Arcane Mage Tower Scenario Tips and Tricks

[Midgert]

Just completed the Mage tower scenario as arcane and figured I give some tips on the encounter since it was difficult for me.

My ilvl was 896 for this encounter. This is not a dps check like other scenarios this is a mechanics and understanding of the spec itself check.

Talent choices for encounter
Amp, Slipstream, Incanter's Flow,SN, Chrono Shift(very important to take), Unstable Magic, and OP

Legendaries: They arent required but Pydaz and Belovir are the best for the encounter

Overall theme of the fight : Survival > Damage. This scenario isnt a dps race at all and is a test of being able to not only manage your mana well, but manage your cc on all three targets


The scenario is 3 adds, one being Sigryn, a warrior add (forgot the name) and a rune bearer (forgot name). You also start the encounter with a debuff that makes your poly have a CD and reduced duration but stops regeneration. This is very important to the encounter and knowing how to use it is key to success.

They all have 100 mil+ hp with Sigryn having around 200 mil for me so you cant just burst them down and ignore mechanics.


Sigryn
All of her mechanics are top priority in that they will kill you if they are ignored. Her main ability is one where she transforms and does a pulsing AOE that will kill you. To stop this mechanic you must poly her before the cast is completed. Later Sigryn will call valkyr to come sweep the area with a small hole between some (think VotW), you need to get in this hole or you will most likely die. If you cant keep sigryn polyed you can kite her along with the warrior with chronoshift and Slow and in my kill she seemed to be immune to poly after i was so far into the fight. She also has an annoying knockback which can be deadly if she interrupts your evocation if u dont have slipstream.

Rune Bearer The damage check
His spams shadowbolt at you doing little to no damage, He starts to cast runes throughout the encounter that start to shrink, if they shrink fully then you take a massive amount of damage and will die most likely. You need to walk over them to prevent them from blowing up and killing you. One issue that does occur early in the fight is that the warrior add is enraged and chasing you while a rune goes off. If you need to pass the warrior add to stop a rune, use greater invisibility to lower the damage you will take so you do not die.

The rune keeper will also start casting a spell (says something about his ancestors powers) you need to break his absorb shield so that you can counterspell this cast. As the fight progresses he appears to cast this more often so you will need to able to break it constantly.

The Warrior
This guy was the one who kept ending my runs here. He doesnt do much early in the fight but he eventually enrages and starts to chase you. If he reaches you and autos you for about a second, ur most likely going to die as he has high burst and high attack speed during it. To handle this add, u must constantly keep him slowed through you Slow spell and constantly have chronoshift active on you to keep a movement speed up to stay away from him. This add is the hardest to pay attention to since the other 2 take priority in their abilities but that doesnt make this add dangerous.

Tips for the Encounter

1. Throughout the fight yellow orbs will drop, running over these will heal you for about ~30% hp They seem to spawn early in the fight but after 50% i dont recall anymore spawning.

2. How i did the fight was i focused the warrior add since he was killing me the most due to my mistakes with kiting, as long as you can keep him slowed and you have chrono, you should be able to kite him around the room.

3. Cast Prismatic barrier on CD, this is rlly important if u dont have pydaz as the damage will start to add up if you dont do this and the yellow orbs seemed to stop spawning after 50% of their hp is gone.

4. They do share health ( to an extent) so you can AOE for more damage but dont put yourself in dangerous situations for some extra DPS, if you need to just Arcane explosion the warrior add so you can keep moving away from him

5. Try to keep calm, this encounter is easily 8+ mins long and a slight mistake can cause you to die during it. This isnt a scenario that you will complete on your first try most likely, it took me around 15 before i killed her.

Other suggestions
my strat for pull: Arcane barrage Sirgyn (Dont use AB because touch of the magi could proc and ruin the strat). Sirgyn will come to you and when she is half way across the room poly her and focus on the warrior. Keep Sirgyn polyed if you can but her breaking the first poly is recoverable. DPS the warrior for a bit HE will eventually come towards you to melee and will enrage soon. Keep him slowed and keep chrono up on you so you can kite him. runes will be casted soon so u have to focus on keeping the warrior slowed, sirgyn polyed ( if she isnt u can kite her but she will cast her main ability which U MUST POLY BEFORE SHE FINISHED IT opening you to risk of being clobbered by the warrior.)

The fight is chaotic but is manageable. As the fight progresses more mechanics will be thrown in making a mistake more punishing but once you try it enough times, youll get the hang of this encounter



Helpful Macro i used for the encounter
Poly macro for sigryn
/target Sigryn
/cast Polymorph

Possible bug with encounter
Eventually sigryn stopped using her meta ability and was immune to my poly so i had to keep her slowed with chrono to complete the encounter
Currently if u iceblock during the encounter you will lose the debuff and makes the fight impossible to complete so unbind it for this scenario

Hope this is helpful
Midgert
PS there are most likely spelling and grammar errors in the guide. I have classes within an hour and figured that it would be better to have some tips for the community on the first day of the mage tower. Ill try to fix it after classes for the day

[maynord]

Thanks loads for the guide. What was your ilvl btw?

