RESTO DRUID: Artifact Challenge Guide

[Deleted]

Hi druid friends, I have uploaded a video guide about possible ways of completing Restoration Druid Challenge Quest: End of the Risen Threat

It is broken into 2 parts:

Stage 1 (I felt it was probably the hardest along with start of stage 6)



Stage 2-6 (I did not have complete "final boss" footage as I forgot to record the successful try but I have enough content to provide information for everything else!)




Some useful tips for people who are too lazy to watch the videos

In Stage1: If you are night elf - shadowmeld works and you can drink if you are very low on mana. Just need to find time where you wont be targeted.

Dont forget to bring drums and use them for either stage 1 or start of stage 6.

ursol's vortex is amazing in stage 1, it brakes hunters arrow spell if used before jump.

In Stage 6: Tranquillity almost heals the 3 NPC to full HP!

Some of the best legendaries (very open to discussion):

Trinket > Neck > Waist >= Wrist

[ryklin]

I highly recommend incarnation+abundance (even in you just bring in a tome and switch for it before the last part, I just used it the whole way though) for the last part, it's not really bad for the last 2 waves of phase 1 either though

in the last part: WG->tranq should almost do the 1st soul healing wave with some ticks from mushroom, then incarnation and lust to get the next 5 adds topped off, you can heal up 2 from the last wave and skip the part where he releases all the adds you let in (although if you let 1 in, that's fine, more time to drink)
also wow do I miss having wild mushroom: bloom on the immerseus adds

I used amanthul's wisdon+archimonde's hatred reborn

and as for the nightbane debuff on the last boss, just ignore making yourself low, you want to be over 2M hp to survive the stomps more than you need to care about your party members dying to ignite soul

and dont worry if you have trouble with phase 1, it's the hardest part and I don't know many people who were good enough to get it down to 100% consistent success
the hardest part of it all is just figuring out your usage of typhoon, vortex, and roots to interrupt and kite while using lust and healing cds

mad makes it a little bit harder for himself here and has to heal through every knife dance because of taking bash, but that's fine too, for druids it's not like mana is an issue here, just worrying about jarod getting bursted, so I think taking bash so the mages get 2 less stacks or so is an ok idea, but if you find the double knife dances troublesome, just take typhoon
I did it on my shaman first (where you need to pop something for a double knife dance cause no drood mastery thoughput) and took typhoon to replicate cap totem as much as possible

yeah though mad, keep up the good work!

[Deleted]

Hey man. Any chance you share your UI?

Also, thanks a lot for the tips. Helped me a lot.

[Mathrys]

I finally finished the challenge yesterday and what made me consistently do P1 and complete it was changing from ToL to Cultivation as talent. I thought i needed ToL for the last phase of P1 but then realized it was easier with cult.

I also think that Typhoon is much better then bash since it has 30s CD and you can interrupt the mage + 2x warrior doing knife in the second to last wave. Also going bear + frenzied is really OP with the warrior beating on you, you can even easily tank both warrior with barkskin up. Going bear also allows you to stay in your efflo and bring the warrior close to the next wave so the NPC start beating on them faster.

I also thought i needed for P6 to heal the adds but my strategy without it was :

1st wave : lust then put 2xrejuv on 3 adds, WG then EoG (3 adds to full)
2nd wave : put 1 rejuv on all adds, WG then tranq (2 adds to full, no sure why it wasn't 3 here)
3rd wave : 2x rejuv on all , WG then top with regrowth ( 2 adds to full)
4th wave : just top one with rejuv, regrowth and swiftmend

I just had to handle one mage and one mana sting adds which was pretty easy.

The last boss is pretty easy, i got it on my first try.

[Deleted]

Mage Tower is up again! this guide might be helpful, there are some really good suggestions that are not in the video.

Typhoon for adds on phase 1 seems to be a better option. Guardian form with frenzied regeneration can really help when targeted by melee adds in phase 1. GL and happy hunting

[Zenrx]

Just completed it today 897 equipped Ilvl

P1 also goes really nice running Sephuz's Secret with bash found it helped with the damage on the last two add groups since bashing the mages 3rd AB lines up with Knife dance. Ursol's is also nice procing it off the pull in on the archers.

