The Highlord's Return Tips

[Deleted]

My only problem with Effreet's info is that it's based off being a Blood Elf. I gotta figure out a better way to time my Sigil of Silence.

Misery also works. Like silence u need to time it so it breaks after the cast

[Cazz17]

I found this much more difficult on my guardian druid than on any of my other tanks, any advice?

[Crutches]

I found this much more difficult on my guardian druid than on any of my other tanks, any advice?

To my knowledge Guardian is the easiest one to complete as a tank.

[Kendros]

I feel like tank challenge is way overtuned, dps one is fine but everything on this take forever to die, and why in the fucking hell are the eyes immune to physical damage.

[Gum]

To my knowledge Guardian is the easiest one to complete as a tank.

LUL

10char

[Volardelis]

Velen is totally bugged calling it. 3 Smites after more than 3 minutes, i was doing 1.09M DPS and still couldn't meet the DPS req. Seems that Velen should be spamming smites on the inquisitor while we deal with the annoying trash, but it is bugged AF now.

That is the way it should be to be honest. Much like the proving grounds, we protect the NPC while they do the dirty work of doing majority of the dps / healing.

Instead with this tanking challenge, we have to do all 3 roles because Velen is useless as shit

[Ravagebull]

To my knowledge Guardian is the easiest one to complete as a tank.

My guardian is 891 and i get hit for 6.1M in a single hit Guardian is harder than hell

[Ausr]

That is the way it should be to be honest. Much like the proving grounds, we protect the NPC while they do the dirty work of doing majority of the dps / healing.

Instead with this tanking challenge, we have to do all 3 roles because Velen is useless as shit

Exactly. Other npcs should be dealing damage and healing while we control the situation. Not do insane dps, try to outheal, and tank mobs that knockback (if that even works, some times it just decides to knock you back and other times it doesn't).

[Quietmode]

I dont disagree that DPS is important as a tank when pushing the bleeding edge of progression, every bit helps. This on the other hand is VASTLY different from one tank to the next. To require one tank to deal with DOUBLE the health as every other tank(pally) is ludicrous. To force prot warriors to deal with 90% magic damage is pretty unfair as well but at least they can complete it if they are 910+. Myself, as a 910 mythic raiding prot paladin am literally unable to complete this challenge due to the fact that I have to contend with the same as every other tank, yet everything has double the health and paladins do fffarrrr from double every other tanks damage.

Theyre different between tanks?! Damn. Double health seems insane. Im 905 and was thinking about trying it but maybe ill wait til next time its built unless a guide comes out

[Ausr]

Theyre different between tanks?! Damn. Double health seems insane. Im 905 and was thinking about trying it but maybe ill wait til next time its built unless a guide comes out

Paladins maintain higher dps than guardians, if that's what he's referring to. Plus we can only kill the Eyes with magical damage compared to physical to the other tanks. (bear talking)

[Effreet]

I've currently clocked in over 100 attempts. Best was still 22%. I can semi-consistently reach P2 now but just get insta-gibbed when I get there.

Some things that I have fine tuned:

Switched to 3,3,2,2,3,1,2. Razor spikes has been allowing me to get the boss to 75% with enough crits and luck before the first set of elementals spawn. Pop Meta, Demonic Infusion, Empowered Wards, DS and spam fracture all day. When I get to 5-6 stacks I jump to the first eye that spawns and kill it immediately. Then I jump back in to the boss and generally the first wave of ele's spawn at that time. Leave the D&D and do the whole silence thing. Grouping up the elementals to the eyes while you are at 3 stacks of D&D is essential. Kill as many eyes as you possibly can when you have stacks of D&D.

This is certainly not an easy DPS race. I average 775k and have gotten to 1.1 mil dps by the end of p1 depending on how many infernals are up. I try to just always have 3 stacks of D&D and drive by the boss with Fiery Brand, Soul Carver, Abyssal Strikes, and Sigil of fire. If nothing is up I go in and fracture 2-3 times. Save sigil of silence and Arcane torrents for when you need silences if there are no orbs up (disregard this for the first set. Having extra orbs up is very nice.) Save your single target interrupt for Drain Life.

