I need advice for visions

Classes Mage
1

Completed my first solo 5 mask last night, but when I say it was close, I mean I wasn’t sure if alleria died or if I did.

Basically, I need advice on the best way to deal with eyes during shaw/alleria. I understand don’t look at them, but I was having trouble moving in a way that allowed me to turn from the eyes and still have meaningful uptime on the boss.

Also, which order are you guys doing lost/corrupted areas and why? I ran mage quarter last thinking the buffs from previous would help with the miniboss(alien creature outside the tower, i forget the name) but downside was, I lusted him and didn’t have it for alleria, so I think I’m running mage quarter first next time.

Thoughts?

2

For SW, as Frost, I typically go as follows:

  • Starting Zone, clear everything (including Alleria’s guards), collect your three chests, 2 crystals and buff (bear haste buff or other guy’s vers buff [better] near mailbox, whichever is up). Icy Veins on first big pull because you pretty much know you will proc Gift so you can go a bit yolo. Poly the guards when they repel or switch targets. Alternately, try to use Purification Protocol (it can Annihilate through their repel and is an overall great Essence for visions because of the high numbers of Abberations you face)

  • Head towards the bomb zone, kill the three gnomes as close as possible to the entrance of the zone since they usually proc Gift of the Titans (don’t want to waste it)

  • Head on into the bomb zone and this zone is pretty much a joke for ranged classes so I don’t think you need any help with this :slight_smile: Icy Veins on the one Elite who is near the mailbox, if your Gift didn’t proc on the 3 gnomes it usually procs on the adds leading up to him. Icy Veins should be back up for the final boss of this zone. Take the Damage % buff if it’s up.

  • Once the final boss dies, walk past his spawn point and cross the bridge over to Shaw’s zone. You can either kill the eye or you can kill the rats. If you need the Corrupted Momentos do this but it’s sometimes better to use your Invisibility here and bypass this as you don’t want Gift to proc; Valleria’s role playing in conjunction with the first two adds wastes too much time and having Gift up for the lady elite in the zone (w/e her name is, with the gun) is much better.

  • When you enter this zone, either Blizzard or use pet Freeze right away to reveal the two invisible adds. If they proc Gift, use it to quickly kill the elite lady, if they don’t, turn left and kill the adds. You can Blink (but not Shimmer) out of Touch of the Abyss if you fail to kick it; you can also Blink/Shimmer out of the illusions that spawn around you (if the affix is up). Icy Veins on second Elite near the mailbox, and after that just clear out the rest of the zone for your momentos/crystals, etc.

  • Time Warp + Icy Veins on Shaw and just burst him down as quick as possible. If too many eyes are staring you down then Blink away and turn a bit to make Shaw come near you but the eyes will then usually reposition to your side and not in your face. An alternate strategy that I’ve tried and have moderate success with is to let my sanity drop just below 50% to spawn that abberation, quickly kill it and see if it procs Gift. Make sure you have an addon/WA that tracts the ICD of Gift. If it procs the entire fight is a joke and you can ignore every eye.

  • After this head on over to Zone 2 (slave nonsense). The first elite is a joke for mages. Both Counterspell and Remove Curse remove his spell that drains your sanity. The last boss of this zone is also pretty easy since you can Ice Block the chains. Icy Veins on the final boss here and grab the awesomesauce crit buff if it’s up

  • The mage tower zone is the last one I do, honestly I’ve done it so many times that I always have Gift up for the blob outside the mage tower, which renders him useless. I wouldn’t recommend Time Warp here. If you don’t have Gift up wait till he scoots over and kill either the tentacle that’s around a chest spawn or the portal dude + void elemental that are in the field to proc the Gift. Icy Veins on the last guy here, not the blob outside.

  • Then port back to main area, hand in crystals. Grab a drink while Icy Veins comes back off cooldown, use the Orb to pop back to full Sanity and now you’ll have everything: Warp, Frozen Orb, Icy Veins so just burst down Alleria. When the eye engages you it will usually just jump right beside you so my advice would be to pull Alleria at max range, and when the eye jumps towards you, just move forward a few steps. Alleria’s spells are pretty silly for ranged people; I usually DPS her quick enough to the point where I don’t have to dodge her arrows (the ones that drain 40 sanity), Ice Block Chains (and Cold Snap immediately after, or before the next one), kick away the bombs, Counterspell her poly, and LoS her big AoE explosion.

