VMA Final Boss

j_s

Woohoo! 4th clear and I get a sharpened Great Sword. Now all I need is the bow! Yes!

Lukums1

j_s wrote: »

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!

If it works for you great, but as a general rule you'd be losing so much dps it's not funny.

NONE the less, if it works continue doing so everyone is different.

Good to hear you're smashing those clears now good job.

Luke

Lukums1 - PS4

Raghul

https://youtu.be/oUbPfP91_I4

Here is a video of me doing final boss

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Just a thought, you could stun the healer. I usually don't bother on a stam Sorc, but you could slot rune cage and just stun him when he spawns. It is really effective. You can then take care of everything else and burst down the healer before you go upstairs. As others have suggested, a shield sigil will also really simplify things.

On a stam Sorc, your goal should be to burn the boss to 70% before the guard even spawns. If done right, you won't see a guard at all in this fight. If you drop trap, hail, hurricane out of combat and immediately hit him with Poison Injection, rending slashes and dawnbreaker, you should be able to rapid strikes spam to get him to 70%. This works with the healing morphs of the DW skills as well.

I buff the first 3 skills out of combat, then apply 2 dots and the ultimate at spawn, then I dodge-roll is his heavy attack, then I rapid spam until he is at 70%. Grabbing a weapon sigil makes that even easier, but it's not necessary.

The stun is also really nice on the summoner when you go back downstairs. One stun and you should be able to just burn/interrupt boss before anything else spawns.

code65536

Raghul wrote: »

Here is a video of me doing final boss

Since this thread is aimed at vMA newbies, there's a comment I'd like to make about jumping down after the crystal phase.

There's actually a good reason why the game knocks you back and forces you to fall into the lava ring after the crystal phase: you take fall damage if you jump down the center and hit the ground, but the lava is liquid and breaks your fall. There's a delay before the lava damage starts ticking, and as long as you get out quickly, the damage is considerably lower than that of the fall damage going down the center.

Jumping down the center while your DoT finishes off the last crystal saves you a few seconds, but is a bit risky because if your health is a bit on the low side, it will kill you.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

code65536 wrote: »

Raghul wrote: »

Here is a video of me doing final boss

Since this thread is aimed at vMA newbies, there's a comment I'd like to make about jumping down after the crystal phase.

There's actually a good reason why the game knocks you back and forces you to fall into the lava ring after the crystal phase: you take fall damage if you jump down the center and hit the ground, but the lava is liquid and breaks your fall. There's a delay before the lava damage starts ticking, and as long as you get out quickly, the damage is considerably lower than that of the fall damage going down the center.

Jumping down the center while your DoT finishes off the last crystal saves you a few seconds, but is a bit risky because if your health is a bit on the low side, it will kill you.

To add to that: When learning, I actually encourage people to jump down on purpose after the second wall explodes unless you are really close to getting the last crystal. You should have an ultimate by then to deal with guard. Better to jump down on your own terms with full resources, then to get knocked down because you run out of resources up top. The third wall gets pretty fast, and it's hard to keep up with it without burning all your stam. The last thing you want to do is start the third phase (or get knocked off next to a guard) with no resources.

Jumping down resets the DOT and wall speed, but all the crystals will be as you left them.

Lukums1

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

code65536 wrote: »

Raghul wrote: »

Here is a video of me doing final boss

Since this thread is aimed at vMA newbies, there's a comment I'd like to make about jumping down after the crystal phase.

There's actually a good reason why the game knocks you back and forces you to fall into the lava ring after the crystal phase: you take fall damage if you jump down the center and hit the ground, but the lava is liquid and breaks your fall. There's a delay before the lava damage starts ticking, and as long as you get out quickly, the damage is considerably lower than that of the fall damage going down the center.

Jumping down the center while your DoT finishes off the last crystal saves you a few seconds, but is a bit risky because if your health is a bit on the low side, it will kill you.

To add to that: When learning, I actually encourage people to jump down on purpose after the second wall explodes unless you are really close to getting the last crystal. You should have an ultimate by then to deal with guard. Better to jump down on your own terms with full resources, then to get knocked down because you run out of resources up top. The third wall gets pretty fast, and it's hard to keep up with it without burning all your stam. The last thing you want to do is start the third phase (or get knocked off next to a guard) with no resources.

