Mage Tower Challenge

[Cames]

So, I have tried it a few times. I have not beaten it yet.

The start is that you get to fight a guy that will 1 shot you if you don't have Ice Barrier up. Kiting is the path forward.

I have discovered that Ring of Frost does not work on this guy.

Anything else here that anyone knows would be helpful.

[dioneslol]

Dont let the Karam guy touch you, just kite him around, Nova works, Cone of Cold is great.

If you have 900+ ilvl I suggest you to spec into LW, Shimmer, IF, Frozen Touch, Frigid Winds, Artic Gale, Thermal Void.
Kite him around the middle, to not shit all over the areas you want to kite.

For p2 start casting blizzard / frozen orb on cd on the small adds / boss, Ignore his casts it deals no damage, if you keep using blizzard on the adds they will stay in the middle and you will have alot of frozen orbs to generate FoF, once the melee guy gets up again you focus him, but now a hand with a 10s cast will spawn, you want to focus this ASAP and use counterspell when the spell is about to go off, remember you still have to kite, so keep blizzard / frozen orb on the melee boss, if for some reason you cant kill / interrupt a hand fast enough, block the damage then finish it off

If you get the melee guy to 30% he will start healing again and you fight the caster guy, now you have to make a choice, kill the caster guy, or just dps him until the melee guy is back and finish the melee guy, for both strats you will have a new mechanic a rune will spawn and if you dont stand on it, an add that one shot you if he hits you will spawn, so soak then, at some point the melee guy will join the fight again, now you have to deal with the runes, the melee guy and the hand, you should lust here (or before if you chose to burn the caster) if you kill the caster you win, if you kill melee the fight becomes a joke and you just soak runes and finish the caster that deals no damage.

I did it by killing the melee guy w/o timewarp because I fucked up last attempt and did not want to wait but I do have 910ilvl and legendary bracers/sephuz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toLYzaY ... nel=Dionim" target="_blank

hope it helps

[Mage]

Nuking caster is safer because runes can often spawn very close to or even in the middle of the adds and then it is gg.

[zulgohlan]

Why it is save in the middle? I red bout adds are hitting woth 500k? (Unfortunatley no time to do this...)

[subtlexgaming]

I was getting to p3 every time the 4 attempts I put into it. So just pop hero and nuke caster as soon as he goes down for 2nd time? Can you burn fast enough to not even worry about mechanics p3? I'm 907 equipped w/ sephuz/hero ring.

[Eyliria]

I was getting to p3 every time the 4 attempts I put into it. So just pop hero and nuke caster as soon as he goes down for 2nd time? Can you burn fast enough to not even worry about mechanics p3? I'm 907 equipped w/ sephuz/hero ring.

No, you can't.

You're still going to have to keep dropping blizzard/frozen orb on the adds/Karam(meleeguy), kill 2 hands, and soak a rune

[Samath]

Just did it. Proof. 9 tries.

903ilvl, 38 traits ( so no Freezing Rain ), 4p, Prydaz / Vashj ( Zann'esu / Magtheridon's are better than Prydaz, you're not supposed to take damage anyway ).
Talents : LW / Shimmer / IF / Splitting Ice ( Frozen Touch could work too ) / Frigid Winds / Artic Gale / TV

P1 ( Kalam ) :
Pre-pot ( prolonged power ) + Blizzard from max range when he says "I... obey".
Ebonbolt, IV, orb on pull. if you're slow on damage, you can cast a 2nd orb, don't keep it, it doesn't matter yet.
Frigid Winds outslows the purple pools, so you can ignore them completely. Just burn Kalam around ~35%.

1st transition ( shadow adds ) :
Nothing special, try to pack the adds together so once Karam is back, you can optimize your Blizzard, therefore your orb uptime.
The damage on Raëst is irrelevant. Just build icicles and procs.

