VMA Final Boss

NinthPrince64

Going to make a push to get it done this afternoon.
I do have one question that is more idle curiosity than anything else. Say I am down to the last crystal and that last crystal doesn't have much life. If I put a dot on it, does it make sense to jump down before the dot kills it so that I go down "on my own terms" rather than waiting to be knocked down. Would that screw up a mechanic?
Thanks.

S1ipperyJim

Helpful thread, thanks guys!

Stoopid_Nwah

Since it's your first time, you may as well just take the power and defense sigil at the start, though you'll probably need them more when it comes to the 3rd phase. You'll have to get used to burning the guards quickly as well. I personally ignore the healer and kill it once the boss teleports up as I think that's just the easiest way to go about it.

For the guards, do your best to circle them all while keeping an eye on the boss; once he teleports he will wind up a heavy skull attack so you'll have to watch for it to block or dodge. If you need to, drop your ult on the guard to help burn him quickly, make sure to have your aoes up on both the guard and the boss (they should be right next to each other). Other than that, it's really just practice. The final round takes a few hours and a lot of deaths for most people on their first clear.

SkylarkX

The way I do it is to do maximum dps to boss when he first spawns (including ultimate & sometimes teh damage sigil), if/when he teleports to the side I just ignore everything and keep dps'ing to get him to 70%. If you're damage is high enough you can get him to 70% before the CG spawns (or even so fast that the CG doesn't spawn), then I just go to the portal, kill clannfear and go up.

If you get the boss to 70% just before the CG spawns you can still kill the clannfear and portal up with out killing the CG, as soon as you press E to go up you become immune to damage.

Lukums1

SkylarkX wrote: »

The way I do it is to do maximum dps to boss when he first spawns (including ultimate & sometimes teh damage sigil), if/when he teleports to the side I just ignore everything and keep dps'ing to get him to 70%. If you're damage is high enough you can get him to 70% before the CG spawns (or even so fast that the CG doesn't spawn), then I just go to the portal, kill clannfear and go up.

If you get the boss to 70% just before the CG spawns you can still kill the clannfear and portal up with out killing the CG, as soon as you press E to go up you become immune to damage.

I can agree with this statement, but not for first clears and shouldn't be followed.

You DPS boss. You grab defensive sigil after he teleports. You can COMPLETELY ignore boss if you're stam sorc apply poison injection with an endless hail to push him to 70% (yes it will while you kill healer ignoring boss).
This is just with the defensive sigil this makes the first kind of phase completely laughable.

Prepare for CG with clanfear at the portal stam sorcs using thrive in chaos or rend makes it short work with a endless hail it's over and a heavy attack.

If you have 1 crystal up ensuring the crystal dies is far more important that increasing your speed run by 5-10 seconds.
So unless you're 100% certain then don't just dot and jump down facing a potential CG and ANOTHER healer depending on phase you're making it harder on yourself for zero reason.

Upon going back down collect any sigil you're in front of UNLESS IT'S healing one. Keep just in case you make it to CG WITHOUT 3 ghosts to ensure you don't die.

Apart from this it's easy work, watch placement up top NEVER hold block ROLL don't hold block why get slowed and smashed by a metor with DOT tick YUCK.

Once people realize timing sigils at the most opportune times makes the entire arena so laughable they wish they paid more attention.

Non the less keep pushing on guys.

Beardimus

I concur with Lukums1 advice above. After countless tries I did get to point where I could handle phase 1 without either power sigil or defense, mainly as id often restart the round after a death with zero ultimate, and think I'll do a run just to charge it up, but sometimes found I had enough DPS not to need them.

He is 100% correct tho that to ensure you get up top, its best to take them, it guarantees you get up top, and phase 3 is actually easier (once you survive getting knocked down to it, potion, wards etc and interiupts) the pace does slow down.

Up top is a terrible rush cos of the growing DOT on you, phase 3 as long as u have one eye on the summoners and and eye on the gold ghosts you keep things in control (this don't need the sigils, as much as u news them in phase 3)

But to you point @NinthPrince64 be ready when you pop that crystal so you don't die on the knockdown, ward, potion ready, interupt ready for boss. (falling down on overload killed me loads as I couldn't swap quick enough ti interupt)

j_s

This thread is awesome! Thanks so much.

I'm a stamina sorcerer and I am having problems with stage 2: My dps is not sufficient to destroy the 3 crystals in one go. I have to jump down at some point.

