How are the Artifact Challenges going?

[Yunzi]

I'm interested in Disc especially, but this thread can be used for Shadow or Holy as well.

If you've tried them yet, how are they?

[Nephthysis]

I'm interested in Disc especially, but this thread can be used for Shadow or Holy as well.

If you've tried them yet, how are they?

Can only speak for Holy. Only one that we know of has finished it (grats Hunttay!) at 915 equipped. There are a few of us stuck on p5/6.

In general, shackle is your friend. Apotheosis is a must. Being a blood elf helps a whole lot.

[Fleckens]

Shadow main spec at around 908 itemlevel with disc around 904, beat both of those. Shadow I beat second try, although had looked at videos of it before. Disc one probably took 15 tries or so, I'm not sure what exactly caused it but the later fireballs or whatever it is they are called hit extremely hard, worst case I had a combo of 1 mil from worm followed by 3.8 mil+300k from the boss within a couple of sec and those kind of combos definitely killed me the most, with them usually happening when the boss was around 20%, before that it seemed to hit for quite a bit less, so once I just made sure I was topped and had either barrier/ps/fear/fade+shadowmend reduction up for every one at that point I managed to get it. Funnily enough it was also the one try where I did not have bloodlust as I had ran out of drums.

If I had to give tips, make sure you have an easy way of seeing the cast from the boss and then always keep an eye on the worm. Focus target is a bit of a pain due to it resetting all the time so I just always kept an eye on it's bar to watch out for it's cast as well as looking for when it was gonna charge. And of course, make sure you have sounds on, it helps a lot being able to hear the totem being dropped so you don't get stunned and die.

[Clebane]

Just completed holy at 905 equipped. 4 set and I do have the Cosmic Ripple trait.
I'll have a video later.

Talents:
Trail of Light
Perseverance (For 1st phase)
Censure
Light of the Naaru
Piety
Divinity
Apotheosis

1st Phase Legendaries: Cloak and Magnum Opus.
2nd Phase: Velen's Future Sight (for stats), Muze's Unwavering Will (for smite cast speed)
3rd/4th Phase: Cload and Velen's.

1st Phase: This is about managing cooldowns, stuns, and shackles. I used Apotheosis on the 2nd pack and the last pack. Save Guardian Spirit for oh shit moments.
Put an add in shackle immediately when you have a mage to kill. Help dps and use Chastise on the 3rd stack of the debuff to block getting the 4th stack.
Try to interupt knife dance and mana sting with shackle when possible but it's not super high priority.

2nd Phase: Easy phase overall.
Just dps the eyes and heal up between each explosion.
Target down the fel bats individually or just spam holy nova.
When you open the gate, dispel the add and pop Apothesis. Drop a sanctuary on all 3 of the adds you need to heal. Spam FH on them and use Serenity to get them topped up.
Dps the arrow person down. Spam holy nova up the stairs. Kill the summoner.

3rd Phase: By far the most frustrating part of the challenge. Any add you don't heal up, comes back when you fight the boss. Two adds getting through is fine. Three is pushing it. Four: you're dead. You can use pots here as much as you like between the spirits. So abuse it!
Here's what I did.
First set of spirits: Prepot. PoM. Serenity. Velen's. Divine Hymn. Unfortunately I had an add bug out and couldn't top it off, so hopefully they will fix that.
Second Set: Apotheosis. Your prepot will still be up at this point. Try to hit them with sanctuary when they get closer.
Third Set: Drums. Spam your ass off.
I had a 4th set due to the bugged add. I just Naaru'd and use Serenity.

4th Phase: Drink up quick! The phase is light healing.
Boss jumps on you and drops a fel puddle. Let at least one go off!! You can STUN him mid-leap on the rest to help preserve space.
Boss puts a debuff like nightbane. Get low and top yourself up with a serenity.

I actually died with the boss had 10m health left (70m total) and just prayed that my guys would finish him. Fortunately, the boss hits like a wimp on the tank and they got it down!

[Deleted]

If I had to give tips, make sure you have an easy way of seeing the cast from the boss and then always keep an eye on the worm. Focus target is a bit of a pain due to it resetting all the time so I just always kept an eye on it's bar to watch out for it's cast as well as looking for when it was gonna charge.