P2 ( Kalam, shadow adds, hands ) :
I used no CD here ( just Orb / Ebonbolt ), just tried my best to pack the adds and abuse Blizzard-Orb. It worked.
Once the hands pop, try to blink behind them, so you can cleave the hands + Kalam, handy DPS boost.
Use CS to interrupt the hands, it will be up for each one, don't worry about it.

2nd transition ( shadow adds, hands, runes ) :
Same as 1st one, hands will still be there, pink runes will pop on the floor and will decay over time. "Soak" them by standing ~2s in it ( an explosion of light will confirm it ). Be wary, runes could pop in the purple pools, and on top of your gently-packed orbs generators. If this is the case, kitte them away, frost nova, then blink ASAP to soak it. Or wipe it and try again.

P3 ( Kalam, shadow adds, hands, runes ) :
2nd pot ( still prolonged power, but deadly grace should be okay, too ), BL "on pull", veins, everything. Same as the other phases, optimize the Blizzard-Orb, focus hands ASAP, CS them, soak runes.
The P3 is a DPS check on Karam. If you're a mythic-geared confident playboy, you can focus Raëst, but be sure to have Karam perma-slowed.
Once Karam is dead, Raëst will enrage and deal 100% more damage. But twice the damage of a wet noodle is still not enough to kill you.

Kill Raëst, take the void portal where you entered ( or you can directly port to Dalaran safely ), speak to the Council of Six, be empowered and rewarded with your skin.

Good luck !

[kloui]

Not sure why so many people suggesting to take LW over BC. Extra nova from elemental will help with kiting and you can also deal with runes by moving elemental on them without risking being hit when they spawn near Karam or small mobs. Sephuz is a god-tier legendary for this along with shard, so with drums you will have tw for every Karam phase.

[Makz]

Not sure why so many people suggesting to take LW over BC. Extra nova from elemental will help with kiting and you can also deal with runes by moving elemental on them without risking being hit when they spawn near Karam or small mobs. Sephuz is a god-tier legendary for this along with shard, so with drums you will have tw for every Karam phase.

Mostly because you need a lot of single target dmg and the utility from the welly(nova/jet) break immediately/are hard to take full advantage off when kiting.

However, if it is possible to cancel the summons with your pet that would make it really valuable.

I cleared the challenge 5 min after it opened on EU due to overgearing. My only tips will be P1) you can "dance" with the melee guy at the edge of the circle, he will have troubles walking in a straight line, P2) I stood exactly south of Raest and pumping blizzards/orb on top of all the mobs while dumping lances into Raest. P3) As long as you maintain blizzard and orb(extremely easy with Freezing Rain trait), just lancing until they die; orb has 75% slow iirc. Hands) Get a target macro or focus macro to interrupt. Always interrupt at the very end of the cast. Sometimes I had enough lances to kill the hand without interrupting so not necessary to waste that CS.

I really wish you could re-do the challenge(maybe next time mage tower is up), because I didnt record. Skin is equipped on my armory for proof.

My personal recommendation: at 910 equipped with ice time/ring leggos, in P1 I only used pre-pot and orb, no other CDs. In my first Raest phase I got him down to 57% with everything then saved drums for the 2nd time he is available. If you dont use anything in P1 you need to be really good at kiting.

[Eyliria]

It took me more attempts than I'm willing to admit

I was 905 equipped w/ Sephuz and Belo'vir (for lack of other legendaries). No freezing rain trait.
Lonely Winter, Frozen Touch, extra snare % and arctic gale for relevant talent choices.

P1 I started by preemptively dropping Blizzard on Karam for the slow effect and opened with Ebonbolt. Went from there without anything fancy, I didn't kite him in a circle of anything, I just took him in a straight line away from Raest, and then in a straight line back, he transitioned right on the circle in the end.

