This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.1.0
PTR
10.1.5
Blood Death Knight Legion Mage Tower Legacy Challenge Guide
By Ketsuki
Last Updated:
2021/12/06
Changelog
Patch: 7.3.5
Table of Contents
Rating: 2.6/5
(
23
Votes)
Guide Navigation
Rating: 2.6/5
(
23
Votes)
Learn how to defeat the Artifact Challenge encounter,
The Highlord's Return
, as a Blood Death Knight. 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 Blood Death Knight Mage Tower Timewalking Challenge Guide
Video for Scenario
This is done by
hzd_
from
Arctic Avengers
.
Gear
The tank Artifact Challenges are among the most difficult, as such i will recommend you have at least
930
item level and 66+ traits, you can do it with far less if you are confident but it will require many more attempts at lower gear levels.
Consumables
Drums of Fury
Flask of the Countless Armies
Koi-Scented Stormray
or
Lavish Suramar Feast
or
Bear Tartare
Defiled Augment Rune
Potion of Prolonged Power
Goblin Glider Kit
can be used to get you back on the platform if you get knocked off and are incredibly useful.
Talents:
Below are the Talents/Legendaries I recommend using.
Bonestorm
isn't necessary for the encounter but can help deal with the adds, if you don't feel comfortable with it feel free to take one of the other talents on the row.
Tremble Before Me
is a viable option but can sometimes come back and bite you, if it proc's as
Twisted Reflection
is cast you can kick in the same moment and waste your kick.
Legendaries:
Due to nature of this being a solo scenario, some of the legendaries excel far above their usual usefulness.
Skullflower's Haemostasis
Great for survival and damage on this fight.
Sephuz's Secret
Permament +movement speed, which you can also reliably proc on cooldown.
Aggramar's Stride
Another mobility legendary.
Nearly all of the legendarys have some use, the best ones are either Mobility ones, or damage ones.
Doing the Scenario
This is a two phase fight. Phase 1 takes place against
Inquisitor Variss
(37.8mil HP) and Phase 2 takes place against
Highlord Kruul
(40mil HP) himself.
Phase 1
Aura of Decay
- The inquisitor is always surrounded by a Necrotic Aura which reduces your max health as you stand in it.
Mind Rend
- An interruptable cast that deals moderate damage to the target.
Drain Life
- An interruptable cast that drains health from its target.
Tormenting Orb
(285k HP):
Inquisitive Stare
- A channeled spell that, when completed, will knock back its target if it is not looking at the eye. These can only be damaged by magical abilities.
Smoldering Infernal
(78mil HP):
The Smoldering Infernal never truly dies and will reform after some time.
Fel Resonation
- The infernal will lose 10% health and deal minor damage to all enemies. This occurs until the Smoldering Infernal reaches 20% health, at which point the Smoldering Infernal will take bonus physical damage.
Smash
- The infernal will smash in a straight line in front of it, knocking all enemies back. You can use
Goblin Glider Kit
to get back on the platform if you are hit by this.
Nether Horror
(2mil HP each):
Psytalons
- The Nether Horror's melee attacks will apply
Psytalons
.
Phase 2
Periodically throughout the phase, purple beams will cross the platform which attempt to push the player off the platform.
Annihilate
- Krull will use this on his primary target and increase all damage taken. This effect stacks. Interrupting Krull's cast of
Annihilate
will make him cast it again.
Netherstomp
- Krull jumps on his target and leaves a fire puddle that deals massive damage to any creature standing in it.
Twisted Reflection
- An interruptable spell that will place
Twisted Reflection
on the target. Melee attacks made against this debuffed player heal Krull for 5% of his health.
Smoldering Infernal
:
These adds carry over from phase one, the sooner you get out of phase one the less of these you will have to deal with.
The Smoldering Infernal never truly dies and will reform after some time.
Fel Resonation
- The infernal will lose 10% health and deal minor damage to all enemies. This occurs until the Smoldering Infernal reaches 20% health, at which point the Smoldering Infernal will take bonus physical damage.
Smash
- The infernal will smash in a straight line in front of it, knocking all enemies back. You can use
Goblin Glider Kit
to get back on the platform if you are hit by this.
