Endless Archive Arc 4 Trash Strategies

Dagoth_Rac

What are some strategies for handling the insane trash in Arc 4? Between how much trash there is, how hard it hits, the knockbacks and snares, the tentacles and blobs that just will not stop spawning, I am overwhelmed. And it is not like a dungeon or trial where you just keep trying at it all night long and after 100 wipes start to get a feel for what works and what does not. Is it all about DPS? If you can't clear the trash in 30 seconds, then you are just delaying the inevitable because the spawn rate will outpace your DPS? Or is DPS not important and it is all about health and heavy armor and passive healing and who cares if each piece of trash takes 10 minutes to kill? I am on an Imperial Stamplar in Deadly + VO + Oakensoul + 1-piece Trainee (cuirass), usually a pretty tough build that can withstand a lot (30K health, 22k resistances, 1500-ish stam regen) while doing decent damage, but gets shredded in Arc 4. I can clear through end of Arc 3 consistently. It's tougher than vMA or vVH but certainly doable. Arc 4, though. Dang...

fizl101

My principle is build for defence and visions for offence. On my oakensorc I am wearing azureblight and leeching (3 leeching on body) and can get into arc 5 solo, higher duo. If you are using a heavy attack build I would swap out vo for something else as you dont need the sustain benefits. If you are dual wield daggers I would say its pretty tough on melee as having some range really helps and would drfinitely go more defence if you can

Dagoth_Rac

fizl101 wrote: »

My principle is build for defence and visions for offence. On my oakensorc I am wearing azureblight and leeching (3 leeching on body) and can get into arc 5 solo, higher duo. If you are using a heavy attack build I would swap out vo for something else as you dont need the sustain benefits. If you are dual wield daggers I would say its pretty tough on melee as having some range really helps and would drfinitely go more defence if you can

No heavy attack. I am using a 2H Maul (to get closer to the 9100 armor of most mobs). Stampede into the trash pack, Everlasting Sweep, Carve, Jabs, Jabs, Jabs, Jesus Beam if something is below 35%-ish health. It is pretty resource intensive and VO really helps. Not a meta build but I enjoy it and has served me well. I even have some DLC dungeon trifectas with it (in a 4-man group, not solo!). But seems to have finally met its match in Arc 4.

Ph1p

For higher Arcs, I find Ring of the Pale Order to be a must-have to survive incoming damage. I'd also say your resistances are too low, since 22k armor translates to 33% damage mitigation vs. 50% at 33k, not counting other defensive bonuses. Many people go heavy armor in later arcs to reach that resistance cap.

EDIT: Typo

Dagoth_Rac

Ph1p wrote: »

For higher Arcs, I find Ring of the Pale Order to be a must-have to survive incoming damage. I'd also say your resistances are too low, since 22k armor translates to 33% damage mitigation vs. 50% at 33k, not counting other defensive bonuses. Many people go heavy armor in later arcs to reach that resistance cap.

EDIT: Typo

Are there any heavy armor sets that provide good stamina resource management? Seems like there is decent selection of heavy drops or heavy crafted that help with magicka sustain but not much with stamina sustain for a Stamplar...

Necrotech_Master

in my opinion, melee builds are not really great in the archive, theres too many mechanics that require you to be mobile

for the add stages, you generally want AOE with high single target focus on the elite mobs (fabled or similar like lurchers, bulwarks, centurions etc)

the other thing that is really needed in arc 4 is a purge, because those dots start to get nasty

i would also agree that you basically need armor cap to handle the incoming dmg once you get to arc 4+, my dps arcanist with about 22k resists, generally starts having problems against arc 4 mobs because of the dots (no purge)

for additional sustain you could go with an absorb stamina enchantment, if you get a couple ranks of attuned enchantment vision that will restore like 800-1100 stamina per proc

Dagoth_Rac

Might be time to break out Extended Ritual! I never used that in vMA or vVH or when trying to solo dungeons, and self-purging in solo PvE is not really something I think about. But maybe that is why I am struggling in Arc 4.

