Final stage of VMA

willymchilybily

@frownsyndromes

@DRXHarbinger and @Jimmy got you covered for the tactics. here are some additional tips, hints, knowledge, that helps me.

The start

• facing south with the boss spawn pad in front of you puts the damage sigil at your back, start here every retry. grab the power sigil at the beginning. (eventually you can do the first part of the fight without it, saving it for the final phase)
• you can put engulfing flames on the boss as he is teleporting in. 10% more damage from fire debuff before you even start targeted dps
• to your right is the defence sigil, grab it as the boss teleports
• I prefer to drop the meteor now on the boss if up, boss is, guaranteed to stand in it during his channel. leaving me to make quick work of the add

Up top (crystal)
in addition to the advice given,

• keep toping up burning embers on the crystal for heals, keep moving/circling the crystal to avoid comets and still be in range to whip,whip,whip.
• if the wall requires you to move follow it and move, but try and refresh your dots first
• dont be afraid to use ultimates up top (if available) This is the hard phase, the next phase is easy, so no need to save the ultimate

Back down

• you need to interupt the boss first of all, be prepared to run to him if you dont use crushing shock.
• Speed chalice can help get gold ghosts.
• about the same time you can collect the third ghost a daedroth is spawned
• the boss teleports and begins channelling the attack you need to interupt soon after the crem guard spawns in.
• this cycle repeats, learn it and master it and you'll do it every time.
  
• If you use the synergy before the boss does his teleport & channel. then the channel will be the first thing he does when the stun ends. which can be death if the crem guard is not quite dead or you aren't ready to interrupt. to avoid this chase him after teleport interrupt then synergy, As the crem guard comes close to dps both together.
• whilst the boss and crem guard are stunned from the synergy, gold ghosts cna still spawn, and the boss still collect them. watch out for this. 3 gold ghosts for the boss is death, and missing one puts your synergy out of sync with crem guard spawns.
• the add that summons a bone colossus takes 30 seconds to spawn it. you dont need to rush, and waste stamina or forget the other mechanics to kill it asap, you have time. just make sure you do kill it within 30 seconds

General

• you can circle a crem guard at close range during the burning breath stage to take less damage. or stay at range
• if you stand at the edge of the map you spawn eruptions from the surrounding lava that will come down like a comet and immobilize/stun you. fighting too near the edge can often lead to a stun that kills you
• i have the bad habit of dodge rolling from the bosses AOE and Lich crystals even if there is little chance i can escape. Block these attacks don't dodge where possible.

luen79rwb17_ESO

Awesome thread, great tips guys!

I'm currently learning final boss on my templar, and learning VMA on my NB but I can't wait to start learning with my DK. Fun class with many cool skills!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

A lot of people are advocating grabbing the sigils in the first phase. I am not saying they are wrong, but my personal advice is save them for the third phase. The third phase has much more going on and they are all useful in their own way.

First, its a burn phase, so weapon sigil is obviously nice. Second, you need to get ghosts, so a little speed never hurt. Third, that channel will kill you if not dealt with, so the defense sigil is perhaps the most important. Forth, well there is a lot of damage coming in so, who doesnt want a healing sigil.

Typically, if I am just going for a solid clear, I will grab the Defense and Power sigil. If I want easy mode VMA, I grab exactly 6 sigils in the arena. I grab the defense sigil in rounds 3 and 4 of stage 5 (nerieds), and round 4 of stage 7 (archers). I also grab the power sigil to burn the titan in round 9 and i grab these two on the last boss. I have done it many times without, but generally my goal is easy mode, not score. haha.

The other thing to consider is the phase 1 is much easier to practice. Every time you die, you get fresh shot at it. I think it is wise to master this without sigils. On magic, you have crushing shock to interupt. In the first phase, your attention is a little more focused. It is very predictable, so you really shouldnt need it. At the end, you are dealing with ghosts, the boss, maybe a summoner, and a guard. It's much better there IMO. Also, dying in phase 3 is much more emotionally draining than dying in phase 1. haha In the beginning, you will not get to the third phase all that often, and when you do, you are generally trying to not pee your pants. I think having your sigils to finish is much more preferable.

Stiltz

I've been tweaking my CP for the final boss stage and it seems that almost all of the damage is elemental or magicka. Could an experienced VMA player confirm or deny this?

