Withered Army Training [Video]

[KrazyK923]

I know a lot of people hadn't bothered to do this yet on the beta because it cost so much Ancient Mana, but I recorded the weekly "Withered Training" quest that you can get. It's actually quite a fun mini-game, with progressive mechanics that carry over to every new time you do it again. Take a look if you're interested. Or don't, if you're not.

[Leodok]

That's... pretty awesome actually.
Suramar seems fun!

[KrazyK923]

It definitely is my favorite part of Suramar. I like the idea of getting just a bit further every time. My first time I was only able to get through ~50% of that big circular room and now I'm already in the second part of the mini-dungeon after just 3 more attempts.

[FelPlague]

I know a lot of people hadn't bothered to do this yet on the beta because it cost so much Ancient Mana, but I recorded the weekly "Withered Training" quest that you can get. It's actually quite a fun mini-game, with progressive mechanics that carry over to every new time you do it again. Take a look if you're interested. Or don't, if you're not.

its costs litterally nothing come reachign honored with them, there is bottles, plants, and powder that spawn all over suramar that you cant take till you learn about them at honored... they give 40-50 for plants, 80-100 for dust, 100-200 for the bottles, and they spawn rather often

[KrazyK923]

Well actually I was just grabbing a bunch of them today after I recorded this video, and I wasn't even honored yet.

The bottles, plants, and flowers. I believe they activate after you do the first round of story quests actually in the city.

I thought it was easy before, but its ridiculous now. In the video you can see I spend 1300/1400 Ancient Mana I had on that character, and less than 60 minutes in Suramar and I was back at cap. It might actually be a bit too easy to get it now, now that I think about it.

It's become not even about the amount of Ancient Mana itself but just the cap instead, since you won't be able to get 2000 in the first place probably until at least 6k into honored.

[oAllElseFailo]

Do you think the place is mapped out kind of in sections as far as ilvl goes? For instance, that invis guy that was wrecking face maybe requires a higher ilvl or something or is it more just how many things you have for your withered that buff them along with the amount of withered with you?

[KrazyK923]

I think the fact that my Berserker had already died (And I only had one) probably played a major factor into him just zerging onto me. Because as I said in the video, they seem to either be constantly taunting or they are just pulling aggro hardcore. Without it, the mob seemed to be just dashing between the Withered doing mega damage on them.

So now that I'm basically sure that the big chest will no longer spawn more than once behind that giant Dryad, I won't attack her anymore and my Berserker won't take more than 50% of his health in the fight. Also getting more Berserker Crowns will probably help a bunch. Not only do they have more health and taunt, they also do a whole hell of a lot more damage.

Finally I'm not 100% sure if the Withered were even going after him. He did seem to be taking some kind of damage, but when I was editing the footage, I didn't see them actively going after him. As I was saying during my freak out, they seemed to instead go off further down the hall and pull more stuff. So I don't know if that's working as intended yet.

So its probably a combination of things. The Withered not going after him when in Mayhem! mode, not having any Berserkers, and only having one "bonus health" buff on the Withered.

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Oh and because someone on the video asked and I forgot to mention it in the video: No, you cannot heal the Withered troops. You are actually able to heal them, but that extra health burns back down to whatever they originally were. I guess the logic could be that it gives healers a MUCH bigger benefit if you could just heal all your troops up to 100% after each fight, but they also won't be doing much damage comparatively either.

[Archimtiros]

I've completed the scenario a few times now (by completed I mean reached the end of the scenario), and can add some insight.

Dro is indeed bullshit; he's way overtuned and unfortunately required, as he drops a key that you need to progress further in. In previous builds the key carried over between attempts, similar to the Withered upgrades, but sadly it no longer does so.

• You basically either need to outgear him and burn him down before he kills you, be a tank so that he won't kill you, or kite him to death and keep yourself healed. Unfortunately, the first is the only good option, as he will annihilate your withered army otherwise, though that is recoverable and I've managed to babysit as little as one remaining Withered for a surprising amount of time until I could gather reinforcements. Dro spawning seems to be tied to breaking cocoons, so I believe he's theoretically avoidable, though it's very hard to keep your Withered from doing so, and since you need his key, there's no real reason in doing so.

