephuz's Secret and Skullflowers Haemostasis.
Explanation: Sephuz's Secret will proc a lot during this fight making it one of the best legendaries for this encounter as a Blood DK. Skullflower's Haemostasis was used for its dps output and synergy with Dancing Rune Weapon (DRW).

Trinkets: 905 Memento of Angerboda and 885 Ironrune Charm from Relinquished Trinket.
Explanation: Since dps is the most important aspect of this challenge (higher dps->shorter phases->less complications and infernals) I recommend to only use dps trinkets for this challenge since it is rare for survivability to be an issue.

Talents: 3/1/1//2/2/3/3
Explanation: Blooddrinker is amazing to dps the bosses from range when you are unable to get close. Tremble before me is the best Talent in the whole tree for this fight since it can save you with some clutch fears to interupt the bosses. DnD should be under the boss as often as possible for this reason. One noticable difference is the Pick of Purgatory over Bonestorm. I concluded that after the recent nerfs that the adds could be dealt with comfortably without Bonestorm and picked Purgatory since it could give me a few extra seconds of dps if the orbs ran out.

Tips Phase 1: Stand at the back of the platform where Kruul is at the start and Deathgrip Inquisitor Variss to the edge. It will help with the eye spawn locations. They will either spawn on top of him or close by. Kill the during down time with a bloodboil and then let the dot do the rest.

Prepot your potion of war, pull with Deathgrip and then pop DRW. If you are using the shoulder legendary you will get three buffs from each bloodboil. Make sure to Death Strike after so you don't waste them. Stayed for 8 stacks the first time, stun variss and use AMS to survive when your hp is reduced, pull out after 4 stacks the rest of the fight. Make sure to either use Death strike on variss or use blooddrinker on him when the portals spawn to get aggro on the Nether Horrors. If you can't make sure to throw down a DnD on Velen to pick them up. When the infernals spawn its easiest to just straight up kill them since it is easier to dodge if you are focusing them. wait for them to come to you since they will most likely aggro on Velen first and then get smited down low by him. My first infernal respawned right about when the 2nd spawned so I disengaged to handle them as a priority. Easiest transition is when the infernals are small/dead and a new pack of Nether Horros spawned and channeling their spell (to prevent them from standing on top of Kor'vass before you get your bearings). Make sure you have Asphyxiate ready before going into phase 2.

Tips Phase 2: If you don't got the Legendary Boots you will have trouble dodging the laser walls. Just jump over them. Don't pop your pot/drums directly. You will get more dps out of them if you do it after you popped an orb, for maximum dps wait for DRW to come off cooldown. Stand near the orbs so you can use them to interupt Annihilate. Use asphyxiate for the first one and whenever it's off cooldown. Always be on the lookout for more orbs and reposition to use them. Use AMS to reduce damage from the pools. Wraith walk is best used to quickly get close to a new orb.

Hope this will of use to someone and gl!

[Melkirth]

Did it as a 906, 45 traits, Blood DK.

Consumables: Flask of the Countless Armies, Defiled Augement Rune, Azshari Salad, Potion of the Old War, Drums of Fury and Goblin Glider kit.
Explanation: Consumables to maximize dps and goblin glider kit for an extra life if you are unlucky with a knockback (bind it so you can use it fast).

Legendaries: Sephuz's Secret and Skullflowers Haemostasis.
Explanation: Sephuz's Secret will proc a lot during this fight making it one of the best legendaries for this encounter as a Blood DK. Skullflower's Haemostasis was used for its dps output and synergy with Dancing Rune Weapon (DRW).

Trinkets: 905 Memento of Angerboda and 885 Ironrune Charm from Relinquished Trinket.
Explanation: Since dps is the most important aspect of this challenge (higher dps->shorter phases->less complications and infernals) I recommend to only use dps trinkets for this challenge.

Talents: 3/1/1//2/2/3/3
Explanation: Blooddrinker is amazing to dps the bosses from range when you are unable to get close. Tremble before me is the best Talent in the whole tree for this fight since it can save you with some clutch fears to interupt the bosses. DnD should be under the boss as often as possible for this reason. One noticable difference is the pick of Purgatory over Bonestorm. I concluded that after the recent nerfs that the adds could be dealt with comfortably without Bonestorm and picked Purgatory since it could give me a few extra seconds of dps if the orbs ran out.