When I jump down I get killed by the CG and the Clannfear. How can I survive this? My health is 17k, so pretty low. I've used up the Protection at the start btw.

Thanks.

Kholty22

j_s wrote: »

This thread is awesome! Thanks so much.

I'm a stamina sorcerer and I am having problems with stage 2: My dps is not sufficient to destroy the 3 crystals in one go. I have to jump down at some point.

When I jump down I get killed by the CG and the Clannfear. How can I survive this? My health is 17k, so pretty low. I've used up the Protection at the start btw.

Thanks.

Grab the health sigil. Only problem is you will have to be on par on stage 3. Make sure your crit surge is up and get an endless hail up as soon as you can. If you are using flawless dawnbreaker use that as soon as possible and wreck their asses.
Btw are you using rearming trap on the crystals? I use a stam sorc now and have no issue in 1 go but before I used my stam nb and wasn't using trap and couldn't ever get it in one go. But after using it, it became much easier. As soon as I go up I throw a trap, endless hail, dodge skull, poison inject, then go to town on it. By the time the first one has a little over a quarter health the wall comes up and I just poison inject making my way to wall or as I follow along the wall. By the time wall explodes your already next to another crystal. Just repeat.

Beardimus

Dumb question @Kholty22 but does trap give you crit boost when you throw it or when its sprung (and if the latter do the Crystals spring it?)

I used to panic throw it at the clannfear before I went up as I didn't know

Kholty22

@Beardimus No on the crit. But just having it slotted is giving you more dmg. It's just a really strong skill overall. Yes the crystal will spring it. You will see it say immobilized.

Beardimus

Thanks fella, I'm Magika so only using it for the extra crit damage, but that's sweet you can pop on the crystals!

Lukums1

j_s wrote: »

This thread is awesome! Thanks so much.

I'm a stamina sorcerer and I am having problems with stage 2: My dps is not sufficient to destroy the 3 crystals in one go. I have to jump down at some point.

When I jump down I get killed by the CG and the Clannfear. How can I survive this? My health is 17k, so pretty low. I've used up the Protection at the start btw.

Thanks.

Hey,

Don't stress with HP.

I've cleared it with 14.5k HP and 23k Stam with 3 deaths the entire run. Granted I'm a little more experienced.

However, I can ENSURE you, if you have crit surge up and hurricane on you're 100% fine apply some poison injections with your endless hail you won't die. This I can promise you. You only ever die by getting hit from the "events" skull push or meteor.

Anyway, let's talk about your issue. You mentioned in one go? As a stam sorc you should be able to stay up top for 5 walls YES 5 walls that's right crazy I know. With hurricane and major expedition you can time the walls perfectly and in turn stay up top the entire time till all crystals are down.

However let's say you made a bad judgement call, in this case when you drop down through the middle you can grab the healing sigil to make short work of the CG and clanfear EASILY. You must ensure to grab the healing sigil if you have troubles self healing which you shouldn't as stated above with crit surge and hurricane but none the less *** happens.

Using protection at the start is the way to go for you.

Follow the above. You'll be fine.

j_s

Thank you Lukums1, I was hoping for a reply from you.

I'm not sure if I can destroy all 3 crystals in one go and still have enough stamina and health left for the next stage.

What I do is:

1. I destroy 2 crystals (or damage all 3 noticeably) and when the boss summons wall,
2. I put critical surge and hurricane up and jump down (taking fall damage)
3. I switch to bow and track down the CG
4. I poison inject him and switch to dagger and use Vigor to sustain a few seconds and absorb the fall damage
5. I use only bloodthirst while running in circles around him.

Here's what happens (kills me):

As soon as the clanfear joins the CG I can't handle the damage and I die.
I have to keep running around to avoid the fatal chain pikes from the ground. If I don't run into a ghost it's either pure luck that I survive or I get overwhelmed by the attacks from the clanfear or the breath from the CG.
Also, since I put up hurricane so soon (before jumping down) it runs out too fast, and when I reapply it, I have to stop with bloodthirst and I can't heal and I die.
I have tried running away from them but the clanfear is too fast or the breath affects too long a distance.
I really don't want to grab the health sigil because I want to save it for later in stage 3.
I haven't tried endless hail yet because it's very slow but I will give it a try.

Please, what is your rotation if you jump down? Thanks.

Cheers, appreciate your help!