Nether Horror
:
4 Nether Horror adds will spawn from portals around the arena approximately every 40 seconds.
Psytalons
- The Nether Horror's melee attacks will apply
Psytalons
.
Prophet Velen
Velen is here to aid you! Unfortunately, he doesn't heal that often but does help with
Holy Ward
orbs.
Holy Ward
- Velen will place down a sphere approximately every 30 seconds. Running into it will interrupt and blind all enemies for 5 seconds, while healing the player and cleansing them of any magic debuffs.
Strategy
Phase 1
This whole fight comes down to dealing as much
DAMAGE
as possible. It may be advisable to use
Drums of Fury
in phase one to get out of it sooner, as it is mechanically the harder of the two phases. The more damage you have the easier a time you will have with this challenge. Pop all of your offensive abilities on the pull to burn
Inquisitor Variss
down as quickly as possible. Continue damaging him untill you get to around 5-6 stacks of his aura. After you do leave the area and focus on killing the
Nether Horror
's. They are the most important damage check of the fight, as such i recommend using a rotation of saving either
Bonestorm
or
Consumption
for each set. By saving one of those two abilities you should be able to easily deal with each set of
Nether Horror
alternatively you can try to control them/grip them away from your NPC allys. If they get their channel off as they are ontop of the NPC's THEY WILL DIE AND YOU WILL WIPE! This was my #1 cause of wipes. After that is dealt with work on killing some of the
Tormenting Orb
's or return to the Inquisitor himself. The key is to get as much damage as possible on the Inquisitor while not getting overwhelmed. You can use your defensive cooldowns to survive higher stacks of his aura (when you are not hitting him). Keep burning him and then leaving and taking care of the adds when your stacks get high untill he dies, ideally this will be before a third
Smoldering Infernal
spawns.
Phase 2
As soon as Kruul becomes targetable move him to the center of the room but not necessarily on your allys. Get as much damage on him as possible while saving
Bonestorm
and
Consumption
for the
Nether Horror
's. They continue to be the largest threat in the encounter. You will need to save your interrupt for his
Twisted Reflection
casts. If he gets one of these off you must IMMEDIATELY RUN TO ONE OF VELENS ORBS. This will clear the buff from you hopefully before he heals. Continue moving to avoid his leaps that drop puddles and surviving while cleaving the adds and dodging the infernals. There is a soft DPS check in the form of how many
Annihilate
's you can survive try to extend your cooldowns as much as possible to survive as many of them as you can. You can use a velen orb to interrupt one in a pinch if you need to.
Rune Tap
can be useful in this phase for that. Continue killing adds dodging infernals and interrupting casts while surviving and he should melt away in no time.
Cooldowns for:
Annihilate
Annihilate
#1
Rune Tap
Annihilate
#2
Rune Tap
Annihilate
#3
Rune Tap
+
Vampiric Blood
Annihilate
#4
Rune Tap
+
Icebound Fortitude
Annihilate
#5
Rune Tap
+
Vampiric Blood
Reminders:
The key to this fight is maximizing your damage while surviving the mechanics.
You may need to feel out how many stacks in phase one you should go up to based on your gear, the higher you can comfortably go the more damage you will do.
Be careful not to refresh your stacks in Phase one early, especially if you are gripping him, or the adds.
Make sure
Nether Horror
die quickly, or you do a good job of controlling them with grips as they can/will kill you or your NPC allys.
Goblin Glider Kit
can save your life, you may not need them but having them available on a comfortable keybind will salvage many attempts.
You can use Velens orbs to interrupt any of his abilitys if you don't have a proper answer to them, whether it be a
Drain Life
or an
Annihilate
.
Stay calm it is easy to make a mistake that instantly kills you especially at lower percentages.
Killing
Nether Horror
should be your highest priority when they are out, as they are often the most threatening.
You can also watch
step by step video guide with commends
Share your comments about this guide in our Death Knight forum!
Tags:
PvE
Get Wowhead
Premium
$2
A Month
Enjoy an ad-free experience, unlock premium features, & support the site!