Tips Phase 1: Stand at the back of the platform where Kruul is at the start and Deathgrip Inquisitor Variss to the edge. It will help with the eye spawn locations. They will either spawn on top of him or close by. Kill the during down time with a bloodboil and then let the dot do the rest.

Prepot your potion of war, pull Deathgrip and then pop DRW. If you are using the shoulder legendary you will get three buffs from each bloodboil. Make sure to Death Strike after so you don't waste them. Stayed for 8 stacks the first time, stun variss and use AMS to survive when your hp is reduced, pull out after 4 stacks the rest of the fight. Make sure to either use Death strike on variss or use blooddrinker on him when the portals spawn to get aggro on the Nether Horrors. If you can't make sure to throw down a DnD on Velen to pick them up. When the infernals spawn its easiest to just straight up kill them since it is easier to dodge if you are focusing them. wait for them to come to you since they will most likely aggro on Velen first and then get smited down low by him. My first infernal respawned right about when the 2nd spawned so I disengaged to handle them as a priority. easiest transistion is when the infernals are small/dead and a new pack of Nether Horros spawned and done/channeling their spell (to prevent them from standing on top of Kor'vass before you get your bearings). Make sure you have Asphyxiate up before going into phase 2.

Tips Phase 2: If you don't got the Boots you will have trouble dodging the laser walls. Just jump over them. Don't pop your pot/drums directly. You will get more dps out of them if you do it after you popped an orb, for maximum dps wait for DRW to come off cooldown. Stand near the orbs so you can use them to interupt Annihilate. Use asphyxiate for the first one and whenever it's off cooldown. Always be on the lookout for more orbs and reposition to use them. Use AMS to reduce damage from the pools. Wraith walk is best used to quickly get close to a new orb.

Hope this will of use to someone and gl!

[Deleted]

Well, solid P2 tries.

But since I don't have the legendary legs as a prot paladin, which is my 3rd off-spec.

I'll hang it for tonight.

It's just an exercise in frustration and RNG, for now.

EDIT: I'm actually pretty sure I won't kill him though, there's so much missing dps from losing out on the 2 extra Avenger shield hits that what's going on, is that I'm entering P2 with 3-5 infernals, adds up and no way to clear them quick enough. By the time P1 boss is low enough to push P2, it's an endless shower of adds and knockbacks that you have to dodge(lowers dps, movement). Ugh... Who knows, maybe... tomorrow.

[Radio]

Offspec Brew'd it at ~907 ilvl after many (~80 at least) attempts over a few mage tower cycles.

Stats: mastery/crit at ~9k, vers at ~6%, haste at like 3k
Artifact: Zerg levelled it to the 1/1 20% chance of extra Keg Smash trait for pushing dps at the expense of my raiding WW weapon
Relics: 1 facepalm, 1 healing orb, 1 ISB
Legendaries: Prydaz, KJs
Other trinket: 915 Serpentrix thing for dps
Talents: Burst, Torpedo, BOB, Leg Sweep, HE, Special Delivery and BOC

P1:
- general goal was to push Inquisitor asap with 2 infernals max
- made weakaura that made loud noises at me when aura dropped to make sure that I was hammering on Inquisitor whenever possible, would run out at 4-5 stacks or if things were getting dicey. The sound made my P1s at least a minute faster.
- kept eyes under control whenever I was off Inquisitor, sometimes sniping with chi burst
- would pull adds off velen with keg smash/chi burst, try to do it quickly cause they seem to distract velen from making orbs
- alternated exploding keg/KJs for quickly killing each add wave
- tried to get good use of leg sweep on both adds/inquisitor where possible
- strafe around for infernals and pray
- only use orbs when I need them, try to come into P2 with some spare

P2:
- Ughhhh.
- Lust/pot at some stage during the phase where it makes sense.
- Delay annihilates as much as possible using paralyze/quaking palm/leg sweep/orbs - only had 3 I think when he died
- Purify after annihilates, save fort brew for when you feel like you have no options at all
- Same Exploding Keg/KJs routine for adds
- Pray that Velen didn't drop orbs into pools, if he did then torpedo and cross fingers.
- Keep moving around for infernals, even if they're down (cause they smash the moment they form)
- Get a clean run and kill him with 1 health remaining due to an annihilate/add combo that went bad as you were crossing over

Looking at some of the other brews in this thread that got it down, I may have had a better time experimenting with Nizaou, oh well still got 'er done.