Danksta

j_s wrote: »

Thank you Lukums1, I was hoping for a reply from you.

I'm not sure if I can destroy all 3 crystals in one go and still have enough stamina and health left for the next stage.

What I do is:

1. I destroy 2 crystals (or damage all 3 noticeably) and when the boss summons wall,
2. I put critical surge and hurricane up and jump down (taking fall damage)
3. I switch to bow and track down the CG
4. I poison inject him and switch to dagger and use Vigor to sustain a few seconds and absorb the fall damage
5. I use only bloodthirst while running in circles around him.

Here's what happens (kills me):

As soon as the clanfear joins the CG I can't handle the damage and I die.
I have to keep running around to avoid the fatal chain pikes from the ground. If I don't run into a ghost it's either pure luck that I survive or I get overwhelmed by the attacks from the clanfear or the breath from the CG.
Also, since I put up hurricane so soon (before jumping down) it runs out too fast, and when I reapply it, I have to stop with bloodthirst and I can't heal and I die.
I have tried running away from them but the clanfear is too fast or the breath affects too long a distance.
I really don't want to grab the health sigil because I want to save it for later in stage 3.
I haven't tried endless hail yet because it's very slow but I will give it a try.

Please, what is your rotation if you jump down? Thanks.

Cheers, appreciate your help!

I use speed pots (blessed thistle, dragonthorn and namira's rot) for the last round of stage 9. I think you can even drop the dragonthorn, the ones I'm using also give major brutality.

One thing that really helped me get my first clear was switching to max health/stam recovery food. If you're not using it I suggest you make the switch. It allows me to go all weapon damage on jewelry and I still have 1700+ stam recovery. If you are using recovery food don't be afraid to weave some heavy attacks.

j_s

Ok just succeeded in destroying all 3 crystals in one go, what a hectic!

Lukums1

You're issue is your becoming scared and not watching your footing placement.

Keep watching my videos and see what I do in depth.

As a stam sorc which you are with major expedition you can stay up top the entire time without ever needing to go down.
Which I'm sure you've worked out now by the sounds of things.

HOWEVER

If you go down.

Grab healing sigil - hurricane - crit surge - drop endless hail on the portal which you'll need to go back up top with.
Rend or thrive in chaos makes short work of both d-droth and clanfear.

That's what I do it's not often I fall down but it does happen from time to time.

The above ensures you don't die.

Keep in mind all my points I give on forumns are generally for NO death runs and flawless achievements which is what most people are interested in.

Sounds like you're doing fine.

j_s

Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm getting closer and closer: Entering stage 3 more often now.

Now my main difficulty is anticipating when the boss is doing his channeling blows, which needs to be disrupted. I'm often busy fighting the CG and miss the boss, and then it's too late...

rob_ber

@Lukums1

Hey! First of all, kudos to you being so helpful towards the community and helping others finish vMA.

I'm clearing vMA on my stamsorc only. Don't want to bother with other classes, because I find it easiest with stamsorc. I noticed you are recommending to take defensive sigil early in the Boss round. Usually I save my offensive and defensive sigil for 3rd stage of the Boss fight because that way I can ignore almost everything and focus just on the boss and catching the yellow ghosts.

Don't get me wrong or anything, I'm just curious why to take defensive first. It might help me putting a completely new perspective to this fight.

@j_s you have this! Today you kill that Nerien'eth wannabe! Good luck dude

Beardimus

I think the advice to take the Sigils early is spot on when you are starting (and maybe beyond) but certainly when you are starting so you can consistently get up top to stage 2. Using @Lukums1 advice on that meant I could breeze through stage 1 repeatedly and then die up top instead haha but it meant I got repeated attempts - its definitely recommended.

Actually over time , as I updated, I then realized I had the deeps to not need power, and then eventually the defense as I could time the interrupt as I had learnt his sequence.

Also, I think that last stage is calmer. Stage 1 escalates a bit, and Stage has a timer ticking stage 3 seems calmer as long as you handle the elements.

Beardimus

Another tip from a fellow vMSA noob @j_s if you struggle with avoiding ghosts / spikes is zoom your view right out, I found that a huge help for vMSA

j_s

Nice, thanks for the helpful insights.
I will give it another try tonight.
Btw when exactly does the boss do his channeling shots, you know, the ones that you need to disrupt? Is it always random, i.e. do I have to stay close to him and watch him? Or is it always after the 3 ghosts have spawned or when? Thanks!

j_s

Anyone?

j_s

I DID IT !!!