[Doogler]

Made it to the last phase 5 for the first time. Is there any trick to targeting the mobs? I am losing time I cannot afford clicking them one by one and trying to heal them with shortcuts when I have used clique exclusively for years. I feel I could finish this if they showed up in party bars and I could heal them the way I am used to.

[clavarnway]

Made it to the last phase 5 for the first time. Is there any trick to targeting the mobs? I am losing time I cannot afford clicking them one by one and trying to heal them with shortcuts when I have used clique exclusively for years. I feel I could finish this if they showed up in party bars and I could heal them the way I am used to.

Mouseover macros

Hover your cursor over a target (no need to click them) and use the macro

[Doogler]

1st wave : lust then put 2xrejuv on 3 adds, WG then EoG (3 adds to full)
2nd wave : put 1 rejuv on all adds, WG then tranq (2 adds to full, no sure why it wasn't 3 here)
3rd wave : 2x rejuv on all , WG then top with regrowth ( 2 adds to full)
4th wave : just top one with rejuv, regrowth and swiftmend

I just had to handle one mage and one mana sting adds which was pretty easy.

The last boss is pretty easy, i got it on my first try.

Done this twice now, have not saved a single person wave 1 doing this. Saves all three with your wave 2 method.

[clavarnway]

Done this twice now, have not saved a single person wave 1 doing this. Saves all three with your wave 2 method.

I followed that method yesterday and it worked like a charm. It actually almost got me killed because I went into last phase (boss) with no adds so the boss spawned and almost 1 shot me.

[Zenrx]

Done this twice now, have not saved a single person wave 1 doing this. Saves all three with your wave 2 method.

Depends on your Mast.

Wave 1 - I pop drums as soon as I'm able to heal the targets(Makes it last for the second wave too) and put 1 rejuv on each which puts cult then WG and EoG and spam regrowth and they're all full.

Wave 2 - 1 rejuv on each wg and tranq should be easy since drums is still active.

Wave 3 - 2 rejuv on each wg and regrowth 2, or spam on one get him to full and do one more on wave 4

You only need to heal 8 in total so either top 2 in wave 3 or top one on wave 3 and 4 and deal with the two adds. I choose to deal with 2 adds.

Pretty much go big on the first two waves because messing up with that many cooldowns burnt and only getting 2 is going to be bad times when it comes to adds.

[Doogler]

Depends on your Mast.

Wave 1 - I pop drums as soon as I'm able to heal the targets(Makes it last for the second wave too) and put 1 rejuv on each which puts cult then WG and EoG and spam regrowth and they're all full.

Wave 2 - 1 rejuv on each wg and tranq should be easy since drums is still active.

Wave 3 - 2 rejuv on each wg and regrowth 2, or spam on one get him to full and do one more on wave 4

You only need to heal 8 in total so either top 2 in wave 3 or top one on wave 3 and 4 and deal with the two adds. I choose to deal with 2 adds.

Pretty much go big on the first two waves because messing up with that many cooldowns burnt and only getting 2 is going to be bad times when it comes to adds.

Finally got it after slightly modifying this method. Used your wave 1 exactly but for wave 2 I picked 2 of them and did 2x rejuv, wg, regrowth and let one through. Then used your wave 2 method for wave 3. Died to the boss at 10% but by some miracle my 4-piece kept proccing to keep 2 rejuvs on everyone and my NPCs killed the boss with the warrior at 2%. 900 ilvl in the gear I used for this.

Thank you to everyone for all the advice, really happy to get this done before the tower went away and have to think about it for another week.

(posted this twice but got deleted when I tried to edit something, so sorry if the reapear and there are 3 of these posts)

[Deleted]

Wave 1 - I pop drums as soon as I'm able to heal the targets(Makes it last for the second wave too) and put 1 rejuv on each which puts cult then WG and EoG and spam regrowth and they're all full.

Wave 2 - 1 rejuv on each wg and tranq should be easy since drums is still active.

