The Hardest Mage Tower Challenge is....

[Deleted]

subtlety rogue w/o legendary cape.. gl ccying adds one by one ^^

[Kokolums]

I never played protection Pally in my life until I started trying to kill Kruul.

I macroed by silence to

#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus] Rebuke

And then I focus Variss

I'm up to 160 tries on Kruul with protection pally and no kill. Almost all fails are from Infernals booting me off the platform. I spent about 75 tries trying to kite Variss to Velen by silencing him and walking him back while also staying out of the dark pool under his feet at all times. So I'd try to range Variss with spinning hammers and throwing shields. Then I realized I do MUCH more DPS if I just pop drums + Old War potion at the start and go to town on him while standing in the dark pool.

My current strategy is this:

1. Bear Tartare + Pop horse + Drums + Old War at the start.
2. Stand in the dark pool and hit him like a target dummy until I have 8 stacks of debuff. You need to stand in there until 8 because you are doing huge DPS with drums bloodlust. While doing this, try to kill the 1st eye by circling around while still standing in the dark pool until you can see the eye and then hit the eye with your next shield toss.
3. At 8 stacks, Variss should be around 35% health. Get out of the pool and stun Variss. Go kill the adds if they are beating on Velen.
4. When the stun wears off, get on your horse and run away in a straight line perpendicular to Variss. Variss casts a spell on the ground at your feet and you will be so far away it won't hurt you. Then your 8 stacks of debuff will wear off.
5. Just outright kill the first Infernal to make it get banished in order to stop it from booting you off the platform with its Smash spell. While attacking the infernal, run in circles around it.
6. Go back and go treat Variss like a target dummy for 6-8 stacks depending on what Velen is facing. Variss should have 15%-20% health left.

This is where the fight actually diverges.

Scenario A: The Infernal you killed is really close to Variss.

This makes the fight much more complicated because there is almost no grace period between the Infernal casting Smash & the Smash spell booting you off the platform. Plus, the infernal will cast Smash the second he comes out of being banished. You're going to have to wait to DPS Variss until he casts that first Smash or just keep running in circles around Variss doing ranged DPS and hope it misses.

Scenario B: The infernal you killed is pretty far away from Variss.

You can jump in the dark pool and DPS Variss for 6-8 stacks of debuff while keeping the banished Infernal on your screen ready to strafe when he casts Smash.

7. Variss is under 10% and you are going to get a second Infernal. Again you'll have to keep strafing and hoping the Infernals miss booting you off the platform for the last 10%.

----------------

Phase 2:

I have a macro:

/tar Highlord Kruul
/focus

8. I hit that macro when Kruul enters the fight OR whenever I need to target him in a group of Infernals and Horrors. My silence will be targetting Kruul now as well.

There is a broken wall in the southeast section of the platform that I kite Kruul to because if I get hit by Smash there, it cannot knock me off. If I drag him there right away, the infernals will also be pretty far away from me and have to aim me into that wall as well. This works well until Kruul pollutes the ground there with Netherstomp.

9. Drag Kruul to the wall and turn him around so you are facing the wall because when he Netherstomps, there will be space between the fel puddle and the wall. After his first Netherstomp, turn Kruul back around so HE faces the wall and stand in the space between the fel puddle and the wall. This gives you plenty of time where you are immune to getting booted off the platform.
10. Stun Kruul on his first annihilate, let the second annihilate hit you, 3rd annihilate is blessing of protection. Kruul should be dead before the 4th annihilate.
11. You'll have to leave the protection and safety of the wall to save Velen once in a while. Hope you don't get knocked off by an unlucky Infernal Bash.

I always end up getting booted off the platform before completing this either in that 10% window on Variss or trying to save Velen in phase 2 or after the ground is polluted by the wall.

[Morgaith]

You played it very wrong, then. You can do basically full DPS while on the move. And you can pool Astral Power to instantly dump Starsurges into the hands(and if you forget, you can interrupt a hand once every minute, giving you almost twice as long to kill it)

Oh i'm totally playing it wrong (never said i didn't) it's just a 910 geared alt that i took 2 min to learn to play like all the other alts i did the challange with.

[Jester Joe]

I never played protection Pally in my life until I started trying to kill Kruul.

What kind of legendaries are you using? The avenger's shield pants should be able to easily take care of the infernals for you, you don't really need to focus them down because they'll kill themselves off pretty quickly with your aoe.

