cinder says

Cast your minds back to Blizzcon, November 2015, when Legion was still in our future and we were grabbing at any and all sneak peeks at what was to come. During one of the presentations we learned about artifact weapons, and some of the appearances were shown. And me, well I fell in love with what they showed for restoration shamans:

I absolutely adored that appearance on the far right. So when Legion came out I eagerly looked to find out how I could get it. And it wasn’t there. It wasn’t the hidden appearance… it wasn’t even a pvp appearance! I’m was disappointed, but figured that it would come into the game eventually; I’d just have to wait.

Then patch 7.2 came out, and with it, the Mage Tower challenges. And there it was- my appearance! Gated behind a challenge. And a bloody tough challenge at that. But it was a solo thing that I could work on by myself and in my own time, which is just how I like it.

So I went in there when the challenges first opened, and had my ass handed to me. It was *hard*. But that only made me more determined. So I kept trying over and over again, getting a little further through each time. Then things got to busy and I missed the last 2 times the Mage Tower was up.

Until this time.

I went in last night to see if a new trinket I got would work on the NPCs (side note: this was worth testing because a trinket from Nighthold, Perfectly Preserved Cake (which gives a shield to nearby players), didn’t actually work in the scenario. The new trinket I got is The Deceiver’s Grand Design, which allows you to put a shield on a player that does some good stuff.) Turned out, the trinket not only worked, but it kicked BUTT. (probably aided by the fact that I got extremely lucky and got a 940 version of the trinket…). I got pretty close to defeating it last night, but I was too tired, so went to bed.

This morning I got up and went straight back in there. First pull is always crap as I get back into the swing of things (and I wake up lol). Then second pull I made a big mistake in the middle section of the fight. I recovered well enough, but it shook my confidence a bit so I ended up not doing so well in the last phase with all the adds.

And then the last pull. The last pull I was doing pretty well. I remembered to put on my healing rain legendary boots (because I just personally found them really helpful with the Tier 20 4-set bonus) and I just took my time with it. I got through the first phase really well with some a lucky fixate going on one of the NPCs instead of me. And I didn’t get hit by a mana sting in the last phase, so I got through it well. Then I sat around for a little bit while I waited for the heroism debuff to wear off.

The on to phase 2. The dps boost we got in 7.2.5 really helped this not be such a panic. I was able to get through it all with about a minute to spare, and that was with me really taking my time and healing myself to full between each mob. Then I waited again to make sure all my CDs were available going in to the last phase.

The last phase was the hardest for me, I think. Not the boss, but the bit before that, where the boss is drawing in mobs from around the edges and you have to heal them up before they get to him. I had issues with line of sight, so they were more almost halfway to the boss before I could start healing them, which made it trickier. But I paid attention to the advice on wowhead and used my Ancestral Guidance for the first wave, and my ascendance for the second, and I was able to heal a bunch of them up. So when that phase ended, I only had 4 mobs to deal with. As soon as they spawned I dropped a cap totem to stun them all, then AOE’d my butt off to get the bad ones down. Then it was left to just the two guys that fixate and hit the crap out of me, but a spirit link helped manage that a bit better.

And then before I knew it, I was facing the boss for the first time. By this point I still had healing tide available, and even better – my resurrection ability. I was glad to have done the Nightbane fight previously as well, so I was able to manage it quite well. I popped hero, then hit the crap out of him. I died right at the end, but ressed in time to hit him one last time and he died. And I had done it! And I squealed with joy.

Honestly, there is nothing more satisfying than being pushed to frustration and anger over a challenge, and then defeating it. It sounds strange, but I tell you, it just makes the adrenaline that much sweeter.

Now… about that elemental appearance… 😉