Wave 3 - 2 rejuv on each wg and regrowth 2, or spam on one get him to full and do one more on wave 4

You only need to heal 8 in total so either top 2 in wave 3 or top one on wave 3 and 4 and deal with the two adds. I choose to deal with 2 adds.

That's really good advice, I forgot to use drums etc so I feel this would really help - I wish there was some kind of targeting frame for just the souls, because if you even waste 1 second targeting the frame it can mean a wipe

[Doogler]

Wanted to share some of my thoughts. I did this with 900ilvl and struggled more than most people that finished it. I got through it by learning everything that happens. By the time I finished, other than a few bizarre things in phase 1 it was always my fault if I failed. For my legendaries I used edraith and ekowraith. Ekowraith was only used because I do not have shoulders or trinket or prydaz which I would have preferred. Edraith are just incredibly useful for phase 1. My strategy is still doable but a lot harder without them. If you have the warrior at full life and wait for after a mana sting and then rejuv/lifebloom/cenariorn ward followed by a swift mend it will get him back to full and it will all still be ticking for the next mana string so he will not need any healing for this one. If you do not have Edraith it just means you are going to need a lot more focus on the mana stings and be timely with iron barks.

Stage 1:

W1 - I do not use vortex here. It is one add so not a big deal to take it down. If you pre hot all the NPCs and have efflo down you should be able to straight dps until the first mana sting.

W2 - Dot up the mage right away and then drop a vortex down on the archer. I found this vortex can be tricky as the archer will sometimes not just far enough to trigger it, so be ready. Keep hots up and try to get a couple solar wraths off on the mage. I use typhoon and cast it here after 3 stacks at the end of his 4th cast. It is important to note that if you typhoon to early in the cast the mage will not drop his stacks, so wait as long as you can. Mage should be dead before he gets back to 4 stacks. Finish the archer normally.

W3 - Get dots up on mage right away. You want to typhoon here after 2 stacks as this will also interrupt the knife dance. After the typhoon the warrior will focus someone, usually you. Root him and go back to dpsing the mage. Since you interrupt the mage sooner here than the previous wave you need to make sure you do enough dps or he will get to 5-6 stacks and be dangerous. Kill the mage and then kill the warrior. When it is just the warrior up and he focuses you go bear form and drag him on top of the next mage which is not active yet so your NPCs are in position. Gets hots up and efflo down before the warrior dies.

W4: Same as previous wave but you have 2 warriors to deal with. Gets dots down and interrupt on the 3rd cast to stop the knife dances. Most crucial point of this wave is right after the typhoon. If both warriors focus you, you can just go bear form and frenzy regen through it and keep attacking the mage. If not, entangle one of the warriors, heal through the other one and finish the mage. It is even more crucial that you take down the mage before his stacks build back up here. Most pulls I was able to get through this wave without blowing a cooldown, but if you need to pop ghanir. Once the mage is down the warriors are easy. When it is just the last warrior go bear form and drag it to the last wave. Gets hots up and efflo down.

W5: As soon as they become active get dots up on mage, get a vortex down on the archer and if you can solar wrath until the 3rd mage cast to get him and the knife dance. Immediately entangle and get ready to pop tranq or ghanir if you still have it. Get the mage down asap. Also position yourself near the warrior because a mana sting is going to go out around now and the hunter sometimes jumps back to the gate which is right on top of you making it really hard to see where it is coming from. If you still have a cooldown use it for the next knife dance. I had a couple wipes because I got relaxed after the mage went down, but knife dance and hunter is still a ton of damage. If everyone is healthy and you get focused just bear form through it and do some dps. On the last phase it is easy to lose track of the mana sting in the chaos. Do not panic if you get hit by it. Go bear form and pop a mana pot. I got hit by mana sting a couple times while learning the last wave and usually still finished the wave. If the mana string goes on the hunter or rogue, iron bark and regrowth immediately.

Stage 3:

Not much to say here. The one thing I will point out that I did not see in any videos is for the fel orb stair case. Do not bother dodging them. Just run straight up the stairs and spam tab/sunfire. It one shots the orbs in an aoe and clears a path.

