Need Stam or Mag Sorc VMA advice.

Cathexis

So Ive decided its time for me to build for VMA. With the the last few patches the cost to reward ratio seems substantially better.

Casually with little work Ive made it to about round 5, but Ive hit a wall. I dont PvE extensively, so my gear and spec on my stam sorc are largely pvp orriented.

I also have a mag sorc I could build for it.

So Im looking for resources and tips on how to build for VMA either for stam or mag. For stam it seems like I should just focus AoEs, dual wield/bow, damage and crit from what Ive seen so far.

Any thoughts on the matter are appreciated.

Lukums1

Cathexis wrote: »

So Ive decided its time for me to build for VMA. With the the last few patches the cost to reward ratio seems substantially better.

Casually with little work Ive made it to about round 5, but Ive hit a wall. I dont PvE extensively, so my gear and spec on my stam sorc are largely pvp orriented.

I also have a mag sorc I could build for it.

So Im looking for resources and tips on how to build for VMA either for stam or mag. For stam it seems like I should just focus AoEs, dual wield/bow, damage and crit from what Ive seen so far.

Any thoughts on the matter are appreciated.

Hello Cathexis,

I would like to offer my services to you and all who is interested in clearing maelstrom.

I'm streaming on twitch during this event to HELP players ( not for fast speed clears or flawless guides *at this time* ).

I've been running in completely blue clear no maelstrom weapons or VO. Just to guide and help people on that lower tier of gear.

You said you hit a wall on 5, what part exactly I can guide you through step by step I just need you to tell me what round.

If you're interested GMT +10 7pm Sydney NSW Australia:

Luke

Reorx_Holybeard

The best class mostly depends on which one you are more familiar with. For example, in order of increasing difficulty I find it Magplar, Stam Sorc, Mag Sorc and that is the exact order of familiarity I have as well. Magplar is easiest for me as I've played it the most and Mag Sorc is more difficult as I've played it the least.

For Stam Sorc I first beat it with a very simple build:

• x5 Hunding (now x5 TBS, about the same)
• x2 Night Mother's Gaze Shoulder/Pauldron (Kra'gh, Stormfist or Velidreth works here)
• x3 Agility (healthy, x2 Weapon Damage, x1 Stamina Recovery, adjust as needed)
• x2 NMG Dagger+Axe / x1 NMG Bow (Gold, Sharpened, swap for VMA weapons as/if you get them)

Skill wise it was something like:

• Bloodthirst
• Bloodcraze
• Rearming Trap
• Expert Hunter (cheap way to get Major Savagery, swap for Caltrops or Vigor)
• Bound Armaments
• Flawless Dawnbreaker (DW Ultimate also looks good)

and for bow:

• Poison Injection
• Endless Hail
• Hurricane
• Critical Surge
• Bound Armaments
• Flawless Dawnbreaker

For your first few times make liberal use of all sigils and learn when a good time to use them in each round. Round 5 is still one of the tougher rounds for me on all characters due to the amount of ranged damage you can receive at a time. A few general tips for this stage:

• Use the Defense Sigil to reflect all ranged attacks.
• Always keep one eye for the Troll, especially during the boss round.
• Don't rush the boss. Adds spawn based on her health so you completely control the pace of the fight. DPS the boss and then focus on the adds when they spawn, and the troll, and then return the boss.
• Move to the outside edge of the ice pack to make the ranged mobs come close enough so you can melee them without taking cold damage. This also can reduce the amount of ranged damage to take at a time.
• The Rune Prison spell can be useful to incapacitate one mob for 30 seconds.

If you have a specific area you get stuck on just let us know!

Masel

I've done both and can show you my builds for the first clears.

Mag sorc: 5 elegance with sharpened lightning and sharpened inferno staff, 5 infallible aether and one heavy piece of molag kena. Jewelry with all spell damage. By now, I replaced the kena to have 5 elegant and 5 aether with vMA staffs.

Skills:
Lightning bar: empowered ward, liquid lightning, blockade, inner light, bound aegis. Ultimate: Shooting star.

Other bar: surge, force pulse, crystal frags, inner light, bound aegis
Ultimate energy overload.

Overload bar: ward, liquid lightning, surge, inner light, bound aegis.

Save overload for bosses, and leftclick your way through with your lightning staff.

Stam sorc:

5 Vicious ophidian, 5 red mountain with dual wield sharpened weapons and a sharpened bow. Then 2 velidreth, as it outperforms kragh in there. Full weapon damage enchants on jewelry. By now I replaced the bow with a vMA bow.

Skills:

Dw bar: Steel tornado rapid strikes, blood craze, resolving vigor, bound armaments.

Ultimate: Flawless dawnbreaker.

Bow bar: poison injection, endless hail, hurricane, critical surge, bound armaments. Ultimate: flawless dawnbreaker.

Pallio

Any advice on last boss, seemed ok through the rest, but, now stuck for days on last boss. Make it upstairs, clearing crystals then die to everyrhing happening on the ground. Unless I mess up and take a silly death before.

Masel

Take defence sigil directly after coming down. Boss will dps himself a lot through reflect (which he will start immediately after going down) while you kill adds. Take ghosts, stun after three and boom, win.

Bobby_V_Rockit

This is my stam sorc build, but I cant beat veteran mode anything

Head: Velidreth's guise (inf)
Shoulders: Velidreth's arm cops (well-fitted)
Chest: TBS (div)
Waist: TBS (div)
Legs: TBS (div)
Arms: TBS (div)
Boots: TBS (div)

All legendary (6m:1h) with gold stamina enchantments.