P2 started and I potted (prolonged power), TimeWarped, IV, Orb'd, Blizzard on adds and went hard on Raest, dumping FoF/Flurries -> IL on him while Blizzard'ing and Orbing essentially on CD to feed me FoFs like you feed ancient mana to the nightfallen and running the IV timer to stupid numbers - which didn't work because I had awful RNG with FoF procs, and IV actually dropped. I thought about wiping and trying again, but decided to stick with it and try doing it the non-burst way. Started hitting Karam as usual. Hands died relatively fast, couple ice lances and a frostbolt -> flurry -> ice lance for the most part did the trick. The key for me was making sure I kept Karam with the pack of mobs and didnt let him break loose while I did hands (frost nova helped some).

I put some work on Raest during the next transition, but without CDs, it wasn't anything huge, he still had a ton of HP, and I focused more on trying to get everything clumped up than anything else really, and looking at the fact that my icy veins wasn't up.

P3 started and I went to work immediately on Karam because I knew that as the phase went on my dmg on him would go down (he gets faster, hands start coming more often). Rune RNG was huge here, because it spawned near adds twice - and I just had to frost nova adds and inch close and hope to not get melee'd... Blizzard on CD, Orb on CD, hit Karam with everything I had, stop to kill Hand (making sure to Blizzard adds/Karam between me/hand, frost nova/cone of cold if needed), soak rune, continue to dump everything onto Karam (popped Icy Veins as soon as it came up). It felt like I hit some sort of soft enrage, because hands started spawning back to back almost, I barely had counterspell up for them, but when I looked Karam had a sliver of health left, something like 5M left, so I said fuck it, stayed on him, iceblocked through a hand cast, finished him off, interrupted the hand, killed it... and that was it. Raest enrages, but he still hits for nothing, and then it was a matter of soaking runes (hands stopped spawning once Karam died) and praying for RNGesus to not spawn a rune on top of adds.


Everything that could go wrong that attempt for me, went wrong. I was going to go for the burn strat, which seemed doable based on previous attempts (I had great success keeping IV up through that with sheer FoF procs from frozen orb casts, because of all the blizzarding), so my burn was done at the wrong part of the fight, and I still somehow pulled it off.

I ended up making a set of Weakauras for this fight, a couple of audiovisual warnings for Hands and Runes spawning. They helped me tremenduously, if anyone wants them I can share them when I get home.

[Geemer]

Please share your WA's.

[Muphrid]

I think LW is worth using because so much of your damage in this fight is Frozen Orb and Ice Lance. Extra FoF generation isn't that valuable because you can basically spam orbs (with BC, I had IV up for 2 minutes and 20 seconds in phase 3, and that was with several mistakes).

If you don't try to burn Raest, then you should make every effort to kill Karam before you run out of adds for Frozen Orb CD reduction. Increasing the damage of Blizzard actually works against this; actually killing the small adds makes it much harder to kite Karam properly and generate enough damage to kill the hands. The extra Frost Nova is great for emergencies, but I don't think it's required. Basically, taking it just prolongs the fight and makes you have to execute correct kiting longer, and under more difficult circumstances.

I definitely endorse back and forth kiting Karam over the small adds. Basically, you generate so many FoFs from Frozen Orb that kiting Karam over the hands is not necessary. Kiting him back and forth over the small adds lets you get good mileage Frozen Orb CD reduction and keeps things simple. I think the absolutely maximal strategy would be to orb Karam and blizzard the small adds separately (so they take as little damage as possible, so you can use them as Frozen Orb generators), but that makes you keep track of two different angles.

Edit: finally, I do think it best to commit to one strategy or the other--burn Raest or kill Karam first. If you want to kill Karam first, then doing damage to the small adds during intermissions is counterproductive: you want them up as long as possible to generate damage on Karam. But if you want to burn Raest, you need to go balls to the wall and generate as many Orbs as possible while your cooldowns are going.

[Eyliria]

I want to point out an oddity that I noticed and has stuck with me:
Once you step into the event, the objective changes from "Raest Magespear slain" to "Raest and Karam defeated".