Jumping down resets the DOT and wall speed, but all the crystals will be as you left them.

Where generally I agree with you, I think jumping down shouldn't be done.

There is literally no reason why you can't remain up top for 4 walls especially as this thread is all about sorcs.

Boundless Storm/Hurricane makes short work of positioning. Jumping down the middle should really only ever be done for speed runs and players who absolutely know what they are doing and more importantly confident they know the self heals and ticking away.

It also takes 2 seconds to burst healer(mage) before you go up top, no one wants to worry about this stupid mage after crystal phase makes things more complicated then they need to be by far.

Luke

Upright_man

I made this forum account to say thank you Lukums.

I cleared the last boss on my stamblade a few days back after reading some of your advice, particularly taking defense early)
Struggled with the lag on the final boss and had to dodge roll much earlier than normal. (thanks to the Reorx who said you can dodge super early!)

Defense sigil on the first nuke he does and the other sigils after coming back down from destroying 3 crystals. Melted boss before CG spawned so didnt worry about gold ghosts too much.

Can only imagine this gets really easy at 561 cp!

Lukums1

Upright_man wrote: »

I made this forum account to say thank you Lukums.

I cleared the last boss on my stamblade a few days back after reading some of your advice, particularly taking defense early)
Struggled with the lag on the final boss and had to dodge roll much earlier than normal. (thanks to the Reorx who said you can dodge super early!)

Defense sigil on the first nuke he does and the other sigils after coming back down from destroying 3 crystals. Melted boss before CG spawned so didnt worry about gold ghosts too much.

Can only imagine this gets really easy at 561 cp!

You're quite welcome, touched really

Got some really good feed back recently so I do appreciate that!

If you need further help please feel free to look at my guide in my signature A LOT of people got their first clears by watching and me explaining each sigil collected to obtain easier clears.

I'll be posting again tonight to explain SCORE runs in depth so ANYONE can do it. Next target? Or maybe a proper Flawless Guide?

Non the less I really appreciate you taking the time to say thanks. Means a lot!

Upright_man

Lukums1 wrote: »

Upright_man wrote: »

I made this forum account to say thank you Lukums.

I cleared the last boss on my stamblade a few days back after reading some of your advice, particularly taking defense early)
Struggled with the lag on the final boss and had to dodge roll much earlier than normal. (thanks to the Reorx who said you can dodge super early!)

Defense sigil on the first nuke he does and the other sigils after coming back down from destroying 3 crystals. Melted boss before CG spawned so didnt worry about gold ghosts too much.

Can only imagine this gets really easy at 561 cp!

You're quite welcome, touched really

Got some really good feed back recently so I do appreciate that!

If you need further help please feel free to look at my guide in my signature A LOT of people got their first clears by watching and me explaining each sigil collected to obtain easier clears.

I'll be posting again tonight to explain SCORE runs in depth so ANYONE can do it. Next target? Or maybe a proper Flawless Guide?

Non the less I really appreciate you taking the time to say thanks. Means a lot!

You're alright for an aussie mate

Well i had another crack at it last night and breezed all the way through to stage 8 using less sigils than my 1st clear (couple deaths on final boss to mushroom rng stage 7) and called it a night there so i can be fresh to smash out the last 2 stages next time i'm online. I was really surprised the difference from my 1st run to the 2nd so far. Perhaps I was just so full of confidence after my 1st clear i just let the magic happen more naturally this time.

But ill certainly take a look at your explained score runs and a flawless run will certainly be on the cards for me in the future, so id be interested in that too bro.

Well after some of the things i've read in the last few weeks I think these forums could use more people like yourself and you serve some good feedback. Only took a couple days to get my forum invitation code which i never previously received...

Lukums1

Upright_man wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

Upright_man wrote: »

I made this forum account to say thank you Lukums.

I cleared the last boss on my stamblade a few days back after reading some of your advice, particularly taking defense early)
Struggled with the lag on the final boss and had to dodge roll much earlier than normal. (thanks to the Reorx who said you can dodge super early!)

