vMSA, minimal gear required ?

psychotic13

So the time has come for me to grind out some weapons, never done the arena on veteran before so I'm not sure what set up I should be running, I've seen people say to use inner light/bound aegis for the Magicka bonuses, is this the best option even though you have to double bar the Abilitys?


So my set up at the moment:
MagSorc
High Elf

5/1/1
DW & Resto
x5 Julianos
x5 Clever Alchemist
x3 Willpower (2 SD/1 Regen)

All purple with 3/4 gold pieces and purple enchants.
(I need to make the weapons gold though)

I have a lot of other v16 sets in the bank, this is just my PvP gear.

I'll be watching a few videos about vMSA later when I get some free time but I have a few questions.

1) What's the best weapons to use?
DW/Resto
DW/Destro (using twilight for heal?)
Destro/Resto

2) what are the must use skills in vMSA?

3) is the gear I have good enough? If I have to drop DW I'll have to drop one of the 5pc sets for something else. Unfortunately I don't have the Kena helm yet and I know a lot of people use this for the arena.

4) how many soul gems am I going to need? And how much gold for repairing armor?

5) I also see people saying they redistribute their CP several times during this, is this really necessary?

If you need to know anything else just ask

All feedback is appreciated, so thanks for any replies.

kadar

4) how many soul gems am I going to need? And how much gold for repairing armor?

Zero gems. You can "rez at wayshrine" and lose a total of 3 seconds getting back in.

5) I also see people saying they redistribute their CP several times during this, is this really necessary?

As long as your setup is good initially, then no.

vMSA is supposedly designed for about 300 CPs, so if you've got more than that you'll have an advantage.

LadyNalcarya

For my first runs I used the following:
Destro/resto (you need a spammable ability after all)
5 Julianos, 2 Kena, 2 Torugs (though I would recommend 2 torugs, hat/shoulder and staves, Kena is hard to manage).

1st bar - destro: Crushing shock (helps a lot against pesky casters and archers, and even the last boss), C-frags (only shoot when procced), Hardened ward (obviously), Bound aegis, Inner light

2nd bar - resto (later I replaced that with dual wield): Lightning form (forgot the name of the morph, magicka one ofc), Surge (keep this up 24/7), Healing ward (if resto) or liquid lighting (if duals), the rest 2 from the main bar.

Overload bar: Lightning form, surge, shield, aegis, magelight.

And yeah, just upgrade your weapons to gold and youre set.

psychotic13

The_Outsider wrote: »

4) how many soul gems am I going to need? And how much gold for repairing armor?

Zero gems. You can "rez at wayshrine" and lose a total of 3 seconds getting back in.

5) I also see people saying they redistribute their CP several times during this, is this really necessary?

As long as your setup is good initially, then no.

vMSA is supposedly designed for about 300 CPs, so if you've got more than that you'll have an advantage.

I suppose you're right, I guess I'm just lazy. And I have around 340 CP at the moment so I guess that's ok then.

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

For my first runs I used the following:
Destro/resto (you need a spammable ability after all)
5 Julianos, 2 Kena, 2 Torugs (though I would recommend 2 torugs, hat/shoulder and staves, Kena is hard to manage).

1st bar - destro: Crushing shock (helps a lot against pesky casters and archers, and even the last boss), C-frags (only shoot when procced), Hardened ward (obviously), Bound aegis, Inner light

2nd bar - resto (later I replaced that with dual wield): Lightning form (forgot the name of the morph, magicka one ofc), Surge (keep this up 24/7), Healing ward (if resto) or liquid lighting (if duals), the rest 2 from the main bar.

Overload bar: Lightning form, surge, shield, aegis, magelight.

And yeah, just upgrade your weapons to gold and youre set.

Yeah I don't have a Kena helm yet, would any other monster sets be good enough to replace it? Otherwise if I have to drop the alchemist set I could use 4 Magnus?

And I thought some good AoE was required for vMSA? Liquid lightning and elemental blockade ? But there's not going to be much room if using aegis and inner light or are they a necessity?