Considering the fight doesn't immediately end once you kill Raest (and on most videos out there you'll see Karam proceed to stomp the player after credit has been given), I wonder if it's a bug/unintended that people are doing the "Burn" strat to focus Raest down in P3, ignoring Karam.

Also, I know that it's inperceptible for us frost mages, but, the dark patches that snare us down, I've seen people say that it's bugged in the sense that they are supposed to snare Karam/the adds down as well, but currently don't, which makes the fight impossible for affliction warlocks unless they have the corruption ring (which grants them a snare -- because their snare curse gets PVP duration on application, not lasting long enough to be useful)

Wouldn't be surprised if there are some issues with this scenario and it turns out that the burn strat was unintended in the end, BUT, I am just thinking out loud here.

edit: I just watched a Balance Druid complete the event by killing Raest and Karam despawned afterwards. I am unsure what to think anymore.

[Eyliria]

Please share your WA's.

Code: Select all

di0QgaqiQsUKsL8jsqJsPsDkcjDlrf7IKkdJqvhJQYYieptu10usxJQuTnLQ(MOOXjLQZjQuhKQQfkL8qLkMOOqxKeAJek9rcvgjjLtkLYljKYmPkLBkkTtsYpvKgkHelvr4PGPQYvjPQ(kHI5QOAVO)QugSaDyIwSOsESGMSexMYMvIpRWOvuoTQwnjWRffmBjDBc2nv(TunCPy5I8CsnDORl02jrFNqQgVIOZtvSEsQY(fW0hpcsEejOjiI6YRU2jiqOqOWJq51ki6cXxPrqwRes247UZtJryK6XgcYq8vAx6hdlLTxmQkhFINGnzJ0vScBrqB1frP)oKqRP3nnR3uuShHVqWFc)fzigi4oZK1Q5gwGGIBcrHGlkCPFmSKMQ8rO2LfEeqz1CipccXk(8isKquBBHvPwZCri1RgpccXk(8isKqJYguwnhYJGqSIppIejSidXV74rqiwXNhrIek)YYhgROhEeeIv85rKiHKm04rqiwXNhrIejsiKhv5JhHLUdHx9mQkFEcLx3uLEoBsKG4Mgiim1VOfi4PMIbcoH6RsrV8YlV8YlcYq8vAx6hdlLTxmQkhFINGme)UtZJGgLjKhbDp6keAZHwArgAZ9xktD65IXKzWFmj1ZZALxoh6rxrp3)NuRNCQRpgek9nDp6kSfrIekVwbrxi(kncYALaM(XWs8ie12MUhtHMkPGXCri6mLMdjGVGviGEAmcMsZHekXKe)UJG3jyknhsyNzsmqWSMwlhgbbtRLdJqtQRale1eIABtW0A5WylccMwlh2wVXssSNiS8UYUv4U0kuuje12MGP1YHDEAm2IGGP1YHDEAmc7OM)BlliUTj83wg3AnfGnfZo9uKiHVqyIOZceumYK7DdcI(xWzu1QiReCrHl9JHL0uLpcZSFmdPyx3VUMp)AU33UiRI4lZ9CjN1mju7YcpcOSAoKhbHyfFEejsO8llFySIE4rqiwXNhrIes9QXJGqSIppIej0OSbLvZH8iieR4ZJircjzOXJGqSIppIejSidXV74rqiwXNhrIejKSX3DNNgJaAtIePkr4ryP7q4vpJQYNNq51nvPNZMejiAT5nVfi4PMIbcQMFvz0lcYq8vAx6hdlLTxmQkhFINGme)UtZJGgLjKhbDp6keAZHwArgAZ9xktD65IXKzWFmj1ZZALxoh6rxrpV1NbtTEYPU(yqO0309ORWwejsizJV7opngb0MejGPFmSepcrTTP7XuOPskymxeIotP5qc4lyfcMsZHe2zMedemRP1YHrOets87ocENGGP1YHT1BSKe7jclVRSBfUlTcfvccMwlhgb)bcwmHU7ddeCM0vie12MGP1YHXweqpngbtP5qcrTTjyATCyNNgJTiiyATCyNNgJWoQ5)2YcIBBc)TLXTwtbytXStpfjs4leut6kbckgzY9Ubbr)l4mk212fVi7379m9TpF75ZCDLl5SUsWffU0pgwstv(imZ(XmKIDD)6A(8R5EF7ISkIVm3ZLCwZKq51ki6cXxPrqwReQDzHhbuwnhYJGqSIppIeju(LLpmwrp8iieR4ZJircjzOXJGqSIppIej0OSbLvZH8iieR4ZJircPE14rqiwXNhrIewKH43D8iieR4ZJirIejsqjv5BveFejb