[Valorya]

Finally completed the challenge yesterday as prot paladin.

imgur com/a/ij4v2

Took me around 20-30 tries after the nerf.

[Emote]

Completed prot paladin challenge finally, sitting at around 200 tries
906 ilvl
Legendaries: Legs/belt
Trinkets: Momento/Chrono shard

After all nerfs to add hp legs are probably more hindrance than benefit, due to practically 1 shotting them making it difficult to benefit from AS procs. If I had sephuz would likely run that instead of legs, but don't plan on going near this again for a while... very frustrating.

P2 annihilate rotation:
sotr
sotr+artifact
sotr+AD
bop
bubble

ffa your GotAK for pools/shit combos

some tips: bring goblin glider (no charge/leap, gg), use bear tartare, search wago.io for kruul weakauras, use focus macros for interrupt/stun/AS
...and seems obvious, but you can jump over beams in p2, see a lot of videos with ppl just running against them.

Once you get comfortable with p1 it's just about getting the cleanest possible entry to p2. i also made a macro to focus/pot/hero/rune for the start of p2, since there is a lot to do at that time and it lets you focus on dps/positioning. gl fellow paladins with the most difficult of the tank challenges (:

[Deleted]

Just did prot pala at 897 with sephuz + prydaz.
imgur.com/xDWNpNU.jpg

A lot of it's already been said above but a few more things:

-Frag belt/bomb is useful in p1 to stop an extra cast
-In p2 you can bubble or bop before an annihilate to make korvas take it just so you take less damage
-Really crucial you get a pre-freedom on the stomps where you're going to get an annihilate soon after
-Don't celebrate too early, velen might die to adds without you noticing...

But honestly I think the hardest part is not getting knocked off with 3-4 infernals going into p2, as long as you stay focused and have enough dps to avoid 6+ annihilates you should be able to do it.

[Lorianus]

Did Prot paladin today 906 ilvl.

Legendarys were Sephuz and Legs.
Trinkets were 895 Memento and 890 Chrono Shard

But the MVP for me was simply Bear Tartar as Buffood.

[opbear]

Veng DH ilvl 898, no tier bonuses.

[Ealyssa]

Trying today for the first time. As a VDH.

13 try. But something strange happens to me. Velen dies on half the pulls after less than 1 minute into the P1 and sadly details doesn't show of what he dies...

Looking at videos it doesn't seems an issue for anyone. I manage the adds quit correctly I think, they die fast, I'm not overwhelmed. But sometime for no reason I can see Velen just die and it resets the instance.

[Twilight Cultist]

Trying today for the first time. As a VDH.

13 try. But something strange happens to me. Velen dies on half the pulls after less than 1 minute into the P1 and sadly details doesn't show of what he dies...

Looking at videos it doesn't seems an issue for anyone. I manage the adds quit correctly I think, they die fast, I'm not overwhelmed. But sometime for no reason I can see Velen just die and it resets the instance.

The only thing I can think of is you are letting the little adds do their aoe near Velen. Don't tank them around him.

[Chanja]

Guardian Druids here having a tip for a 902 bro without chest and Luffa?
Can't imagine how easy P1 is when you don't have to run into the D&D which sometimes stacks up to 4 or 5 in about 2 seconds...

[Twilight Cultist]

Guardian Druids here having a tip for a 902 bro without chest and Luffa?
Can't imagine how easy P1 is when you don't have to run into the D&D which sometimes stacks up to 4 or 5 in about 2 seconds...

You also get stacks each time you run in and out of the puddle. It can be really annoying, but if you have to be in it to dps him, stay in until you get ~4 stacks.

[Deleted]

Protection Paladin
Inquisitor Variss health reduced 15%.
Highlord Kruul health reduced by 20%.


Well this just speakes droves of how badly tuned it was... and it wouldn't even surprise if it still requires more nerfs.

My final thoughts.