The Bear Tartae should allow you to just walk circles around Variss himself, while dodging every smash because of the speed buff. Don't ever make the mistake of trying to switch directions though because then you'll get punted off, just stick to one constant circle around him. If needed, use a horse charge when you see the infernal about to come back to life.

Personally I saved hero for the 2nd phase, because the infernals just kinda drop dead from shield throws and as long as you're moving nonstop in a circle, none of them should hit you unless you get slowed or pushed back into one.

[Kokolums]

What kind of legendaries are you using? The avenger's shield pants should be able to easily take care of the infernals for you, you don't really need to focus them down because they'll kill themselves off pretty quickly with your aoe.

The Bear Tartae should allow you to just walk circles around Variss himself, while dodging every smash because of the speed buff. Don't ever make the mistake of trying to switch directions though because then you'll get punted off, just stick to one constant circle around him. If needed, use a horse charge when you see the infernal about to come back to life.

Personally I saved hero for the 2nd phase, because the infernals just kinda drop dead from shield throws and as long as you're moving nonstop in a circle, none of them should hit you unless you get slowed or pushed back into one.

I have Aggramar's Stride and Soul of the Highlord. The only other leggo I got is Insignia of the Grand Army.

You can hero twice in the fight so I do it at the start and then on Kruul.

[Jester Joe]

I have Aggramar's Stride and Soul of the Highlord. The only other leggo I got is Insignia of the Grand Army.

You can hero twice in the fight so I do it at the start and then on Kruul.

I don't think any of my tank challenges have lasted that long to be honest. The only challenges I know that lasted that long were the healing ones because you can pause as long as you want twice.

I mean, I can't remember the exact amount of time it took me, but I do know these few things.

1) I did it within one flask on both DH and DK.
2) I had more than one infernal up for sure
3) I got to Kruul on several attempts.

So if you're managing to get a double hero while only having two infernals, I'm not sure how, since it definitely did not take me 10 minutes to get to Kruul each pull, otherwise I wouldn't have had one flask while reaching him on several pulls.

So far I've done guardian, DH, DK, and paladin for tank challenges, always saved hero for last phase personally.
And agg's stride alone should allow you to just circle strafe around the first boss while never getting slammed off.

[TwoShoedLou]

Totally agree. Arcane was my 36th- just finished yesterday, and oh god the margin for error is so slim once the orbs stop coming. I tried farming for Prydaz or Belovir, but ended up running with Sephuz and KJC instead- which were helpful actually- but oh man was that a nail biter. Without one of the survival legendaries, it's nearly impossible without the Mana Shield talent I'd think. Even with Mana Shield, getting through that gauntlet in a good enough spot to survive the rest of the fight is already hard enough.

Arcane was a pain, for sure. I had finished that challenge on my enh shaman and demo lock so I already knew how it went. I actually found that one less of a pain than the frost one..lol. I certainly had way, way less attempts. I had the crafted healing legendary that I bought for the frost challenge and it helped with the arcane one a lot too, in addition to mana shield because of all the damage you're eating.

If you can do Holy Priest you can do any of them in my opinion. I struggled hard on Holy more than any other healer challenge. Holy Paladin was the next one I did and I think it took 6 tries or so? Honestly after priest I felt like I could do any of them with almost no trouble hehe

Well I completed druid yesterday. Now I'm hitting a wall with the paladin..lol. I know it's a problem of 'get better at using the toolkit/playing a paladin I haven't healed on since BC' and maybe getting more crit. I'm sitting at 24% and have a feeling that's a little low, because it feels like my flash heals are so weak (yes I'm using double beacon). I did maybe 20 attempts last night and couldn't clear the last stage of phase 1, so I can tell this is going to be 'one of those challenges'. Go figure because a lot of people think h pally is an easy one.

Wave 4 and 5 are what's screwing me up. Wave 4 in particular because the double knife dance just fucks my party. It's just a lot of damage, even when I get a repentance off on one of the soldiers. I pop cooldowns and a lot of times by this stage my mana is almost gone from flash healing my ass off. Then by wave 5 I've barely got anything left to give and it's all over.

They're far too unpredictable too.

One pull everything will be fine, the next one, suddenly Granny's getting ran over by reindeer or something, almost always on the verge of dying.

Yes! Although a lot of times for me it was because she was getting mana stings in the butt instead of Jarod. So here I am anticipating his health dropping like a brick and granny suddenly takes a dirt nap. I've also had situations where my repentance is off CD so Jarod needs to take that sting. I get myself ready and make sure he's topped off but suddenly his health is chunking away so fast, I can't keep up and he's dead.