I have survived vMA, Man does this feel good ! So content right now!
Sure was a tough path to go and very intense.

Don't laugh but I must have burnt like 40k in repairs!

Now where's that champagne bottle?

Thanks to all the guys who have contributed, especially Luke. I couldn't have done it without you guys!

Cheers

j_s

Oh, loot was Infused Dagger, but I'm happy and will cherrish the reward in the bank vault

Beardimus

Wicked @j_s that's super cool, mine was last weekend and I'm still on a high haha..well done fella. This thread rocks.

Lukums1

j_s wrote: »

I DID IT !!!

I have survived vMA, Man does this feel good ! So content right now!
Sure was a tough path to go and very intense.

Don't laugh but I must have burnt like 40k in repairs!

Now where's that champagne bottle?

Thanks to all the guys who have contributed, especially Luke. I couldn't have done it without you guys!

Cheers

You are so welcome, so proud of you my man!

_______________

We take the defensive sigil for a few reasons, as soon as boss teleports you can ignore him completely obliterating the mage which does cause issues if you choose to ignore with 6-8k hits as well as the lethal 15k torrent on the ground while you have CG and Clanfear.

If you take the defensive sigil at the start you can apply poison injection/endless hail with the reflection of his own attacks this will push him to 70% (easily) this makes the phase easier and 100% allowing you to get to crystal phase.

If you CHOOSE to interupt and go ham on boss you either have 100% confidence in your healing potential and you're running rend/thrive in chaos.

If not, run the safe way.

Not having the defensive at the last phase is not noticeable.

I'll explain why:

When you come down from crystals and you're not on top of boss he will start the windmill of death, interrupt.

He doesn't do this again until CG spawns, however when CG is spawning you have 3 gold ghosts by this time for the spectral explosion if you're heart is pumping enough to explode from your chest, grab the healing sigil this mitigates ALL of the attacks you may receive from a loose mage and the bosses auto attacks this is true for all classes.

The defensive sigil does really next to nothing for you on the last phase simply because by the time you spectral explosion with the 3 gold ghosts and run that burn phase boss is usually dead.

Ensuring you get to the phase 2 ( crystal phase ) is far more important than simply interrupting windmill on phase 3.

PS: Thanks for all the feedback!

GUIDE: Step by Step - https://www.twitch.tv/lukumms/v/100607478

Luke

Lukums1 - PS4

j_s

Btw, I'm often struggling with interrupting the boss' whirlwind attack. I use the bash attack for this. Very often I'm constantly bashing against him (very close to him) and it's not interrupting...

Now I'm thinking of changing the Poison Arrow from Poison Injection morph to Venom Arrow morph, which also interrupts (but does less damage).

Is this a good idea? Atm It's more of hit or miss and stage 3 is relying heavily on interrupting.

Danksta

j_s wrote: »

Btw, I'm often struggling with interrupting the boss' whirlwind attack. I use the bash attack for this. Very often I'm constantly bashing against him (very close to him) and it's not interrupting...

Now I'm thinking of changing the Poison Arrow from Poison Injection morph to Venom Arrow morph, which also interrupts (but does less damage).

Is this a good idea? Atm It's more of hit or miss and stage 3 is relying heavily on interrupting.

I did it, but am going to switch back because the interrupt hurts you on other stages. Stage 7 boss in particular, if you find yourself at range during the shield phase it's nice to be able to be able to use endless hail then light attack/poison injection spam. The other morph will interrupt the boss and the second scream will have to be interrupted because there will be no shield phase. Also if you're a stam sorc you have no class execute which poison injection somewhat fills that role. On the other hand, it is nice for stage 5 for the trolls that break the platforms and stage 8 for the flame spinners (did I just make that name up??). I switched to the interrupt morph while I was stuck on stage 9, but overall I think it does more harm than good. Some of that is on me though, on stage 7 boss I will just mindlessly go into my regular rotation and end up interrupting him. I feel like there's another time where the interrupt hurts me, but I can't remember.

j_s

Just finished the 9th round with Venom Arrow, so that works. Will see tomorrow how I do in rounds 1 to 8.

Loot was Nirnhoned Sword and Sturdy Shield

j_s

Ok, just wanted to report back regarding Venom Arrow. I think it works very well. In stage 7, instead of shooting arrows under the shield, I do Overload.
Cheers and good luck all!