I attempted the Disc and Shadow challenges yesterday before going to bed and gave them a few shots, but struggled extremely with the incoming damage (in the Disc challenge, which is my main focus). Do you think it's realistically doable with 880, or should I just call it and wait?

[Sangomah]

I find the shadow one extremely frustrating at 896 with Anunds and Neck legs as the RNG of the tentacle spawns can fuck me over in the later stages of the kiting, as Karam moves faster and faster the longer it goes on for. Not having a reliable slow is extremely frustrating I find.

[Fleckens]

I attempted the Disc and Shadow challenges yesterday before going to bed and gave them a few shots, but struggled extremely with the incoming damage (in the Disc challenge, which is my main focus). Do you think it's realistically doable with 880, or should I just call it and wait?

I have a hard time seeing it being done in 880 I'm afraid, don't think you'd have the mana to last the entire thing, and your health may also be too low to survive some of the later attacks.

I find the shadow one extremely frustrating at 896 with Anunds and Neck legs as the RNG of the tentacle spawns can fuck me over in the later stages of the kiting, as Karam moves faster and faster the longer it goes on for. Not having a reliable slow is extremely frustrating I find.

He is balanced around us not having a reliable slow though, he gains stacks much faster as a mage for example, but It's pretty much just a dps check. On my mage which is similar itemlevel to you I always kept getting caught as at some point even with slows always on him he's too fast for you to do anything but instants and then you can't kill stuff in time.

[Bleda]

Recently finished holy one, 911 ilvl, no cosmic ripple with X'anshi/Prydaz for the whole run.Used full consumables and 2x drums, took about 10-15 tries overall to do it.
Had more issues initially with the 1st stage last two waves then the 2nd half of the run, after I managed to pass it once was generally consistent to stage 5 which took 3 tries total to pass with 2 adds up (mage/archer).Last phase was a 1 shot however my cloak did proc but boss died like 2 sec after.

Talents:
Trail of Light
Perseverance
Censure
Light of the Naaru
Surge of Light
Divinity
Apotheosis

Some general tips:
Prio dpsing mages always, make sure you got stun up at about 50-60% of their hp, after that don't worry about them, never shackle them.
Shackle has diminishing so can use it 3 times then they are immune, make sure you stun the 4th cast of the archers (or just use a npc to soak the ability but there should be no need).
You should never need to mana pot so use dps pots.
For stage5 remember that 2 adds are very easy to deal with so play it safe and keep your 3 NPCs up as prio, Jarod's target will take the most dmg, i typically GS it during wave 1 when i also poped drums/Apo/pot then pre PoM/DH/Sanctify for the 2nd wave and just Light of T'uure/FH/Serenity for last wave.
Divine Hymn seems to have no problem healing the 3 spirits that are still not in line of sight of your regular heals so can start healing that wave earlier, DH will also keep your party up so this should stabilise you for wave3.

For last phase always hug the outer edges and stay around 40%-50% hp, there is no reason to go lower as the boss does almost no dmg.

[Deleted]

I have a hard time seeing it being done in 880 I'm afraid, don't think you'd have the mana to last the entire thing, and your health may also be too low to survive some of the later attacks.

Yup, that pretty much lines up with what I have experienced. Damage compared to the health pool is a real issue; I am dropping much lower than most other people in their videos when they did it. :/

Shadow could be possible (even though I am not sure), but since I am mostly after the Disc appearance, I won't waste too many shards on that right now.

[Chantique]

Gonna link this here too:



He is 912ilvl http://us.battle.net/wow/pt/characte...zpriest/simple

[Naux]

Guide in video annotations.

[Sangomah]

Not sure, but he seems to speed up a lot faster today than he did yday. Getting through the first phase seems hardest part right now

[Mazeari]

I think the holy one is amazing, a frustrating part is that while I love p1. Is that you have to start all over every fucking time. (also quiete buggy on a few parts which can rng the shit out of you). As a 895 with no good holy legendaries (37 traits), I really struggle to heal 8 targets in p3. Hell I run oom by the time the 4th waves arive. And basically I need alot of lucky crits to get past that point (and the hunter to not take random 50% burst damage). Which is 'fine', if I didn't have to go though the hassle of p1 and p2 a gazillion of times.
Disc on the other hand is a 'boring' fight that's not that hard, only hard part is running oom and losing focus on the interupt cast. It becomes incredibly easy with more gear though. got him to tugor to 35% in 4 tries, also with 895 gear, 39 traits and no good legendaries.