[Kokolums]

So if you're managing to get a double hero while only having two infernals, I'm not sure how, since it definitely did not take me 10 minutes to get to Kruul each pull, otherwise I wouldn't have had one flask while reaching him on several pulls.

So far I've done guardian, DH, DK, and paladin for tank challenges, always saved hero for last phase personally.
And agg's stride alone should allow you to just circle strafe around the first boss while never getting slammed off.

Oh you're right its just once per fight. I thought the heroism debuff falls off but it doesn't. I mean you can use drums tiwce, but only get the effect the first time haha.

[Spazlord]

Arcane was a pain, for sure. I had finished that challenge on my enh shaman and demo lock so I already knew how it went. I actually found that one less of a pain than the frost one..lol. I certainly had way, way less attempts. I had the crafted healing legendary that I bought for the frost challenge and it helped with the arcane one a lot too, in addition to mana shield because of all the damage you're eating.

Well I completed druid yesterday. Now I'm hitting a wall with the paladin..lol. I know it's a problem of 'get better at using the toolkit/playing a paladin I haven't healed on since BC' and maybe getting more crit. I'm sitting at 24% and have a feeling that's a little low, because it feels like my flash heals are so weak (yes I'm using double beacon). I did maybe 20 attempts last night and couldn't clear the last stage of phase 1, so I can tell this is going to be 'one of those challenges'. Go figure because a lot of people think h pally is an easy one.

Wave 4 and 5 are what's screwing me up. Wave 4 in particular because the double knife dance just fucks my party. It's just a lot of damage, even when I get a repentance off on one of the soldiers. I pop cooldowns and a lot of times by this stage my mana is almost gone from flash healing my ass off. Then by wave 5 I've barely got anything left to give and it's all over.

Yes! Although a lot of times for me it was because she was getting mana stings in the butt instead of Jarod. So here I am anticipating his health dropping like a brick and granny suddenly takes a dirt nap. I've also had situations where my repentance is off CD so Jarod needs to take that sting. I get myself ready and make sure he's topped off but suddenly his health is chunking away so fast, I can't keep up and he's dead.

The mage casts spells on your party (could be granny) and applies a stacking buff for every successful cast. Stun him at 3 stacks, or interrupt, or purge the stacks. Handle it.

The dagger wielders cast knife dance (AOE on the party), sometimes there are 2 of them doing it at the same time. Handle it.

In one wave there is a mage and 2 dagger wielders. HANDLE IT!

I always kill the mage first, interrupt him somehow so he drops his stacks. Then I focus a knife wielder down. Hunter (mana sting) always last (your guys have to move a lot to fight it and it takes too long to focus it down).

[ro9ue]

30/36

Only priest and monk to go.

Early on I said Sigryn was one of the easiest... well I finally did Arcane Mage. She was SUBSTANTIALLY harder on a caster than with a melee imo.

[Cosmic Janitor]

30/36

Only priest and monk to go.

Early on I said Sigryn was one of the easiest... well I finally did Arcane Mage. She was SUBSTANTIALLY harder on a caster than with a melee imo.

Arcane lacks the heal, which you usually have to make up by speccing the no CD shield and gimp your mana recovery that way. The legendary legs go along way here. Shoulders probably help alot as well now so you can spam barrage more often and aoe them down faster. Still easier than many other challenges, especially without good gear.

[Terahertz]

So far I've had the most trouble with the guardian druid and prot paladin challenges. Haven't completed the prot paladin challenge and might not even continue because of how obnoxious it is compared to the other tank classes I've done (dh, monk, druid). The fact the bosses have more HP for prot paladins and the fact their single target dmg is so low and their aoe dmg is so inconsistent compared to the other tanks makes it very difficult for me. The infernal knock backs also screw me over since prot paladins dont have any way besides the goblin glider to deal with them.

Edit: Ended up finally completing the prot pala challenge. Seriously though, screw those infernals..

Did 14/36 challenges in basically 5 days it seems, with many of the chars having required gearing up.

Rogue: All three
Monk: All three
Dk: Unholy
DH: Both specs
Paladin: Ret and prot
Druid: Guardian, feral, and boomkin


For the tank specs guardian and prot pala were the hardest, mostly because both of my druid and pala only had 900~ ilvl and were my first time playing those tanks. BrM was really easy because I had 925 ilvl to work with. Vengeance DH was also very easy despite its ilvl also being around 900, simply because of how much they have of everything. AoE dmg is insane, self-healing is insane and mobility made the infernals a joke fortunately.

