Artifact Appearance Challenge

[Miggy]

I used a direhorn pet for its spell deflect ability, which totally negates the damage from fel blast. It's on a short cooldown so you can just alternate between that and countershot, no messing around with frost traps or misdirect required.

[MisterBigglez]

Thought id give this challenge a go on my hunter. I used feign death helm for healing and belt for dps. Overall a little challenging but not too difficult. Biggest trouble for me was avoiding the worm while he was underground, the effect wasn't very visible for me but I found that during that time if I kept moving all the time I never got hit, and even better, the worm would hit the rocks doing this strategy so at the end all the stacks were gone.

I didn't need to trap Tugar to interrupt as my pet was always high hp and I just rotated between interrupt, misdirect and stun.

My pet actually died when Tugar was on 20% health but I just kited and healed when necessary. 900 ilvl equipped and in the end did a total of 648k dps.

Once Tugar was down the worm was easy peasy. For mitigation or stuns I went in this order: Turtle (I was pretty low at that point cause I was being smacked by Tugar) - Stun - Trap - Feign (heal) - Trap - Exhilaration - Stun - Trap (missed cause I panicked a little but was high health so didn't matter) by that point the worm was dead.

[Eapoe]

Surprised people bumped this thread with some of the others made, but just to point out things I've found out since I 1st posted:
The videos that are posted when the event occurs on mmo-c are a great reference, but should be taken with some considerations. The people posting them are usually pretty well geared and have BiS legendaries or legendaries that trivialize the encounter. Still a great thing to check out to see the encounter and get some ideas for talents and positioning.
As far as easiest to hardest, I would have to list them as SV<BM<MM.
SV I needed no specific legendaries for and met the enrage pretty easily and 2 shot it after watching the encounter. Legendaries were KJ and Prydaz. Talents I used were WotMN, Butchery, Spitting Cobra, Caltrops. Other than that, take what you like. P1/P2 are very simple, and you can cheese every other transition by using Turtle and Cheetah and just running straight thru everything until you are in range of using Flare to reveal him. If you have bracers, you can possibly do this every transition. Make sure you have CDs for p3, and watching the video will greatly help your positioning and movement.
I already spoke about BM on my original post, so skipping that.
MM probably has the highest difficulty as some of it is pure luck on where adds spawn, but also has a decent learning curve for which abilities to use when. I recommend the video for what to expect and when, but that being said, remember the person who posted it is very highly geared. My gear sucked, and I ended up using Prydaz and KJ for my kill. Talents I used were, Careful Aim (I will explain why later), LnL, Barrage, Binding Shot, Piercing Shot, the Disengage speed boost, and either ES or Patient Sniper (can't remember that last one, sorry. I swapped talents around between attempts to find out what worked best). As the fight starts, I kited Karam directly back from where I started using a Tar Trap (placed before encounter starts) and using a Binding Shot (also just before he starts running). Once he starts getting close, run directly to your left and there's some pillar looking things and a ditch on the platform. This area is big enough to usually kite around Karam for the 1st 2 phases, but you have to be careful with timing as Raest will come running to you when Karam deactivates. During the burn phase, you will need to learn the best time to use Binding Shot for the adds that get summoned and maximize your damage. Video person burned him to about 40-55%, my burn was roughly 60-65%. After the first burn, the next learning curve is timing Piercing Shot for the hands as you always want it ready to kill the hand as fast as possible. Rinse/Repeat with kiting Karam while still focusing the interrupt and killing of the hands. After the next burn phase, Raest summons orbs. On the suggestion of a post I found, use your pet to soak the orbs. This requires high pet management and awareness, but when you get the hang of it makes it a lot easier as you don't need to save stuns or worry about being caught while you soak it. Also to remember with the pet, I kept mine on Passive, but made sure to put it on Karam while kiting, and then Raest during burn and final phase (except orb soaking of course). Good macros to have are one for using Concussive Shot on your focus target (focus should be Karam) which will come in very handy starting p2 and lasting the fight. Other good macros will be for your pet to either attack your target or for faster positioning to soak orbs (only macro I really needed though was for Concussive on Karam).
One of the biggest learning curves just comes down to when you can use your abilities (for instance I was able to use Binding Shot on Karam twice on the 1st and 2nd kiting phase, but if I had used a 3rd would not have had for the burn phases). Sometimes you can use PS on Raest and other times you need to just hold it. If you are very highly geared and have good legendaries this encounter should be pretty simple, for others like me, good luck and try not to break anything.

