Mission “Impossible” Accomplished

I was so excited I forgot to take a picture. Compliments of Icy Veins

Well, turns out I don’t completely suck.

Only partially.

And I had little confidence going into the weekend.

When I realized the new Artifact appearances were going away in Battle for Azeroth it was enough for me to resubscribe. One of the issues I have always had with the Bear form of my druid is that you don’t get to change looks that often – and while a lot of that changed with the Artifact in Legion, the Mage Tower was truly unique as it was a were-bear kind of thing (how would you describe it?). This was evolution! No longer would I have to walk on all fours.

As long as I could beat the challenge. Which in prior posts and comments even here, seemed to be reserved for the Mythic+ raider type and not the Joe Isey Casual player like me.

It definitely didn’t start off well, either. I banged my head against it with a 920ish ilvl for Guardian spec until I realized that I needed to focus on gearing up the best I could in the time time remaining to make it easy. So I would do all the weekly events that would give me a chance at a gear upgrade and throughout, periodically, do ten or so tries of the challenge to keep fresh on it and also see how I was progressing.

For those who don’t know the challenge I will link the Wowhead Guide  explanation here – as it is far better written and it would take a lot of space to replicate what is already there. In short, the tanking ones – and the Guardian Druid in particular – are considered some of the more challenging ones. It definitely felt that way. I struggled to get out of Phase 1 fast enough to limit the number of Smoldering Infernos in play (who smash you off the floating island to your instant death) and as such, was recommended to get Luffa Wrappings so I could safely DPS the first phase boss in a safe place. I managed to get three more legendaries (total of 9 on my druid), none of which were the Luffa Wrappings. Still, by the time I won it I had two “better” legendaries that really helped me be successful (along with a 937 ilvl).  Fury of Nature, and Soul of the Archdruid. Both of which will be replaced with greens in a month. Along with the other 9 plus my awesome weapon.

But not my form. I can always Transmog to it now, and now that the base is unlocked I can also take my time and unlock the different color palettes as well whenever I want. You just need to have the base.

Winning for me was the combination of getting really comfortable with the fight, having the right gear and consumables, and last (but not least) using some macros that really limited the buttons I needed to use in order to focus on what was going on around me. It was the first time I had a strong feeling of challenge and the resulting confidence of actually accomplishing something hard in WoW since we were raiding the original Karazahn.

My angst now, is that if enough people complain about it that Blizzard brings it back EZ-Mode to appease those who didn’t get it in time. The effort was well worth it, and they announced it well in advanced so I would hope not. And yes, it would feel like a minimization of my accomplishment due to the fact I had to put in extra time, money and effort and was up against the wall. Dammit, here I am all drunk with elitism and power already.

My conundrum now is whether or not I even keep playing with an expansion so close – especially since the Artifact Weapons are being demoted / neutered in Tomorrow’s patch. I don’t know if there is enough to keep me excited for another month’s token fee. I think I have a few days left to figure that out.

 

7 comments / Add your comment below

  1. Congrats!!! I have not gotten it. I even went back in recently with the overcharged weapon and 940 gear. I still had a much too high level of frustration with the fight. And looking at the reward, an appearance for my dagger, I finally said, not worth it.

    1. Funny enough while there are some really cool ones not all of them are worth getting based on personal yaste. And you just know some of the new weapons in BFA will be amazing. There is absolutely nothing like the Druid form so I just had to have it! I thought about getting the Restoration one since I am a better healer than a tank but I don’t like the model.

  2. Grats on this. As you point out, the investment in the character is quite substantial – ilvl alone. A solid achievement. Imagine folks who have all of them!

    It would be foolish for Blizz not to offer a similar experience to the Mage Tower in BfA at some point. I’ve been on the bandwagon that the trials (starting in MoP) should be a gating mechanism for all top end group content. Bronze is faceroll, Silver is standard, Gold could be for transmogs.

    1. I was reading about people who did every spec. That’s crazy! But I suspect if you are an eveeever WoW player it wouldn’t be so bad. Especially with shared gear if you are good enough for one spec chances are you re close on another with a little practice.

      This form surely can’t be the best and last one remaining, and curious how they gate the others. I haven’t bought BFA yet but am more and more curious to now, although I may wait for the second or third big patch.

  3. I doubt Blizzard will bring back those specific appearances. The MoP challenge mode armor sets and Warlords challenge mode weapons aren’t obtainable any longer. (The order hall campaign sets are somewhat different from the MoP sets, they aren’t a simple recolor.)

    Grats on getting the guardian appearance. I’d done the fight on my Paladin, but just had a terrible time of it on my Druid. I finally just sat down one Sunday morning and ground it out over several hours before RNG favored me.It’s definitely a personal accomplishment.

    1. Thanks! I really wanted the Paladin one too but I wasn’t close to being geared (or skilled enough) to pull it off. End of the day – will be curious to see how (if) Blizzard does something like this in BFA or not. Great opportunities to.

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