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

[Gestopft]

I think I must be the only crazy person that did Shadow without STM...

Been trying Holy...when my allies are fighting each other...realize I’ve targeted one of the spirits behind the barrier...ugh

[yetgdhfgh]

7 down now

Got Unholy and feral tonight and iam now working of Aff. I know about the mortal coil cheese but iam still new to aff and i dont have the gear or the ak to kill the boss in the first transition but iam gonna be working on him.

[Nathanyel]

EU is at 55% now after going down on Monday eve, hope we manage to get it back up in a way that it's up the whole next weekend.

[Naiattavain]

One challenge left: Subtlety.

I just can't deal with the adds. I use Nightblade, Kidney Shot and Blind but they just don't go down fast enough. 930 ilvl with Sephuz/Argus and BiS shoulders. I need the cloak but alas.

literally i give up; the mage tower challenge its really too hard. i always get him to 10% range of health and die.

[Gestopft]

Did you have one of the snare trinkets?

Just stat sticks as my only other options for that toon are healing trinkets.

[Emeraldon]

literally i give up; the mage tower challenge its really too hard. i always get him to 10% range of health and die.

Don't give up. You're at 10% you can definitely do it. What gear / legendaries do you have?

[Gestopft]

Well that's impressive, gratz

Tbh I felt that the design intent was for Shadow to do this with S2M

Hehe, Karam definitely punted me around a fair bit before I got him down. I think iLvl was lower 930’s with no optimization but I only play Shadow for questing so I had never tried STM before and was failing horribly and decided to make do without. Went with a different talent setup than usual, planned out the hands, and hoped for fortuitous Zek’s procs.

Now Holy is kicking my ass which frustrates me because I have long thought of healing as my strongest role.

[Gestopft]

When in doubt, shackle someone!

That was a revelation when I realized I could do that but alas, it’s when my allies are fighting each other that’s the roadblock right now

[Deleted]

literally i give up; the mage tower challenge its really too hard. i always get him to 10% range of health and die.

My problem is that I have conquered the other 35: it's gnna gnaw at my conscious if I don't get this one, even if Nymhrod is right and the appearance is ugly af and I never play a rogue anyway.

[Zyrinx]

Whelp, had a <1% wipe on Prot Warrior just before the tower came down. As always my stupid hands were so shakey at the end I just derped and got punted at 2%, and NPCs didnt finish the job (830k left). I'm actually encouraged though, it took me over 100 pulls to even get to P2, but now P1 is feeling a lot more comfortable, and P2 is just execution and not freaking the %&#$ out. And who knows maybe I get either the Gloves or Bracers before next Tower.... though the Archimonde's Hatred trinket is pretty good in both phases for a decent shield. If I got gloves/bracers I think I'd actually ditch Prydaz instead. It's just not that good in this challenge. I'm considering ditching it for Leap shoulders anyways.

I'm thinking Prot and Disc next tower and maybe Shadow and Ret if the first 2 go quick. The love/hate relationship with the Tower continues =P

[Deleted]

One challenge left: Subtlety.

I just can't deal with the adds. I use Nightblade, Kidney Shot and Blind but they just don't go down fast enough. 930 ilvl with Sephuz/Argus and BiS shoulders. I need the cloak but alas.

I did not have the cloak and did the challenge with roughly the same item level. As far as I remember, I had legendary shoulders and KJ legendary trinket, though I am not sure anymore, it has been some months.

You need the tangled shadow talent to slow the adds down. I also found MfD useful, though when all 3 adds are there, you can first start with a knife dance to build up some combo points. Try to get Nightblade on all adds one after another, and use your dps CDs to burn them. I had to go through 2-3 add phases usually.

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I had that happen at 0.1% left on Raest. That one moment you wish you had enchanted and gemmed your gear xD. Then again it is just a rarely used alt and I got it a few attempt later anyway.

Anyway got my BrM monk to 940 now + the kegsmash shoulder leggo. What I find a bit strange is that I seem to get the leggos I want/need for the mage tower. I know it's rng and I'm not complaining, it's just something I noticed.

With some exceptions like Sacrolash, this was true for me. Both paladins got Tyelca as one of their first protection legendaries, for example. Though, on my fire mage, I had to wait a bit until I got the blink chest and dragonbreath helmet. And I brute forced some challenges with extra item levels and consumables, especially after knowing what's going on there and getting familiar with a spec I don't play much.

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7 down now

Got Unholy and feral tonight and iam now working of Aff. I know about the mortal coil cheese but iam still new to aff and i dont have the gear or the ak to kill the boss in the first transition but iam gonna be working on him.

You can use the Infernal tank strategy even without mortal coil. I let my infernal tank Karam until P5, and burned Raest as my primary target then.

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Hehe, Karam definitely punted me around a fair bit before I got him down. I think iLvl was lower 930’s with no optimization but I only play Shadow for questing so I had never tried STM before and was failing horribly and decided to make do without. Went with a different talent setup than usual, planned out the hands, and hoped for fortuitous Zek’s procs.

Now Holy is kicking my ass which frustrates me because I have long thought of healing as my strongest role.