LadyNalcarya

psychotic13 wrote: »

The_Outsider wrote: »

4) how many soul gems am I going to need? And how much gold for repairing armor?

Zero gems. You can "rez at wayshrine" and lose a total of 3 seconds getting back in.

5) I also see people saying they redistribute their CP several times during this, is this really necessary?

As long as your setup is good initially, then no.

vMSA is supposedly designed for about 300 CPs, so if you've got more than that you'll have an advantage.

I suppose you're right, I guess I'm just lazy. And I have around 340 CP at the moment so I guess that's ok then.

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

For my first runs I used the following:
Destro/resto (you need a spammable ability after all)
5 Julianos, 2 Kena, 2 Torugs (though I would recommend 2 torugs, hat/shoulder and staves, Kena is hard to manage).

1st bar - destro: Crushing shock (helps a lot against pesky casters and archers, and even the last boss), C-frags (only shoot when procced), Hardened ward (obviously), Bound aegis, Inner light

2nd bar - resto (later I replaced that with dual wield): Lightning form (forgot the name of the morph, magicka one ofc), Surge (keep this up 24/7), Healing ward (if resto) or liquid lighting (if duals), the rest 2 from the main bar.

Overload bar: Lightning form, surge, shield, aegis, magelight.

And yeah, just upgrade your weapons to gold and youre set.

Yeah I don't have a Kena helm yet, would any other monster sets be good enough to replace it? Otherwise if I have to drop the alchemist set I could use 4 Magnus?

And I thought some good AoE was required for vMSA? Liquid lightning and elemental blockade ? But there's not going to be much room if using aegis and inner light or are they a necessity?

Alchemist is not a very viable set in pve, cause first bonuses are not very useful and uptime is not enough to cover it.
So yeah, 5xJulianos, 3xWillpower and some crafted set would be the best. Magnus? Yeah, thats fine if you dont have Kena.
And in vMa you cant just stand and blockcast aoe like you do in dungeons. For me, lightning form and liquid lightning is enough to get my weekly spots... Maybe I would use proxy if I had it on that character though.
Bound aegis and magelight are awesome because they boost your max magicka, which means more dps and stronger shield.

code65536

My first clear on my sorc was right when he hit VR1. I did it with purple 5p Julianos + 3/4p Magnus (staff/dw) and some Warlock jewelry that I bought for 1K each from the guild stores. You absolutely do not need expensive, fancy gear. The arena is more about practice and familiarity than about gear. And esp. for your first clear, it's important that you have good sustain. Once you have the arena memorized like the back of your hand, then you can start taking out the sustain and focusing more on pure DPS.

FriedEggSandwich

As a sorc you only need 3 skills on each bar. Bar 1 is crushing shock, frags and either streak or hardened ward.Then bar 2 has power surge, either streak or hardened ward and then a skill of your choice; liquid lightening, elemental blockade, harness magicka, boundless storm etc. The other 2 spaces on each bar can be taken up with bound aegis and inner light. Should give you about 42k magicka at least, with about 70% spell crit with thief mundus. If you have 501cp your sustain should come from that. 3 button build ftw

AOECAPS

You will be fine if you get frustrated take a break don't let it get the best of you and don't let it beat you thinking you can't do it. I thought that at first on my stamplar and now I'm creeping up on 500k score. Definitely get your weapons gold I just ran it with a terrible set up on my magicka Templar and t was the most frustrating thing ever (my stats were God aweful because I was to cheap to by mats to make my gear better)

Joy_Division

psychotic13 wrote: »

So the time has come for me to grind out some weapons, never done the arena on veteran before so I'm not sure what set up I should be running, I've seen people say to use inner light/bound aegis for the Magicka bonuses, is this the best option even though you have to double bar the Abilitys?


So my set up at the moment:
MagSorc
High Elf

5/1/1
DW & Resto
x5 Julianos
x5 Clever Alchemist
x3 Willpower (2 SD/1 Regen)

All purple with 3/4 gold pieces and purple enchants.
(I need to make the weapons gold though)

I have a lot of other v16 sets in the bank, this is just my PvP gear.

