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Survival Hunter Legion Mage Tower Legacy Challenge Guide
By Ketsuki
Last Updated:
2021/12/06
Changelog
Patch: 7.3.5
Rating: 4/5
(
18
Votes)
Guide Navigation
Rating: 4/5
(
18
Votes)
Learn how to defeat the Artifact Challenge encounter,
Closing the Eye
, as a Survival Hunter. In this guide, we'll go over optimal talents, legendaries, gear, consumables, and spec-specific tips. This guide is written by
Gray_Hound
, a Rogue in SPK. You can watch Gray_Hound on
Twitch
. Updated for the latest patch
This guide is about the Legion version of the Mage Tower Challenge, that isn't accessible anymore.
Click here for the updated Survival Hunter Mage Tower Timewalking Challenge Guide
This video was recorded by
Kistra
. You can find more info and more videos on
Twitch
.
Survival - Forests' Guardian
Gear
Generally I will recommend to have ~925 item level before you start it. However if you have recommended legendaries or are confident in your ability you can attempt it at lower item level, furthermore you can do at even ~900 without any of the recommended, but it will take a number of tries and fairly solid execution. This late in legion it is relatively easy to get enough gear to overpower this encounter.
Consumables
Use
Ray
for
Netherwinds
Flask of the Seventh Demon
Koi-Scented Stormray
or
Lavish Suramar Feast
or
Bear Tartare
Defiled Augment Rune
Potion of Prolonged Power
Pets
For phase one you will want to use a Tenacity Spec'd
Turtle
. This will reduce/Remove alot of damage, but be sure to heal your pet if necessary in Phase one.
Use a Ferocity Spec'd
Ray
for
Netherwinds
in Phase 2 (You get a brief moment to swap)
Talents:
Below are the Talents/Legendarys I recommend using. Some of the possible swaps are :
Throw Axe
if you find yourself struggling with the Mirror Images phase.
Legendarys:
Due to nature of this being a solo scenario, some of the legendaries excel far above their usual usefulness.
Call of the Wild
Very strong offensive legendary, helps with damage checks in p2.
Roots of Shaladrassil
Allows for free healing as you're able to standing still during a number of points in the fight.
Sephuz's Secret
Nice for extra mobility along with strong damage use, also can be consistently proc'd for even more benefit.
Butcher's Bone Apron
Great for 1 shotting Ice adds and helping with cleave on the Void Adds.
Most of the other legendaries will still have some value, so don't be too concerned any ilevel 1000 legendary should suffice if you don't have any of the above legendarys.
Doing the Scenario
The Scenario consists of a few phases :
Archmage Xylem
(145mil health)
Frost Phase
Focusing Iris - 4 stationary ley beams will inflict about 400k damage when touched.
Frostbolt
- A simple, interruptable spell that deals about 300k damage per cast.
Razor Ice
- Periodically, Xylem will stun the player for a couple seconds and teleport off, and trapping a player in Razor Ice. The Razor Ice can be killed and deals about 2.8 million damage if touched beforehand.
Comet Storm
- After Xylem traps a player in Razor Ice, a Comet Storm will be cast around the player dealing about 480k damage every 5 seconds.
Intermission: Mirror Images
Between each phase, Xylem will teleport to a random area of the room and start casting
Arcane Annihilation
His position is indicated by a shimmering image of his model and on the minimap. While in this phase, you'll constantly be taking 1 million damage per second.
Arcane Annihilation
- A 40 second cast that deals over 6 million damage damage is completed. Can be interrupted by using
Flare
on Xylem's shimmering model indicated on the minimap.
Mirror Images - Will constantly cast Prismatic Shock, which will knockback anyone close to them. On death, will drop a pink bubble that will shrink over time which provides immunity to the consistent damage and providing healing.
Arcane/Shadow Phase
Arcane Barrage
- A simple, interruptable spell that deals a total of 700k damage per cast.