[Venara]

Just completed as Holy with itemlevel 900. I used a lot of the info @Clebane posted earlier but I adapted it to my needs a little here and there, mostly gear-wise.

Talents: Trail of Light, Perseverance, Censure, Light of the Naaru, Surge of Light, Divinity, Apotheosis
Legendaries: Sephuz (P1 only), Prydaz (All Phases), X'anshi (All Phases except P1)
Trinkets: Amalgam's, Flask of the Solemn Night
Other Gear: T19 4pc, Artifact at 42 (with Cosmic Ripple)

Here's some stuff that really helped me:

All Phases
- Shackle is your BEST friend in P1, P2 (for the lone Arbalest on the stairs) and the last phase if you didn't manage to heal all adds.
--> IMMEDIATELY Shackle any casts of Mana Sting and Knife Dance and ONLY those. Don't shackle randomly, you'll just trigger the DR.
--> Bind a really accessible hotkey. Seriously, do it. I didn't for my first 30 tries and after I did I finished P1 every single time without any issues. Shackling the important casts is the key to beating this phase successfully.

- TAKE BREAKS
--> There is no timer after the end of P1 and before the last phase. You can wait for all cooldowns to finish, including haste drums.
--> Use this time to rearrange your bars if necessary. Personally I changed my set up in a way that I was casting FH and HW:Serenity using keybinds rather than the Clique + Grid setup I usually use to heal. This felt much more effective for healing the add waves in the last phase as I found it easier to spam the FH key until it finally started healing an add vs. frantically clicking the frame.

P1 Only
- DPS as much as you can while keeping your group up.
--> You want to use Chastise Stun on any Mages at 50-60% and otherwise as often as you can.
--> It's really useful for when you've triggered DR on an add and can't Shackle. Just stun it instead. Next time Shackle will be available again.
--> Don't be stingy with your stuns. If there's no mage in the wave, stun on cooldown.
--> Try to have a stun ready for every wave with a mage in it, or at least have less than 15 sec CD on it so you can get one in after 2x Smites.
--> Remember that Apotheosis works on Chastise as well

P2 - Solo Phase
- Tbh, you really shouldn't need help with this. It's super easy. If you do want help, read on.
--> DPS eyes one by one, heal after every one.
--> Use Holy Nova on the green orbs.
--> While opening the first gate (5 sec cast), target the feared NPC right away so you can dispel him as soon as the gate drops.
--> Pop a HW: Sanc under the other three and heal away. It's almost impossible for them to die if you're not super slow.

P3 - Add Healing
- PREPOT Potion of Prolonged Power and pop more as they become available.
- Just before the adds come in, pop drums, apotheosis and start pumping those suckers with FH + HW:Serenity. I managed to get 5/6 of the first two waves while these CDs were up and got my last two in the third wave.
- Here is where you want that T19 4pc bonus. A single HW: Serenity crit usually heal an add to full. FH once before to get that extra crit chance.
- Don't waste your time trying to use PoH or Hymn. They heal too little and waste your precious time. DO use HW:Sanc if you can hit two or more.

P3.5 - Non-Healed Adds
- 4 or more is a wipe, don't even bother trying.
- 3 is manageable, depending on what adds you let through. Two Mages or Archers can be very difficult. Other combinations are much easier and play just like a wave in P1.
- You CAN drink after this phase ends. Spam that button until you sit down, you don't have long to drink.

P4 - Final Boss
- Keep to the outer edges of the room.
- ALWAYS stand right outside a previous green spot, otherwise you'll waste precious space.
- Your group will barely take any damage at all. The only real incoming damage is from your Ignite Soul debuff.
- You do not need to get as low as 20-30% health for this. 50-60% is just fine and makes surviving the next jump much easier.
- The boss can be stunned. DPS as much as you're able to get those stuns in. More stun = more time before you run out of space.
- Use the remaining space in the middle wisely once you've filled the outer edges. I was able to place 3 more jumps into the middle space before I ran out. Luckily the boss died in that second.

