Mage Tower - All classes, all specs! Is this usual?

[Deleted]

At the same time, this kept several of us busy for 2-3 months. I can tell you that if it was up all the time, then it'd be done that much faster. So I agree it's annoying since some weeks you won't even try if it's midweek and you are tired from work or busy with schoolwork but at the same time it kept us busy for longer this way.

They had the currency gating already, it's of course not that impactful anymore, but still... I am glad that I'm done with all encounters for months now, and can focus on farming prestige on my main and complete further Balance of Power quests. It's not like there is nothing to do for altoholics. ^_^;

[Arakakao]

When your characters are 930+ even the 'mandatory' legendaries stop making a difference. I've completed so many challenges with just the Argus ring and a leggo for another spec. Did Prot pala without legs, Guardian without bracers, Sub without cloak, Affliction without ring etc.

I must be very bad then. Even with the bracers, the Guardian challenge was very difficult to me. There were a lot of instances of adds not dying and nuking Velen.

[Zyrinx]

I must be very bad then. Even with the bracers, the Guardian challenge was very difficult to me. There were a lot of instances of adds not dying and nuking Velen.

Took me exactly 100 pulls, but I had no bracers and no chest. Totally. Worth. It.

Don't get discouraged by failure on these is really the best advice you can get. Sometimes progress is slow but you really are learning each pull. That's the beauty of solo content like this, you are only using your own time, not anyone else's.

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At the same time, this kept several of us busy for 2-3 months. I can tell you that if it was up all the time, then it'd be done that much faster. So I agree it's annoying since some weeks you won't even try if it's midweek and you are tired from work or busy with schoolwork but at the same time it kept us busy for longer this way.

I don't totally disagree, but at this point (and even more so, as the pre-patch nears...) I do hope they just turn this thing to Always On, or dramatically nerf the build time.

[Thrif]

Brewmaster and Mistweaver aren't an investment if you've done the challenges before. I 2shot Mistweaver and I read up on the spec's rotation 15 minutes beforehand. Brewmaster can be cheesed hard. Prot and Sub are a matter of gear I've found.

Nice, I heard they were difficult. But that's with old school 915 gear I suppose. And yeah since they're my last healer and second to last tank I've done them plenty.

Mind telling me how to cheese brewmaster btw? I heard something about the spirit boar summoning whose name slips my mind right now. Q something.

And prot and sub are probably fairly easy if I put my mind to it. I'm at 940 on all three remaining toons, and prot pally has a 970 weapon.

[Deleted]

I'm at 11/36. I'm not sure I'll be able to do everything, specially because some legendaries are nearly mandatory.

They aren't you'll be fine - at this point in the expasion gear more than makes up for the fact that you don't have the correct legendaries. I did the affliction warlock fine with belt and insignia

[Thrif]

I'm at 11/36. I'm not sure I'll be able to do everything, specially because some legendaries are nearly mandatory.

Also, the tank challenge is a nightmare, no matter what gear you have. Knockback can ruin you day (I had to do more than 60 tries with Guardian druid, even with 940+ ilevel). Except for Demon Hunters, who can ignore the knockback mechanic.

Buy Goblin Gliders. They're a get out of jail freecard for Druid, DK, Pala and Monk if you manage to get knockbacked.

Also Guardian druid is regarded as one of the more difficult tank challenges, and one where legendaries definitely matters a lot. It took me a ton of tries to do it at 943 even with Ekowraith. Granted it was my first Kruul but still.

[Deleted]

Nice, I heard they were difficult. But that's with old school 915 gear I suppose. And yeah since they're my last healer and second to last tank I've done them plenty.

Mind telling me how to cheese brewmaster btw? I heard something about the spirit boar summoning whose name slips my mind right now. Q something.

And prot and sub are probably fairly easy if I put my mind to it. I'm at 940 on all three remaining toons, and prot pally has a 970 weapon.

Invoke Niuzao is what you're looking for, essentially bursting down Inquisitor asap and (if timed right) off CD when Kruul activates.

940 Prot and Sub should be a breeze. Sub is all about the adds, and having high mastery for those finishing moves helped my character a lot.

[Zyrinx]

Invoke Niuzao is what you're looking for, essentially bursting down Inquisitor asap and (if timed right) off CD when Kruul activates.

940 Prot and Sub should be a breeze. Sub is all about the adds, and having high mastery for those finishing moves helped my character a lot.

Hmm interesting. Would love to hear a little more about this, Brewmaster is one of the 2 Kruuls I have left and when I tried it last tower I was for sure having issues.

[Deleted]

Hmm interesting. Would love to hear a little more about this, Brewmaster is one of the 2 Kruuls I have left and when I tried it last tower I was for sure having issues.