For DPS I think I struggled most with unholy, primarily because it only has 883 ilvl, boomkin because I was too stubborn to use consumables which I did in the end and made it a lot easier, outlaw when I first attempted it, subtlety cause fuck xylem, and havoc dh because fuck. xylem.

As for the challenges overall I found Xylem and Kruul to be most annoying and tedious. Kruul was obnoxious because of the infernal knockbacks (seriously whoever decided to add those should.. just stop adding those) and Xylem was annoying because of his consistent damage and because of my impatience during that mirror image phase.

[ramayana1423]

With current gear levels you can get to 920-930 pretty easy and you should be able to DPS Variss hard enough in P1 of the Tank challenge to avoid having more than 1 infernal. Once you can do that, it makes everything in the fight significantly easier.

I finally got 36/36 last night. Hardest ones for me were Holy Priest and Sub Rogue mainly because I know basically nothing about them and was really bad. Affliction without the slow ring was really rough as well.

[socialmaker]

Hardest challenges are: Affliction lock (no ring, no cheese), Fury warr unless 930++, MM hunter unless high geared (too rng), SUB Rogue (P2 Ads needs you to be good at the class), Holy Priest, Tank challenges until you fully understand the fight (especially Pala, Warr).

Alternatively the few first classes you are learning the fights can feel a bit harder or basically any that don't have prydaz or super dps legendaries. Usually 2-3% leech, prydaz or healing traits at the netherlight crucible fixes all healing issues.

GL 36/36 done in January

[tankbug]

Of those I've done so far, easiest to hardest, all about 930-940:

1. Xylem Frost DK
2. WW Monk
3. Fury Warrior
4. Prot Paladin
5. Prot Warrior
6. Retribution Paladin (in hindsight, perhaps I had a lot of issues due to my old computer)
7. Xylem Arms Warrior

[Lime]

Hardest challenges are: Affliction lock (no ring, no cheese), Fury warr unless 930++, MM hunter unless high geared (too rng), SUB Rogue (P2 Ads needs you to be good at the class), Holy Priest, Tank challenges until you fully understand the fight (especially Pala, Warr).

Alternatively the few first classes you are learning the fights can feel a bit harder or basically any that don't have prydaz or super dps legendaries. Usually 2-3% leech, prydaz or healing traits at the netherlight crucible fixes all healing issues.

GL 36/36 done in January

Save SD on sub rogue for the adds and they should never be an issue so long as you are slowing them, especially with the artifact boost.

[Management]

I have only finished a few of the dps challenges.

Enhancement & Elemental Shaman, Frost & Fire Mage, Balance & Feral Druid, Assassination Rogue and Havoc DH were a cakewalk. I did all of them in a few tries.

Arcane mage was a little bit harder because I don't really play the spec all that much so I didn't know how to manage my mana whilst also trying to survive. But once I got a good grasp on when to use my cooldowns it was pretty easy. I also accidentally blinked out of the arena a few times resulting in resetting the encounter which added on the frustration. Outlaw Rogue is too tough for me. I've tried it many times but I keep getting overwhelmed by the adds and panicking.

I also tried my hand at the Resto Sham and Resto Druid challenges. I got quite far in the Resto Druid challenge, but keep failing in the last stage. I didn't enjoy the challenge at all. My biggest grievance with the healing challenge is definitely how long it is. All of the dps challenges that I've done took less than 5 minutes to complete. Meanwhile the healing challenge takes about 15 minutes. I would much rather have a short 5 minute fight that was very challenging instead with more mechanics to manage. The first stage was actually quite enjoyable on it's own. Having to start over from the beginning after making it to the last 2 minutes of the fight though.... Not so enjoyable.

[ro9ue]

Cutting it close... 34/36. Just need Mistweaver and Brewmaster!

I have no idea how to play monks so this should be interesting.

[Heladys]

Cutting it close... 34/36. Just need Mistweaver and Brewmaster!

I have no idea how to play monks so this should be interesting.

Brewmaster is in the top 3 easiest of the tanks, even if you've never played one before. You got this.

[Naiattavain]

...in my humble opinion.... Protection Paladin. I got Kruul on every other tank, but I just can't seem to DPS things down fast enough before I end up with like 3 Infernals and everything goes to shit. I think I'm just doing something wrong because I'm like 20 ilevels higher than when I did it on my DK, DH and Druid.

So even if you haven't tried them all, what is the hardest one so far for you?

subtlety rogue. i attempted 171 times before i passed.