Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EvHps9kPB8 (arcane mage guide for it, made by synybun, its an arcane explosion/barrage cleave strat that makes it trivial)
The mage challenges are not tuned particularly difficult compared to most classes, but if you go in without a current guide you will get wrecked. If you watch a guide youll probably kill it in 5 or less pulls for each mage spec.
A lot of other specs have very overtuned ones, but they will be balancing those soon so the book dream isnt dead yet!
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My thoughts on the fire mage challenge against Agatha. It is more straight forward than the arcane one but you just have to know which imps to kill first and that is what guides are for. Other than dodging mechanics particularly when the boulders are coming at you from behind on the third phase, the toughest part of the fight is the second phase from 50% to 30%. Third phase you are almost entirely mobile because of searing touch execute so you can dish out damage faster.
I tried saving time warp and second combustion when second phase begins but you just have a longer first phase doing that. It isn’t a bad idea cause first phase you don’t have to deal with the boulders and the imp dropping the green stuff on the ground with limited space to work with in a tight area. In the end, I used time warp with final combust and pot back up from CD in phase three.
Other misc notes:
-Meteor does a ton of damage on the shield and it always lines up when the channel is cast. You don’t have to worry about it going through your barrier compared to chain casting fireballs which take longer. I tried out kindling but I took more damage than having meteor.
-Another syncing ability is Alter Time when imps around her spawn and you go in spamming arcane explosion. I’ll hard cast flamestrike prior to them coming out just to have flame patch already on the ground.
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But why? Why do recycled content for zero reward? I already did all the mage challenges back in Legion, I don’t need to do them again. Especially not in this broken and unbalanced state.
They knew the transmog recolors wouldn’t be much of a draw for people which is why they tacked on a mount they knew people wanted because it came in second in that poll as the reward for doing all 7. The whole thing just rubs me the wrong way because they put in zero effort, recycled content, recycled rewards, and didn’t even bother balancing just tied a pretty bow on a pile of garbage and let players bash their heads against it.
Idk about anyone else and I don’t want to pass judgment for those who find it fun but being a masochist doesn’t sound like a good time to me. But more power to the rest of you if you’re genuinely enjoying it I guess. 
I mean don’t do it then? lol…it’s really that simple…i’m not doing it and choose not to rant about it here…if someone goes through the trouble of doing all those challenges, you bet your butt they deserve that mount, it’s cool and awesome…I like that people are rewarded for hard challenges and that not everyone can or will get it…this challenge is not for every single player, sorry to say…some of the best players in this game are having issues doing it…I consider myself an average player and if those players are having issues, i’m going to be in for a world of hurt if i even try lol…
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The mage tower in Shadowlands is optional.
If you don’t feel the reward is valuable, then skip it. Other players do find the reward valuable and are putting in the effort to beat the encounters.
Not all content is required. This is like pet batttles. You can do it if you want, but you don’t have to. Mage Tower doesn’t give you an advantage in raiding or pvp. It doesn’t make you more powerful. It’s purely optional.
The mage tower is doable. People in this thread have completed the encounters. It’s not a matter of gear since all gear equalizes. Being a mythic raider or gladiator does not help except in terms of player skill.
The mage tower is a CHALLENGE … it’s meant to be hard. Completing it is a mark of status, because not everyone can do so. If you want something easy that takes no effort or time, then the mage tower is not for you.
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I am not, lol. I was replying to someone who said I should keep trying.
It’s broken not a challenge. It’s still tuned around having Legion legendaries and fully upgraded artifact weapons except we have no access to any borrowed powers at all because of the timewalking restrictions.
Furthermore, according to their own philosophy Timewalking in general is not supposed to be challenging, it’s meant to be purely for nostalgia, at least that’s how they’ve always billed it. They can’t have it both ways. It can’t be timewalking and challenging at the same time. That doesn’t mean it’s not double, obviously people have already completed the individual challenges but as far as I know no one has done all 7 to get the mount, or if they have it’s very very few people. Since that’s the only reward I care about and doing it would either be impossible or require 2 weeks of straight up torture trying to beat a broken encounter you bet I won’t put myself through that.
And by the way just because something is ridiculously difficult does not mean it’s a challenge, it’s just broken and they’ve admitted it themselves or have you not seen the blue post saying that they are looking at nerfing it because it isn’t balanced?
I already did all the mage challenges in Legion, so I beg to differ. The original mage tower was for everyone this version is for masochists, no offense.