Defense sigil on the first nuke he does and the other sigils after coming back down from destroying 3 crystals. Melted boss before CG spawned so didnt worry about gold ghosts too much.

Can only imagine this gets really easy at 561 cp!

You're quite welcome, touched really

Got some really good feed back recently so I do appreciate that!

If you need further help please feel free to look at my guide in my signature A LOT of people got their first clears by watching and me explaining each sigil collected to obtain easier clears.

I'll be posting again tonight to explain SCORE runs in depth so ANYONE can do it. Next target? Or maybe a proper Flawless Guide?

Non the less I really appreciate you taking the time to say thanks. Means a lot!

You're alright for an aussie mate

Well i had another crack at it last night and breezed all the way through to stage 8 using less sigils than my 1st clear (couple deaths on final boss to mushroom rng stage 7) and called it a night there so i can be fresh to smash out the last 2 stages next time i'm online. I was really surprised the difference from my 1st run to the 2nd so far. Perhaps I was just so full of confidence after my 1st clear i just let the magic happen more naturally this time.

But ill certainly take a look at your explained score runs and a flawless run will certainly be on the cards for me in the future, so id be interested in that too bro.

Well after some of the things i've read in the last few weeks I think these forums could use more people like yourself and you serve some good feedback. Only took a couple days to get my forum invitation code which i never previously received...

For an Aussie LOL what a laugh that was, normally I'm a bit of a %$^ wit ask around.

But I take helping people seriously espeically on hard content.

I'll tonight put both videos up for score and flawless guides to add to my general clear guide.

The "magic" does occur after each and every run.

LOL I'll even explain that "magic" in the videos LOL all seriousness, thanks again mate. You and other members reading are also welcome.

Cheers bud.

Luke

j_s

Good to see this thread still up and running.

I've completed vMA a total of 24 times. On good runs I die no more than 4-5 times (with most deaths in stage 7).

I have a question. I have looted 2 infused daggers and 1 defending bow which I'm currently using. Should I upgrade the weapons to gold or wait until I finally get sharpened weapons? Gold is an issue, hence my asking

Thanks!

Danksta

j_s wrote: »

Good to see this thread still up and running.

I've completed vMA a total of 24 times. On good runs I die no more than 4-5 times (with most deaths in stage 7).

I have a question. I have looted 2 infused daggers and 1 defending bow which I'm currently using. Should I upgrade the weapons to gold or wait until I finally get sharpened weapons? Gold is an issue, hence my asking

Thanks!

Unfortunately a plain old non-set sharpened is better than vMA non-sharpened in most cases. If you're on a really good raid team that completely strips bosses of their resistances then precise would be better. This is generally speaking with most builds.

Lukums1

j_s wrote: »

Good to see this thread still up and running.

I've completed vMA a total of 24 times. On good runs I die no more than 4-5 times (with most deaths in stage 7).

I have a question. I have looted 2 infused daggers and 1 defending bow which I'm currently using. Should I upgrade the weapons to gold or wait until I finally get sharpened weapons? Gold is an issue, hence my asking

Thanks!

Unfortunately as tempting as it may be, you'll have to keep hunting this would be a complete waste of gold on your end.

code65536

Danksta wrote: »

Unfortunately a plain old non-set sharpened is better than vMA non-sharpened in most cases. If you're on a really good raid team that completely strips bosses of their resistances then precise would be better. This is generally speaking with most builds.

That applies for the vMA staves. The vMA dual-wield's special enchant is so powerful that you should use it even if the trait is bad.

Lukums1 wrote: »

Unfortunately as tempting as it may be, you'll have to keep hunting this would be a complete waste of gold on your end.

The chances of getting a sharp dagger or axe is 1/48 per run. He might get lucky and get it on the next run. But there's also 50% chance that after 33 more runs, he would not get one. And there's still a whooping 1-in-4 chance that after 66 more runs, he would still not get a sharpened weapon. Maybe he really loves vMA and won't mind running it that much. But it were me personally, I'd say f*** that, I'm not going to grind it 33 more times only to have a 50% chance of getting it. (I've been running vMA since February and have only around 80 runs across all my characters and accounts; it's an MMO, and I'd rather play group content than waste my time in a solo grind.)


