Dark's Challenge Mode (Mage Tower)

Alright folks as promised in Discord here is the Macro that I used to clear my Guardian Druid Mage tower challenge. Please keep in mind that this is specifically focused on that fight and is probably not suitable for other use (feel free to use it however you like, but this is what it was tuned for).

Here is what My Druid looked like (Gear/Talents):
Gear= 915iLvL, 4pc T20, 4 Concordance points
Legos= Ekowraith/Sephuz (I do not Have luffa which makes it incredibly more difficult. If you have luffa I highly recommend replacing Sephuz and sacrifice the run speed)
Trinkets= 940Feverish Carapace/905Leviathan’s Hunger (Generally speaking you can go one Def trinket 1 offense Trinket but a leach Trinket is very handy. you can also try Stat stick/DPS like a huge Eye of command would be nice as well.

Talents: 1(3),3,1,1(3),2,3(2),1
lvl 15= I liked the Brambles but if you have luffa or more gear switch to Blood Frenzy
lvl 30= Wild Charge. this is pretty much a no other choice option, but maybe Gutteral Roars for ph2
lvl 45= Balance affinity no other choice
lvl 60= Mighty Bash for ph2 on Kruul is Godly, but Typhoon is nice for the ph1 adds. you decide
lvl 75= Incarnation Pretty much mandatory to burn Kruul down but if you are really struggling in ph 1 you can try Galactic Guardian, but once you get ph1 down consistently I promise you will want Incarn back.
lvl 90= Survival of the Fittest if you chose Brambles at lvl 15, otherwise Guardian of Elune
lvl 100= Rend and Tear, No brainer.

Stats:
Agility=32.7k
Stam=72k
armor=3.1k
Critical Strike=20%
Haste=23%
Mastery=15%
Versatility=12%
Leech=6%

Here are a few things that you need to know about the Macro:
What it does do:

  1. Handle your rotation (spam Thrash, Swipe, Moonfire on target switch and run a solid single target rotation in melee range)
  2. Maintain your Frenzied Regen (I have 4 pc so if you find that yours is casting too often increase the loop limit number, or if for some reason you find it is too slow, decrease the loop limit number)
  3. Cast Berserking (Troll Racial) if your not a troll ignore this line or you can change it to your racial (though if you are a Tauren I would suggest manually casting Warstomp on the adds)
  4. It has modifiers for [shift] Incapacitating Roar, [alt] Charge, and [ctrl] Mighty Bash or Typhoon depending on talent selection. If you do not like Modifiers in your macro feel free to either ignore these or remove them (I’ll post a second version without them) and place those actions on your bars yourself.

What it does not do:

  1. Cast Incarnate (you need to time this yourself. Technically I could probably put it in the macro since my strat was to pop it at the start of the fight and then pace myself in ph1 so that it comes off CD at the start of ph2 when I can pop drums, pot and the kitchen sink (sadly in my kill video you may notice that I killed Inquisitor too fast and still had about 27 seconds remaining on Incarn, I was feeling alot of pressure when ph2 started and I felt I needed to pop drums/pot right away and then Incarn when it came off CD, I also resisted the urge to pop ROTS right away and saved it for the adds and it all worked out but generally I would say try to slow down on Inquisitor to have Incarn at the start of ph2 if you can). However I still feel its best that you manually time this to gain maximum uptime. If enough people request it I will include a version with Incarn included)
  2. Cast Barkskin (I initially was making attempts with Blood Frenzy talent instead of Brambles but I changed it up in later attempts (including the kill) to Brambles. With Brambles I would normally include Barkskin in the macro to maximize the effectiveness of Brambles. Again I think I will post a version with Barkskin included if you talent:1/1 (Brambles).
  3. Cast Survival instincts (this is a critical CD especially in ph2. you need to manage it)
  4. cast Rage of the sleeper Also extremely critical (This thing plows the arcane adds and you need to time its usage very carefully. Usually 2 sets of adds in ph1 and once in ph2 when your either in trouble or need to mow over some adds fast. If you are getting clean attempts you can also go all in and pop it along with Drums, Incarn, pot at the start of ph2 (great DPS but risky if you get in trouble later).
  5. auto target switch (you need to manage your targets. I would highly recommend that you focus Inquisitor in ph1 and Kruul in ph2 and make us of the Skull Bash macro that I will also include) anytime you cycle targets wither via TAB or by selecting them this thing will hit them with a moonfire so its very handy for the eyes)
  6. Move you out of bad things or make critical decisions. (this fight is fairly complex and requires that you execute at a very high efficiency rate) have a game plan for when things go bad, and then have a backup plan for when that plan fails.