[Trapstarz]

As far as easiest to hardest, I would have to list them as SV<BM<MM.

If you watch a video, nothing is hard first of all.
SV has the highest things to take care since the MM one is just a @Focus macro and spec into meme build. The only thing that is hard to figure is the AoE to soak, just use turtle there and it's gone. And for BM it's simply a matter of "do I have the legos to do it braindead or should I use one more CC in my toolkit".

[Eapoe]

If you watch a video, nothing is hard first of all.
SV has the highest things to take care since the MM one is just a @Focus macro and spec into meme build. The only thing that is hard to figure is the AoE to soak, just use turtle there and it's gone. And for BM it's simply a matter of "do I have the legos to do it braindead or should I use one more CC in my toolkit".

SV literally has nothing to take care of...2-3 Butchery used and you're out of the Ice Pillars. As stated with transition phases, you completely ignore every other one with Turtle/Cheetah, and with legendary Bracers there's a chance to cheese every transition. You interrupt 1 ability maybe 3-5 times the whole encounter (depending on dps), and ignore everything else. Even the orbs that fly at you is simply strafing left or right. The only challenge to SV is having the right abilities for the adds that spawn on the last phase to prevent the heal.
As stated with MM, there is a bit of a dps check to it or you will get overrun with adds in P3 (the hands specifically), requires some luck with where adds spawn, and has a decent learning curve as to when to use your CC's. As I also mentioned, if you have high ilvl gear and the right legendaries, namely the boots and/or belt, the fight is that much simpler. There is also the learning curve of when you can plant your feet and when you SHOULD plant your feet. Even in the other thread people mention the biggest issue of this fight is knowing when to use what abilities. While the meme build is ideal, as I stated, some people with the belt also pick SW and get massive damage on the boss from the increase it gives, and might not even take ES/Barrage/Volley as they want adds up longer for the damage boost. Without the boots, you aren't using TS during the kiting phase most likely, or you won't have it up for the 1st and 2nd burn phase, where with them you can use it for both the kiting and burn phase, making the fight that much shorter and easier.
Most people will be able to do all 3 challenges when they get the hang of them, but as stated, I still stand by the fact that from easiest to hardest it is SV<BM<MM, as SV requires the least management over all and a relatively minor amount of gear and no specific legendary helps you cheese it (maybe bracers but I didn't have them so I couldn't see). BM requires some specific talents to make it easier, decent ilvl for the damage, and if you have the Roots legendary it is faceroll simple. MM actually has a slight learning curve, decent legendaries, some luck, and decent ilvl to make it easier, without those it's a harder fight. Does that mean it's stupid hard or impossible? No. It does mean it is harder than the other 2.
Just because you watch a video does not mean the encounter is no longer hard, otherwise guilds wouldn't wipe 100-300 times on the raid end boss thru the years.

[Trapstarz]

SV literally has nothing to take care of...2-3 Butchery used and you're out of the Ice Pillars. As stated with transition phases, you completely ignore every other one with Turtle/Cheetah, and with legendary Bracers there's a chance to cheese every transition. You interrupt 1 ability maybe 3-5 times the whole encounter (depending on dps), and ignore everything else. Even the orbs that fly at you is simply strafing left or right. The only challenge to SV is having the right abilities for the adds that spawn on the last phase to prevent the heal.
As stated with MM, there is a bit of a dps check to it or you will get overrun with adds in P3 (the hands specifically), requires some luck with where adds spawn, and has a decent learning curve as to when to use your CC's. As I also mentioned, if you have high ilvl gear and the right legendaries, namely the boots and/or belt, the fight is that much simpler. There is also the learning curve of when you can plant your feet and when you SHOULD plant your feet. Even in the other thread people mention the biggest issue of this fight is knowing when to use what abilities. While the meme build is ideal, as I stated, some people with the belt also pick SW and get massive damage on the boss from the increase it gives, and might not even take ES/Barrage/Volley as they want adds up longer for the damage boost. Without the boots, you aren't using TS during the kiting phase most likely, or you won't have it up for the 1st and 2nd burn phase, where with them you can use it for both the kiting and burn phase, making the fight that much shorter and easier.
Most people will be able to do all 3 challenges when they get the hang of them, but as stated, I still stand by the fact that from easiest to hardest it is SV<BM<MM, as SV requires the least management over all and a relatively minor amount of gear and no specific legendary helps you cheese it (maybe bracers but I didn't have them so I couldn't see). BM requires some specific talents to make it easier, decent ilvl for the damage, and if you have the Roots legendary it is faceroll simple. MM actually has a slight learning curve, decent legendaries, some luck, and decent ilvl to make it easier, without those it's a harder fight. Does that mean it's stupid hard or impossible? No. It does mean it is harder than the other 2.
Just because you watch a video does not mean the encounter is no longer hard, otherwise guilds wouldn't wipe 100-300 times on the raid end boss thru the years.

