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Balance Druid Legion Mage Tower Legacy Challenge Guide
By Cyous
Last Updated:
2021/12/06
Changelog
Patch: 7.3.5
Table of Contents
Rating: 4.9/5
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17
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Guide Navigation
Rating: 4.9/5
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Learn how to defeat the Artifact Challenge encounter,
Thwarting the Twins
, as a Balance Druid. In this guide, we'll go over optimal talents, legendaries, gear, consumables, and spec-specific tips.
This guide is about the Legion version of the Mage Tower Challenge, that isn't accessible anymore.
Click here for the updated Balance Druid Mage Tower Timewalking Challenge Guide
The artifact appearance is a unique reward from completing a challenging solo scenario that can only be entered while the Mage Tower building is active on the Broken Shore. It rewards a unique artifact appearance, the Manascythe.
Balance Druid Challenge Appearance
Balance - Manascythe
Preparation
There isn't much preparation you need to handle. Below you will find some recommendations, tips, and specific information regarding mechanics. It never hurts to see a video before you stepping into the zone. I recommend this video because it shows the proper way to handle the encounter, mistakes included.
Video courtesy of
BrbteabreakTV
.
Gear
For this scenario I would recommend having around an item level of 915, you can do it with less but may run into more difficulty. If you have an item level of 925 or higher, this encounter will be very easy. If your gear is below 900, you will have a difficult time keeping up with damage requirements. Having plenty of mastery will help as it is incredibly helpful for this scenario.
Consumables
I strongly recommend using a flask and a rune. If you're struggling in the last phase, use drums. You don't really need a food buff, but every little bit helps. "Broken Shore" buffs do not work because the instance is technically located in the Twisting Nether.
Potion of Prolonged Power
Drums of Fury
Flask of the Whispered Pact
Nightborne Delicacy Platter
or
Lavish Suramar Feast
Defiled Augment Rune
Talents
These talents aren't very flexible. I strongly recommend you take what is suggested below, especially
Soul of the Forest
,
Shooting Stars
, and
Stellar Drift
.
The only flexible talents are
Displacer Beast
and
Typhoon
. These can be exchanged with
Wild Charge
and
Mass Entanglement
, respectively.
Legendary Items
Sephuz's Secret
is, by far, the best item for this scenario. It's easy to proc, and it provides a huge boost to burst damage. It doesn't get better than Sephuz's Secret.
Other legendary items are flexible, it does not matter. If you have the choice,
Oneth's Intuition
is the next best item. After that, it's a toss-up between
Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus
and
Impeccable Fel Essence
.
Creatures
There are 6 NPCs in the challenge.
Raest Magespear
Karam Magespear
Shadowy Fiend
Shadowy Vestige
Hand from Beyond
Thing of Nightmare
The scenario's win condition is just that you defeat
Raest Magespear
. The encounter will not end until both
Raest Magespear
and
Karam Magespear
are defeated. But you will have fulfilled the requirements if you defeat Raest; and you will have earned your Artifact appearance too!
Raest Magespear
will channel
Ritual
and is immune to damage while
Karam Magespear
is actively chasing you.
Shadowy Energies
goes away during phase transitions and is removed in the final phase (Phase 3). While Raest is active, he will cast
Shadow Bolt
at the player. This doesn't do much of anything and is easily countered by
Restoration Affinity
.
Karam Magespear
will fixate to the player while he's active. Karam acts as the trigger for transitioning between the phases. When you knock Karam down to 33.3% health, he will cast
Purgatory
and start to heal over the next 35sec back up to roughly 70%. He will use
Purgatory
two times and each cast signals the start of the next phase. Karam may be crowd controlled, however, the duration of CC is reduced to that of PVP timers and diminishing returns.
Shadowy Fiend
and
Shadowy Vestige
are not very threatening, but don't let them hit you. These enemies should be cleaved down, but do not focus your effort on them. Your
Starfall
,
Sunfire
, and
Moonfire
will naturally rot them away.
Moonfire
should be cast on
Shadowy Fiend
, but not
Shadowy Vestige
.
Shadowy Vestige
have a smaller health pool and thus your time can be spent on other enemies.
Hand from Beyond
are very dangerous. These enemies spawn every 30sec and start to cast
Grasp from Beyond
. You have two options here: Kill it before the cast finishes, or interrupt it with
Solar Beam
. Always try to kill it without using your interrupt. These enemies can only be interrupted; stuns and knockbacks do not interrupt their cast.
Warrior of Elune
is very potent for
Hand from Beyond
. You should have plenty of
stacks to dump into this enemy.
Thing of Nightmare
is extremely dangerous and will cause you to fail the scenario if not handled properly. To properly handle this enemy, simply do your best to never need to fight them.
Raest Magespear
will cast
Rune of Summoning
periodically. (It's a pink colored circle/rune.) Standing on the rune for approximately 2 seconds will cause this minor explosion, signalling the rune has been destroyed. You will not take damage from standing in
Rune of Summoning
. To keep it simple, you're "soaking"
Rune of Summoning
to prevent
Thing of Nightmare
from spawning. As for how dangerous this enemy is, it will hit you for about 1mil per hit, and it runs as fast as you.
Phase 1
"I... obey."