To be honest, P1 of the healing challenge is more like a bad pug nightmare. I learned the encounter on my holy priest, after playing Discipline since Wrath for healing, and it was a bit tough first, until I got my intuition for using holy words. Also, shackle helps a lot, but it's much more clunky than most tools of other healers. In doubt, shackle either one of the melee if you have double, or the archer when she starts casting mana sting. I found a mouseover shackle macro helpful.

Beside that, Prydaz is incredible in P1. You can outheal double melee focus on you with this legendary.

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That was a revelation when I realized I could do that but alas, it’s when my allies are fighting each other that’s the roadblock right now

You can use the grip to get the melee off the other two, since he's usually the one who does most damage.

[Deleted]

Yeah if you are at 35/36 you got to do it. It'd be maddening otherwise. What are your ilvl, artifact level and legendaries on that alt? Any good AoE trinkets (I assume the p2 adds are the problem)?

Think we discussed this last week, but it's Shoulders and Sephuz. 931 with 66 (?) traits. All trinkets r stat sticks. KJ's and cloak would be godly for adds. I'll see if I get either be4 pre-patch hits (I'm due for a drop), but who knows maybe I'll have it down before it comes to it.

[Zyrinx]

I love this thread. I mean, for real.

[Deleted]

I think I must be the only crazy person that did Shadow without STM...

Been trying Holy...when my allies are fighting each other...realize I’ve targeted one of the spirits behind the barrier...ugh

I failed 10-15 times with STM. Then specced into Shadow Crash and succeeded first try. I don't even understand why guides recommend STM. It is much harder to utilize.

[ey b0ss]

It is possible , i only need the mistweaver monk skin and i'll have them all. :3
https://imgur.com/a/PUI46Cy.
Proof ^

[Marrilaife]

I failed 10-15 times with STM. Then specced into Shadow Crash and succeeded first try. I don't even understand why guides recommend STM. It is much harder to utilize.

It's easier to kite when you can run all the time and mind flay on the run (permaslow).

[Deleted]

I failed 10-15 times with STM. Then specced into Shadow Crash and succeeded first try. I don't even understand why guides recommend STM. It is much harder to utilize.

Because it is used for the strat to kill Raest in P2, skipping the entirety of the rest of the fight. Only way to do this is taking S2M.

[Deleted]

I really want to try to get this done, too. But.. I don't Think I have the time or skill or patience for this kind of challenge. It's one of my "less important" goals before BfA hits, and I've only done the fire mage so far :P

[Destructus]

Sub rogue is the worst dps challenge next to frost mage.

You need to micromanage nightblood snare on all 3 adds.
I recommend using 70% nightblood snare talent and marked for death.

Pop sprint when boss channels add spell and run to opposite end. Pop MfD + nightblood on first add, goremaw on 2nd, use combo points from that to nightblood 3rd. Pop shadow dance and shadowstrike each add or spam aoe (just make sure to single target each add to refresh snare), use nightblood as finisher on the add you goremawed.

Once all 3 adds have nightblood, every gcd needs to target a different add. If adds don't die fast enough after this setup pop dance again. Use drums and shadow blades for 2nd set of adds and save both dances for 3rd set. If you have 920+ ilvl you won't have a 4th set.

Once boss berserks at 10% pop evasion and remaining cds and burn.

[Deleted]

Sub rogue is the worst dps challenge next to frost mage.

You need to micromanage nightblood snare on all 3 adds.
I recommend using 70% nightblood snare talent and marked for death.

Pop sprint when boss channels add spell and run to opposite end. Pop MfD + nightblood on first add, goremaw on 2nd, use combo points from that to nightblood 3rd. Pop shadow dance and shadowstrike each add or spam aoe (just make sure to single target each add to refresh snare), use nightblood as finisher on the add you goremawed.

Once all 3 adds have nightblood, every gcd needs to target a different add. If adds don't die fast enough after this setup pop dance again. Use drums and shadow blades for 2nd set of adds and save both dances for 3rd set. If you have 920+ ilvl you won't have a 4th set.

Once boss berserks at 10% pop evasion and remaining cds and burn.

TBH, while very annoying sub is doable. As frost you have the right toolkit, as sub less so. I wouldn't bother too much with AoE on the adds. If you have DBM timers you can see when the adds are gonna spawn. I suggest pooling some CP before they do. This keeps MoD free for snap damage/CC. First add apply Nightblade, second one Goremaws bite, nightblade the third one, then Shadowdance and go ham on the third add (the one you slowed last) and kill it. Reapply Nightblade on the other two directly after (the Goremawed one first preferably). Kill the second one. On the last one, do the same, you can always stun it, if it gets too close to the boss.
You should only get 3 waves of adds. If you get a 4th it's game over so if that cast starts just go for the kill. The third wave will generally be the tightest one, because you will be running out of space. Remember that you can use CoS for 5 seconds extra dps time while standing in the goo.

I can't stress enough that you make sure that the adds have to walk as far as possible without clipping the goo. Plan this ahead of the adds spawning. Secondly getting the slows up immediately and efficiently is the way to win this. Thirdly and most crucially: DON'T PANIC.