I had issues with it for a brief period, but once you get pass inquisitor it's a breeze, which is the point of Invoke Niuzao. I'd recommend Black Ox Statue if you haven't already, makes the adds come to you to ensure 0 downtime on Inquisitor. Blackout Combo for those empowered abilities, though High Tolerance will be more benificial in the longterm (not sure which of the two I picked).
Brewmaster is imo the second handerst in terms of survivability (pala first) seeing as self-healing is piss poor and everything depends on Stagger and brew management. Once you reach Kruul the mobility kicks in and Brewmaster becomes one of the easier ones.

[Thrif]

I had issues with it for a brief period, but once you get pass inquisitor it's a breeze, which is the point of Invoke Niuzao. I'd recommend Black Ox Statue if you haven't already, makes the adds come to you to ensure 0 downtime on Inquisitor. Blackout Combo for those empowered abilities, though High Tolerance will be more benificial in the longterm (not sure which of the two I picked).
Brewmaster is imo the second handerst in terms of survivability (pala first) seeing as self-healing is piss poor and everything depends on Stagger and brew management. Once you reach Kruul the mobility kicks in and Brewmaster becomes one of the easier ones.

Looked it up a bit and yeah, it definitely looks like it's pretty easy using Niuzao. And mistweaver should be fairly easy too, Monk have some pretty good split healing and insane cooldowns. Guess I'll be trying out both when the mage tower is up next, thanks for the info my dude.

[Marrilaife]

Also, the tank challenge is a nightmare, no matter what gear you have. Knockback can ruin you day (I had to do more than 60 tries with Guardian druid, even with 940+ ilevel). Except for Demon Hunters, who can ignore the knockback mechanic.

Except goblin gliders already mentioned above, few tanks have ways to save themselves if they get hit by knockback, as long as you react quick. Monk can use transcendence (if you placed a clone), warrior can charge or heroic leap, druid can skull bash or wild charge and they're immune to knockback while in rage of the sleeper so you can pre pop it if you stand in shit and can't move in time, DHs as you noticed, can glide. So generally only DK and pally are completely out of "out of jail cards".

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arcane mage made me switch to another challenge out of ragequitting. No idea how i'm supposed to survive without going oom.

Prydaz and blink chest legendaries usually. If out of luck and you have to spec mana shield, you just do very slow dps outside of having to burn the shield, save evocation for "oh shit moment" instead of using it in rotation (burn - evocate), you just don't burn, you pick the healing orbs, and if you have other leggos like pants or head you could use these as a clutch mana regen, but tbh prydaz or blink chest (or both) are best solutions. This challenge is not a dps race luckily so doing little dps by skipping burn phases most of the time won't harm you that much.

[Aeula]

Just did the Demon Hunter tank challenge a few days ago. It was a complete joke. I just ignored all the knockback mechanics, AoE’d and silenced the adds and then DPS’d the first boss down.

When the second phase started I just tank and spanked Kruul whilst hitting random buttons during annihilate in the hopes they were damage mitigation buttons (It was my first time playing the spec). Did it all in one pull to my utter befuddlement.

Just two more tank (Blood and Brew) and two more DPS (Frost Mage and Balance) challenges now. Frost seems surprisingly easy, I just need a bit more DPS so I can push phases faster.

So far Sub Rogue and Shadow Priest have been the hardest with 60+ wipes apiece.

Although I also haven’t even touched the healing challenges yet due to not being good at/not liking healing. I might attempt the Holy Paladin challenge on my main but I hear gear makes it harder. Which worries me as my holy spec is at around Ilvl 950-955.
The thing I like most about these challenges is that you can brute force them with gear, so it never feels completely out of reach. The healing challenges seem to turn that on its head though.

[Deleted]

Looked it up a bit and yeah, it definitely looks like it's pretty easy using Niuzao. And mistweaver should be fairly easy too, Monk have some pretty good split healing and insane cooldowns. Guess I'll be trying out both when the mage tower is up next, thanks for the info my dude.

Mistweaver was expecially great because of Life Cocoon and Leg Sweep. The instant AoE stun is simply amazing in P1.
GL man, happy to help

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Although I also haven’t even touched the healing challenges yet due to not being good at/not liking healing. I might attempt the Holy Paladin challenge on my main but I hear gear makes it harder. Which worries me as my holy spec is at around Ilvl 950-955.
The thing I like most about these challenges is that you can brute force them with gear, so it never feels completely out of reach. The healing challenges seem to turn that on its head though.

The only thing that makes it 'harder' is that you have more hp during Ignite Soul in P5. It really isn't an issue, you just need to heal up real fast from a low % because he jumps on you right after the debuff expires multiple times.
You'll definitely want more gear during P5 when he sucks the adds in and P1.

[Thrif]

Although I also haven’t even touched the healing challenges yet due to not being good at/not liking healing. I might attempt the Holy Paladin challenge on my main but I hear gear makes it harder. Which worries me as my holy spec is at around Ilvl 950-955.
The thing I like most about these challenges is that you can brute force them with gear, so it never feels completely out of reach. The healing challenges seem to turn that on its head though.