I’m not sure on which spec you’re playing but I’ve done this as Arcane and Frost. I’d say Arcane is absurdly good at visions and can usually kill bosses in no time with Arcane Power to the point where you can pretty much ignore most of their abilities. I’m not even exaggerating, it’s just that good at visions.

Frost’s no-IL variation is VERY good at handling the elites and bosses since your Spike does anywhere from 700k-1mil+ crits, but the Orb variation generally handles trash packs better.

If you’re the kind of person used to pulling big packs and taking them all out at once, then this Orb build might be better for you; although bear in mind that your actual Orb will not be as strong as the Ice Lances you launch into the Packed Ice debuff. Also try not to take Frigid Winds on this build (for Visions), because your Ice Barrier does chill as well - it sometimes slows them to the point where you’re waiting for them to stack up nicely.

Worth noting that Frozen Orb actually hits ridiculously hard on the No-IL build once you stack up enough Mastery; it can do over twice its normal damage once your Mastery approaches something like ~60%, and with a combination of pet Freeze + your Nova (or two Novas if you use Ice Ward) you can easily speed things instead of just relying on Icicles to get Spikes. Weave Cone of Cold and Blizzard into your rotation anytime you have 3+ targets stacked. Whenever Spike is up though, try to find 2 targets that are close to one another and try to time Spike with your pet’s Freeze. If the targets are around you, Nova into the Spike. If they are far away and you have Brain Freeze, Spike into Flurry. Spike anyway even if you don’t have Flurry since Visions do provide buffs that can sometimes push your Crit% or Damage to respectable levels even in the absence of Shatter.

I use the % food buff and run Purification Protocol major. There have been times where I’ve forgotten and used Condensed Life Force, but it hasn’t caused many issues. It’s a great essence to quickly kill bosses. I also don’t bother with any potions except the Sanity ones.

1 Like
3

Congrats on the 5-mask!

The above post is really good advice. When I was first doing visions with pretty poor gear, I found arcane to be really safe on the Shaw fight. I could just literally stand facing away from all the eyes and explosion spam and still do dmg if I was in a bad spot where I wasn’t able to face him.

I’ve ran visions as all 3 specs so many times and I would say overall, arcane is probably the most convenient with the consistent trash aoe and decent priority target burst. it really depends what your gear is, but a lot of times I just respec fire for Alleria and end the fight in a matter of seconds.

4

Whispereessa’s description read much like how I would work through the zone. There were only two things that I approached somewhat differently, and those were Shaw and the blob outside the mage tower.

For Shaw it felt more effective to wait untill he had disappeared from combat once before I would proceed with a burn. The majority of the time it felt like he was standing at 70-90 degrees to either side of my character’s direction but it was still effective for casting on him. I also tended to cast a blizzard while I waited for him to reengage me in combat. It sometimes would net me another frozen orb to finish the fight.

For the blob outside the mage tower I’d use a sanity orb and then proceed to burn it with IV and a potion. For Umbric I’d use a sanity orb before engaging him, and then I’d wait to close the distance to him until counterspell was nearly off cooldown.

One small suggestion when struggling with Alleria is to make sure to go into the fight with five stacks of the buff you get from killing mobs from the Titan research tree. You can leave the four mobs near the crystal turn-in alone until the end of the run, and then kill them right before you engage Alleria. Those four kills plus one left over from Umbric will let you start Alleria with five. It can also let you start the fight with a gift proc to make the fight that much easier.

5

Actually, this is solid advice too if Gift is down, since Icy Veins will come back up before you face the final boss of this zone. I just feel like waiting to proc gift is better since you can just face-tank the breath it uses without any issues.

It is also good to engage Shaw with Blizzard because once again the eye next to him will jump beside you so you can easily LoS it, but I’ve never had the fight with him go long enough to where I need 2 Orbs; he usually dies before Time Warp expires.

6

On Shaw, don’t burn your cooldowns immediately. Wait for him to vanish the first time, then pop them when he reappears. You’ll end up wasting most of the cooldown if you use it at the beginning of the fight.