Stage 5:

The healing requirement is pretty easy. Targeting the mobs and getting your heals off is really annoying. You do not get much chance to practice and when you fail you have to get through stage 1 again. You want to make sure all of your npcs are fulled hotted before the ghosts become healable. Once you get used to it, it is not hard to heal all 8, but you want to let one through. That is because if you do it perfectly the boss spawns immediately before you are setup. If you let one through it will pause for a while and then you have to kill the add before the boss activates. This allows you to have plenty of time to make sure everyone if full and get pre hots up before boss. So my strategy was:

Wave 1: 2x rejuv on each ghost. Essence of Ghanir. Wild Growth. And then one regrowth should finish off each of them.

Wave 2: Pick 2 ghosts, and then 2x rejuv -> Wild Growth -> Regrowth spam. Ignore the 3rd ghost and let him reach boss.

Wave 3: One rejuv per ghost -> wild grwoth -> Tranq

Kill the add you let through and then start boss. Boss is fairly simple. Keep npcs at full with hots running, stay on outside of room and drop fire as close as possible. Only heal yourself if you get under 60% but I generally got fulled healed just from Wild Growths, gift and rejuv procs from 4-piece. Just be ready to get a Wild Growth off as soon as the debuff expires and blows up. Your npcs can kill the boss after you die and if you have the 42 point trait it will keep them going for a long time. I died at 10% on my kill and the warrior kept going because 2 rejuvs and cultivation that kept being refreshed from Deep Rooted kept him going. The warrior dipped below 5% health several times and ended at 2%, but he survived. So if you keep hots up, your NPCs can keep going for a while after you die.

[flepser]

If you don't have the best gear imaginable, have no fear, you can do it while below 895, or if you are lucky with some legendary drops like myself as a 890 Restoration Druid. Artifact level 42 was quite necessary for me at least.It was stressfull and quite depressing at times, but once I got the hang of the first Phase I didn't have too many trouble there whilst Phase 5 kept annoying me untill I finally got it right one time. An overview of my approach.

Talents
Cenarion Ward on the Hunter/Rogue most of the time as an extra buffer.
Displacer Beast I barely used it, but I'm pretty used to it, so I just kept it as a talent (Renewal might benefit you more eventually).
Guardian Affinity because less damage taken is awesome and Bear Form + Frenzied Regeneration when the warriors focus you is OP.
Mighty Bash to CC the Mage, usually stun him at 4 stacks which usually is the end of the Warriors and their Knife Party.
Cultivation because an extra HoT never hurts.
Germination because two Rejuvenations are better than one!
Stonebark because your DPS-members are paperbags.

Gearing
I swapped several item pieces around; for the first phases I used (all legendaries are 940);
Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus
Aman'Thul's Wisdom
Devilsaur Shock-Baton (ilvl 840)

While for Phase 5 I swapped from Aman'Thul's Wisdom to Essence of Infusion and a higher ilvl resto trinket. Then swapped back from Essence of Infusion to Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus for the (pre-)boss fight.
I always choose to have my 2p set bonus activated.

I buffed up as much as i could with Flask of the Whispered Pact, Potion of Prolonged Power, Defiled Augment Rune, Azshari Salad and Drums of the Mountain

In Phase 1 I always stayed in melee range of the Mage and tried to DPS him as much as I could. When the Warriors ended their Knife Party they usually focused me, so that's where I went into Bear Form and used Frenzied Regeneration + Bash the Mage. I used Shadowmeld during Wave 5 (two Warriors and one Mage) when the first Warrior died and the remaining one focuses on you, so I could fill up my mana bar. I also used Essence of G'Hanirand Drums at the start of Wave 6 (I managed a few times without, but it got a lot harder so why bother).

The DPS stages are pretty easy once you know how the mechanics work and I usually finished this with ~50 seconds spare. My Bloodlust debuff was not gone at this point, so it's a good time to relax yourself for Phase 5.