Necrotech_Master

in the vast majority of PVE content you generally dont need a purge, but in archive i would say the vast majority of incoming dmg is dots and those can be pretty deadly if you have multiple stacked on you

if you get dreadhorns, then you have to worry about the scrapper enemies as they can apply a very high dmg dot to you called burning oil

if you get grovebound (the argonian skeletons), the archers can apply venom arrow, and melee guys can apply blood craze

if you get goblins, the melee can apply blood craze

wolves have a high dmg heavy attack along with 2 different bleeds

durzogs also have a bleed

ascendant archers can apply venom arrow

other mobs that can still hurt at this stage but dont have a dot would be the flying imps, their heavy attack channels can hit like a truck (the 2h melee mobs also have a really high dmg uppercut heavy attack)

the other effects you might have to worry about too is CC as some enemies have a lot of knockdowns (razorhides, ogrims) which makes resolute mind vision a godsend

last but not least is some of the mages are basically negate spammers, though if your a stam build that is far less annoying than if your a mag build

fred4

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8008524#Comment_8008524
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/647099/a-true-endless-archive-build/p1
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=583874

• Use Explosive Charge, not Stampede. Explosive Charge is an AOE interrupt, which you'll want for the blobs and other channeling adds.
• Wear the Unleashed Terror set to go with Explosive Charge, which is a decent AOE DOT that can scale up insanely with the Focused Efforts vision. FYI, I tried Carve. It's is by far not the same. The chance for Hemorraghing is relatively low from that. It hardly factors in Combat Metrics. Unleashed, on the other hand, applies that status effect guaranteed and keeps it up longer than is usually the case.
• Switch to magplar and wear the Esoteric Greaves. That's one option to deal with Marauders. Magplar (Sweeps) for the self-healing and to conserve stamina for the greaves. Playing a stamina race won't go to waste, see links above.
• Combine this with Alessia's Bulwark, because enemy weapon / spell damage reduction works in the archive. You may also consider an (Infused) weapon / spell damage reduction enchant on the front bar.
• Alternatively build for resistances and health regen, taking advantage of another vision (I've had up to 9K health regen on my Arcanist that way). Since you can't really block on templar, combine Gaze of Sithis with Alessian Armor, all the while keeping Unleashed on the back bar.
• Use Charged dual-wield weapins on one of your bars. Use Quick Cloak and Poison / Flame enchants. Between Unleashed and those enchants you have Hemorrhaging, Poisoned and Burning covered to take advantage of Focused Efforts visions. Consider using Blackrose dual-wield, if your build has room for it.
• Use Reflective Light for more chances to generate Burning status effects.
• Use Ritual to cleanse DOTs / bleeds, when needed.
• Consider using Elemental Susceptibility to apply more status effects.
• I've seen Azureblight recommended, but I think it's "meh". It's cool when the explosions happen, but it typically was no more than 5% damage in Combat Metrics when I tried it. By contrast, leaning into status effects can completely dominate Combat Metrics, e.g. Hemorrhaging, Burning, Poisoned all at 15% each. I suppose you could have multiple sets ready. In the absence of Focused Efforts, Azureblight may be an option, but so is leaning into crit with something like Sul-Xan. That said, by the middle of arc 5 my templar runs out of steam and needs to become more defensive when playing solo. I think warden may be the better class for higher arcs, due to Crystallized Slab's ability to passively / automatically stun blob shards. On templar you end up having to interrupt them with Explosive Charge.

Ultimately the archive is about tankiness / survival, while doing damage with the offensive visions and verses. The most insane vision is Focused Efforts. The most insane verse is Swift Gales, because it hits the Thoat dragon 3 times per application. See video: ~220K DPS against the dragon with Swift Gales and 3x Focused Efforts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBBd36LSsPo

Necrotech_Master

@fred4 there are other ridiculous verses besides swift gale that work well too, such as exsanguinate (on a templar at least)

each tick of jabs reapplies exsanguinate, and it immediately deals 1 tick of dmg on application, so each tick of jabs is 1 tick of exsanguinate (this works the same with arcanist runeblades too, or flurry dual wield skill)

magical multitudes also works great on bosses, for tho'at it is not as effective until you get to the mantikora and the dragon because the other forms require a lot of kiting (or in the case of the atro it ports around a lot)

of course if you happen to get both swift gale + exsanguinate or multitudes, things will just disintegrate lol

one of my most ridiculous tho'at kills was i had exsanguinate + fire aura + iron atro polymorph (that i got in a mystery verse) lol

Dagoth_Rac

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

@fred4 there are other ridiculous verses besides swift gale that work well too, such as exsanguinate (on a templar at least)

each tick of jabs reapplies exsanguinate, and it immediately deals 1 tick of dmg on application, so each tick of jabs is 1 tick of exsanguinate (this works the same with arcanist runeblades too, or flurry dual wield skill)

magical multitudes also works great on bosses, for tho'at it is not as effective until you get to the mantikora and the dragon because the other forms require a lot of kiting (or in the case of the atro it ports around a lot)

of course if you happen to get both swift gale + exsanguinate or multitudes, things will just disintegrate lol

one of my most ridiculous tho'at kills was i had exsanguinate + fire aura + iron atro polymorph (that i got in a mystery verse) lol

Can you take one mystery verse per Cycle? Or one of each (offensive, defensive, utility) per Cycle?

