I've been able to do four Challenge Mode runs so far and I think they are a lot of fun! They are also a very good source of Valor, once we get good at them. If you haven't been on a run yet (or even if you have) here are some things you should know.
They are hard. There is a big difficulty jump from the Heroic versions! In fact, of the four runs I've done, we only finished two of them! And that one was the same instance, Gate of the Setting Sun. In Niuzao Temple, we got stuck on the second boss. In Shado Pan Monastery, we were stuck on the third. Trash is no joke either!
Gear is normalized. A big part of the design of Challenge modes is that you can't "outgear" them. No matter your gear level, it's reduced to ilevel 463. It's all about good, skilled play, not brute force. Gear is NOT scaled UP though. Make sure you have at least 463 in each slot if you want to do a Challenge mode. As part of this, if we're stuck on a boss or trash pack, the only reason is because we are doing it wrong. The instances have all been completed on Gold, so if we are stuck we need to figure out why and get better!
Nothing drops loot. You won't get any gear upgrades running these. The point is the challenge and the fun of it. Trash doesn't even drop anything. No gold or grey items. Fortunately, there are no repair bills either! You don't take durability loss in Challenge modes. There ARE some good rewards, but not directly from each dungeon. Getting bronze in ALL modes gives you a nice title, "The Undaunted." Silver in ALL modes gives you a sweet feathered phoenix mount. (They are very cool.) Gold in ALL modes gets you an awesome set of transmog gear. No stats, but they look great! Also, Gold in each individual mode gives you a free, permanent port directly to that dungeon.
Preparation is key. If we want Gold in a mode, it will take some work. Since food, flasks and potions are static, they are NOT scaled by the Challenge modes. (No matter your gear level, food gives you the exact same buff.) Thus going for a Gold means bringing the best buffs. +300 stat food, a flask and even good potions. Also, some (many?) modes use Invis pots to skip several trash packs to improve the time. Most of this stuff isn't necessary for Bronze and possibly not Silver, but every advantage possible should be used for Gold!
We will wipe. As I said, we didn't even finish Niuzao Temple or Shado Pan Monastery! These places can get rough. (Especially late at night!) Each instance is going to take a few runs to learn the tricks to it and get good at it. Our first run of Gate of the Setting Sun was about an hour long with many wipes. Our second run was MUCH better done in about half an hour and with much less death! (Tho still a lot!) Gold, even Bronze, isn't going to come on the first run. Fortunately, you can reset a Challenge mode as many times as you want! There is no lockout like Heroics.
In order to finish a Challenge, you have to kill all the bosses in the instance. Can't skip any! Plus you have to kill a certain amount of trash per instance. This varies depending on the instance and how much trash is in it. The reason for the "trash kill" requirement is to prevent the "best route" being "skip everything!"
So this thread is for general discussion of Challenge modes and also for specific discussion of each one. I'm not going to do individual threads for all of them right now, though that might be good later on. I absolutely want to go back and do some more of these! I think they are a lot of fun and I love beating challenging content. I hope some of you are interested too!
P.S. Here is a forum thread about Challenge modes: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6863526914 It has a few tips as well as strat videos. I've linked all the videos later in this thread anyway.
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So far, this is the only one we've actually finished. We've done it twice and the second run was much better. Gate is a fairly short run. The Gold timer is 12 minutes. That leaves only one chance to use Heroism. The third boss is the best option for this.
There isn't much trash in here and you need to kill almost all of it to meet the requirements. At most there is one pack that could be skipped, though I have determined which one yet. Trash does hit pretty hard, but not much is noteworthy. Everything can be CCed.
First boss, the Saboteur, is pretty easy. The only thing you have to watch for is the bombs. Don't get caught in a bunch of them when the boss blows them up at 66% and 33%.
Second boss is harder. His health drops pretty fast, but his strafing runs will kill you if you are caught in them. So everyone stay with the tank. The adds died quickly this last run, but if they aren't dying fast you could CC the second set. Probably the nastiest part of the fight is the boss will randomly grab someone, stun them and try to bite their head off. It's a short dot, but high damage. Healer has to be fast to keep everyone alive.