I found holy paladin to be by far the easiest healing challenge. Great split healing with beacons, great cc with hammer and repentance, great burst healing with wrath and holy avenger, just great everything. I barely missed out on a one-shot and two-shot it instead, and it was the only class I could easily save drums to the final boss phase on.

As Beste Kerel points out, there is only one mechanic on the final boss that makes it more difficult with better gear, since it deals damage based on your current health to all of your team, so if you're full health you'll one-shot them if you're above 5m health. But there's fire to stand in to lower your health and that fight is really easy overall, there's only two challenging phases to the scenario and both of them scales just as much with gear as any other artifact challenge.

So no, the healing challenge doesn't turn it on its head, it works just as all the others, better gear makes it significantly easier. There's just one easy mechanic in an easy phase that becomes more damaging the more health you have.

As I said, I facerolled it at 935 without ever really playing the spec before, so if it's your main with 950 it should be extreme amounts of faceroll. And the appearance is pretty sweet tbh.

Just two more tank (Blood and Brew) and two more DPS (Frost Mage and Balance) challenges now. Frost seems surprisingly easy, I just need a bit more DPS so I can push phases faster.

If you think frost looks surprisingly easy I'm guessing you haven't tried Blood and Balance? I found Blood to be the easiest tank challange due to insane selfhealing and damage and the adds not storming so they're just being cleaved, and Balance was my #1 easiest mage tower of them all, I one-shot it without having done the Twins on any other character, it's a pretty big joke.

Frost on the other hand I found to be one of the most difficult Twins despite Mage being my most geared toon at 946. I think actually overgearing it can make it more difficult, since you need the adds alive to chain Blizzards + Orbs + Fingers.

Anyway, GL with them all, getting pretty close

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After the last tower uptime at the weekend I have just 4 specs left. Gotta gear my monk because 3 of them are hers. Nearly there!

So basically you've 3 left since Windwalker is faceroll. What are you missing outside of the Monk stuff?

[LaplaceNoMa]

Why would you make it MORE difficult for your self by not buying drums? Seems kinda stupid

It's in the beginning of the post.

Had a small self-imposed challenge of not using the 'recommended' legendaries (like the slow ring for Affli or chest/bracers for Guardian etc), not using any enchants (except for weapon runes for DKs), consumables (including drums - but I still used BL on mage, shaman and hunter) or water during combat drop breaks on my healers. All characters were ~925-930 except for my mains Mage and Hunter.

[Leih]

So basically you've 3 left since Windwalker is faceroll. What are you missing outside of the Monk stuff?

Affliction is the last one. My lock doesn't have any legendaries yet, which was fine for Destro and Demo but in the couple of pulls of Twins I had time for I couldn't work out how to beat them without any tricks. I assume I'm either going to need some kind of slow trinket, the corruption ring, or just up my ilvl a bit more (she's 919 right now) so I can brute force it.

I think WW and BrM shouldn't be a problem once my Monk gets geared up (she was like 885 when I did the others). Not looking forward to MW because I've like never played that spec and the healing one sucks ass :P

[Leih]

Scroll the thread and you'll find a small guide on how to use the cheese tactic. I recently posted it on the Warlock forums as well where someone was asking about how to do that challenge.

I was told about the cheese tactic but I'd kind of like to do them all at least somewhat legitimately.

But maybe if I just get stuck and fed up

[Shiny212]

The challenge was in doing them in subpar gear. Assuming you have the free time to waste, getting good gear on each character (good legendaries), you can stomp every one of them.

Ill say though that the healing challenge is really stupid. It's not a healing challenge, but rather a CC or die challenge.

[Thrif]

Affliction is the last one. My lock doesn't have any legendaries yet, which was fine for Destro and Demo but in the couple of pulls of Twins I had time for I couldn't work out how to beat them without any tricks. I assume I'm either going to need some kind of slow trinket, the corruption ring, or just up my ilvl a bit more (she's 919 right now) so I can brute force it.

Well, good luck with that. I wasn't even close to being able to brute force it at 935 despite having done it on a lot of other toons before so I knew the fight inside out. It really feels like they designed that one with the corruption ring in mind, just like how Guardian feels designed around having Luffa or Eko.

On the upside, it was that stupid overtune that made me not even feel bad for abusing the heck out of it. I didn't want to either at first, but pretty soon realize that it's either that or spend literally days of playtime farming for a RNG legendary.

But who knows, maybe I'm just a sucky affliction player. Good luck anyway, I'm at 4 left as well, 2 being monks so we're in a similar boat.

[Deleted]

Who cares about doing it 'legit' at this point anyway? If you wanted it 'legit' you'd supposedly need to travel back to 7.2 traits, legendaries and 900 ilvl with Nighthold tier.