Necrotech_Master

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

fred4 there are other ridiculous verses besides swift gale that work well too, such as exsanguinate (on a templar at least)

each tick of jabs reapplies exsanguinate, and it immediately deals 1 tick of dmg on application, so each tick of jabs is 1 tick of exsanguinate (this works the same with arcanist runeblades too, or flurry dual wield skill)

magical multitudes also works great on bosses, for tho'at it is not as effective until you get to the mantikora and the dragon because the other forms require a lot of kiting (or in the case of the atro it ports around a lot)

of course if you happen to get both swift gale + exsanguinate or multitudes, things will just disintegrate lol

one of my most ridiculous tho'at kills was i had exsanguinate + fire aura + iron atro polymorph (that i got in a mystery verse) lol

Can you take one mystery verse per Cycle? Or one of each (offensive, defensive, utility) per Cycle?

1 mystery total per cycle

you can have a max of 3 verses for 1 stage

1 from the normal selection
1 from a bonus portal if it came up
1 from a mystery

tsaescishoeshiner

IMO, people are wrong to suggest building for the Archive as a solo arena build or as a dungeon tank. It takes a unique build.

There are so many ways to build for the Archive. Here's mine. It makes Arc 5-6 smooth, and I've gotten to 8/3/3 with it.

You only need 3 things to make Arc 4 a breeze. You'll survive, and it will actually make it faster and less scary.

1. 33k resistances. Yes, really. 25k is low.
2. 35k-40k health.
3. Charged weapon and some instant flame, poison, and/or bleed damage (or frost for warden).

Personally, I use Ice Furnace (really good) and Syvarra's (experimenting with it, about 9-15% of my damage). Even without Focused Efforts (the status effect vision), it helps you AoE the enemies down).

Heartland Conqueror + Torug's is also good (Charged weapon power or shield enchant + infused weakening enchant). I found Leeching/Bahraha's lackluster for Arc 6 marauder's instant damage, but it might help on Arc 4.

For skills, any flame, poison, bleed, or frost (warden) skill that's instant AoE will toast everyone. AoE DoTs are also good. Crushing Shock is popular for a reason.

How do you get 33k resistances? Wear 7 heavy with 5 Reinforced on the big pieces (you don't need sturdy). With Major and Minor Resolve, Armor CP and maybe the Lady Stone or 1-2 Protective, and 1-2 Monster set pieces with 1400 armor on the 1-piece bonus, you should be able to get to 32-33k. When I run it with 25k armor tanks, the difference in their incoming damage is noticeably more than mine.

How do you get 35k health? Health enchants and put all your attributes into Health. Jewels of Misrule or Bewitched Sugar Skulls are great.

Health Recovery works great—I like Strategic Reserve and just don't use ult in later Arcs.

How do you survive Gothmau? I like the Bracing Anchor CP with an ice staff/shield for high block %.

For heals, the undaunted shield is great, and damage shields and burst heals I find better than most HoTs (compared to solo arenas, where they're more helpful).

When I run with this type of build, I do about 70-90% of the damage and survive better. The logic behind being tanky is that by the time the enemies have a lot of health that you want to DPS down, they also start hitting harder.

Use whatever sets you like, but the armor and health are key!

Araneae6537

@tsaescishoeshiner How much weapon damage and penetration do you have? When I’ve tried high armor, resistances, and health, I haven’t managed to also do enough damage to not take forever in boss fights.

tsaescishoeshiner

Araneae6537 wrote: »

@tsaescishoeshiner How much weapon damage and penetration do you have? When I’ve tried high armor, resistances, and health, I haven’t managed to also do enough damage to not take forever in boss fights.

I had about 4.2k with Major Brutality, 29% crit. I only run 9k pen because only Tho'at has more than 9k armor, and Tho'at's the easiest fight by far. (Currently switching to 1k pen to see if there's a difference.)

With Charged, I find bosses fast, especially with Ice Furnace. I don't use tank skills, just 1 burst heal, Crushing Shock, and 3 AoE DoTs (Oakensoul, so no buffs).

I've often done 70-90% of the damage when paired with someone running a dungeon tank or solo arena DPS build in higher arcs. I just use as many AoE skills as possible and focus on burning, poisoned, bleeding, and chilled procs. Focused Efforts doubles the damage of the build, but it's not needed.

With Charged, AoE DoTs have a 6% chance of proccing a status effect, whereas AoE direct damage has a 30% chance. Direct Damage or single-target DoTs like Syvarra's or Flame Breath proc. So Ice Furnace gives a 30% AoE burning chance every second, and Syvarra's about 12% average per second (which is why I want to change it out).