I don't have prydaz+belovir but I have Spiral/Kilt/Shard/Bracers, I think I'm going to try and run this with Mana Shield a few times first

[Midgert]

My ilvl was 897 or 896 for the scenario. Ill log out with what i used for the encounter and you can armory it if you like.

Here is a link to my armory

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/i ... ert/simple" target="_blank

[Jembo]

You are the real mvp Midgert!

Thanks a lot for all the tips, i'll try as soon as the mage tower will be available here

[Jembo]

I managed to get the appearance after 20 attempts or so, this guide has really helped me.

I want to add a little tip:

-I dont know if this is intended, but if you ice-block for any reason (I was cornered and refused to die ) and lose the poly debuff, all the polymorph-dependant mechanics will stop and you will face only the "burst" mechanic continuously every 30 sec or so. No more "Blood of my father", and no more "The Drekijar never yield". You will still face the val'kyr swoop though, and the "Power of my ancestors" of course.

At that point I kept a minor cd for every burn phase: arcane power, artifact, presence of mind, just 1 of them for each phase. Even the Resonance talent cast on three target helps at this point, if you ever face this.

Leggos: Prydaz and Kilt

I have no screen for proof, but you can check my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/n ... mbo/simple

Good luck!

[dozlas]

I did it in less than 6 min, just spamming Arcane explosion, slow and barrage while doing mechanics. If u keep closer to the caster one, he follows you and its easier to AoE them.

Using kilt/sephuz, no need surv legens i think

[seoh]

Blocking off polymorph seems to be hotfixed on NA as of 2:40pm pst

[maynord]

What do you mean by blocking off? There is no diminishing return on it anymore?

I did the challenge in 25 attempts w/ Spiral + Kilt (901) but it was pretty painful, I spent every other GCD spamming Prismatic Barrier so it took me like 8 minutes to complete.

[Midgert]

What he means is when you did the scenario early on, if you used iceblock, you would lose the debuff that makes your poly have a cd, lower duration but prevents regeneration of hp. If you lost this, you can only poly Sidgryn 3 times before she was immune and would constantly be at full HP making the encounter difficult to impossible if it occurred early in the scenario.

[seoh]

Actually it made it very easy. You didn't have to worry about her at all, effectively making you only worry about bladestorm, enrage, circles and absorb mechanics. It helped me learn them for the 5-7 pulls I was able to do it. It also made dpsing the others easy as well. Imagine you get to the late stage of the fight and all you have to deal with is wall, because you killed the mage so earlier on.

[Songette]

Did it today using Sephuz & Prydaz. 39 Attempts, 908 ilvl. Your tips were very helpful!

[Naustis]

Mine try It took me 7 minutes to beat the Arcane challange. I hope someone will find it usefull.
https://youtu.be/xhM68Gn9KbA" target="_blank

[Mardwen]

After countless attempts I've completed this with 901 ilvl, Sephuz (great dps and mobility) and Gravity Spiral. I used rune of power for extra dps and kept my guldan trinket; keep a charge of RoP for trinket procs, at my ilvl you have to be very serious about increasing your dps. Manashield is necessary as the axes are very hard to dodge. I don't recommend attempting this on lower than 900 ilvl as it was a very tight dps squeeze for me. I only started making progress after recording all abilities and splitting the encounter into 4 phases, each ending with the Ancient knowledge cast. I'm gonna list those as they can be helpful to remember what to look out for as things are not random at all. This is assuming a poly is cast on every blood of my father.


P1:
~30 sec > Yarl Empowers
~46 sec-> Runes spawn
~1:04 -> Blood of my father Cast
~1:08 -> Yarl Axes
~:136 -> Yarl Melee
~1:42 -> Ancient Knowledge (Shield)

P2:
~5 sec -> Valkyr Wall
~31sec -> Yarl Whirlwind
~34 sec -> Blood of my father
~43 sec -> Runes
~54 sec -> Runes
1:03 -> Yarl Walks
1:10 -> Ancient Knowledge (Shield)

P3:
~4sec -> Valkyr
~24 sec -> Valkyr
~34sec -> Yarl Empowered
~34sec -> Runes
~45 sec -> Valkyr
~45 sec -> Runes
~57 sec -> Runes
~1:01 -> Whirlwind
~1:01 -> Blood of my father
~1:34 -> Whirlwind
~1:54 -> Valkyr wall
~1:59 -> Ancient knowledge (Shield)

P4:
In P4, you'll have to deal with the shield and the valkyr wall. The Jarl will never empower and Sigryn will never cast blood of my father. Valkyrs are summoned frequently when Sigryn is not polymorphed. You can keep her polymorphed almost all the time. The ancient knowledge is cast very frequently although it seems the shield is a bit weaker so don't panic when it's cast. Expect to use an iceblock if you messed up on shield.

