The crossing is one of the very few maps blizzard altered and they forgot to add a shop for goblin land mines, to sell items for early gold AND made the building placements so bad I honestly think it’s possible to beat this on hard. has anyone beaten this on hard without cheats yet? It seems legit impossible by the time you get to the magic immune heavy armor golem’s and the red dragons. I honestly don’t think blizzard tested this revised version of the mission.
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It’s possible.
Spam Death Tower and Ice late game, always upgrade ice towers… have them on almost every corner inside the shooting range. Sell early game towers, this is a must. Sell the “anti-air” since they do almost no damage late game.
Also, you can harass enemies with Flame Strike and Forked Lightning while they’re preparing the charge inside the base, just make sure not to kill them since you won’t be able to get coins. Also make sure to use the mana fountain as much as possible, not so much for flame strike but frost arrows (also always focus down the enemy with the most HP to slow him down)
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to sustain 100% health, this is correct. But it’s pretty much doable. It’s a lot harder than before, that’s for sure… and I like it more than the original 
I don’t have videos of my own, but I saw Grubby beat it… (and he’s not that amazing with TD as well)
oh man, thank you for letting me know this! now im really going to have to try and play through the campaign more this week. I haven’t beaten RoC yet and I don’t really want to use any cheats to get there right now. I love TDs and I haven’t played campaign in a few years but I know that level was really cool, so I cant wait to see the changes for it 
I’ll post again to let you know if I found it “impossible”, probably later in the week (Im only on the last Undead mission for RoC)
I was already doing all of that, there are waves of magic immunes with heavy armor (so weak to magic) so you can’t use frost towers to slow them and it essentially comes down to a dps race but death towers aren’t enough to kill them due to a slow fire rate.
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Bumping this because i reached this while doing my hard playthrough. The new layout is absolute *ss.
Because they managed to ruin something that is present in every TD the “maze of death” aspect. You know that a tower row can reach the a wave two times as they zig-zag around it. It’s especially important early game where you have trash coverage. There is only a few spots on the map where a tower can damage the waves for an extended amount of time.
Instead of the goblin shop you get the “fantastic” optional mission to scavange for “”""“powerful”""" artifacts. What a joke. Okay the Orb of Frost you get from the pack close to the fountain is actually somewhat useful on Kael since Vashj can already slow. The other one is a furbolg summon for 180 sec with a damage boost aura and a war stomp. I would consider this powerful if he would stay with you for the entire map. As it stands he is there for a few waves and less useful than mines would be. Are you ready for the last super powerful artifact? It’s a greater mana potion. Whew…
I almost did it on hard but failed on like the last 2-3 waves. So i just went on normal because i cba to do this in it’s current state. Magic immune waves that can’t be slowed are the real rage highlight of this new map layout.
It’s a shame. Only a select few maps got reworked but they still feel like beta and in progress. I mean i liked the new Silvermoon but Anasterian not interacting with Arthas just felt wierd there too for example.
In the case of this TD map all they did was scramble the layout and remove the shop. With so many custom TD’s over the years i wish they would get some ideas from there to make it more interesting and fun instead of just more frustrating.
TLDR: It’s harder but not the fun kind of harder.
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I just beat the reforged version of The Crossing on Hard with %100 portal health remaining.
It took me over 4 days, but through trial and error I found the perfect strategy.
You must have the Shamanic Totem item from prior mission in the campaign.
Picking up other items along the way (claws) will be helpful too in this mission.
First, start with two energy towers on the right side of the first patch of grass near the entrance, and two energy towers on the far east patch of grass just above the southeast culdesac. This is the perfect spot for their range.
Fire towers: Two on the bottom peninsula and one on the top. Thats all for fire towers. No more. You don’t need them to kill air units; that’s what heroes are for.
Boulders: Every other space on southeast peninsula. This will leave room for death towers later. On the northeast peninsula, do the same thing, but also put several boulder towers on the outer rim.
Ice: These must be placed VERY strategically. Too many and you waste money.
I’ll try and post a screenshot to show. Essentially, they must be spaced apart and the first in line placed ahead of your other towers to ensure enemies are slowed before getting in range.
Death: You MUST place all lvl2 death towers along the vertical strip of grass on the bottom of the northeast peninsula. Their range is maximized here. Also, you MUST place one on the far right space of the horizontal patch of grass near the entrance (where an energy tower should’ve been placed). Besides that, fill in the gaps between boulders on the peninsulas with death towers. Keep them lvl1 till you have quite a few.
Hero tips:
At the begginning, Kael must get the slowing orb on the west side of the map.
Then, flame strike the towers in the spawn area.
Flame strike spawned units.
Banish low health units so max health units are targeted by your towers instead.
Enemy heroes drop coins, but NOT in the spawn area so dont kill them there!
Once a hero leaves the spawn area, KILL THEM ASAP.
Use Shamanic Totem to stun enemy heroes, and lightning to hurt them. You can also flame strike, then stun them while they stand in the flames AND lightning them. The whole idea is to keep your heroes close to the spawn area AND the mana fountain. If you run across the map, you will lose due to lost coins/time.
Progression:
Start:
The first few waves should be dealt with by your heroes spawn killing/killing. Build very few towers and save your money for ice/death towers. The first air waves in particular will be tricky, but using your heroes instead of towers here is key. Kill the flying machines/griffins by slowing them/shamanic totum/lightning/banish and microing like a boss.
Midgame: Boulders and well placed ice towers are key. Units get heavier armor and flame/energy towers will do NOTHING to it. Also, time your flame strikes right as a group of enemies get slowed down in a big cluster.
Lategame:
Hero microing will save you, as well as knowing in what order to upgrade/buy towers.
Goblin zeppelins drop enemies when dead: use your three fire towers to target them individually.
Golems require you to have many more lvl1 death towers than lvl2. Your lvl2 death towers should be setup as stated above. These must be spread out properly to avoid simultaneous fire on a 1-shot-kill enemy.
Dragons: Micro, Shamanic totem, lightning, etc. Most importantly, the difference between winning and losing here is microing with Kael. His slow orb ability is invaluable here. Target enemies until they are effected by it, then target someone else. This is HUGELY important for the very last few waves, as slow towers/frost arrows don’t do anything.
Follow these tips and you’re golden.
This was seriously one of the most challenging feats of gaming I’ve ever seen. You have to be near perfect and may find yourself saving a lot. But if you’re pro, it’s doable without any saves!
Good luck
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Great advice! Thanks for posting!
Yeah this level is pretty BS. The wave of dragons followed by golems basically annihilates me every time.
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