I want to talk about the use of modifiers a second. The reason I use them in my macros frequently is that I personally use a toggle on/off for my macros via razor synapse and the rotations are executed so near to global CD that it is very difficult to slip a key press in between the macro casting. If you use manual press there is no reason at all to use Modifiers. For me it allows me to cast something specific at exactly the time I want it cast. in this example all 3 things I have bound you need to be able to cast them the split second that you need them, Roar to blind the adds the split second that they finish their cast, or as an emergency interrupt on Inquisitor, Charge in case you get knocked off the platform and need to charge back onto it instantly(side note: I may play around with including this thing to auto target the nearest add when you press alt as well to give you a target to charge back at), and lastly Mighty Bash or Typhoon. In my early attempts I used Typhoon and it is really handy to gain some separation from the adds or to emergency interrupt Inquisitor. But as I put in more attempts and got more comfortable with ph1 I realized how valuable Mighty Bash can be for Kruul so I made the switch. I would suggest that early on you go with Typhoon and as you progress and get comfortable with the timing on interrupting the adds switch to Mighty Bash.

**A note about Thrash: I have this things setup to spam Thrash as much as it can but I still have Thrash bound to it’s own key and I spam that key as well any time I am at ranged of Inquisitor or especially when adds are up. I don;t honestly know if it helps or not but it at least makes me feel good :stuck_out_tongue: lol you need to hit those adds with Thrash and then GTFO.

Here are the Macros:

Sequences['GuardianChallenge'] = {
-- This Sequence was exported from GSE 2.1.03.
  Author="Darkmanz",
  SpecID=104,
  Talents = "1211231",
  Helplink = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zAEHYpFCo&t=42s",
  Help = [[Version: Chellenge1.0 This is intended specifically for the Guardian Druid Mage tower Challenge. It does not pop any defensives other than Frenzied Regen. You need to manage those yourself to clear this.]],
  Default=1,
  MacroVersions = {
    [1] = {
     Combat=true,
      Trinket1=false,
      Trinket2=false,
      Head=false,
      Neck=false,
      Belt=false,
      Ring1=false,
      Ring2=false,
      StepFunction = "Priority",
      LoopLimit=11,
      KeyPress={
        "/cast [@player, nostance:1] Bear Form",
        "/targetenemy [noharm][dead]",
        "/cast [mod:shift] Incapacitating Roar",
        "/cast [mod:alt] Wild Charge",
        "/cast [mod:ctrl, talent:4/1] Mighty Bash",
        "/cast [mod:ctrl, talent:4/3] Typhoon",
        "/castsequence [combat] reset=target moonfire, null",
        "/cast [combat] Berserking",
      },
      PreMacro={
        "/cast Moonfire",
      },
        "/castsequence Ironfur, Ironfur, Swipe",
        "/castsequence Thrash, Swipe",
        "/cast Mangle",
        "/cast [talent:5/3, combat] Moonfire",
        "/cast Maul",
      PostMacro={
        "/cast [combat] Frenzied Regeneration",
      },
      KeyRelease={
        "/cast Thrash",
      },
    },
  },
}

Without Modifiers:

Sequences['GuardianChallenge'] = {
-- This Sequence was exported from GSE 2.1.03.
  Author="Darkmanz",
  SpecID=104,
  Talents = "1211231",
  Helplink = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zAEHYpFCo&t=42s",
  Help = [[Version: Chellenge1.0 This is intended specifically for the Guardian Druid Mage tower Challenge. It does not pop any defensives other than Frenzied Regen. You need to manage those yourself to clear this.]],
  Default=1,
  MacroVersions = {
    [1] = {
     Combat=true,
      Trinket1=false,
      Trinket2=false,
      Head=false,
      Neck=false,
      Belt=false,
      Ring1=false,
      Ring2=false,
      StepFunction = "Priority",
      LoopLimit=11,
      KeyPress={
        "/cast [@player, nostance:1] Bear Form",
        "/targetenemy [noharm][dead]",
        "/castsequence [combat] ",
        --"/cast [mod:shift] Incapacitating Roar",
        --"/cast [mod:alt] Wild Charge",
        --"/cast [mod:ctrl, talent:4/1] Mighty Bash",
        --"/cast [mod:ctrl, talent:4/3] Typhoon",
        "/castsequence reset=target moonfire, null",
        "/cast [combat] Berserking",
      },
      PreMacro={
        "/cast Moonfire",
      },
        "/castsequence Ironfur, Ironfur, Swipe",
        "/castsequence Thrash, Swipe",
        "/cast Mangle",
        "/cast [talent:5/3, combat] Moonfire",
        "/cast Maul",
      PostMacro={
        "/cast [combat] Frenzied Regeneration",
      },
      KeyRelease={
        "/cast Thrash",
      },
    },
  },
}

I have included a link to a video of my clear and as I said I would highly recommend that you /focus and make use of the Skull Bash macro. I will also include a macro that targets the eyes and moonfires them if you spam it.