@j_s Go ahead and gold out one of them. The Infused one would do nicely. When dual-wielding, the main hand weapon contributes 100% of its stats, but the off-hand contributes a mere 20% of its stats. Make the main-hand weapon gold, and leave the off-hand purple. You'll get almost the same stats as having both gold, but at only half the cost.

Lukums1

code65536 wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

Unfortunately a plain old non-set sharpened is better than vMA non-sharpened in most cases. If you're on a really good raid team that completely strips bosses of their resistances then precise would be better. This is generally speaking with most builds.

That applies for the vMA staves. The vMA dual-wield's special enchant is so powerful that you should use it even if the trait is bad.

Lukums1 wrote: »

Unfortunately as tempting as it may be, you'll have to keep hunting this would be a complete waste of gold on your end.

The chances of getting a sharp dagger or axe is 1/48 per run. He might get lucky and get it on the next run. But there's also 50% chance that after 33 more runs, he would not get one. And there's still a whooping 1-in-4 chance that after 66 more runs, he would still not get a sharpened weapon. Maybe he really loves vMA and won't mind running it that much. But it were me personally, I'd say f*** that, I'm not going to grind it 33 more times only to have a 50% chance of getting it. (I've been running vMA since February and have only around 80 runs across all my characters and accounts; it's an MMO, and I'd rather play group content than waste my time in a solo grind.)


@j_s Go ahead and gold out one of them. The Infused one would do nicely. When dual-wielding, the main hand weapon contributes 100% of its stats, but the off-hand contributes a mere 20% of its stats. Make the main-hand weapon gold, and leave the off-hand purple. You'll get almost the same stats as having both gold, but at only half the cost.

Please for the love of god disregard what he just said, you'll be doing more damage using other weapons with sharpen and BOTH gold.

I don't know why on earth you suggest him using 1 infused gold and the other PURPLE.

Jeezus. Honestly this was just a bad post on your behalf sorry but it is...

You shouldn't be tempted to gold the infused, you're better off making a TBS dagger gold or NMG.
Sorry this hit a spot within me.

I completely disagree. Which is fine because this is a discussion. Sorry if the above sounded very direct.

code65536

Lukums1 wrote: »

I don't know why on earth you suggest him using 1 infused gold and the other PURPLE.

2 purple DW weapons: 1358 WD from weapons
1 gold, 1 purple DW weapons: 1561 WD from weapons (+203 WD over 2x purple)
2 gold DW weapons: 1602 WD from weapons (+41 WD over 1 gold, 1 purple)

Of course 2 gold is better, but in terms of cost effectiveness, 1 gold 1 purple is the best "bang for the buck". You gain just a paltry 41 WD from golding the 2nd weapon.

Lukums1 wrote: »

I completely disagree. Which is fine because this is a discussion. Sorry if the above sounded very direct.

And to be equally blunt, you are wrong.

The advice that non-vMA weapons in sharp traits will outperform vMA weapons applies to everything except the dual-wield weapons and bow.

For the dual-wield weapons, even weapons in bad traits will be better. This, of course, is subject to the standard caveats regarding vMA dual wield in general.

• vMA dual-wield is not appropriate for short bursty fights since you need your single-target DoTs to run their course; you shouldn't use vMA dual-wield weapons in vMA itself for this reason, even if you have the weapons in perfect traits
• vMA dual-wield works best for builds and rotations that have many non-ground DoTs (i.e., a stam DK)

For the kinds of scenarios where vMA dual-wield makes the most sense in the first place (e.g., a stam DK in a vet trial), even bad-trait vMA dual-wield weapon will be better a non-vMA dual-wield.

Now, if he was just looking to upgrade his gear for running vMA, then he shouldn't even be looking at vMA dual-wield weapons in the first place.