Note that phase 3 is the hardest multiple abilities are cast simultaneously, there is a decent chance you'll need ice block to account for some truly bad RNG when addressing the valkyr wall and runes and an empowered yarl all at the same time. Plan your freezes very well, and watch out for Sigryn knockback, they are not random so anticipate them (don't use evocate for instance when knockback is inc). Freezing Sigryn will delay her knock back until she breaks free. Good luck next week!

[Thudderson]

Thanks for all the tips. So far after about 20 pulls I have gotten as far as the second set of runes. On most of my pulls I keep cc up but die to the axes before first set of runes come up. Might try the mana shield tip. Other problem is I use ginvis if I go near jarl for runes but he kills me within 1-2 melee hits. I was using amplification to avoid evo intdrruption but will try shimmer. Using belo'virs and celumbra (also have foresight, kilt, exodar). Ilvl 897 with that gear but 902 max with kilt and shard. If anyone has any other tips lmk I feel like a total idiot haha. Watching vids people don't seem to have any trouble with axes or melee.

[Xafi]

Is it just me, or this scenario is full of bugs? Sometimes Polymorph lasts WAAAAAAAAY less then the tooltip says (I am sure I am not breaking it, expires naturally), Valkyr wall rushes through without Sylgrin announcing it...can't even get past 80%.

[testacular]

Is it just me

Yep, it's most likely you. There is a loads of things going on and it's easy not to notice a thing sometimes. Don't rely on announcements as they may overlap effectively hiding one of them.

The only real "bug" I encountered there is the mini-pedestal in the middle which blocks 40-60% of your blinks. It sometimes lets you blink on top and other times it fucks you over. (assuming they haven't fixed that yet, I did my challenge the first day it was possible). Obviously, you can just blink around it.

Sometimes Polymorph lasts WAAAAAAAAY less then the tooltip says

Kinda doubt it, but its super super super easy to accidentally break it. You can thank the 4th golden trait for that. Using AE is suicide. Also be careful with barrage and its AOE. Basically, when you have her polymorphed, go singlet target only.

Watching vids people don't seem to have any trouble with axes or melee.

Axes - they are problem, but only in the 1st phase, then he just kinda drops it and you see them no more. You want shield, shield and more shield. Other than that, they circle around given area. Meaning after he tosses 2-3 axes, you teleport to other, less dangerous, area. Using Belovir is very useful, every blink gives you shield - I recall I did some Shimmer-Displacements insta combos only to gain the shield. Always save one Shimmer for the runes though - so that you get there in time + you can shimmer through the enraged vrykul without getting meleed.

Melee - it does zero damage unless the vrykul has enrage (other two are pretty much harmless unless you go afk standing next to them). You should watch out for that and when he's not enraged you needn't be worried much. Again, you want to keep the shield up, its the only thing you have. No shield is like walking there naked.

[Tipsey]

You are suggesting shield shield shield, yet also saying shimmer here and there. Aren't both of those talents on the same row?

[testacular]

Ah you misunderstood me, sorry should have been more explicit.
If you have Belovir - go shimmer. You get more mobility and blinks give you shield, that makes up for Mana shield talent.
If you dont have Belovir, take Mana shield talent (the neck legendary can help too btw).
Something alone those lines

[Jolyon]

I had the Belo'vir's final stand for this which was great and all that, but what really helped me was the legendary crafted shoulders which gave me movement speed for kiting, and healed me up when Odin stopped casting the orbs. The shoulders where a game breaker for me, so I suggest trying them out if you struggle after the first 60-50%.
I was itm lvl 902 (44 AP traits.) when doing this. Took me about 14 min as my dps was so low and mechanics are more important ofc.

I want to thank everyone for their post here, you guys helped me with your tips.

The macros I used was:
#showtooltip
/cast [@boss1, harm, nodead] Polymorph(Sheep)

#showtooltip
/cast [@boss3, harm, nodead] Slow

This helped a lot, as I didn’t need to switch target etc. as I was mostly targeting the runeseer.

Armory:
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/chara ... don/nedivh" target="_blank

[Vorrum]

I just finished it myself so I'll detail my account of the fight in my circumstances, so that someone else may gleam some insight into the fight.

I had:
iLvL 890
Sephuz
Crafted legendary shoulders

Talents:
Amp
Shimmer
Incanter's
Resonance
Chrono
Erosion
Overpowered


The best way I can describe doing this challenge at a lower gear level such as myself is to take your time and get the rhythm of the abilities they cast. Poly should only be used on Sigryn when she casts so she does not go immune after 3 or more casts. Save frost nova to freeze the two melee to deal with the caster's ability. I would also really encourage rotating CDs for the caster later on because he will cast he ability every 15 seconds or so late into the fight ~8 mins in. TL;DR-Survive above all else and get into the rhythm.