When a Legion Timewalking event is active, the Mage Tower returns to the Broken Shore and reopens seven brutal solo challenges. Clear the right one and you unlock a coveted artifact weapon appearance — the prestigious skins that proved your skill back in Legion. This guide explains how the timewalking version works, exactly which challenge each spec needs, and how to actually win it.
How the Mage Tower Works During Legion Timewalking
The Mage Tower is gated behind the Legion Timewalking bonus event, which rotates roughly every few weeks alongside the other expansion timewalking weeks. While it's up, head to the Mage Tower on the Broken Shore and pay 150 Timewarped Badges per attempt to activate a challenge. There is no daily lockout — you can keep re-entering and paying badges until you finally beat your encounter.
Your character is scaled down to a fixed item level for the fight, so gigantic modern gear won't trivialize it. The challenge rewards your skill, rotation, and cooldown timing far more than your raw stats. Each of the seven encounters is tuned for a specific set of roles, and your reward depends on which challenge you complete and which spec you complete it on.
The Two Reward Tiers
- Original Mage Tower artifact appearance — the base recolor unlocked the first time you beat the correct challenge for that spec. This is the iconic Legion skin.
- Mage-Tower-tinted variants — additional color tints of that appearance, earned by completing further objectives tied to the same skin family.
All unlocks are account-wide for transmog, so a skin earned on one character is usable by any eligible character of that class. Even though Legion artifacts are retired from gameplay, the appearances remain wearable transmog on modern weapons of the same type, which is exactly why these challenges stay popular.
The Seven Challenges and Who They're For
Picking the wrong challenge is the most common beginner mistake. Match your spec to the correct encounter below before you spend any badges.
| Challenge | Role Focus | Specs It Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| An Impossible Foe (Kruul) | DPS burst & soak | All DPS specs |
| Closing the Eye | DPS movement & adds | All DPS specs |
| The God-Queen's Fury | Tank survivability | All tank specs |
| The Highlord's Return | Tank cleave & cooldowns | All tank specs |
| End of the Risen Threat | Healing throughput | All healer specs |
| Thwarting the Twins | Healer add control | All healer specs |
| Feltotem's Fall | Hybrid (multiple roles) | Druid, Monk, Paladin, etc. |
To unlock every appearance for a class, you'll often need to clear more than one challenge across different specs. For example, a Druid earns separate skins by completing the relevant DPS, tank, and healer challenges, each on the matching specialization.
An Impossible Foe — The Most Famous Fight
Against Highlord Kruul, you race a burning Infernal timer while soaking meteors and bursting the boss before infernals overwhelm you. It punishes weak burst and panic movement. Save your big cooldowns for the windows after Kruul casts, soak meteors with personal defensives, and never let an Infernal reach full power.
The God-Queen's Fury — The Tank Wall
The toughest tank challenge tests active mitigation and add management against waves of adds plus the boss. Plan your defensive rotation so a major cooldown is always available for the dangerous casts, and use crowd control to stagger incoming damage rather than eating it all at once.
How to Prepare and Actually Win
Because you're scaled, preparation is about execution, not gear score. The players who fail usually fail on consumables, kiting, or cooldown timing — all of which are free to fix.
- Bring full consumables — flask, the right food buff, a combat potion, and a healthstone or class self-heal.
- Talent for the fight, not for raiding. Self-healing, movement, and add control talents usually beat pure single-target throughput here.
- Use a movement aid — slow falls, sprints, blinks, leaps, and disengages turn a deadly mechanic into a non-event.
- Track the boss's casts with a weakaura or by sound, and pre-position before the dangerous ability lands.
- Pace your cooldowns — most challenges have a clear burn window. Dumping everything at the pull and then having nothing for the hard phase is the classic loss.
Step-by-Step First Clear
- Step 1. Wait for Legion Timewalking to go live and stockpile Timewarped Badges.
- Step 2. Identify the correct challenge for your spec from the table above.
- Step 3. Set your talents, glyphs/runes, and consumables for survival and the fight's mechanics.
- Step 4. Spend 150 badges, learn the mechanic order on your first death, then refine each pull.
- Step 5. Beat it once to bank the account-wide appearance, then swap specs to chase the rest.
If you'd rather skip the relentless attempt-after-attempt grind, PewPewShop offers a Mage Tower and artifact appearance boost — our players clear the challenges on your account so the transmog lands in your collection while you do something else with your evening. It's there if you want it; the guide above is everything you need to do it yourself.
Why These Appearances Still Matter
Mage Tower skins are some of the few rewards in the game that visibly say I learned my class at a high level under pressure. They're a permanent flex on the transmog wall, they pair beautifully with modern weapon types, and because the tower only opens during timewalking, you can't always grab them on a whim. Knowing the rotation, the schedule, and the exact challenge for your spec is what turns a frustrating badge sink into a clean unlock.
FAQ
Do I need to be max level to attempt the Mage Tower?
You should be at the level cap of a current expansion. Your character is then scaled to a fixed item level for the encounter, so over-gearing won't carry you — skilled execution is what clears the challenge.
How much does each attempt cost?
Each activation costs 150 Timewarped Badges. There's no cooldown, so you can retry immediately after a wipe as long as you keep earning badges from timewalking dungeons.
Are the artifact appearances still usable now that Legion artifacts are gone?
Yes. The appearances live in your transmog collection account-wide and can be applied to modern weapons of the same type, so a skin earned today stays usable on current-expansion gear.
Can I unlock every appearance for my class in one Mage Tower week?
Often, yes — but you'll need to complete the matching challenge on each relevant specialization (DPS, tank, and/or healer). Plan your talent and gear swaps so you can pivot between challenges while the tower is open.