Master weapons

Vangy

Hey all,

Thought it would be good to have a discussion about vDSA master weapons and their general usefulness. Some of these weapons are game changers, while.... some are just downright bad. Especially with one tamriel coming out with so many updated/new sets that are available in 5 pieces with accessories. So off the bat, a few thoughts; (TLDR at the bottom if u lack the patience =x)

1. vMA weapons are BIS for PvE. They have their own shortcomings and disparities but that is not what this thread is about. vMA weapons are best for PvE cos they drop from the hardest PvE content possible at the moment. Fair enough. vDSA weapons cannot be better than vMA weapons.

With that out of the way lets look at some of the vDSA weapons that ARE game changers or worthy of mention;

Without a doubt the top contender for game changers isssssss;

vDSA Master's Sword

This bad boy adds almost 700-ish health and has an enchant that procs a 2k+ heal that has 0 cooldown on every puncture skill use. In PvE, my stam DK tanks procs off 5k crit heals with this cos I have 600-ish CP and major mending up 24/7. This is game changing in not just PvE but in PvP for SnB builds. This sword needs no buffs and outperforms even vMA weapons in PvP. Good stuff.

Next in line imo is our beleoved;

vDSA Master's bow

This sleek death dealer adds 400 weapon damage to targets afflicted by your poison injection. 400. Now that is a huge number. What some people dont know is that you dont have to be on ur bow bar for this effect to work. You can simply cast ur endless hail, rearming trap and poison injection then swap to ur DW bar and this proc still works. This bow I must say is a good contender for 2nd BIS right after vMA weapons if you have an empty slot with no set bonuses available for bow bar. Most of the time, if ur running a 5 pc + 2 monster sets, you are going to have a weapon that cannot belong to a set. So this bow is an awesome filler. To top it all off this bow adds a chunk of decent stamina just for slotting it. 1k-ish stam. Juicy.

A close follow up to the awesome bow, is an item for the unsung heroes of every competitive group. You guessed it. Yep thyre our healers. The resto staff.

vDSA Master's Resto staff

Adds 1k-ish magicka, and first tick of grand healing restores 250-ish stam to all targets in the area. The 1k magicka is nice. But I feel that the 250 stam can be upped to a more game changing number really.... Id personally like to see it doubled to 500 but given that I dont have a healer, im not too sure how good this is. Maybe its already OP. But I cant imagine 250 stam every couple of seconds or so to be all that OP... Feel free to correct me. But that said, I feel that this staff is prolly BIS for PvE and even PvP healers.

Tied for 3rd place is our vDSA master daggers.

They add 90-ish weapon power each, and buff the tick damage of rending slashed by 250 each. Decent. vMA weapons outshine these by a huge margin but these weapons are worthy if you dont have vMA weapons or simply dont enjoy doing solo content. Nothing much to say here. They add damage and are better than most other set pieces for that slot. Until one tamriel comes out.... They would prolly be outclassed by a 5 set piece that come with jewellery but I think 3 agi + 2 master daggers would be a close contender for another 5 set. Meh.

That about wraps it up for the weapons that are worth mentioning. Now for the trash in vDSA.

Sitting at the bottom of the pile

vDSA Master's Destro Staff

Adds magicka. Yay... Buffs destructive touch.... Really... That trash ability isnt part of any half-decent PvE-ers rotation... Does way too little damage, costs too much even with the cost reduction from Masters weapon.... Why ZOS WHY.... Why must magicka be given trash after trash..... TT.TT

Tied for trash-tier,

vDSA Master's Greatsword

Adds weapon damage. Yay.... buffs cleave... Wait what's cleave you ask? Well im not too sure let me google it. OH its that trash ability no one even bothered to put a skill point in.....Its in ur 2h Skill line. Go take a look.....


TLDR: Buff master's destro staves and master's greatsword please. Maybe also a slight buff to resto staff and a little love to master's dagger to compete with the new 5 set bonuses coming out with one tamriel. These are master's weapons after all. Hard content. Rewards should be justified. All these weapons should be as game changing as the bow and the sword. Thoughts?

Savos_Saren

Cleave is an excellent ability in solo (and even some group dungeon) PVE. The shield that you get from Brawler can make a squishy stamblade more survivable.

Side note: My heart still aches that we don't have a Master or Maelstrom Shield. (An no, that nasty prismatic set piece shield in Maelstrom doesn't count) Come on, Zeni!

Vangy

jaburns wrote: »

Cleave is an excellent ability in solo (and even some group dungeon) PVE. The shield that you get from Brawler can make a squishy stamblade more survivable.

