Afternoon,
Wanted to write up a small guide to the 9.1.5 Mage Tower for Guardian Druids after seeing quite few forum posts with others struggling. After completing it myself, I wanted to try to give back; if it was not for the forums, reddit, and youtube videos of people sharing their attempts and knowledge, I would not have been able to complete it.
Just a little about me; I am definitely not the best Guardian Druid despite playing bear since Wrath of the Lich King. I mostly grind M+ with small excisions into raiding. I have 1500 mythic rating this season and I am 3/10 H; nothing to brag about. If I can do it, anyone can.
I do not believe this is the best strategy or best gear, but my own personal account that worked best for me that I am sharing in hopes it helps you make decisions on how to build your bear. I cleared this after exactly 186 tries.
—Guide—
-Talents-
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Brambles - great damage combined with Barkskin and helps with 1st phase a great deal.
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Wild Charge - mobility is key in this encounter and gets you an extra life if launched.
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Restoration Affinity - this is probably where your build and mine will differ; I found the extra healing and access to Rejuvenate and Swiftmend invaluable. I found myself getting low a lot with Balance and spending a lot of time healing.
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Mighty Bash - This is the reason you can do this build, delaying Annihilates is incredibly useful and should be used at the latest moment to prolong Phase 2.
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Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc - After testing this versus Galactic Guardian, I found Incarnation helped too much in the last phase to pass up. Galactic Guardian is definitely helpful for phase 1, but phase 2 is what is going to make or break you getting your Blightbear.
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Survival of the Fittest - Pretty standard among Mage Tower builds, more Survival Instincts and Barkskin is crucial for surviving Annihilates.
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Rend and Tear - Pretty standard again, less damage to you, more damage to them.
-Gear-
For all slots minus weapon and trinkets I used standard Shadowlands gear, all of which gets scaled down to 50 item level. I was nowhere near optimized with 11% haste and 16% crit, 13% vers.
Weapon:
- Claws of Ursoc - Legion Artifact Weapon for Guardian. You are missing out of Lightless Force however, you can double up on Shadowcore Oil since they are two weapons and the damage in most cases outdid Lightless Force. (Thanks to Rofl-1337 on reddit for that bit)
Trinkets:
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Splintered Heart of Al’ar - Quite the luxurious item; but I would have preferred Blood Splattered Scale if I had it. I would not advise farming Nathria for this. Scale and Heart both help you survive the later Annihilates but Scale also does a good chunk of damage while Heart does not do anything until the very end of the fight.
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Ghost Iron Dragonling - I did buy the item level 39 version off the auction house and there was a complete difference in my runs after picking this up. Socketed with 2 haste and 1 versatility gems and the Dragonling is no pushover either. I spent about 7k in total for the trinket and gems and I am glad I did.
Enchants:
- Fortified Leech - Cloak, standard Shadowlands.
- Sternal Skirmish - Chest, standard.
- Eternal Agility - Boots, more standard Shadowlands…
- Tenet of Versatility - Rings, …
-Consumables-
I did not go crazy with the consumables, money was tight and a variable. The ones I did use were:
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Greater Dreanic Agility Potion - Could use any flask, just went with Draenic because it was cheapest. Important.
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Potion of Unbridled Fury - Still a lot of damage, however it is expensive. You can gather and sell Zenethid to fund this expense. Alternatively you can use Potion of Phantom fire; I tried both, there is a difference but it is not too steep. Using at least one of these is important.
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Drums - Any find to use at the start of Phase 2, this is important.
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Shadowcore Oil - Applied one to each claw, good damage increase. Important if you using Claws of Ursoc.
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Goblin Glider - while my winning attempt did not use one, they did help me early on while learning the fight.
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Defiled Augment Rune - Still had a bunch from my time in Legion. Only used it upon entry into Phase 2 to save money.
-Strategy-
Phase 1:
Your overall strategy for Phase 1, is to dps Varriss as much as possible while not obtaining too many stacks of decay, while dealing with the mechanics below. Dps will include keeping up Moonfire, and maintaining three stacks of Thrash is a must, and almost makes up for the lack of damage from not taking Balance Affinity. This means you will be taking 1 to 2 stacks of Decay when you attempt to refresh this, that is OK thanks to Restoration Affinity.