I personaly used 4 attempts on the MM one (One I died because I didn't thought the kitting guy would simply OS me xD, one because the add spawn and I didn't knew I needed to soak and 2 others to polish it). I just had a hard time with the SV one, around 30 try, after a bit a talking with another good survival hunter, I was just using the hardest talent like MoK and Spitting cobra ... isn't ideal but I won't ever play SV in any other way.

By difficulty I mean that there are a lot more things that one shot you in the survival one than in the MM one. And when you discover thing one by one MM is simply easier, maybe because for a multigladiator like me the MM one was like playing in an arena kinda. In the SV if you don't spec your pet into tenacity you can try like 5-6 ones before you figure out you can't go further with your pet dying that fast. Like you said, frost phase can be managed with 3 butchery, but before knowing this you get OS a couple of times if you are moving constantly and accidently run into an ice shard directly after the TP. Night phase can be "cheesed" with a high level gear but if you are under 890 you will run into 4 of them. You can be fucked by your pet because he has no blink strike,you harpoon-1s after you pet run to the mob for the flanking strike but you already took 2 hits and you are almost dead. I had a gear that didn't allow me to harpoon and raptor strike right away, the image was put to 10% and I die directly. Then discovering that you have to use flare, takes a couple of try aswell, and I don't count the several times I did a harpoon and got bounced by another image that was in the pixel of my harpoon travel, ending into a one shot too. Then the arcane phase, you have to learn the timing with the channeling spell if you don't cut it it's a fast wipe anyway, takes a couple of time and you can mess up your kick because the other cast are deadly to your pet aswell. The orb can still OS you and you have some moment where the position of the boss and the direction of the orbs is a just a clusterfuck and you need to wait a bit, takes one big "oops" before knowing it kills you instantly too. And after knowing ALL theses things the last phase is just knowing that you have to run away from the boss when he channels (and also that your pet should not tank the boss too), spec into caltrops after using steel trap before because the challenge was a ST fight the entire other phases of the fight. You learn that you have to place the boss correctly else you die in the last 4% because the room is full.

If you "spoil" yourself, the SV execution, with the right talent, right pet spec and a better gear (4p and above 890) then yes SV might be easier but before all the thigs above, you will die a lot.

I did the SV on my main and MM on my alt the first day without any spoilers and like I told you, 30 try for SV (trinket and vodoo) and 4 try for MM (with boots and zevrim). A lot of my friends found the challenge not THAT hard ... after looking a guide + a youtube video of course.

[Eapoe]

I personaly used 4 attempts on the MM one (One I died because I didn't thought the kitting guy would simply OS me xD, one because the add spawn and I didn't knew I needed to soak and 2 others to polish it). I just had a hard time with the SV one, around 30 try, after a bit a talking with another good survival hunter, I was just using the hardest talent like MoK and Spitting cobra ... isn't ideal but I won't ever play SV in any other way.