Basically wondering whether it's a good idea to put most of my CP into elemental defender and ignore hardy or split even like normal? Also, is it safe to ignore thick skinned even with the dots up top?

DRXHarbinger

Stiltz wrote: »

I've been tweaking my CP for the final boss stage and it seems that almost all of the damage is elemental or magicka. Could an experienced VMA player confirm or deny this?

Basically wondering whether it's a good idea to put most of my CP into elemental defender and ignore hardy or split even like normal? Also, is it safe to ignore thick skinned even with the dots up top?

All bar the crem guard melee attack. Don't bother with thick skinned, jump dump it all into Ele defender and spell resist if that's your plan.

Also ditch harness magika for dampen magic, it's a far better shield and harness can't sponge 4 hits in maelstrom so go for the bigger shield.

Maztiax

There's a certain build you must follow in order to beat the final round. Khajiit stam sorc health regen tank. Make sure you are wearing 5 pieces of Oblivion's Foe so your soul trap does more damage. You will have to rely on pets to do damage and clannfear to heal you. Also make sure you are using dark deal, which will feel awesome. Use destro/2H axe.

Completed VMSA using this setup and got sharpened inferno staff on my first try

Tyrion87

I feel your pain... Have you done this already?

My dreadful experience with vMA:

At the beginning, which was like 2-3 months ago, I did the first 4 stages of vMA in one sitting. I was struggling a bit but it was not that hard and after some practice I found those stages quite enjoyable...

...till I reached stage 5 round 3 - that one was just cruel, traumatic and not fun at all for sure due to the excessive number of mobs appearing. After many tries I had enough and quitted for 2-3 months. A week ago I returned, changed two skills on my bar and after maybe 2-3 wipes suddenly I passed round 3, then 4 (it took me a couple of wipes though) and then stage 5 which was the easiest one for me with no death. TBH I don't know how I did this and why I was struggling with it months ago. The only change in my strategy during stage 5 round 3 was far greater mobility (as a sorc I was using streak to constantly teleport from one island to another). I also used most of the sigils (in no particular order - they are just useful in every situation). And I started to kill the 'smaller' mobs before the bigger ones/mini bosses (like ice atros). Especially the ranged mobs standing in the water were my priority. In the final round, the boss is the least important, you control the pace of the fight and it is the best for you to play safe and slow. The faster you kill the boss, the faster she breaks the ice and the faster the mobs appear. So take down all the mobs first, then the boss.

Stage 6 was very enjoyable for me, a couple of deaths and I did it with pleasure. This was probably one of the easiest stages for me. And one of the most fun due to the mechanics.

Stage 7 - there were some deaths (mainly due to RNG and random appearance of poison rings, mainly in the safe areas around the mobs during the final stage which should be addressed by ZOS imo - there is no place for such RNG in a place like vMA) but after an hour or so I did it. And I quite liked that stage too.

Stage 8 - one of the easiest. And also quite boring as for the penultimate stage of vMA.

Stage 9 - another nightmare and I agree with you completely... I can get to the final round without a single death but RNG during the final fight is killing me constantly. And when it's not RNG, it's the crystals phase where I'm being pushed down again and again. Once I even took the boss down to 5% of its health and I was like two overload attacks away from the win but I got too excited about that, lost focus, ignored the summoner and got killed by the colossus that he summoned. My mouse and keyboard hardly survived that fail..... This stage, along with stage 5, is the least enjoyable, really frustrating and not fun at all. Too much is going on there. I would find it a little easier if during the crystals phase, when the wall shows up to protect you from the incoming push down, there was no AOE damage (red circles) that can knock you down while you're running behind the wall... Also there should be no AOE/CC from boss (that anchor-like thing) when you are pushed down and need to face with a crematorial guard, a healer and a clannfear once again.

I would like both of these stages to be nerfed a bit... it's doable of course and I know I will do stage 9 eventually but with what cost? It should be fun, even hard content can be fun and not frustrating. And I would also say that stages 5 and 9 are not only about practice, practice and practice... there is excessive dependence on luck in everything you do and everywhere you go. The soulgems, repair kits, time spent and - most important - peace of my mind are not worth it... I know that after completion I won't return to vMA ever again.