Shadow Barrage
- Spawns a large number of orbs which will rush in a single direction.
Draw Power
- Xylem channels into the Focusing Iris to gain power. The longer Xylem channels, the more stacks of
Draw Power
he will get.
When you get
Archmage Xylem
to
10%
you will get a brief break when you can eat up (resets combat) switch gear / talents and get ready for Phase 2.
Phase 2: Corrupting Shadow (80.6 mil health)
The
Corrupting Shadows
periodically drops a pool under him that will slowly grow in size.
Seed of Darkness
- Begins a channel that places
Seed of Darkness
on a player and attempts to absorb the Darkness Within. When
Seed of Darkness
expires, it will summon 3
Darkness Within
adds (5.86 mil health each) that will run towards the boss and attempt to heal him.
Strategy
There are a few ways to handle each of the phases. I believe that the easiest way relies on using
Butchery
.
In frost phase you can simply press it and it will target the closest icicle in front of you. This will kill most if not all of the Icicles resetting
Exhilaration
. If there are some left up just cast it again to kill the rest of them. This means that you can get out of circle very quickly without having to spend too much time targeting each one, this will allow you to heal up a lot due to
Hunter's Bounty
and
Survivalist
. Alternatively if you need to get out quickly you can use
Butchery
as it will most likely kill all or close to all of them. It is important to note that you can get large chunk of healing from those adds by using
Exhilaration
as they trigger
Hunter's Bounty
. You can even get > 1 reset per set.
Use
Disengage
and
Aspect of the Cheetah
when necessary to get into
Harpoon
range quickly.
In Mirror Images phase once again you can do it two ways :
Your goal is to get into range to interrupt him by using
Flare
on Xylem's shimmering model indicated on the minimap. in order to do you must kill the closest Mirror Image to you and get in its bubble, then watch your next target untill it finishes its cast and quickly
Improved Harpoon
into
to kill it.
Improved Harpoon
should reset allowing you to repeat that process untill you get close enough to
Flare
him out (or walk next to him ending the phase if you miss your
Flare
).
This phase is the most difficult phase, so if you have enough gear you can only see it once, in which case you can simply
Aspect of the Turtle
and rush towards him
Flare
ing him out of this phase in a matter of mere seconds. You can only do that once however so if you do get a second Mirror Image phase you will have to do it normally.
Arcane / Shadow Phase - In reality there's no real mechanics here as long as you dodge the hits. Be sure to save kick for
Draw Power
as it is the most dangerous mechanic in this phase.
After Arcane / Shadow he will start going into random phases (Frost / Mirror Images / Shadow).
After he reaches 10% health he will begin some RP and prepare for Phase 2, quickly switch to your Ferocity Spec'd
Ray
.
Phase 2 - Corrupting Shadow.
As soon as the phase begins you can use
Netherwinds
as it will be up for the first set of void adds as well give you the most uptime on the boss. Quickly drag him to the edge of the room to maximize space for his puddles. Keep strafing away from him but being in range to do damage slowly staying on the edge of the expanding puddle, the only real source of damage you take in this phase will be from having your toe in it and it can HURT!
Another important thing to know is that there are currently few bugs with his
Seed of Darkness
- If you CC or interrupt him during the cast, it will cause him to follow after you leaving no time to kill the adds and is a guaranteed wipe. When he begins this channel run as far away from him as possible to give yourself as muc htime as possible to kill all of the adds before they reach the puddle (or him).
You will want to use
Caltrops
for every set of adds to make sure that you have plenty of time to kill them before they get to the boss, with current damage levels you should just save most of your CDs and blow them up quickly so you can finish off the boss. You can use
Ranger's Net
if you need to get more time to kill them. These are the more important DPS check for this fight so try to save cooldowns for them. As if any of them reach the boss it will likely result in a wipe.
You should only have to kill these adds 2-3 times depending on gear, kill the adds stay out of his puddle and kill him! After he dies the challenge is over and you can collect your new appearance!
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