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Protection Paladin Legion Mage Tower Legacy Challenge Guide
By Ketsuki
Last Updated:
2021/12/06
Changelog
Patch: 7.3.5
Table of Contents
Rating: 4.2/5
(
15
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Guide Navigation
Rating: 4.2/5
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15
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Learn how to defeat the Artifact Challenge encounter,
The Highlord's Return
, as a Protection Paladin. In this guide, we'll go over optimal talents, legendaries, gear, consumables, and spec-specific tips. This guide is written by
Liminara
, creator of
TankChat
, moderator of
Paladin Discord
.
This guide is about the Legion version of the Mage Tower Challenge, that isn't accessible anymore.
Click here for the updated Protection Paladin Mage Tower Timewalking Challenge Guide
Protection - Crest of Holy Fire
Video for Scenario
This is the world first kill by
Lazel
from
FSY
.
Gear
All of the tank Scenarios are among the most difficult, as such i am going to recommend you have an item level of around 930+ and 66 or more Artifact traits, if you are confident in your ability you can do it at significantly lower item levels, but you may run into some difficulty.
Consumables
Drums of Fury
Flask of the Countless Armies
Koi-Scented Stormray
or
Lavish Suramar Feast
or
Bear Tartare
Defiled Augment Rune
Potion of the Old War
Goblin Glider Kit
Can be incredibly useful to get you back on the platform if you get knocked off.
Talents:
Below are the Talents/Legendarys I recommend using.
Legendarys:
Due to nature of this being a solo scenario, some of the legendaries excel far above their usual usefulness.
Tyelca, Ferren Marcus's Stature
Two extra target hits allow you hit the pack of 4 adds + Inquisitor.
Sephuz's Secret
Permament +movement speed, which you can also reliably proc on cooldown
The above two are probably the best two, but really almost every legendary has some value in this scenario, so don't feel like you have to have them to complete it.
Doing the Scenario
This is a two phase fight. Phase 1 takes place against
Inquisitor Variss
(80.6mil HP) and Phase 2 takes place against
Highlord Kruul
(77.9mil 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
(1mil HP):
Inquisitive Stare
- A channeled spell that, when completed, will knock back its target if the target is not facing the eye.
Smoldering Infernal
(81.5mil 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
if you are hit by this.
Nether Horror
(3.15mil 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, so the less you get in phase one the better.
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
if you are hit by this.
Nether Horror
:
4 Nether Horror continue to spawn from portals around the arena approximately every 40 seconds.
Psytalons
- The Nether Horror's melee attacks will apply
Psytalons
.
Nether Storm
- After a long cast, begins a channel which will deal massive damage to anything nearby. Nether Horrors can move while channeling this ability.
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
This is one of the most difficult of the Artifact Challenges in the game.
Phase 1
This fight all comes down to
DAMAGE
Survivability and mechanics are required, but the more damage you do the easier a time you will have with this scenario. As such you want to spend as much time by the inquisitor, as you can so that you continue hitting with blessed hammer, while standing outside of the Aura's radius. You should try to clear out the eyes by him, and kite the
Nether Horror
and
Smoldering Infernal
by him. This will allow you to have your
Avenger's Shield
jump to all of them, helping greatly with dps.
Depending on how comfortable you are you may want to use
Drums of Fury
in Stage one, as it is mechanically the harder of the two phases and getting out of it early is advantageous as you will have less
Smoldering Infernal
's to deal with. If you choose to use it here, do so on the pull with all of your other damage cooldowns such as
Avenging Wrath
and
.
Focus on dealing as much damage as early as possible to him, getting really high stacks (as many as 7) this is where you do the most amount of damage. After you reach 7 or more stacks i reccomend stepping out and clearing the
Avenger's Shield
's. You can use
Hammer of Justice
or/and
Avenger's Shield
to interrupt his casts preventing you from getting one shot. While you wait for the debuff to fall off.
Once your debuff has fallen off and the room is (mostly) clear of
Avenger's Shield
's return to damaging
Inquisitor Variss
, the sooner he dies the better. Strafe to avoid the infernal you will have at this point, and continue picking up/cleaving
Nether Horror
. Do this untill you reach a high amount of stacks and leave, using your
Hammer of Justice
and
Avenger's Shield
or the orbs to interrupt his casts. Clearing the room once again while you wait for your debuff to fall off.
Ideally you finish this phase before the third
Smoldering Infernal
spawns.
Phase 2
As soon as
Highlord Kruul
is targetable begin damaging him and dragging him close to the center of the room. Using your second
Potion of the Old War
and/or
Drums of Fury
here (if you didn't use it to get through phase one cleaner). Keep damaging him, and dodging knockbacks while picking up and cleaving down
Nether Horror
s. Save your
Rebuke
for his
Twisted Reflection
cast. If he gets one of these off IMMEDIATLY HEAD TO AND HIT ONE OF VELENS ORBS! It will remove the heal from you. Alternatively If you are feeling overwhelmed or get low on health pop one of Velens orbs to buy yourself a few moments to catch up, alternatively you can use them to interrupt any of Kruul's casts. Try and save several
Shield of the Righteous
charges in this phase as you will need them for his
Annihilate
casts as well they are helpful for when he leaps onto you while you run out of the puddle. You can use
Hand of Freedom
or
Divine Steed
to get out of his puddles after he leaps quickly. Remember that you can use the cutter beams to help you with movement, but you shouldn't over do that.
A very important part is the soft enrage / dps check of
Annihilate
. At high gear levels you shouldn't see this many
Annihilate
's but below is the most amount of
Annihilate
's you can comfortably take. If you see he is getting low and know you won't need all of your cooldowns, feel free to use them earlier if your dps is ahead of the check.
As for defensive cooldowns for
Annihilate
:
1 -
Shield of the Righteous
+
2 -
Shield of the Righteous
3 -
Shield of the Righteous
+
+
Ardent Defender
4 -
Shield of the Righteous
+
+
Guardian of Ancient Kings
5 -
Blessing of Protection
Keep damaging him down, cleaving adds and avoiding knock backs while surviving his
Annihilate
cast and you should make quick work of him!
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 don't be too eager to deal damage or run in to kick him refreshing your stacks. Paladins have plenty of options to interrupt him from range.
Make sure
Nether Horror
die quickly, and keep them away from velen!
Goblin Glider Kit
can save your life, you may not need them but having them available and 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 a priority when they are out, but they should die very quickly so long as you are cleaving them.
After he is dead enjoy your flail and congratulations!
Share your comments about this guide in our Paladin forum!
Tags:
PvE
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