For the bow, since it's just a buff bar and most of your damage isn't dealt on the bow bar (and your hail damage is calculated based on the bar that you are currently on), any trait will do, and the increased damage for your hail will make up for the loss in DPS while on the back bar. This, too, is subject to some common sense caveats:

• If use your bow as more than just a buff-and-DoT bar, then the trait will matter more.
• If you don't use volley, then why are you using a vMA bow in the first place?

j_s

Thanks for the extensive analysis.

Here is what I have found, if it counts for anything :
When I switched back from 2 purple infused daggers to 2 gold sharpened daggers of Ashen Grip, it made a huge difference in damage output.

As a matter of fact, it was such a difference that I managed to do all stages flawlessly with the exception of stage 7.

Not sure wether 1 gold infused Maelstrom dagger and 1 purple infused Maelstrom dagger would be even better, I doubt it. Theoretically what @code65536 is writing should give the edge to the Maelstrom daggers, but practically it's not...the gold sharpened non-Maelstrom weapons do more damage.

If it weren't for stage 7 I would be Flawless Conquerer by now

code65536

j_s wrote: »

Thanks for the extensive analysis.

Here is what I have found, if it counts for anything :
When I switched back from 2 purple infused daggers to 2 gold sharpened daggers of Ashen Grip, it made a huge difference in damage output.

As a matter of fact, it was such a difference that I managed to do all stages flawlessly with the exception of stage 7.

Not sure wether 1 gold infused Maelstrom dagger and 1 purple infused Maelstrom dagger would be even better, I doubt it. Theoretically what @code65536 is writing should give the edge to the Maelstrom daggers, but practically it's not...the gold sharpened non-Maelstrom weapons do more damage.

If it weren't for stage 7 I would be Flawless Conquerer by now

As I said in my post, you should not use vMA dual-wield in vMA itself. vMA dual-wield is the weapon of choice for 12-man vet trials, but very poorly suited for running vMA.

I have good traits on vMA dual-wield weapons, but I still use NMG daggers in vMA (2p Veli, 5p VO, 5p NMG). You can't do any better than a setup like that for vMA.

j_s

Thanks @code65536, makes sense!

btw should I give up TBS for Veli+NMG ?

code65536

j_s wrote: »

Thanks @code65536, makes sense!

btw should I give up TBS for Veli+NMG ?

TBS is another one of those great-in-a-trial-but-bad-in-vMA things. Well, it's not bad per se--it's a perfectly competent set--but you will do more damage with NMG than with TBS. The main advantage of TBS is that it gives you more health.

j_s

I am already struggling with my health stats. I only have 16k health, that's with food buff even.

I really can't afford losing anymore health. How do people get 22k health setups?

Oreyn_Bearclaw

j_s wrote: »

Thanks @code65536, makes sense!

btw should I give up TBS for Veli+NMG ?

Ill jump in here. As @code65536 stated, NMG is more damage than TBS when solo. On a magic character, I really like TBS in the arena. Is it fastest? No, but the extra stats are really nice. You also dont have to worry about losing the buff when you swap.

On stamina, the swapping becomes an issue. The way most people build for stamina VMA is:

Jewelry: Vicious Ophidian
Head Shoulders: Monster (Veli is my personal favorite)
Chest, Legs, Boots, Belt, Glove: 2 VO, 3 Nightmothers
DW weapons: 2 Sharp Nightmothers Daggers
Bow: Any VMA bow or Sharp NM bow.

This gives 5 VO, 5 NMG, 2 monster on front bar, and 5 VO, 3-4NMG (or VMA bow), and 2 Monster on back bar. If you try to work TBS into this, you need 2 Sharp VO daggers to pull it off, and I am guessing you dont have that. Otherwise, if you swapped TBS into this build, you would lose your buff when you swapped.

You could substitute another set for NMG here. Spriggans seems to be a hair better, but NMG is much easier to get. Spriggans is also useless in a raid for what its worth, where NMG is very handy. Lastly, you need sharp spriggans daggers, which are a little hard to get I believe. Unless you are pushing top 10 on leaderboards, I would go with NMG.

j_s wrote: »

I am already struggling with my health stats. I only have 16k health, that's with food buff even.

I really can't afford losing anymore health. How do people get 22k health setups?