The best thing you can do when starting out is to prioritize the large (10 Withered) chests, such as the one behind the large Dryad. These do not respawn between attempts and contain the Withered upgrade items such as the Berserker Helms which carry over between attempts. So far I've gotten 2 Helms, 1 Spellcaster, 1 hidden-chest detector, 25% health upgrade, and the less prone to running away upgrades; and I believe I've collected all but one large chest which is located across an impassable jump if you lack any sort of speed boost/glide (just past the main area where the tree is in Shal'aran).

The medium (5 Withered) chests contain pets, toys, and a quest item which allows bank access in Shal'aran, while score influences your primary chest rewards which is usually rep, AP, or epics. So far my highest score is somewhere around 600, though due to some mini-bosses being bugged, and others just not worth killing after getting their chests, I typically complete the scenario with ~450. As of yet, there doesn't seem to be a specific reward for finishing the scenario.

The best tactic I've found is to simply play as normal. Since you can't heal the Withered, and the Berserker "tank" is pretty pathetic and dies quickly, you really only have the choice of increasing their damage and aggroing everything in a 50 yard radius, or keeping their damage low and on-target, so there isn't exactly a lot of depth as to controlling them. Simply keeping aggro off of them either through threat or direct damage is all you need to do to win. In other words, don't try to do this as a healer. It sounds obvious, but I've gotten best results as a Fury Warrior by simply killing things before they seriously threaten my Withered, while using self-healing and eating between big pulls to sustain myself rather than relying on them to kill things. That said, I didn't find it too hard, and most classes should be able to complete it easily enough by if not before ilvl 850 (I had my first completion at ~830).

In all, it's a fun scenario and reminds me a lot of the Isle of Thunder treasure run, though it's definitely meant to be progressive - it gets easier as you gain more mana to bring more troops, upgrade your Withered, and gear yourself up. If you have any questions regarding, feel free to let me know.

[oAllElseFailo]

So the big chests you get out don't respawn the next time in, right? So after you complete it and get out all the large chests, is there any reason at all to go back in there again? Or is it just to 'farm' the small chests basically?

[Phunkle]

Curious as to how viable this scenario is after completing it a couple of times. Is there a reason to keep going?

[KrazyK923]

Curious as to how viable this scenario is after completing it a couple of times. Is there a reason to keep going?

Doing just the score part will still get you the Nightfallen reputation items. Honestly that's really the only thing I care about.

[Phunkle]

Doing just the score part will still get you the Nightfallen reputation items. Honestly that's really the only thing I care about.

Is there anything else? Gimmick stuff or something

[KrazyK923]

Is there anything else? Gimmick stuff or something

Gold, ancient mana, blood of sargeras. Probably other stuff I don't know yet.

[Padwarle]

Tanks shine in here. Mages? Not so much.

[Yuna]

Gets easier each time you do it, more berserkers, crazy casters and healers. Was a breeze with ilvl 850 DH tank. Once you hit exalted its pretty much obsolete, too.

[Fincayra]

That's amazing. I remember perfecting routes for the Thunder King Trove. I can see myself doing the same thing for this.

Thanks for the awesome video post!

[Mefistophelis]

That was awesome! I wonder what else is in store for us in Legion.

[snusrage]

I know a lot of people hadn't bothered to do this yet on the beta because it cost so much Ancient Mana, but I recorded the weekly "Withered Training" quest that you can get. It's actually quite a fun mini-game, with progressive mechanics that carry over to every new time you do it again. Take a look if you're interested. Or don't, if you're not.

you earned a sub bud

[Allenschezar]

Did it as a Prot Warrior and it was surprisingly easy. Dro didn't even manage to kill one of my withered. I just charged him as soon as he dashed away to kill my withered. Because the charge roots him he instantly stops and focuses back on me.

I didn't even have good gear (like 795 or something). So yea do it as a tank and it's just easy. Only annoying one was the elfbreaker.

Except one Boss that kept resetting over and over i didn't have any bugs i could remember.

But yea as some mentioned before it needs more tuning for certain classes. Especially for DPS only classes.

That's amazing. I remember perfecting routes for the Thunder King Trove. I can see myself doing the same thing for this.

Thanks for the awesome video post!

You don't really need to do "routes". Since you're not depending on time or anything you can just clear everything out.