Third boss is probably the hardest. It's a straight burn. Ignore the adds, let the tank pick them up and just kill the boss ASAP. This is the best spot for Heroism. The tank can actually kill the adds by getting them caught in the cleave effect the boss does. Just don't stand in it yourself! This fight is a constant kite, not much standing still.
Fourth boss is easier than the last two. One ranged can keep the adds under control while the other two DPS attack the boss. The first pack of adds enrages when they hit about 20% so stun or kite them at that point. The nastiest part of the fight is the third add, the Swarm Bringer. It puts a debuff on a random player that absorbs healing. The healer needs to "heal" that off within 10 seconds or it will turn into a "swarm" add. These things are REALLY nasty and do HIGH damage to anyone standing too close to them. Ranged can kite and kill them, but it's better to never get one. All DPS should kill the Bringer add fast. You can interrupt it's casts too. Other than that, kill the boss.
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A very easy run.
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We only got to the second boss in here and we hit a wall at that point. I think it was mostly because we were tired, but we also seemed to be doing things wrong.
The first thing to note is that all the trash up to the second boss is immune to CC. You have to just tank it, but be aware that the caster type adds will try to channel a stun on the tank. They need to be interrupted (or stunned) and die really fast. If not, it's a quick wipe.
There are also lots of little slime adds in the first part. When they die, they put a debuff on everyone that increases damage taken from the slime adds (and only the slime adds) but also increases all damage dealt. So they will hit the tank HARD and should be kited or stunned near death. Also tank CDs are good. The debuff they give is VERY useful for killing off the other trash quickly though. It's also a great idea to use it on the first boss to burn him down fast and almost ignore his mechanics. (We didn't do that, but it's a great idea!)
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The first couple bosses in here were pretty easy, but the third one tore us up. There is also lots of trash in here so it'll be important to figure out which packs are best to skip.
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We got VERY close on gold here! Missed it by just seven seconds! Ow. :/
The first part of the instance is the trickiest. Mostly the dogs at the start, the Arrow Gauntlet and a couple of trash packs past the first boss. After that it's pretty easy.
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Overall not very dangerous, but there is a lot going on here. This is considered one of the two hardest to get Gold on. The other is Stormstout Brewery. At least for this one, the challenge is that there is a lot to kill and not very much time. The bosses are very easy and most of the trash isn't too dangerous.
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Cool stuffs, I'd like to take a shot at some of these! Is there a set time a group is running?
There hasn't been a set time, it's been spontaneous. We can always try for a set time over the weekend. Obviously only needs 5 people instead of 10.
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More challenge mode guides
Consumable up, pull trash packs together and use AoE and defensive cooldowns rather than CCing each as you go. Skip the stuff that isn't required.
Challenge Mode Primer
Some nice tips on consumables, gearing, and practice.
I hear the Landshark is off the potion cooldown now and can be put to good use in Challenge modes.
I added a second video for all the dungeons. The first video is from a DK tank's perspective and includes more tank commentary. The second video is a resto Druid perspective and includes more healer suggestions. Both contain similar DPS points.
We've been doing pretty good so far with only one night a week on these. (Hard to get more time in with raids and busy schedules. That's ok.) A second tank would likely help a lot with getting some more runs in with other people. :)
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There's an interview over at WoW Insider with a couple guys that are dominating the Challenge Mode leaderboards. Here is the first part of the interview. It's mostly tank focused. There's a healer focused one next week.
There's not a LOT in there, but it's still an interesting. Couple things they mentioned is that tank Vengeance is really helpful for beating the timer. So pulling lots of mobs for high Vengeance is faster, if you can survive it. They mention chaining lots of tank and healer cooldowns plus stuns for that. For healers, it suggests that Disc priests are really good for Challenge modes because of Atonement DPS/healing. Also that spirit is largely useless since the goal of each pull is to be short.
Check it out!
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