Current goal is to make a build to get to arc 8 about as fast as possible, and survive Gothmau comfortably in arc 7.

My point is that for pretty much any class, focusing on armor and max health makes it easy. Think of it like a tanky PvP build, except you want AoE DoTs and status effects instead of burst.

That's just what works for me! Heartland Conqueror + Torug's is also a good build, still uses Charged.

Necrotech_Master

on my tank characters i dont build in any resist except the base 700 from cp

major and minor breach alone is ~9000 resist debuff, and as mentioned this is fine for everything except tho'at

the only time ive had problems on my tanks is when the run refuses to offer me offensive visions (namely focused efforts, but also the set visions, or +crit chance to magic dmg)

SkaraMinoc

For Solo Archive trash, Azureblight set and lots of AoE is needed starting around Arc 3 or 4. Otherwise too slow.

kojou

There are lots of ways to get through Arc 4 alive, and all these posts have good information, but this is what I have found that works:

- Pale Order will is pretty good and Esoteric Greaves are another good option as long as you can build in enough Stamina Regen

- Torug's with Weakening will at least make the bosses and Marauders more reasonable, but when dealing with big packs of trash it doesn't help that much

- Your visions will have the biggest impact on your run. I always take (Focused Efforts, Magicka Regen, Attuned Enchantments, Stamina Regen, Health Regen) when they are up, and in that priority if I have more than one of that group available.

- Once you get enough stacks of Focused Efforts then your skills should only be a means to proc the status effects because the procs will be way more powerful than the damage you do with your skills.

- When dealing with large groups of dangerous things I generally put down ground AoE, and use ranged attacks that will proc the more powerful status affects (flame, Ice, Hemorrhaging, and Poison)

- 33k Resistances are really important, also once you get 1 stack of Focused Efforts change your less important blue CP passives to the tanking ones

- Use snares and kiting to get groups of trash to pile up, so you can focus your AoE on a smaller area

- Use Pillars and walls to break Line of Sight with the trash packs so they will have to group up more and you can focus your AoE on smaller areas

- The fights become more about resource management, so you want to be efficient with your killing and not waste valuable resources trying to attack things one at a time, or over wide areas

- Choose sets with bonuses that will help with either procing status effects, or mitigation, or combinations of both

- On my Warden I like Ice Furnace and Heartland Conqueror with a charged Ice Staff, but there are lots of good options (serpents disdain, torugs's pact, elf bane and Drakes on a DK, etc)

Hope some of this helps!

Araneae6537

Thank you all for the awesome advice!!!
I switched to 5 heavy, 1 medium, 1 light, mix of reinforced, divines, and two infused tri-stat, and between attribute points and enchantments, increased my health from 25k to 35k with food buff.

I finally defeated Tho’at 3, and not only that, got through all of arc 4, and defeated Tho’at 4!!! I died once to Gothmau in arc 2 or 3 and then to Ulmor in arc 5 because I got overwhelmed with adds and Tho’at tentacles!

tsaescishoeshiner

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Thank you all for the awesome advice!!!
I switched to 5 heavy, 1 medium, 1 light, mix of reinforced, divines, and two infused tri-stat, and between attribute points and enchantments, increased my health from 25k to 35k with food buff.

I finally defeated Tho’at 3, and not only that, got through all of arc 4, and defeated Tho’at 4!!! I died once to Gothmau in arc 2 or 3 and then to Ulmor in arc 5 because I got overwhelmed with adds and Tho’at tentacles!

Congratulations! It's actually very helpful to know that these build changes helped, so thank you for experimenting.

Araneae6537

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Thank you all for the awesome advice!!!
I switched to 5 heavy, 1 medium, 1 light, mix of reinforced, divines, and two infused tri-stat, and between attribute points and enchantments, increased my health from 25k to 35k with food buff.

I finally defeated Tho’at 3, and not only that, got through all of arc 4, and defeated Tho’at 4!!! I died once to Gothmau in arc 2 or 3 and then to Ulmor in arc 5 because I got overwhelmed with adds and Tho’at tentacles!

Congratulations! It's actually very helpful to know that these build changes helped, so thank you for experimenting.

I’m still around 25k resistances (Idk what I was before, but much less so that I was often getting near one shot in some fights!) but seeing how much this has improved my runs, I think I’ll see if I can get it closer to 30k at least with some additional reinforced pieces.

It makes a difference too if one gets at least a few good visions! Today’s run they were mostly so-so, not useless but not game changing. Worse luck was that I got Gothmau in every arc! At least I was in a larger arena for the second arc and managed to kite him until taking him down (woohoo!) but after that, it was snip-snip to my threads!