I'll be watching a few videos about vMSA later when I get some free time but I have a few questions.

1) What's the best weapons to use?
DW/Resto
DW/Destro (using twilight for heal?)
Destro/Resto

2) what are the must use skills in vMSA?

3) is the gear I have good enough? If I have to drop DW I'll have to drop one of the 5pc sets for something else. Unfortunately I don't have the Kena helm yet and I know a lot of people use this for the arena.

4) how many soul gems am I going to need? And how much gold for repairing armor?

5) I also see people saying they redistribute their CP several times during this, is this really necessary?

If you need to know anything else just ask

All feedback is appreciated, so thanks for any replies.

Your gear is fine. Clever alchemist isn't a great PvE set. I'd use of of your other sets like Magnus for the 4 piece (you want a staff).

Destro/Resto while learning the arena.

Skills: Crushing shock (you need range and interrupt). Overload is only ulti you use. Lightning Flood too good not to use. I personally feel Mines are very strong Vs. Melee adds. I would recommend healing ward until you get accustomed to the Arena.

Use zero soul gems (rez st wayshirne ... the walk back is jsut as long as it takes to get out of ghost form).

No need to redistribute CPs or remorph skills.

lassitershawn

You cannot run DW/resto as a sorc in vMA and be successful as you would have no spammable ability.

I recommend destro/resto for the first run or two as it provides some extra security, but then swap to destro/DW (DW provides a lot more damage overloading, and power surge is enough for heals).

The important thing to realize is that you can stack full damage as far as gear is concerned, and still sustain fine because of elemental drain (even if you run out you still have overload). You should run 5pc juli/scathing/TBS, dead slot staff until you get a vMA inferno/lightning, 2pc monster (I prefer kena, neri is good as well), and 3pc willpower with spell damage enchants, and 2 torug's pact off bar. Thief stone for mundus.

Haquor

My first time i ran destro/dw.

5x julianos, 3x willpower (all dmg), 2x kena.

All weapons were torugs nirnhoned and gold.

Bar1: frag, crush shock, liquid lightning, hardened ward, inner light: energy overload

Bar2: mages wrath, surge, boundless storm, hardened ward, inner light: energy overload

Yep ward on both bars. Bar swap is too much of a fail in a pinch with aussie ping.

Surge is enough of a heal. Even with healing ward and resto i find i just cant hardened ward and heal up with crits instead of healing ward so i dropped resto and went back for dw for the big increase to overload damage.

Im thinking about changing to a 3 button build with aegis and inner light on both. but honestly i dont trust my laggy bar swap enough.

Also id recommend just running 1kena shoulder and torugs head to go with torugs stave and dw. So u have constant spell damage with your spamable attack.

I dont change co throughout

And aoe is good. Can drop liquid lightning and blockade on mobs and aoe down with force pulse.

Honestly tho if you know which adds to prioritise you are almost better just focussing them down quick as possible.

psychotic13

Ok thanks for all the responses guys, would you recommend me running it on normal 2-3 times before hand to get used to the mechanics ect. Instead of jumping in at the deep end cause I don't really PvE much, apart from 4 man dungeons for the pledge.

code65536

psychotic13 wrote: »

Ok thanks for all the responses guys, would you recommend me running it on normal 2-3 times before hand to get used to the mechanics ect. Instead of jumping in at the deep end cause I don't really PvE much, apart from 4 man dungeons for the pledge.

No. Jump right into vet. The only thing normal does is let you see the spawn points and spawn order. But that's useless without the context of which of those spawns are messing you up and should be prioritized. Many mechanics are either different on normal, or so weak that you either miss them or don't even have to deal with them.

To give you an idea of how ridiculous the gap is between nMA and vMA, someone dared me to do nMA without any armor or jewelry. And I did it with no deaths or sigils, and it was still easier than doing it on vet.