Side note: My heart still aches that we don't have a Master or Maelstrom Shield. (An no, that nasty prismatic set piece shield in Maelstrom doesn't count) Come on, Zeni!

The sad part is, no one runs a 2h in PvE group content.... Solo content other than vMA is a joke tbh.... The DW wp damage is way too high to ignore + u get an extra set piece. And yes... Master's shield please!

NoMoreChillies

would absolutely love a shield with blocking bonus.

Savos_Saren

Vangy wrote: »

jaburns wrote: »

Cleave is an excellent ability in solo (and even some group dungeon) PVE. The shield that you get from Brawler can make a squishy stamblade more survivable.

Side note: My heart still aches that we don't have a Master or Maelstrom Shield. (An no, that nasty prismatic set piece shield in Maelstrom doesn't count) Come on, Zeni!

The sad part is, no one runs a 2h in PvE group content.... Solo content other than vMA is a joke tbh.... The DW wp damage is way too high to ignore + u get an extra set piece. And yes... Master's shield please!

I think the thing we forget is this: newer players don't have 501+ CP. So, they struggle a bit with PVE zones. So, abilities like Cleave are very useful to low-level players. Remember right after beta and you were running the initial storyline? You didn't know what abilities were the best. Remember when Craglorn was hard? Well... newer players still have to survive that stuff. I've got 700+ CP and can solo most content... but I have to constantly remind myself that it took a loooooong time to get here and people are still using skills that we consider "obsolete". Ya dig?

Vangy

jaburns wrote: »

Vangy wrote: »

jaburns wrote: »

Cleave is an excellent ability in solo (and even some group dungeon) PVE. The shield that you get from Brawler can make a squishy stamblade more survivable.

Side note: My heart still aches that we don't have a Master or Maelstrom Shield. (An no, that nasty prismatic set piece shield in Maelstrom doesn't count) Come on, Zeni!

The sad part is, no one runs a 2h in PvE group content.... Solo content other than vMA is a joke tbh.... The DW wp damage is way too high to ignore + u get an extra set piece. And yes... Master's shield please!

I think the thing we forget is this: newer players don't have 501+ CP. So, they struggle a bit with PVE zones. So, abilities like Cleave are very useful to low-level players. Remember right after beta and you were running the initial storyline? You didn't know what abilities were the best. Remember when Craglorn was hard? Well... newer players still have to survive that stuff. I've got 700+ CP and can solo most content... but I have to constantly remind myself that it took a loooooong time to get here and people are still using skills that we consider "obsolete". Ya dig?

I totally dig. But I think we are getting off-track here haha. Whether cleave is good for new players or not is a non-issue. We are talking about master weapons. New players arent going to complete vDSA.... It requires a team of players who play together often with good teamwork and very decent builds... builds that dont have cleave in it LOL.....So why does the reward buff cleave...... ya dig? =X

Totalitarian

Vangy wrote: »

[vDSA] requires a team of players who play together often with good teamwork

Is it wrong that beat it with someone I've run pledges with once or twice, someone I've talked to nonchalantly in a guild chat, and some random person? Without voice chat until final boss, where we used it to explain what I needed to do, because it was my 1st time doing that boss?

Er...don't take that seriously, because I believe you. It requires a lot of skill to tank vDSA, and a few times, the team has to coordinate for some of the mechanics.


But you never know, they might buff Cleave!

Vangy

Totalitarian wrote: »

Vangy wrote: »

[vDSA] requires a team of players who play together often with good teamwork

Is it wrong that beat it with someone I've run pledges with once or twice, someone I've talked to nonchalantly in a guild chat, and some random person? Without voice chat until final boss, where we used it to explain what I needed to do, because it was my 1st time doing that boss?

Er...don't take that seriously, because I believe you. It requires a lot of skill to tank vDSA, and a few times, the team has to coordinate for some of the mechanics.


But you never know, they might buff Cleave!

Yep..... until then masters 2H is about as good as a crafted weapon lol.... Might even be worse off when one tamriel hits when compared to the other 5 piece overland farmable sets. The destro staff as well... Which begs the question of why we call them "master" weapons lol......

Gargath

A agree that vDSA Master's Destro Staff is a con when comparing with MA Staff effects, I'd like a change here, yes.
As for the vDSA Master's Greatsword I was using Cleave on low lvl, when levelling 2H and grinding mobs. However buffing Critical Rush would be much more desired for this weapon.

Along with changing stats the master models could also be remastered. Ultimately powerful from ultimate content but, at least for the sword, look a bit dull. When comparing models with eg. pact sword, the pact is more "master" to me.