Before this nerf, I did around 30-40 pulls yesterday, without the best itemization and missing the prot legs legendary. P2 and getting there was not a problem, add management and keeping it under control however, was a major issue though. Most of the time the problem revolved around either pushing it after 2 infernals to avoid the 3rd and risk it with it spawning right when the inq. dies or doing it with all the 4+2(infernals)+1 extra up and having a massive clusterfest ending in getting knocked off with Kruul kite. Or killing them right before but by that time, you'll be running around so much that there'll be another set of 4 little ones spawning causing more issues when considering the amount of interrupts/stuns the inq. needs.

ULTIMATELY, I'd say Blizzard deserves a bash in the head for this shite, because what it is, is really a dps challenge, tanking bit is basically planning cds for Annihilate and interruping Reflection, that's it.

What it comes down to, is getting lucky with RNG(eye spawns), with add spawn times(lags and bugs, caused quite a few attempts, what happened was that the little adds spawned and the system just kept them stuck there for 5-10 sec. extra, causing another massive dps loss, because you were waiting for them to come in. Eyes knock you back at around a 40 degree viewing angle one round and don't on another, etc. etc.) and just, well, basically getting lucky with eye spawn locations and timings. Plus hoping that the server performance level is fine, because you can really tell when the system is struggling with normal upkeep of elements. Loot lag, sync. issues which cause visual bugs, and so on.

DPS is all that this is about, little else.

Watching the debuff timer, watching the infernals casting smash. I would imagine anyone doing it without this weakaura: https://wago.io/Nkm-RHnhG/g/Infernal%20Smash

Have little chance of keeping up with the amount of crap you have to watch out for.

Blizzard, idk what to say. Actually I do know, you fucked it up tuning wise. Prot pally is/was nowhere near double the dmg of the other tanks.

Gz to the few who actually got it done before these nerfs. It takes dedication in time and patience to go through this shite of a bugfest, problems and a dps race that has near nothing to do with tanking until you get to part 2 of the fight and includes a minor bit of actual tanking.

Personally, I'll likely get it done with the next mage tower up, because that 15% is exactly where I'm currently stuck at. The moment before the 3rd infernal spawns in, which I do not want to happen but can't really do anything about majority of the time, depending on eye spawns...

I spent around 4 hours on it yesterday, guildie spent near 8 and said fella had the legendary legs.

EDIT: PS. Druid tank is currently topping the dps in most of our M+ runs with the Thrash element, whatever it is. Beating out, DH, ret pally and a frost dk on average. And Blizzards logic dictates prot pallies doing double dps, LOL.

[Extremity]

Are there any must-have macros or weakauras for Vengeance you guys can suggest? I got my Havoc weapon a week or so ago and figured I'd push for the tanking one on the next Mage Tower. I haven't tanked in a little while but my set is around 905-908 depending on pieces, and aside from that downtime I'm definitely proficient with the spec and have played it since somewhat early on beta; I'm fairly confident I can handle it, and from what I can tell many of the early posts in this thread are from before the balancing nerfs that went out? How significant did those end up being?

Anyways, one thing I've noticed is the use of an [@player] Infernal Strike macro to use it as a normal AOE ability by default, instead of a travel ability. I've never really had a problem just clicking after hitting my bind when I want to use Infernal Strike in my rotation while remaining stationary, but I think I'm still going to try that out (with a modifier key) to see if it makes things feel more "fluid". Is there anything else you guys can suggest? It doesn't even really need to be ENTIRELY unique to this encounter; in terms of macros I use relatively none for Vengeance. I have plenty of Weakauras, some of which are fairly complex (and I've built them all, nothing from any community WA repos), but nothing for this fight. I'm seeing that I probably want one for Drain? Maybe for my stacks, just to have them shown in a more visible location?

[Deleted]

After all the nerfs is it worth trying to do this now without Tyelca?

If you're not up to wasting hours upon hours, likely not.

The 15% nerf will make it much neededly easier for the lot without the legs but it'll still likely take you ages to get the kill if you're going there for the first time, because of the amount of stuff you need to get used to dealing with.

Having the legs(hence x2 dmg on AS, whenever it hits all targets) makes it most likely from here on out, trivial for the guys who have the legs.

But the Mage tower hasn't been up on EU after the nerf so, dunno yet.