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Skull Bash
#showtooltip
/cast [target=Tormenting Eye][] Moonfire

The Skull Bash will interrupt your focus target on keypress without physically altering you actual target or if no Focus exists it with interupt your current target, and the Moonfire specifically targets the Eyes any time that there is one up ( I usually just TAB target the eyes and let the macro apply the Moonfire, but this is handy when things get messy and you need to get a DOT on one of those eyes fast. Its also worth pointing out that if you have Moonfire on a target and then use an Orb it clears the Moonfire DOT and you need to reapply them.) or if no eyes are up it will Moonfire your current target.

Lasty here is a link to the video of my clear: (I plan to eventually edit the video to include commentary and a play by play of my actions, but for now it is just Raw footage of the encounter).

Changelog:
08/12/17-Cleaned up some lines in the first macro that was causing the macro to spam chat
08/12/17-Added Comment lines to the second macro to comment out another Mod spell
11/13/17-Fixed line 29 of the No-modifiers version to include /castsequence

Alright… So I have been asked about my UI and addons, and specifically the ones that I used that were useful on this fight. So I will attempt to list the things that I think are pertinent, But please feel free to ask me about anything that I have not outlined or covered that you have a question about.

MayronUI Gen5 (/MUI): is what you see at the bottom as a backdrop for the action bars and Player/target Frames. It is a bundle pack that also includes Shadowed Unit Frames, Bartender4 and a few others (I’ll cover Shadowed UF and Bartender4 later but if you DL MayronUI it will come with it with the settings to match). I love most things about this addon pack but there are a few things that I do not. I intend to rewrite some of Mayrons work for my own personal use but that’s down the road.

WeakAuras2 (/WA): Is what handles most of the warnings that you see and the spell timers and alerts. If you do not already use WeakAuras I highly recomend that you start. This addon is really powerful and flexible. For this setup I have imported Other peoples WeakAuras strings and adjusted them for my use but most of them are straight out of the box. The encounter specific one in the upper left of my screen that has cast timers and alerts is something I grabbed just prior to my attempts and I basically just resized it and moved it out of my way. I did not need the visual reminder as I already have castbars and such but what I wanted was an audio reminder. I could have wrote my own aura for this but it was much simpler to gram something that I knew already worked and then edit the Aura to blow the AirHorn on the 2 casts that absolutely must be interrupted or its a wipe.
I encourage you to get WA2 and play around with creating your own simple auras and get used to how it works. Also go on wago and just browse the Strings that look interesting to you, they have a great filter and serach funtion on the site.
https://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/weakauras-2
If I am looking for a pre-built WeakAuras string then I can usually find it here:
https://wago.io/
the specific ones that I used here are as follows:
Bear Rage bar and CDs display (center of screen just beneath the character=Wago
The Frenzied Regen tracker=Wago
The encounter specific cast timers ect=Wago (remember I edited mine to include audio reminders)

Shadowed Unit Frames (/SUF): Handles all of the unit frames and Buffs/Debuffs. It comes as a Bundle in Mayrons work (see above) but I would also recommend it if you don;t use Mayrons UI.
https://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/shadowed-unit-frames

TidyPlates: Handles the Nameplates. I am using the Graphite preconfigured set for DPS (I hate reversing my brain for the color of the threat bars when switching between DPS and Tank but I’m weird like that)
https://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/tidy-plates

Details: Is the Damage meters window in the lower right corner. I cannot rave about how much I love this addon. It has so many features your mind will be blown if you are not already using it. If you are using Skadda or Recount Delete them and go get Details I promise you will not be disappointed.
https://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/details

Ion: Is the Action Bar addon that I use. I post this addon with some hesitation as this thing is not for the novice addon guru. I’ve been using Ion for around 8 years?? and it has taken most of those 8 years to finally get it the way that I want it. It has some quirks but if you are willing to deal with being minorly annoyed sometimes it is incredably powerful. The main thing that sets Ion apart from anything else is the fact that every button that it creates or uses is in itself a macro. Simple explanation is this:If you drag and drop a spell from your spell book onto an Ion button what it does is writes a macro for that spell on the button. The end result is it looks and feels just like the standard buttons, but the behind the scenes functionality is much different. The true power of this is unlocked when you realize that you can write complex macros on each button like Focus kicks, or “Do X spell if target is Friendly and do Z spell if target is Hostile” The buttons are not limited to the standard character limit in macros and they do not take up a precious macro slot.
If you do not care about those things then I would say stick with Bartender4. It is more mainstream and interacts well with most other addons. Bartender comes as part of the Bundle pack from Mayrons work (see above)
Ion= Neuron : Action Bar Mods : World of Warcraft AddOns
Bartender4= https://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/bartender4

VuhDo: Handles my Raid and Party Frames. I play a lot of Heal specs and I love this thing for that purpose.
https://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/vuhdo

I think that covers most everything. If you see something that I missed that you have a question about please let me know.