There are a couple ways to do this. I think 22k health is unnecessary, but certainly getting 18 or 19k is not a bad idea. When I was going for flawless on stam sorc, I ran 5/1/1 (undaunted passives) with a Healthy glyph on my chest to boost my health a bit. You could also adjust your attributes slightly. Just remember, that every point or glyph into health is a small DPS loss. I think 18.5k health is a really good sweet spot when learning or going for flawless on a stamina build.

Edit: As stated earlier, Do not run VMA DW weapons in VMA. Nothing lasts long enough for them to be worth it. Sharp Crafter Daggers (or spriggans) are the way to go.

j_s

Very useful information. Much obliged!!

I currently run TBS & VO parts in Divines. I assume I will do the same with Nightmothers' (or impenetrable?)?

Thanks.

NinthPrince64

@Lukums1, OP here. Well, I was finally able to complete vMSA. I really want to thank you for all your help. You helped a man in his 50s halfway around the world get through something he never thought he could. It was unbelievably hard, but your help made it possible.
I'm the end, I went for a slightly different strategy of not taking any sigils in the first part of the fight. Following your strategy in earlier attempts allowed me to learn the upstairs fight, though, which made my ultimate success possible.
Thanks again. I am not a big video gamer, but that was the hardest thing I have ever done in a game and it would not have happened without your help.

NinthPrince64

Oh, and by the way, I got absolute crap in the chest, but I don't care. Can't wait to get back in there again!

Beardimus

BOOOOOM YES @NinthPrince64 That's amazing news.

I was the same as you, the tactic got me up top and helped me.suss it but then id done the first bit so many times id sussed I didn't need it. Hardest thing I've ever done In a game, brutal. So glad u got the clear man!!

Lukums1

NinthPrince64 wrote: »

@Lukums1, OP here. Well, I was finally able to complete vMSA. I really want to thank you for all your help. You helped a man in his 50s halfway around the world get through something he never thought he could. It was unbelievably hard, but your help made it possible.
I'm the end, I went for a slightly different strategy of not taking any sigils in the first part of the fight. Following your strategy in earlier attempts allowed me to learn the upstairs fight, though, which made my ultimate success possible.
Thanks again. I am not a big video gamer, but that was the hardest thing I have ever done in a game and it would not have happened without your help.

You are so welcome I'm really glad I've been able to assist so many people over the last month and general feedback from this thread has got to be one of the best threads on this forums as far as constructive notes go.

Good luck on all future attempts!

Beardimus wrote: »

BOOOOOM YES @NinthPrince64 That's amazing news.

I was the same as you, the tactic got me up top and helped me.suss it but then id done the first bit so many times id sussed I didn't need it. Hardest thing I've ever done In a game, brutal. So glad u got the clear man!!

the tatic is very solid especially learning the fight over time you'll find that thrive in chaos blood craze poison injection endlesss hail with a few jobs will also phase him almost instantly

Good luck to all and keep at it time for flawless and score runs

Luke

Upright_man

NinthPrince64 wrote: »

@Lukums1, OP here. Well, I was finally able to complete vMSA. I really want to thank you for all your help. You helped a man in his 50s halfway around the world get through something he never thought he could. It was unbelievably hard, but your help made it possible.
I'm the end, I went for a slightly different strategy of not taking any sigils in the first part of the fight. Following your strategy in earlier attempts allowed me to learn the upstairs fight, though, which made my ultimate success possible.
Thanks again. I am not a big video gamer, but that was the hardest thing I have ever done in a game and it would not have happened without your help.

Congratulations NinthPrince!!

Don't be discouraged by bad loot on your first run buddy.

I've cleared this 7 times now (first clear was last week).
I'm a stamblade and from those clears i've already gotten a sharpened dagger and a maelstrom bow which i needed!

Good luck for future runs.

j_s

Just a quick feedback on the trait distribution from my last 32 runs:

1 charged, 3 Infused, 3 Precise
4 Decisive, 4 Defending, 5 Powered, 5 Nirnhoned
7 Sharpened

Whoever is complaining and saying that RNG is bollox hasn't really tried, IMO.