For Phase 5 wave 1: I made sure my Efflo is up a few seconds before the friendly NPC's are healable and my Red-Shirt-Startrek-Crew topped of with two Rejuvenations, focused member with Cenarion Ward and a Lifebloom. Then popped Drums, Potion of Prolonged Power and tried to cast the WG on at least one of the needed NPCS then hit EoG and barely managed to get all three.

Wave 2: I still had buffs from Bloodlust and the Potion of Prolonged Power and focused on two NPC's, I let the Warrior through, while keeping an extended eye on my crew, as they are paper sometimes. Usually I failed at this wave because one of my crew dies .

Wave 3: Tranquility saves all, this keeps the Crew alive as well and with the Essence of Infusion the spirits get topped up fairly easy. I missed one (luckily a hunter) because I didn't think it was necessary to heal the spirits, that was incorrect.

Wave 4: Only needed to heal one here, so I spammed the mage and the phase was over. I quickly changed items and drank deeply.

Boss fight was pretty straightforward, but I ran out of space to run, so I should've DPS'd him a bit more, but I was afraid my crew or I would die from damage so I focused more on that. In the end I died with the boss less then 5% remaining, but with all the HoTs still running on my people they stayed alive and the quest completed.

I guess I was lucky there, but it's definitely doable if you are lesser geared, but it's a pain and I'm glad I don't have to do that any more \o/.

[otterfluff]

The one addition I want to add and really stress is making sure you utilize your mouseovers on the targetted ghosts super specifically. A couple times, I slipped up and tossed out a WG on the party to get the regular npc's back to full health. Do that and you lose no matter what. Otherwise in the stage 5 its just cycling through CD's the best way that works for you. Personally I used Lust on Wave 1, healed two up WG and rejuvs, let the third pass. Wave 2, I used tree and popped potion, before they spawn i used Essence then WG and rejuv. Covered all three. Last round is the breath of fresh air where they spawn, you WG and tranq, and then you all share a good laugh and enjoy your new skin. But Wild Growth ALWAYS as first casted heal.

Also bear form is your friend. Good lord, use it.
Rooting for all the other trees out there!

[Slippykins]

I've added a link to this thread in the Resources sticky.

[Smoopie]

Any other suggestions on how to target faster? I feel like I spend 6 seconds targeting one I can't just to see another one almost in..

I get to stage 5 now everytime but my best attempt had 4 adds. I wish these guys would should up on the party frames.
i905 druid and can't do it..really really getting to me

[Cheze]

turn on friendly nameplates, get a nameplate addon that makes them big and visible, zoom camera out far enough to see the whole area.

it's a hassle but it shouldn't be what's hanging you up; they're active (and have a nameplate) for a couple seconds before they even move into LoS

[Grmmppff]

Any other suggestions on how to target faster? I feel like I spend 6 seconds targeting one I can't just to see another one almost in..

I get to stage 5 now everytime but my best attempt had 4 adds. I wish these guys would should up on the party frames.
i905 druid and can't do it..really really getting to me

not really much that can help you in targetting them...6seconds would be a LOT, you can even run near them, if that helps you, they start being unattackable, while floating from the edge...but clicking

people will advise you on mouseover-macros...and that certainly does make it easier, but I did it without
like this:
placed my mushroom under my party mates, so they're basically good...they'll benefit from wildgrowth and might get a rejuv or 2 in between waves
wave 1: pop drums, pop int potion, pop tree of life(spec it ofc), cast a wg as soon as they become healable(you can do it on your own/one of your party mates if you have the range), try to get 1-2 instant regrowths on all of them,swiftmend can do the rest if necessary.
wave 2: you should still have a bit of tree+ bl+potion up, so wg the same way, and rg on 2...focus on managing 2, the 3rd is not important
--> the important thing is having healed 5 after waves 1+2...everything less will give you a HARD time later on
wave 3: pop tranq...tranq almost does the job, even without tree and without drums, all that's needed after/before that, is a wg/a rejuv on all of them...if one slips through,you're still at 7/8...=> on wave 4 heal one ASAP, so you still only got the 2 adds from wave 2 and 3.