Varriss himself does not do too much aside from spam Mind Rend, which you do not need to worry about unless you receive 4 or more stacks of Decay, at which point you should HoT yourself with Frenzied Regeneration or Rejuvenate. The mechanic he does which you do need to care about is Drain Life, this will need to be kicked as soon as possible, use Skull Bash almost exclusively for this, or you can line up an Incapacitating Roar to kick him and adds, or if dire, Bash or use a Holy Ward.
On the topic of Holy Wards, the shinning Orbs Vellen puts down, try to avoid using Holy Wards in Phase 1, except for the first one that spawns, they only last 2 minutes so the first one will go to waste otherwise so use at your discretion.
Start:
- Pull with Moonfire, do not start top of him, I found this delayed the first Drain Life and caused be to take unneeded stacks of Aura of Decay. Instead, pull with Moonfire then charge in and pop Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc. Get 3 stacks of Thrash and dump rage with Maul. Finally, Skull Bash his first cast of Drain Life then back out before you get more than 5 stacks of Decay.
Tormenting Eyes:
- They spawn throughout the fight and do not take physical damage, I Moonfire’d each one twice for good measure. Without Balance Affinity they can be hard to tag, if too far, be sure to stare at them during the casts until you get a chance to tag them with Moonfire.
Nether Horrors:
- When they spawn, I hit myself with a Rejuvenate or Frenzied Regeneration which would pull them to me, regardless of where I was. This is important because otherwise, these are the only real threat to Vellen. Pull them into the boss to hit both them and Variss with Thrash to refresh Thrash stacks, then move out before too many stacks of Decay. For their cast, since the nerf you can Incapacitating Roar them at any point in the channel or cast and they will cease. Wait till the end of the case to see if you can line up Roar up with Varris’ Drain Life, kicking both is a nice boon.
Smoldering Infernal:
- They will knock you off the platform after casting Smash, this hits in a frontal cone. Strifing nullifies this and you will need to always be moving, this is where I found Restoration Affinity valuable. Kite them and hit with a Moonfire to save yourself some damage.
Before pushing into Phase 2 and dealing with Kruul, you should ideally to have all the Smouldering Infernals low or recently downed. They do not stay dead but having free up time on the boss without worry of kite is a very nice boon. In my winning attempt I allowed Varris a couple ticks of Drain Life so he would not die to my dots while I cleaned up Infernals.
Phase 2:
First phase was a test of endurance, this is a test of speed and dps. Pop Drums, Incarnation, Trinkets, Barkskin and Potion of Unbridled Fury and spill as much dps into Kruul as possible (ideally macro this). Use Bash if off CD and an Annihilate is coming. Save orbs for the last 3rd or 4th Annihilate to give you as much up time on Kruul as possible. If things do get hectic, which it will, pop a orb to save yourself or Vellen.
Surviving Annihilate is half the battle, each application will do more damage, 1st one you should be able to tank, 2nd one make sure to pool some rage before the cast so you can have 2 stacks of Ironfur up. 3rd cast is where it will start getting dicey, use Survival Instincts/Ironfur/Trinket – anything you can, and be sure to pop Frenzied Regeneration to not die to damage immediately after receiving the hit. 4th cast will kill most, this is where you want to Bash, Kite, and use Holy Wards to delay the case as much as possible to give your dots and Vellen the most time to deal the remaining damage.
Jump through the slows, do not strife. And continuously kite to avoid resurrecting Infernals or Nether Stomps.
Lastly, you will still need to protect Vellen from the Horrors, and they are not as quick to aggro to you as before. Use Swipe/Thrash/Barkskin to pull them off to avoid a loss, and keep incapacitating them during the channel.
—Conclusion—
Hopefully with some skill and some luck, you can clear this as I did; hope this guide helps.
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Sources:
rofl-1337 https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/rgjysd/bear_mage_tower_quick_and_easy_guide_on_how_to_do/
Guide by Sankie Gaming (Also uses Restoration Affinity)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGAkdWlws_8&t=52s