Mage Tower Post Mortem

[Shelly]

Yeah, it's a little late but still worth talking about.

The mage tower was one of the best features of Legion. Single player content that was self-nerfing, enjoyable for almost everyone that did it that provided a challenge even once you "outgeared" them.

It's rather sad that it doesn't seem like they'll be bringing them forward in any way for BfA, but I figure we can at least talk about them some and talk about ways they can be improved.

Generally I'd say the healer challenge was considered the most difficult. A lot of this had to do with just how long it was versus every other challenge which was normally one or two fights and then done.

Also since I know that this will be brought up, yes. Having strong DPS was a huge benefit to the tanking challenge. That said it was still a tanking challenge because of positioning, mob control and spatial awareness.

Now how could they have been improved?

I can think of a few ways.

Infinitely repeatable after you've completed the challenge a first time. This one is big since many challenges were stealth nerfed or buffed after they were released.

Leaderboards of some sort, or just a record of how long it took you to complete the challenge.

Once you complete your challenge all other challenges become available - this includes your same challenge tuned for a different class. For example the health of everything in the tank challenge was almost double for paladins compared to everyone but monks with monks having a smaller health pool on the enemies to deal with than everyone else.

I think those three things would have made the content really top notch, though I don't expect them to be continuing the feature again since it appears that Artifact Weapons/Gear won't be done again as a post max-level character progression.

[Nebron]

You know what... challenge modes were a progenitor of the Mage Tower. Why did they took it off? NO IDEA.

They changed it into a Mythic+ which is nothing like CMs. The biggest mistake they made with Mage Tower was the idea that everyone could do it if the one had good enough gear. The Challenge Modes were the opposite. Item level was fixed - the only thing that mattered was the skill... and time

Bring back Challange Modes and everything will be okay! Like literally - the thing I miss the most! They could improve it tho by giving it some replayability - badges/ tokens or something

[MrExcelion]

I think we'll get something like Mage Towers in 8.2.5 or 8.3, but they don't want to announce it yet since 8.1 looks devoid of enough content as it is, and 8.2 already has Mechagon, Flying, and some sort of WQ revamp going for it. Gives people more incentive to say, yeah I'll be back in 8.2.

[Voidwielder]

One of the reasons why I leveled 12 characters to 110 and pushed them to have reasonably well gear were Mage Tower challenges.

I just like that kind of solo, challenging content that rewards turbo good cosmetics.
And since tier sets were retired and current sets are, well, not in my taste, I think this is a good opportunity to make MoP-like sets. Those are some of the best ones they put in game, ever.

[Xloudman]

Mage tower was fun, I'm glad I did all 36 before giga artifacts. I do miss CMs though, goslows are nothing compared to gofasts. I still wear the mistwalker title exclusively

[Bhorin]

I hope if they do Mage tower or something similar it is more towards the end of the expansion so 2 raid tiers worth of ilvl doesn't make it a complete joke again.

[Dracullus]

Mage tower was fun, I'm glad I did all 36 before giga artifacts. I do miss CMs though, goslows are nothing compared to gofasts. I still wear the mistwalker title exclusively

Yeah, chasing 36/36 was a ton of fun and gave Legion shit ton of replayability. On the other hand, many people didn't take their usual break at the end of expac - so they wasn't "hungry" for more WoW content, probably that's why many people burned out with BfA dailies/dungeons way too quickly.

[Barnabas]

I think we'll get something like Mage Towers in 8.2.5 or 8.3, but they don't want to announce it yet since 8.1 looks devoid of enough content as it is, and 8.2 already has Mechagon, Flying, and some sort of WQ revamp going for it. Gives people more incentive to say, yeah I'll be back in 8.2.

Naw they should do mythic+ challenge again. Doing the mounts and cosmetics rewards would be fun for people in BFA.

[George Costanza]

I hope they bring something like it back for legion (with good cosmetics rewards obviously) else I aint coming back for bfa.

[thebdc]

The Challenge Modes were the opposite. Item level was fixed - the only thing that mattered was the skill... and time

While the item level was fixed there still was a huge difference between just any gear and gear min/maxed for challenge modes. The mail problem is that there was basically no incentive (especially for the average player) to ever set foot into them again.

[kamuimac]

Yeah, it's a little late but still worth talking about.

The mage tower was one of the best features of Legion. Single player content that was self-nerfing, enjoyable for almost everyone that did it that provided a challenge even once you "outgeared" them.

It's rather sad that it doesn't seem like they'll be bringing them forward in any way for BfA, but I figure we can at least talk about them some and talk about ways they can be improved.

