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Marksmanship Hunter Legion Mage Tower Legacy Challenge Guide
By Deliriad
Last Updated:
2021/12/06
Changelog
Patch: 7.3.5
Table of Contents
Rating: 4.3/5
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19
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Guide Navigation
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Learn how to defeat the Artifact Challenge encounter,
Thwarting the Twins
, as a Marksmanship Hunter. In this guide, we'll go over optimal talents, legendaries, gear, consumables, and spec-specific tips. This guide is written by
Delirium
from
the Thrill of the Wild
and
the Hunting Party Podcast
.
This guide is about the Legion version of the Mage Tower Challenge, that isn't accessible anymore.
Click here for the updated Marksmanship Hunter Mage Tower Timewalking Challenge Guide
Marksmanship Hunter Challenge Appearance
Thwarting the Twins is part of the new "challenge mode" solo scenarios introduced by completing the Mage Tower in the Broken Shores. It is by a good margin the most difficult solo content currently available in the game, with the exception perhaps of soloing current raid content.
Marksmanship - Wildrunner
Preparation
For most Marks Hunters, this encounter seems to be designed for players with an ilvl of at least 910, and a good selection of legendaries to choose from. It is doable from 900 - 910 with a good bit of luck and a lot of planning. It is incredibly difficult below 900.
This late in Legion however it should be incredibly easy to get a high Item level, for this reason it is reccomended you have around 920+ item level, you can try it (and do it with less) but it won't take long to get 920+.
Legendaries
While I've heard they're helpful in other challenges, there is virtually no benefit to healing legendaries against the Twins. Most any ability that can hurt you will one-shot you. The small amount of damage that Raest does to you by casting Shadow Bolts can be healed easily with
Exhilaration
, and there are plenty of adds around to kill to reset its CD. At higher ilvls, the bubble from
Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus
may give you enough combined HP to survive some abilities that would have otherwise one-shot you.
Ullr's Feather Snowshoes
are a huge benefit. The scenario is a very high DPS check, and having the Snowshoes (along with the 2-pc set bonus) will allow you to use
in every phase.
I found the
Magnetized Blasting Cap Launcher
to give me a nice extra tool for kiting the adds and Karam. The extra time you have while they're disoriented gives you a nice chance to damage the Hand, or to gain some distance while kiting. The added speed bonus from
Sephuz's Secret
is nice, and you will be interrupting and CC'ing quite a bit to proc it. In the end, however, I found the knockback and disorient from the wrists to be preferable, as it seemed to me to be more useful to be able to stand still for a few seconds to cast
Aimed Shot
or
Windburst
, rather than to be able to run faster and only be able to cast instants.
Ultimately due to legendarys being item level 1000 any legendary should do, don't be afraid to do this challenge with any of them!
Talents
Tier 15:
Lone Wolf
- simply for the damage output.
Tier 30:
Lock and Load
- the RNG factor isn't ideal, but two free instant Aimed Shots while moving is great.
Tier 45:
Posthaste
- having a strong kiting utility is helpful, and the reliable speed boost is much more useful than the farstrider RNG movement buff.
Tier 60:
Explosive Shot
or
Patient Sniper
- There isn't alot of time for standing still Aimed Shots to benefit from Patient Sniper, and Explosive Shot gives good AoE, and an easy to cast instant ability. It's much easier to use than you might expect, despite constantly having to kite your target in a circle, and is good practice for jump shots: jumping, turning to face your target, casting
, then turning back the direction you were going before you land. If you aren't comfortable with
Explosive Shot
will serve just as well, you should be able to get some good distance and take some advantage of it throughout the fight.
Tier 75:
Binding Shot
is great for an AoE stun. Wyvern Sting could also be useful if you're having trouble kiting Karam while killing the large Hands, though I found that Freezing Trap, Binding Shot and Bursting Shot were enough.
Tier 90:
A Murder of Crows
- this was a hard choice, I liked both
A Murder of Crows
and
Barrage
.
Barrage
helps clean up the adds, but
A Murder of Crows
gives you an extra bit of burst on the twins. I think both are good choices depending on how you attack the encounter. Ultimately, I found the extra adds were mostly just nerve-wracking, not actually dangerous, and the priority target damage from
A Murder of Crows
was more beneficial. If the adds being up makes kiting too difficult for you, go for
Barrage
.
Tier 100:
Piercing Shot
- since you can't hard cast many Aimed Shots, Trick Shot loses a lot of value, and since you're moving a lot, you nearly always have full focus, so it's easy to get max damage out of PS. I liked to saving Piercing Shot for the Hand, and try to shoo it through Karem and some adds, when possible.
Consumables
Food and Flasks are a must. Treat this fight like showing up to raid. You'll also need two potions per pull. Drums for the bloodlust buff is also a huge help, especially at lower ilvls.