They are very simple, a white text in the center of the screen for 5 seconds when the hand spawns or when the rune spawns, accompanied by a distinct AIR HORN (one is a bull horn, the other is a bike horn).

They will get your attention. You will not miss them.

Keep in mind they were not thrown together with much scrutiny, they are pure boss emote partial parses, i don't recommend keeping the weakauras active after you are done with the artifact challenges - they may trigger if a boss emote contains similar words in the future.

[Eturnus]

I was able to knock this out after something like 30-35 attempts. This was done at ilvl 897 with Sephuz/Mag Bracers. All I can really say is at this ilvl you really need a perfect execution combined with a bit of lucky placements of the Runes in phase 3. I'd advise most people to wait until 905-910 ilvl before trying this.

Link for proof
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/t ... nus/simple

[Xo1o]

Has anyone here done this with GS spec?

[Millius]

I was able to knock this out after something like 30-35 attempts. This was done at ilvl 897 with Sephuz/Mag Bracers. All I can really say is at this ilvl you really need a perfect execution combined with a bit of lucky placements of the Runes in phase 3. I'd advise most people to wait until 905-910 ilvl before trying this.

Link for proof
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/t ... nus/simple

I did the same thing at 900 ilv, but the rng on runes is a bitch sometimes, you have to try to get the adds on the center all the time and spam frozen orb and blizzard you can get 2 orbs at the same time, if you manage to do cleave on the main boss and the brother you will kill them bot super quick at fase 3

[Beni]

I managed to do this at 892 ilvl (and without Freezing Rain), just wanted to say that your pet can soak the runes if you don't like LW (which I never even considered, though the extra nova was handy).

It took 8 minutes after about ~20ish attempts, and I killed both brothers.

Armory link

[jcdommo]

Just did this as a 906 mage with 44 talent weapon. Went LW, Shimmer, IF, Splitting Ice, Frigid Winds, Artic Gale, Thermal Void. Legendaries were Lady Vashj gloves and Shard of Exodar. Took about 20-30 attempts where I realized my age was getting to me and I was having a tough time tracking all the mechanics, positioning, and cooldowns in phase 3 while trying to kill the kite brother. Decided to try killing the caster instead and got it within 5 pulls. In the first intermission I lusted, IV, and potted and just burned the caster as hard as I could while orbing and blizzarding adds on the far side from the kite guy. When kiting resumed, I tried to keep kiting in the vicinity of the hands so I could cleave him while hitting the hands. You have to get a little lucky here and go into second intermission with no hands up. Second intermission I turned to the caster and used drums and nuked him. IV wasn't up yet so I just popped it as soon as I was able. Soaked the first rune and killed the first hand, then just ignored killing hands and soaking, but still did the first interrupt on any hands that came up, used blood elf interrupt, and blocked a second cast. Ended up with a few hands up and adds from not soaking at the end, but I was able to push through.

[DuSkie]

I have also finished it as a 900ilvl mage with 42 traits. Legendary gloves + bracers and tartare food. I killed Karam first, because i didnt have enough dps to burn Raest and kite at the same time. On the last Karam's chase I popped TW with prolonged power and killed him. Killing Raest was easy after that.