Hope this helps someone complete their challenge

[Killem]

Right now, I only miss the Holy challenge, whih I couldnt start, because I needed to level the weapon.

The trick I can tell you for the disc challenge is to interrupt the earthquakes and at 30% interrupt the Fel Blasts.


For the shadow challenge, I just copy my post from the other thread:

This is how I did it as a shadow priest:

Phase 1:

• Kite the Boss around the outer part of the platform to prevent his slow fields from stacking up in the other phases.
• If they proc, use your tentacles for getting some distance to the boss, while he is slowed.
• Play better safe than sorry and do not risk getting hit, like I did multiple attempts. It is not always possible to bring the cast through.
• Sometimes Mind Flay is the better option.

Phase 2:

• Go ham on the caster, while trying to stack his adds.
• Those adds are a great source of insanity if Mind Flay cleaves into them.
• Also place your DoTs on an add every now and then, for fishing insanity (set bonus and spirits) and ToF.

Phase 2.5:

• When the Melee is active again, try to stack him up with those adds, that a Mind Bomb can stun them all.
• Mind Bomb and those hands have the same spawntimer/cooldown. Pair them, to get a few seconds to nuke them asap.
• Since every 30 seconds those hands spawn, you can only interrupt every second of them. Dispersion or the absorb neck legendary are your friends.

Phase 3:

• Same as phase 2, try to gather those adds, while playing the hands and letting the boss tick down on your DoTs.
• If a rune spawns, you better soak it, otherwise a nasty add spawns. So watch out for your kite path.

Phase 3.5:

• Try to bring the melee boss back into that pack of adds, and keep him also dotted.
• Your main target is the caster, if he dies, you have won.

Here is the video of it: (It may take a bit of time, since I am uploading it, whlie writing)


Here is also the talents I used: http://www.wowdb.com/talent-calculator#CbZX
I found the Mindbender in this case superior, since it will deal its damage, regardless, if you are busy running.


Here are the WeakAuras that I used for the challenge:

(click image for the link)

I hope it can help a bit. Maybe this evening I find out how to do the Holy challenge. (Have not touched that spec at all since release)

[Deja Thoris]

I acutally find this challenge super unfun.

Kiting isn't a shadow priests strong suit and elements of kiting would be fine. Having a fucking kite derpfest for 4 minutes is meh. On top of this if you have more than 900 ilevel and have sephuz you can surrender and win (the 25% haste buff it gives is nuts as is the passive kiting speed)

If you have prydaz you can afford to let casts go off due to bad kiting patterns or whatever.

I find it funny that the 2 legendaries people cried about the most are OP as fuck for this challenge. And I have neither of them :P

[Quibble]

I find the shadow one extremely frustrating at 896 with Anunds and Neck legs as the RNG of the tentacle spawns can fuck me over in the later stages of the kiting, as Karam moves faster and faster the longer it goes on for. Not having a reliable slow is extremely frustrating I find.

With 899 ilvl, wrist and ring legendary, I am stuck just at the edge of phase 2. First few hands go fine, with interupts and dispersion. But by the time I am about to reach phase 3, or just into phase 3, I end up getting killed by it.
Sucks I didn't get it this time.

[Pnash]

Will leave this here:

[lifebinderx]

Guys a little question about holy one. I have 906 equipped with all leggos except for prydaz. What stat weights would u recommend for all phases? Should I minimize mastery (since it is a late ticking hot on adds) and focus more on crit / haste for burst healing and dps? Versa is useful or should I avoid it too? Any help would be appreciated

[Sangomah]

I had a 25k health left on Raest wipe followed by a 27k health wipe.

What annoys me most about the challange is actually the obscene amounts of bugs. I have had wipes where he melee's me from miles away. He randomly teleports. Hands spawn inside one of the many things making them untargatble.

Add to that the RNG of the rune spawns, some tries are just impossible.

it's doable both with the STM 1 phase strat as well as LOTV, but whoever QA'd this shit needs a serious sitdown <.<