Please let me know if you successfully down your mage tower challenge using my macro and write-up, or if you are having issues with it that I can help work out. I’d like to hear your stories! Thank you much.

I can’t wait to try this. I’m only 889, so I have a ways to go, but I did get Luffa leggo a few days ago. Are you using GS to handle the @focus and /target macros, or the in game macro system?

[quote quote=51194]I can’t wait to try this. I’m only 889, so I have a ways to go, but I did get Luffa leggo a few days ago. Are you using GS to handle the @focus and /target macros, or the in game macro system?
[/quote]
In game for the @focus and /target macros. I hope it goes well for you! The Luffa will make a big difference for you and will make the adds much more trivial.

I’m really pumped to try this next time the mage tower is up. I really want the werebear skin.
I hope this macro helps I’m pretty terrible at this game, tho. lol
the audio cues may remember me to cast Skull bash.

I have Luffa but I don’t have another useful bear legendary, would boomkin’s shoulders help?

One last question, for now: How do you get the boss in the first phase to get into melee range of Velen?

[quote quote=51898]I’m really pumped to try this next time the mage tower is up. I really want the werebear skin. I hope this macro helps I’m pretty terrible at this game, tho. lol the audio cues may remember me to cast Skull bash.
I have Luffa but I don’t have another useful bear legendary, would boomkin’s shoulders help?
One last question, for now: How do you get the boss in the first phase to get into melee range of Velen?
[/quote]
Yeah Boomy shoulders should be fine if you don’t have another useful Bear lego.

As for getting Velen into melee. When you pull, pull at max range and then back to the edge of the platform. It forces the boss to come towards you and Velen and then once he is in range charge in (a bit RNG but generally the timing will be such that you need to interrupt the first spell cast just about the same time Velen is in melee). You can sit at max range and boomy cast until your ready to go but I found that my DPS in the first phase was not an issue and actually had to slow down to have Incarn up for ph2 anyway so I did not waste the extra energy to Boomy cast at the start, just spammed Moonfire from bear form till go time.

보호기사 마탑도전 매크로는 없는가요??

마탑 보호기사 도전모드는 없는가

Magical Tower Protection Articles Are there no challenge macros?

150 tries
3x to the last phase
lasted 10 seconds on my best attempt

This was ridiculous. lol

[quote quote=52090]150 tries 3x to the last phase lasted 10 seconds on my best attempt
This was ridiculous. lol
[/quote]
whats your gear? ilvl? legos? trinkets?
What is killing you?

ilvl 900.81, I think I’m too undergeared for it. I’ll try again in 7.3 when I’m 910+

Im getting a “reset=target moonfire,null”. No sure what that means

When I had that issue I fixed it by resetting my stubs in GSE

Figured it out. Line 29 of the no modifiers version is missing "/castsequence [combat]

[quote quote=55270]Figured it out. Line 29 of the no modifiers version is missing “/castsequence [combat]
[/quote]
Thank you for pointing that out. I’m surprised that it had gone unnoticed until now, but I have edited the OP to include the fix. Thank you again and good luck!

Awesome macro Dark. I actually just used it for the Mage tower and defeated it using your macro. I did take a FR out as it was using it when I was full health, aslo I used GG for the moonfire procs. Only really viable leggo I have is luffas and my item level is 932 which made a huge difference from when I tried it with out them. Funny enough I died right at the very end but Kruul was low enough health that the two NPCs in there with me finished him off. Once again thx for the macro it worked like a charm!

[quote quote=55701]Awesome macro Dark. I actually just used it for the Mage tower and defeated it using your macro. I did take a FR out as it was using it when I was full health, aslo I used GG for the moonfire procs. Only really viable leggo I have is luffas and my item level is 932 which made a huge difference from when I tried it with out them. Funny enough I died right at the very end but Kruul was low enough health that the two NPCs in there with me finished him off. Once again thx for the macro it worked like a charm!
[/quote]
Nice! gratz on your appearance! glad it helped.

Darkonius. You sir are an absolute legend. After about 2 and a half days doing this with your macro and weakaura and no guardian lego’s, I have finally completed the challenge.

lego’s I used - Prydaz and Impeccable fel essence.

overall stats -
iLvL - 928
Agl - 33 153
Sta - 91 672
Armor - 3 166
Crit - 29%
hast - 29%
Mast - 11%
Vers - 13%
leech - 3%
Avoid - 4%
Dodge - 23%

This is outside of bear form with bear Sta and armor almost double in value.
But none the less, I am extremely happy with the quality of this macro.