7

The tougher parts for me are the mobs in Old Town which appear out of nowhere and that one spot in the mage quarter with two tentacles and no space to move and manouvre. I usually combust the latter it gets so bad. For Alleria you can generally burst her down. Save an orb for her if you can to ignore mechanics during your initial burst after that play more for survival than damage. Full disclosure though the last time I did a mask with the full weight of amps and buffs from the vision tree I was just hiding behind a pillar after burst and letting dots kill her

8

I follow this same path but I do it as Fire. Even at a modest mid-460s gear level, Combustion just melts all the bosses, assuming you have the stuff to make it work (3x Blaster Master, Lucid Dreams major, and Hyperthreads). I don’t even worry about Gift procs for the bosses quite honestly. If it’s there great, if not no biggie. I also don’t usually worry about full clearing the areas in a 5-mask. If I’m Memento farming I’ll drop Long Night and do a more leisurely 4-mask. It’s certainly doable if you work quickly but if I’m 5-masking I’m just trying to get in and out and snag my 470 piece for the week. I’ll grab chests/crystals if they are convenient but I don’t go out of my way.

  1. Cathedral District: As Fire, DON’T kill the guards in front of the Cathedral here. Kill whatever buff mob is up in the starting area if you want and check for the bad potion. Head out the NE exit toward the Dwarven District.
  2. Dwarven District: Head left at the entry. Combust on the mini-boss and again on the end boss. I don’t usually bother with the 10% damage guy in a 5-mask but YMMV. Leave the area through the SE exit behind the final boss.
  3. Old Town: Combust probably won’t be back up in time for the first mini-boss to the right of the entry so kill the pack on the left first. Then Combust the mini-boss and head back to the left. Skip the bar. DON’T Combust the second mini-boss because you will want it for Shaw. DON’T Combust Shaw on the pull because he will Vanish early in the fight. Avoid the Eyes when he does and then Combust when he re-appears and fry him. Don’t use the portal, head back out the way you came in and turn left along the Canal and head for the Trade District.
  4. Trade District: Beeline to the mini-boss and Combust him down, then double back and clear the trash in the area to the right of the AH and in front of the Slavemaster. By the time you finish dancing with the tentacles Combustion will be back up. If Combust doesn’t outright kill the Slavemaster before he Chains, Ignite ticks will kill him during Chains. Kill whatever’s left to open all the cages. Don’t bother with the bank boss, Fire doesn’t need the Crit buff. Exit to the SW toward the Mage Quarter.
  5. Mage Quarter: Most annoying part. Head to the right all the way back to the Warlock mini-boss, killing the creepers and tentacles along the way. DON’T Combust the Warlock, he has relatively low health and you’ll want it for the “Blob.” Just stay out of Rain of Fire and Nova the adds and you’ll be fine. After the Warlock head back the way you came. The second portal keeper will be to the right. Kill him and pass through the building behind him to the area around the tower, careful not to pull the “Blob” when exiting. Combust the “Blob.” You should kill him before he does his breath attack but if not just dodge it. You won’t need Time Warp. Kill the two portal keepers in the area then pass through the building facing the tower ramp to snag the last portal keeper. Combust will be back up for the Mage boss. Use the portal after he’s dead.
  6. Cathedral District Redux: NOW kill the Cathedral guards. I usually sheep one and kill them one at a time. The reason why you waited until now to kill them is to give time for Combustion to come back after the Mage boss. Orb your sanity back to full then go ham on Alleria: TW, Potion, Combust, the kitchen sink. You can LOS the Chains and they will just pull you into the pillar. You know the rest, dodge the AOE, LOS the explosion, CS her Polymorph, dodge the Eyes as best you can but it’s more important to stay on her. If you started with full Sanity you should be able to kill her before the Eyes become a problem.
9

Stormwind:

Dwarven -> Old Town (Lust on Shaw + Orb) -> Trade -> Mage (Orb before Boss) -> Alleria (Lust + Orb).

I go primarily Arcane throughout the entire vision. I’ll change gear sets from AoE to ST usually for bosses. Sometimes I will go Fire for Shaw and Mage, depends on if I’m trying some experimental stuff with Arcane. I always go Fire for Alleria.

A few tips: make sure to get a WA to track the good/bad potion. I always get the two buffs in the instance (there will be one in cathedra and then one either in Dwarven or Trade).

I don’t play Frost, so I cannot comment on it, but Arcane has a very easy time. The trick to SW is to not over pull and to take things somewhat slow . . . especially in Old Town, on Shaw, and on Alleria. Mage District can get hairy if you overpull as well. Make sure to interrupt the void lords (the stacking debufd hurts).