By difficulty I mean that there are a lot more things that one shot you in the survival one than in the MM one. And when you discover thing one by one MM is simply easier, maybe because for a multigladiator like me the MM one was like playing in an arena kinda. In the SV if you don't spec your pet into tenacity you can try like 5-6 ones before you figure out you can't go further with your pet dying that fast. Like you said, frost phase can be managed with 3 butchery, but before knowing this you get OS a couple of times if you are moving constantly and accidently run into an ice shard directly after the TP. Night phase can be "cheesed" with a high level gear but if you are under 890 you will run into 4 of them. You can be fucked by your pet because he has no blink strike,you harpoon-1s after you pet run to the mob for the flanking strike but you already took 2 hits and you are almost dead. I had a gear that didn't allow me to harpoon and raptor strike right away, the image was put to 10% and I die directly. Then discovering that you have to use flare, takes a couple of try aswell, and I don't count the several times I did a harpoon and got bounced by another image that was in the pixel of my harpoon travel, ending into a one shot too. Then the arcane phase, you have to learn the timing with the channeling spell if you don't cut it it's a fast wipe anyway, takes a couple of time and you can mess up your kick because the other cast are deadly to your pet aswell. The orb can still OS you and you have some moment where the position of the boss and the direction of the orbs is a just a clusterfuck and you need to wait a bit, takes one big "oops" before knowing it kills you instantly too. And after knowing ALL theses things the last phase is just knowing that you have to run away from the boss when he channels (and also that your pet should not tank the boss too), spec into caltrops after using steel trap before because the challenge was a ST fight the entire other phases of the fight. You learn that you have to place the boss correctly else you die in the last 4% because the room is full.

If you "spoil" yourself, the SV execution, with the right talent, right pet spec and a better gear (4p and above 890) then yes SV might be easier but before all the thigs above, you will die a lot.

I did the SV on my main and MM on my alt the first day without any spoilers and like I told you, 30 try for SV (trinket and vodoo) and 4 try for MM (with boots and zevrim). A lot of my friends found the challenge not THAT hard ... after looking a guide + a youtube video of course.

So what we've got going is a failure in communication where you are talking about going in blind which is harder, where I'm talking about after knowing how everything works what's required to beat the encounter.
For what you are saying, yes I'd agree that SV is harder for the amount of mechanics to learn while having no idea about the encounter. For actually performing the encounter successfully I still have to go with MM being the more difficult dependent on gear and learning when you can do what. The things I am talking about are for people like me, who are decently skilled at the game but are lacking the right gear pieces to make the encounter easier. As stated, I was having to run with Prydaz and KJ trinket, which severely limits the dps you can put out every phase, whether kiting or burning.
Mechanics wise, I would agree with you about SV, but at a time with videos and walkthroughs readily abundant, they are nothing to worry about.

[Trapstarz]

So what we've got going is a failure in communication where you are talking about going in blind which is harder, where I'm talking about after knowing how everything works what's required to beat the encounter.
For what you are saying, yes I'd agree that SV is harder for the amount of mechanics to learn while having no idea about the encounter. For actually performing the encounter successfully I still have to go with MM being the more difficult dependent on gear and learning when you can do what. The things I am talking about are for people like me, who are decently skilled at the game but are lacking the right gear pieces to make the encounter easier. As stated, I was having to run with Prydaz and KJ trinket, which severely limits the dps you can put out every phase, whether kiting or burning.
Mechanics wise, I would agree with you about SV, but at a time with videos and walkthroughs readily abundant, they are nothing to worry about.

I totaly agree with that

[Arrowstormen]

I completed the Survival challenge using standard talent build, standard legendaries (which at that point for me was feet and Surv-ring I think), 902 ilvl gear or something like that, and a nether ray pet in Tenacity spec.

The important thing to remember is to not care too much about DPS, and focus on executing mechanics correctly. The only reason you want boss damage to go fast in the Xylem-part of the fight is for the relief of being done, which is a tempting enough reason, but most of one's deaths will probably be slight missteps during one of the phases.

Xylem's frostbolt hurts, but I wouldn't interrupt them actually, you should save that for Gather Power or whatever his channel is called. Your pet, with some help from Mend Pet and Exhilaration, should be able to survive for the most part, and if it dies, you can always revive it pretty quickly.

The ice spikes are quite annoying, somebody said you didn't have to destroy all of them, but I always did, simply because you can't really make a specific path through them with Butchery. You also want to try to make sure you have caltrops up on your location when the ice spikes can appear, and that you have all your focus so you don't run out of focus after 1-2 casts of Butchery, something that killed me a number of times. You can probably use Exhilaration twice as you clear the ice spikes, and you should make sure to do that.