Flask of the Seventh Demon
Drums of Fury
Lavish Suramar Feast
or
Nightborne Delicacy Platter
Defiled Augment Rune
The Encounter
Thwarting the Twins involves fighting two NPCs,
Karam Magespear
and
Raest Magespear
. For the first 4 phases, when one is active, the other will be inactive and you won't be able to damage them. Karem only casts melee abilities, which will knock you back and deal a ton of damage if they hit you, so you must kite him when he's active; he also heals during each of his off-phases. Raest casts a ranged ability and does not generally move, though he can be re-positioned by interrupting one of his casts but that isn't really necessary.
Phase 1 - Kiting Karem
In the first phase, you just kite Karem in a circle. Use cooldowns here but save
Drums of Fury
for the final push. If he touches you it will be hard to recover due to the knockback and difficulty regenerating health without adds to kill. There is a small dps check in this phase in that he has a stacking speed buff, making it harder to kite him the longer you go. The phase ends when he gets a little bit below 35%.
As long as you keep up
Concussive Shot
, there's no reason you won't be able to out-kite him. At the beginning, before his speed ramps up, try to hard cast at least two Aimed Shots every Vulnerable. As he gets faster, you may need to only cast one, or even only cast instants. Dropping a Freezing Trap or a Binding Shot gives you extra time to create distance before stopping to make hard casts.
There are also some purple puddles that appear on the ground under Karem occasionally. These will slow you if you step in them. You can sort of give yourself more room by going outside the obvious circle (there are little platforms) and let the purple puddles spawn there. But it's not a huge help, so don't bother if it messes up your kiting rhythm.
Phase 2 - Raest and adds
In this next phase, Karem is in "purgatory" and can't be damaged, but Raest now can be damaged, so make a hard swap to Raest and unload on him. You should have your second
up for this phase.
There will also be lots of little adds spawning in this phase. They are slow moving, and need to be kited. Do not focus your damage on them. You can and should use
Multi-Shot
and
on them when they're in range of Raest, and that along with
Piercing Shot
and
Barrage
(if you took it) should be enough damage to kill enough of the adds to reset your
Improved Exhilaration
and keep your HP topped off. If you can plan your kiting to keep the adds mostly stacked together, all the better for killing them off while focusing on Raest. Remember this fight is mostly a single target damage fight, killing the adds is nice but not required.
This is a good burn phase so be sure to get as much damage as you can here.
Phase 3 - Karem and the Big Hand
When Raest again becomes immune, Karem will start chasing you again. Kite Karem and the adds while prioritizing damage against Karem.
Hand from Beyond
will appear every 30 seconds; this fortunately lines up well with your interrupt, because if the large hand gets a cast off, you will insta-die. Whenever the Hand appears, swap to it as soon as possible and start damaging it. Interrupt its first cast, and then kill it as quickly as possible. Using
Freezing Trap
on Karem at this point is very helpful so you can stand still and cast
Aimed Shot
s and
Windburst
.
Killing these hands is always your top priority as they are the major threat in this encounter, failure to kill them in time will result in a wipe.
There can be a lot to keep track of in this phase. You need to know where all the adds are, know where Karem is and how long you have CC on him, including
Concussive Shot
and
Freezing Trap
/
Binding Shot
's stun /
Bursting Shot
's disorient, and you need to be able to swap to the hand to get the interrupt off, and swap back and forth between the hand and Karem to CC or keep concussive up so don't get complacent.
Phase 4 - Raest and the Rune Monster
Phase 4 is much like phase 2, but the added mechanic is there will be a
Rune of Summoning
dropped on the ground. You need to stand in this rune until it goes away, otherwise
Thing of Nightmare
will appear and kill you. I could not figure out any way to successfully kite these creatures, so standing in the rune is the top priority.
Your priority here is to kill Raest during this phase or very shortly after the end of the phase. As all of the mechanics will compound on each other. The sooner you kill Raest the sooner it will be over. If you do not kill Raest before Karem finishes Purgatory, Karem will begin chasing you again. You'll have to kite him, and the adds, and soak the runes, and interrupt and kill the Hand while trying to kill Raest. So get as much damage as possible on him here, use
Drums of Fury
and all cooldowns as well your second potion as soon as Raest becomes targetable.
After the challenge is completed a portal back will then appear, and you can turn in your quest and collect the appearance congratulations!
TL;DR
Don't let
Karam Magespear
touch you.
Don't let
Shadowy Vestige
or
Shadowy Fiend
touch you.
Interrupt
Hand from Beyond
and/or kill before it can cast
Grasp from Beyond
.
Use as many CDs as possible to burst down
Raest Magespear
when he can be damaged.
Stand in
Rune of Summoning
Win
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