Raest Magespear
is immune to damage during this phase, and no adds will spawn. It's a duel against
Karam Magespear
. Use your
Celestial Alignment
to open. Use
Potion of Prolonged Power
as soon as you hear Karam say, "I...obey." (Combat starts ~1sec after this chat message.)
After about 35-40sec of roleplaying,
Karam Magespear
starts to chase you. If he gets within range to auto-attack you, he will cast
Rising Dragon
. You may use crowd control, such as
Typhoon
, to create some space. Keep in mind that spammable CC, e.g.
Entangling Roots
, will last 8sec, and suffer from diminishing returns. (
Entangling Roots
will last 8sec on the first cast, 4sec on the next cast, 2sec on the cast thereafter).
Karam Magespear
will drop puddles underneath himself. These puddles do not deal damage, but they slow the player by a large amount. These puddles do not slow anything else in the encounter -- only the player may be slowed. These puddles do not despawn. A simple way to handle this mechanic is to simply kite Karam around the outside of the room, just be sure to bring him back before he reaches 33.3% Health.
This phase is completed when
Karam Magespear
uses
Purgatory
. This is cast when Karam reaches 33.3% Health. Karam will be immune to damage and heal back 36% of his total health over ~35sec.
Phase 2
"Once again I must clean up your mess, brother!"
This phase begins when
Karam Magespear
uses
Purgatory
for the first time.
Raest Magespear
will be targetable for a short time. Adds will spawn periodically throughout the phase as well.
While
Karam Magespear
is immune to damage,
Raest Magespear
engages the player.
Raest Magespear
will chain-cast
Shadow Bolt
. (Do not interrupt
Shadow Bolt
.) Raest will summon 3 packs of 5 enemies, all of which spawn
Shadowy Fiend
(1) and
Shadowy Vestige
(4). Your primary goal is to deal as much damage to
Raest Magespear
as you can before
Karam Magespear
finishes channeling
Purgatory
(~35sec, or after the 3rd pack of adds is spawned.) Don't worry about the small adds as they should passively die throughout the encounter before they reach you.
When
Karam Magespear
finishes channeling
Purgatory
,
Raest Magespear
becomes immune to damage again.
Karam Magespear
will periodically summon
Hand from Beyond
. As per the information above,
Hand from Beyond
will cast
Grasp from Beyond
. You should always aim to burst these enemies down, but you should favor Starfall over Starsurge. Make use of
Stellar Drift
and hardcast while moving. It makes it much easier because
Karam Magespear
is still deadly if he reaches you.
Phase 2 is completed when
Karam Magespear
uses
Purgatory
. This is cast when Karam reaches 33.3% Health. Karam will be immune to damage and heal back 36% of his total health over ~35sec.
Phase 3
"Useless! Stand aside while I do what you cannot, brother."
Phase 3 is the same as Phase 2, except
Raest Magespear
will be targetable for the rest of the encounter and he will cast
Rune of Summoning
periodically.
This is the final phase, so it's time to do as much damage to
Raest Magespear
while it's still easy. After the first pack of adds spawn, use your
Celestial Alignment
,
Potion of Prolonged Power
, and
Drums of Fury
. Burn Raest has hard as you can.
Raest Magespear
will summon multiple packs of adds, each pack consisting of
Shadowy Fiend
(1) and
Shadowy Vestige
(4). Raest will create the first
Rune of Summoning
after the first two packs of adds have spawned. Your primary goal is to deal as much damage to
Raest Magespear
as you can before
Karam Magespear
finishes channeling
Purgatory
(35sec or so).
Karam Magespear
will periodically summon
Hand from Beyond
.
Higher gear levels (925+) should be able to burn Raest without any issues. Lower gear levels will still be forced to deal with mechanics. It gets very hectic very fast. Keep calm and focus on soaking
Rune of Summoning
. Defeat
Raest Magespear
first and you fulfill the requirements of the quest. Try to tune out the small adds and focus 100% on single target damage, the sooner
Raest Magespear
dies you win.
Tips and Tricks
Your first try is free. Retrying costs
Nethershard
x100 per attempt.
Sometimes it's a gear issue. It's okay if you need more Artifact Traits or a higher Item Level. It makes a huge difference.
Roleplay/Banter (Phase 1), takes about 35-40sec.
Mobs falling through the map/terrain is really jarring, I've noticed this is mostly due to rooting them.
Raest Magespear
Defeating Raest is the only condition for completing the quest objectives. You don't need to defeat
Karam Magespear
.
Karam Magespear
(Phase 1), kite around the outside of the room. Less puddles in the middle later on. Remember to bring him back before the Phase 2!
Hand from Beyond
(Phase 2, Phase 3), to prevent this enemy spawning out of your range, keep
Karam Magespear
near the middle. (
Hand from Beyond
uses Karam's location as a guide.)
Hand from Beyond
(Phase 2, Phase 3), you can survive
Grasp from Beyond
with Barkskin or
Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus
, but only just barely.
Karam Magespear
may gain the really silly ability to teleport to the player. If Karam doesn't have a path to you, he might teleport to you and kill you. Yes, it's happened to many of us.
Rune of Summoning
(Phase 3) can be a little weird on timing. Be proactive and soak early. Use
Displacer Beast
to get there quickly.
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