Mirror Image phase isn't too hard, but it can be somewhat disorientating and tense. You just want to harpoon your way to the mark on your map / the yellow circle where Xylem is, and flare the location. After harpooning, you should be able to kill the image with a Flanking Strike and one or two hits of Mongoose Bite. Make sure to harpoon right after they finish their cast. Note that sometimes might pet was a bit slow and I couldn't use Flanking Strike, so beware of that. Sometimes it also seemed to me like the images weren't all casting at the same time, but I usually managed to make it anyway. You can flare from decently far away.

Dodging the bolts in the Shadow Phase can be quite annoying, since I wasn't always sure if they were gonna come from the front or the side. Save Bloodlust for when the first adds spawn in the Void guy phase at the end, and make sure to move slowly at the edge of the platform and the dark stuff on the ground, so you don't spread it too quickly. Use Disengage and whatever movement increases you have to get as far as possible from the boss when he starts his channel, and under no circumstances interrupt him.

Killing the adds before they reach the black stuff and shortly afterwards the boss I found pretty tricky, I saved Fury of the Eagle for them instead of using it on the boss, and I also saved Explosive Trap and made sure I could throw Caltrops on the ground in front of them. You might have to use Caltrops a second time if you don't get them down quickly enough and have to prevent them from escaping.

[keyone01]

During survival challenge don't try to harpoon as farest as posssible during images phase, not oneshoting it after landing can easy led to your wipe.
You can flare him out during turtle, so you can also cheese this phase this way, especially if you have wrists.

[Deleted]

Did this as MM with around 896 ilvl at the time,

got to <5% a few times with piercing build but killed with trick shot build - used belt and gloves for legendary ( seph is also pretty good )

Trick shot build was with LNL + crows. Crows is extremely helpful with killing the hands whilst on the move, interrupt near end of cast, aimed shot and some arcanes easily kills them. It then resets for the next one.

Last phase the belt is extremely helpful as you can get a huge aimed buff from aoeing adds to keep damage up on the mage, allowing to do both functions at the same time.

Notes : concussive the melee dude on CD or 1s after he CANNOT get gear you.

you can frost trap him as well e.g. when TS is up or if you need to get a rune to sit in.

You only need to be in the rune at the END of its effect.

Binding shot is a great stun for Raest/adds when you need to burst, keep one pack in place on the boss whilst aoe cleaving etc or stun Raest + adds when sitting in a rune.

If you mess up on Rune you can trap the add / binding shot with Raest to get you the last few seconds to drop the boss.

gear makes a difference - did this at 896 with no set bonus ( very unlucky drops when it first came out :P ) but DID have convergence ( massive help with TS CD for burst ).

Piercing was good but i found pretty holden on RNG, id get him really close IF i got good piercing CRITS but otherwise if i got unlucky there just wasnt enough dmg( low ilvl ) Trick shot was much more consistent when you get into the swing of things.

If you are 900+, have converg, 4 set and leg belt/boots you should be fine.

ASpect of turtle - try to save this for when you might be in a bad spot and need to get a rune ( 2nd ). At this point there will be a lot of slowing goo, and you may need to run through adds / Raest to get to it. You can then disengage / cheetah out. 2nd rune is where it usually went wrong so this is critical, after this immediately concussive raest, interrupt the next hand and hope you can burst mage before it recasts. Or kill the hand, trap the next rune and keep on him.

Also with new talents out and filled this should make the DPS check much easier.

[Johnnynapalm38]

It took me a healthy amount of tries when it first came out, but it was definitely fun! I love scenarios like these that test your skill on a class (as well as adjust to different legendaries!)

[ihatepeople]

Disclaimer: I did all of the challenges at 900+ ilvl and with 4set.

MM Challenge: This one took me about 30-40 attempts, the last 10 of which i had the boots. I kept dying towards the end (p3) when i would get overwhelmed by adds + the faceless and hand spawns. Having the boots enabled me to basically spam TS and burn the guy when he was unprotected. I went meme spec for this and rocked the shit out of it. A targeting macro for the hands works wonders here. No special strat here that hasn't already been discussed. I tried to make sure the adds were grouped up together always for easy AOE/cleave and I turtled the first faceless spawn and when the second one was about to come up the boss was dead. I used the boots and gloves for legendaries.