Generally I'd say the healer challenge was considered the most difficult. A lot of this had to do with just how long it was versus every other challenge which was normally one or two fights and then done.

Also since I know that this will be brought up, yes. Having strong DPS was a huge benefit to the tanking challenge. That said it was still a tanking challenge because of positioning, mob control and spatial awareness.

Now how could they have been improved?

I can think of a few ways.

Infinitely repeatable after you've completed the challenge a first time. This one is big since many challenges were stealth nerfed or buffed after they were released.

Leaderboards of some sort, or just a record of how long it took you to complete the challenge.

Once you complete your challenge all other challenges become available - this includes your same challenge tuned for a different class. For example the health of everything in the tank challenge was almost double for paladins compared to everyone but monks with monks having a smaller health pool on the enemies to deal with than everyone else.

I think those three things would have made the content really top notch, though I don't expect them to be continuing the feature again since it appears that Artifact Weapons/Gear won't be done again as a post max-level character progression.

mage towers were also huge failure in sense that barely anyone did them - most of people didnt even touch them untill last month when they had maximized ap from get go.

which is why we wont see anything like this returning - just like they removed CMs when in WoD even fact that you only had to complete them on 1 toon to get all weapons - and people still didnt give any fucks besides those who bought boosts because free gold.

[Teri]

Exactly this, also wow has no competition in the genre so if they want to play a mmo they will come back.

Not in its current state, even if they added 100 free mounts/transmogs, it means nothing if the systems/gameplay aren't good.

[Aggrophobic]

The healer challange was probably the easiest one though. It took a while to do and was annoying if you failed at the end but it was not that hard.
Not that any of them were that hard but still, kinda enjoyable to do.

If they ever bring something like mage tower back I hope it scales you to a set item level so they won't become walkover easy like the mage tower was at the end.

[MatadorMedia]

They've been updating the Brawler's Guild every expansion. Same thing but tuned to any class not specific classes.

[Zaganite]

mage towers were also huge failure in sense that barely anyone did them - most of people didnt even touch them untill last month when they had maximized ap from get go.

Some of them couldnt still be zerged at the end of Legion. I still couldnt Sub rogue or any of the other tanks other then bear/Pala and they had normal Anton gear. They were a success because I know when they were up each week, those days were when I was logged on the most and then the other days were gearing or leveling other characters (especially invasions) to be ready for the next window.

If they come back, I dont know what reward would come with them

[Deleted]

Now how could they have been improved?

limited availability: 2/7 days, i remember some forlon nites when i had my next alt ready, but mage tower wasnt up. limited availability isnt a fun design paradigm for content.

spec specific difficulty differences: Twins Frost vs.Shadow (finally a use for Surrender To Madness), bear vs prot pala, god queen arcane vs ret, some encounters seemed to be specifically designed for a spec (like Agatha for Unholy, first try on my first try with the spec), while some suffered (eg. ret mobility on god queen vs Enh)

no replayability: just y were the most fun solo encounters in WoWs history locked after success? i wanted to verify my personally irritating skill with specs i debuted (also first try on disc) or just replay another because i felt i got lucky (bear, iam a worse than bad bear). they could have been superb training, but were onetime success only, like u will never kiss a woman again, maybe after a facelift (same class alt)...
also a rising difficulty would have been neat

[lonely zergling]

They should have removed the mage tower in legion already after it was easily outgeared. Or atleast make the bosses harder with each patch. There was nothing hard about doing these challanges after the first weeks.

[Deleted]

If they ever do this again, they should make it replayable and rearange it into two separate modes:

*Normal Mode: Classic Mage Tower, nerfs itself over time via ilvl (tuned to be doable by top players at around ~385 gear). Awards a basic cosmetic reward, and grants acces to the Challenge Mode.

*Challenge Mode: Mage Towers, but harder. Added mechanics, numbers are higher and STATS ARE FIXED. No ilvl downgrade, no HP/damage scale to ilvl, fixed stats. Rewards upgraded cosmetic rewards and a tittle.

¿Whats basic and upgraded cosmetic rewards? Think nm/hc sets vs Mythic sets; or CM sets vs Order Hall sets.

Also, make separate challenges for every class and spec, using complete toolkits (a curse that kills you unless dispeled in the mages challenges, for example), something in line with warlocks green fire challenge.

[Broken Fox]

They should do it again but have gear not count and just give everyone a base item level so you cant cheese it

[Darkeon]

Seems pretty clear a version of these "Challenge" type of content will make it's way back into the game. Most likely at the end run of the expansion, where the time-limit availability of said rewards creates a massive incentive to remain subscribed, when there is literally zero engaging content planned for the expansion in question and the entirity of Blizzard's resources are already set towards the next expansion.