It isnt lol. The mage ones are not challenging at all compared to most of the other specs. People just need to use the strats developed for it.
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I am talking about all of them, not the mage ones specifically. As I’ve said a dozen times already for those of us who want the mount there’s no reason to do any of the challenges if we can’t do all of them. Have you tried doing the healing or tanking ones? Trash mobs there hit hard enough to one shot the NPCs you’re supposed to protect. Again, that’s broken not challenging.
I haven’t yet, working on the bm one now, but the fact you can find dozens of videos on yt of people doing it implies its quite possible. They are mostly broken in regards to certain specs for instance holy priest has a huge trouble on the healer one but its very easy for holy paladin. And same for the tank one, vengeance and prot have an easier time with it. Since its timewalking you arent punished at all for going on a spec you dont have mega geared. I pretty much assumed you were just talking about the mage ones given the sub.
I agree about our challenges not on the same level as the other specs. I’m just fortunate to go in with whatever I’m wearing now and use standard SL m+ and raid food, flasks, etc. and not have to farm older gear and sockets like I’ve been reading for the rest of the classes.
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First off, Blizzard knows that some are overtuned and they’re working on those. Gives me some hope that I might be able to get the mount one day.
With that said, I think you need to take a hard look at why you unsubscribed in the first place. You specifically used the arcane challenge to illustrate why the mage tower was too difficult only to be shown that the mage challenges are actually fairly simple to do. You then say that you’re talking about all the other challenges when people have videos showing how they can be done as well. Then you say there’s “no point” in doing one of them if you can’t do all of them.
To me, it seems like you just don’t enjoy the game anymore. There’s nothing wrong with that and I’m not trying to convince you otherwise. I am saying that you should really analyze why you would come back to play a game that you clearly don’t enjoy anymore and then make up excuses about how hard challenges that are completely optional and designed to be a challenge actually are. You didn’t even give it one single night of tries before you threw up your hands and declared it impossible.
You really should spend your time doing something you’d enjoy more.
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I agree 110% with you…there’s actually more than a few people on this mage forum who I feel needs to take a break because every single thing is terrible to them lol
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Yeah. I have issues with certain things as I’ve kind of stated a lot, but I still go with it and make the best out of it or at least try 
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Oh yeah there’s definitely things that stink but lol it is what it is 
Oh you’re absolutely right, I can’t stand the game anymore. The whole concept of SL and moving away from Azeroth and into La La Land is just a mockery to me. I always intended to leave the game again at least until they decide to bring the story back to Azeroth like in 10.0 or whatever but I just really wanted that damn mount, lol. But it’s no big deal at the end of the day for me because I won’t be playing anyway and I still have my water elemental mount plus the flying manhole cover. It’s just that this mount in particular hits a nerve with me because it’s the one I voted for in that pole as did thousands of other players since it came in second. Blizzard just irked me by dangling it in front of me only for it to end up out of reach again. I am gonna get over it though, can’t stay tilted forever. 
I want the book too. Maybe we get lucky and get a version of it. Tbh as cool as the mage discs are idk why they didn’t give this book mount to mages back in legion as the class mount. Would have been the best mount by far!
Honestly I don’t even care for the model of the book itself that much, although it is brilliant and quirky, but more for the arcane vfx and the riding animation. On most flying objects like the manhole cover, or flying carpets, etc. your character adopts this ridiculous surfing pose that just breaks immersion not to mention that your shoulders and helm clip into your body and it’s especially obvious from behind. They fixed the pose on the new Taza’vesh flying manhole covers but they’re silly looking with those cogs and faux candle flames.
My dream mount would be turning ourselves into flying arcane energy like when Dadgar teleported us around in WoD, I think it used the old Arcane Barrage animation. You can still do it if you use the teleporter at Khadgar’s Tower in WoD Talador. Now THAT would be epic especially if they updated the graphics! Of course we can only dream but I think it’s high time they let mages fly Dr. Strange style. 
🧙🏻♂
would be actual content and not things I did 4-5 years ago repackaged as “new.” But such is WOW these days.
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Same. That was the real thing I was hoping they’d do in legion since it would make a whole lot of sense for mages to be able to levitate themselves instead of slow falling. I understand why they can’t give it to us but a guy can dream
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Thanks for this. Idk why I’m having a hard time with Agatha… spending more time on her than the Guardian challenge. It’s fun though, love playing fire.
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