BM Challenge: This took about 8 attempts total. I had the healing pants so i just ignored the worm and zerged the tauren guy. At the end i just trapped and stunned the worms sonic cast or whatever it was called. No special strat here besides interrupting/stunning the cast, making sure your pet doesn't get 1 shot, and making sure the worm has no stacks of armor left if you choose to ignore it.

Survival Challenge: This was by FAR the most challenging for me, mostly because i hadn't touched survival spec except to pump excess AP into my weapon for the broken shore quests/concordance. So I read the guides in Icy-Veins about the rotation and the CDs and watched a bunch of the strat videos. I put about 20 attempts or so in and then i gave up for awhile so i could more traits into the weapon. A week ago or so I started doing attempts again, by this time i had gotten the wrist legendary. After about another 50-60 attempts (mostly dying to doing dumb shit in the shadow and arcane phases) I killed it. I used the wrist and healing pants legendary and my pet was ferocity spec (i just rezzed it if it died). I failed about 3 times in the last phase simply because i would fuck up my CDs and rotation when it came to killing the adds. On the kill i literally had 2 yards of space and instead of killing the adds i just zerged the boss and /prayed. Every phase except the last phase is pretty damn easy now that i think about it. You probably will die from boredom when you do die, nothing is interesting until the last phase.

[Holovik]

Did BM one at 906 equipped in 7 attempts. Used Prydaz and pants after reading how easy it makes it. I lusted on Tugar right off the bat just to burn him down. Alternated between trap, intimidation, and counter-shot to interrupt his fel bolt casts. Move out of middle for avalanche and then just move around the stalagmites to drop stacks on the worm when he's burrowing. Once Tugar dies just focus the worm and trap/intimidation his sonic blast casts.

TIP: Tenacity pet spec will allow you to miss a fel bolt cast and not let your pet get 1 shot. Reduces to about 8% hp and then you can exhilaration to recover. DPS is not really a concern with the healing pants because you can outheal the sonic blasts.


For MM I used Zevrims and Boots, again 906 ilvl. Took me about 30 attempts and I had gotten familiar with it first on my frost mage. I tried with bursting shot bracers but found I got more damage on Raest during the burn periods using the ring (i do not have belt). Used traditional meme spec with the exception of using crows. The tip about using crows on the hands is spot on. Trapping melee dude on the last phase to burn Raest is seriously OP.

TIP: If you have the belt, running Trickshot would be insane for this. Piercing shot relied on all of the adds being more lined up than they liked to be but was still ok to kill them without them being a problem.

[Khrux]

I've still not done MM one, gave it 5 or 6 attempts after I got the BM/SV ones but I've only 40 traits and zero MM leggos so I just don't know if it can be done without more effort put into MM which I don't intend to do.

I can live forever, but I get to a point where all I'm doing is killing hands and aoeing adds instead of doing dmg to the melee guy. Hopefully the changes to MM for 7.2.5 let me faceroll it because I can't stand the spec and don't intend to play it this Xpac but I want to get the skin in case we can use it in future xpacs on any weapon.

[Deleted]

this is cooool

[MatthewOU2015]

Did mine the last time the MT was up at 907. Took me around 45 attempts starting at 896 ilvl. The leggos I used were the ring and the legs. The ring allowed my turtle to eat a fel blast to the face with misdirect and the turtle shell. The pants allowed me to heal up in "phase 2". Macros for countershot, turtle shell and intimidation helped a ton. I even used weakauras. For me the challenge was rather difficult but once I made macros and set up my weakauras, it became manageable.

[Sandwrong]

Did mine the last time the MT was up at 907. Took me around 45 attempts starting at 896 ilvl. The leggos I used were the ring and the legs. The ring allowed my turtle to eat a fel blast to the face with misdirect and the turtle shell. The pants allowed me to heal up in "phase 2". Macros for countershot, turtle shell and intimidation helped a ton. I even used weakauras. For me the challenge was rather difficult but once I made macros and set up my weakauras, it became manageable.

I assume you're talking about the BM challenge, since you mentioned Intimidation. And the key to the challenge was using the Ice Trap as an interrupt, with intimidation used as a backup.

[khazlol]

i used these macroes when i did the BM challenge. they are great for reducing possible mistakes :P

#showtooltip
/target Tugar
/cast Counter Shot

#showtooltip
/target Fel Surge Totem
/cast Cobra Shot