The real problems are the infernals... I no longer think D&D does anything to them. I think they just slowly smolder out as you deal DPS and they run around ticking their hp off. Try and avoid the smash's as best as possible... It is not always possible depending on eyes and all that. If you get knocked back just immediately glide to stop yourself from flying off the platform. When they die they drop something on the ground. I honestly have NO IDEA if this is significant other than showing where they will inevitably spawn again when they get up.

Should you manage to make it to p2 I really suggest you clean EVERYTHING up if at all possible before Kruul comes down. Your D&D stacks also don't drop when p2 begins which is obnoxious. Kill Varris with ranged if possible. When he spawns its honestly a cluster fuck. The black laser tether's spawn pretty much instantly and travel through the middle of the platform at a moderate speed. The fel fire the Kruul puts on the ground slows you massively and does not appear to go away. All infernals from p1 seem to stay in p2 and that's the real chaotic part. Dealing with them and the boss AND the elementals is nuts. I'd suggest avoiding the center of the platform because putting shit in the center seems to be a death sentence because it makes the orbs no longer accessible. Another problem is for some reason the arcane elementals no longer seem to fixate towards the tank in this phase and just bum rush Velen. I haven't figured out a real solid plan for this phase yet.

Kruul casts Twisted Reflection which must be interrupted or it heals him for a massive amount. He healed himself to 60% of his max HP once and I wanted to kill myself. The DH seems to do no god damn damage at all in this phase. Velen continues being useless. It's seriously like doing an LFR and watching Velen and the other dude just AFK BBQ 420. If you can manage to keep yourself calm through the chaos, this is a decent time to use war drums and lust yourself. When Kruul casts annihilate my only solution is either hit an orb or use imprison to interrupt the cast. Stuns may also work. Silences or interrupts do not work on annihilate. Annihilate at 2 stacks hit me for 8 million. I do not know how often lasers spawn, and I do not know if the infernal ground aura that drops when they die are useful. Deal with elementals the same way as in p1. Eyes despawn.

It's really obnoxious that p1 seems to be the phase you need ass loads of dps and p2 you just need a lot of survival. I've been using a flask of the seventh demon. I've also been using different combinations of trinkets to see what works best. Blood Thirsty Instinct, Darkmoon Deck: Immortality (mostly for p2), Ethereal Urn (895), Animated Exoskeleton, Majordomo's Dinner Bell, Infernal Contract (NOT A GOOD IDEA LOL), Nightblooming Frond. My best results have been with BTI and EU. I'm anywhere from 904-908 geared depending on how I change up my set. As stated before Prydaz and Fragment seem to be the best legendaries for me at least. I assume if you have the Boots and the Gloves you might be a god in there and have a much easier time. I would also assume Archimonde's Hatred is really strong.

My hands hurt... Over 100 attempts. Going through p1 over and over is very disconcerting when you just instantly die in p2 because of infernal gang bang.

Good luck guys. That's all I got. Please tell me if anyone finds out something I haven't or has some tips for p2.

[Deleted]

That is the way it should be to be honest. Much like the proving grounds, we protect the NPC while they do the dirty work of doing majority of the dps / healing.

Instead with this tanking challenge, we have to do all 3 roles because Velen is useless as shit

Indeed. Proving grounds for tanks feels much more thought out than this garbage excuse for a "tank challenge". I've done over 50 attempts, surviving for 4-5 minutes against that Inquisitor but I get swarmed with more and more adds, no chance to kill either them or him without being knocked around like a pin ball be it from the infernals or the eyes.

So jealous of healers who actually get to heal, you know, their role.

[Henriksson]

I've gotten Kruul to 15% and can reach p2 with an 80% consistency. I am close to killing the bitch, the strat is solid as fuck, but I only had 1,5k nethershards when I started and I cba farming more. Will continue and post more tomorrow.