Leki's Dagger: sharpened, wpn dmg
Leki's Dagger: sharpened, poison
Leki's Bow: sharpened, disease

All legendary with gold enchants

3x Agility: robust, weapon damage

Skill bar 1: blood craze, expert hunter/vigor, rapid strikes, hurricane, bound armaments, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Skill bar 2: endless hail, rearming trap, poison injection, crit surge, bound armaments, Shooting Star (group) reviving barrier (solo)

Champ Points:
Red: 89 elemental defender, 78 hardy, 15 quick recovery, 5 thick skinned

Green: 100 warlord, 87 mooncalf

Blue: 89 Mighty, 48 thaum, 48 precise strikes, 2 piercing

Mag: 11059 (recov: 565)
Health: 18101 (recov: 444)
Stam: 37728 (recov: 909)
Weap dam: 3362
Crit: 74.1%
Spell resist: 17529
Phys resist: 18849
Crit resist: 0

Mundus: Thief and Shadow

DannyLV702

Well since you say you're more pvp oriented...my magic sorc always completes vma with my pvp gear because I'm not going for a score and cannot be bothered to swap gear. 5x spinner on front bar and 5x lich on my back bar. All impen with CPs allocated for pvp use. All completions are with 5 deaths at the most, usually out of being careless, and 50 minutes or higher depending on how often I get up to do stuff between rounds.

The only thing I do swap is the monster set infernal for ilambris since I don't cast my shields too often in vma. I also keep my attronach mundus stone. It's not the best dps out there, but I can still burn the last boss fast enough so that he sends me up to the crystals before the stupid crematorial guard gets a chance to appear. That's good enough for me.

I still recommend you use the most BiS gear you can find, but don't forget that knowing your rotation and mechanics is more important. Instead of trying to explain some rotations, I recommend watching something on YouTube so you can actually see it being done. That helped me a a lot more the first time I did vma.

Lukums1

Hello,

Managed to help ton

Pallio wrote: »

Any advice on last boss, seemed ok through the rest, but, now stuck for days on last boss. Make it upstairs, clearing crystals then die to everyrhing happening on the ground. Unless I mess up and take a silly death before.

Hello,

Got a lot of people their clears with this video - https://www.twitch.tv/lukumms/v/100607478
Complete guide of maelstrom.

You should be getting to top by defensive sigil - if not then do whatever works for you.

NOTE: If you have a mage up when going back down you did it wrong (well not wrong but you made it harder on yourself)

You should also ensure that all mages who may of spawned are dead. Without watching your play through or knowing exactly what is going wrong, when you drop down you're either dying to:

1. The mage which was up taking unnecessary damage
2. The CG which you're not collecting a sigil
3. The boss did the crystal skull move then getting hit by a ground aoe of some what.

All of these can be easily avoided, you're getting past the hardest bit it seems like a sigil, roll or interupt issue if you ask me.

When coming down from the crystals depending where you drop down, grab the att sigil.
DPS Boss - leave add summoning, when the boss teleport twice prepare for CG, interupt the boss - roll and grab the healing sigil for an easy CG kill and boss kill.

If you can perhaps explain in further detail I can guide you a little better, non the less if you watch my video of the last boss I think it's all self explanatory.

Luke

Lukums1 - PS4

Cathexis

Hey everyone, thanks for all the suggestions and offers for help! I will have to read through all of this again. Just been a bit busy and also getting sucked into pvp again, but would like to get back to looking at VMA.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

I might be in the minority here, but I actually think Magic Sorc is easier, especially if going for a no-death. Stam Sorc is certainly faster, and if you just want a clear, this might be the way to go as you seem familiar with it. If you dont have VO gear, I would personally go magic. Once you get the spawns down, then you can just explode most things on a stam sorc. While learning, I like the range, shields, and most importantly, Overload from a magic Sorc.

If going Stam: 5VO/5NM/2 Veildreth (double sharp NM daggers).
-DW:Bloodthirst, Bloodcraze, Hurricane, Vigor, Bound Armaments, Rend/Dawnbreaker of smiting
-Bow:Poison Injection, Endless Hail, Trap, Crit Surge, Bound Armaments, Supression field (really handy on a few bosses)

If going Magic: Front bar is 5 TBS (or julianos) 4 Elegant, 2 LLambris, and back bar is 5TBS/5elegant, 2 llambris. What you do is wear elegant jewerly, one armor piece, and one back bar DW weapon. With TBS, you go 4 armor pieces, and one weapon on each bar. Sharp and divines are always the preferred traits in PVE. Sharp is so OP it's ridiculous.

Destro: Force Pulse/Crushing Shock, Blockade, Ward, Bound Aegis, Inner light, Meteor/overload (never cast meteor)
DW: Liquid Lightening, Power Surge, Boundless Storm, Bound Aegis, Flex (Dark Conversion/rune cage), Overload
Overload: Liquid Lightening, Power Surge, Ward, Bound Aegis, Innerlight, Overload

You dont need inner light on DW bar, so you get a flex spot. Most people will say run frags on your front bar, but when learning, go with a shield there. Once you get better, you can add frags to your front bar, move ward to your back bar, and move boundless to your flex. I ran the above loadouts for flawless runs on both toons. Magic was much easier for me to get flawless, but my best times are on stamina.