Vengeance DH.

[Ozoi]

So now when I attempt it his death and decay doesnt appear on the ground but it's effect is still there. I'm starting to wonder if this isn't some elaborate troll put together by a bitter employee who was on his way out or maybe a delayed April fools? Everything about the tank challenge is absolute clown shoes.

[Christonya]

No, it really isn't. Regardless of what you think though, dps is not what tanks are about, so designing an encounter around it is weird as fuck. They could just as well have used this challenge for dps, but it's for tanks only which would suggest that it's supposed to differ.

Tanks are not damage dealers, we are tanks.

It wasn't years ago, they have since changed the design of tanking to encompass it.

[Bearshield]

Indeed. Proving grounds for tanks feels much more thought out than this garbage excuse for a "tank challenge". I've done over 50 attempts, surviving for 4-5 minutes against that Inquisitor but I get swarmed with more and more adds, no chance to kill either them or him without being knocked around like a pin ball be it from the infernals or the eyes.

So jealous of healers who actually get to heal, you know, their role.

I dunno, PG was too scripted imo, this actually requires me to use my brain. That being said, I've put in 34 attempts today with my best one only getting him down to 18%. It doesn't make sense that we are expected to both tank and dps to win though. I know this will get easier with more gear (I'm a 905 Guardian) but it seems like if the goal is to test our ability as tanks, then there should be dps in there. Maybe it should have been a 3 person group where you are matched to others of similar ilvl instead of just you and Velen?

[Tanthoris]

I think we all know what class this was tuned to for this challenge, looking at you Veng DHs and pre-bug fix Bears. Some tank classes literally don't have the damage if they want to survive, while others, like BrM monks just get roflstomped by everything because of the poor spec design by blizz.

This is what we get for blizzard doing only internal testing. Will 925 ilvl make this easier? Oh yeah, but until then most tanks can't manage unless they have insane gear OR are the right spec.

[Krazzorx]

They did already nerf the tank scenario once with slower infernal spawning so they clearly are willing to tweak it a bit if it is just tuned too high.

Ideally it will be spec specific tuning.

[Drynix]

Some general tips for Blood DK.

The eyes got an effect that makes them immune to all physical damage. This means only your blood boil, blood plague and death and decay can damage it. (from your base spellline)
It seems you can immune a couple of nether stacks with AMS as soon as the little adds start casting it. This is your biggest threat BY FAR. Spectral Deflection might be a usefull talent here for once but I havn't tested this yet.
Foul bulward is a nice semi counter to his aura effect. Even with a few stacks of his aura I still remain above 5 mil health. Which is a comfortable zone to be in.
You'd think in a fight where there is a full heal orb that purgatory is a great talent. Sadly the orb heals 100% health, it doesn't set you to 100%. So if your max is 6 mil health and you are on -3 health in purgatory, grabbing an orb sets you to 3 mil health in the positive only. Keep that in mind. If you got a proper hang of the first phase and can clear it without popping purgatory, blood mirror might be a better choice. If you allign it to shoot the boss during a set of netherstorms you can inflict some serious damage on him.
If you are not comfortable with the Blood Mirror talent to shoot the boss, bonestorm is a nice choice aswel. Since it clears the nether adds faster and it can damage the eyes.
Note that you can use your death grip and Gorefiends to interrupt all types of casts. Even the drain life, he won't recast it instantly after!
Tremble Before Me is a great talent for this, since it can fear and interrupt the boss. preventing many of his casts. It has saved me more than it should.

Thats all the experience I have so far. Lowest I got him was about 20% in 5 tries. Going to try again in a little bit.

Good luck everyone!

[madmossy]

Tried it on my Brewmaster earlier on, got totally wrecked just not enough healing to be able to stay alive long enough to do anything. Stagger is a huge pain in the backside without a healer and Velen sucks!