vMA Vaults of Umbrage

wellerrocks

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

NinthPrince64

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

I am still trying to finish vMSA for the first time. I suspect that may be the case for you as well? I am on Stage 9 now, but I really struggled with this stage.
Here is the advice I found most useful for dealing with the final boss fight (I am hoping I remember it reasonably accurately). You get to a point where there is the boss and two handlers. You want to kill the handler that is furthest away from the boss first. For some reason, when you engage that guy the other one tends to end up reasonably close to the boss. The beauty of that is that when the boss does his scream and you hide under the bubble, you can actually DPS the boss during his scream.
The reason DPSing the boss during his scream is so important is that it reduces the number of screams you have to go through. Each scream phase exposes you to the possibility of dying to a mechanic you cannot avoid. Reducing the number of scream phases, then, enhanced your chance of making it through the stage.
It's kind of like Russian Roulette. Given a choice, you prefer to only have to spin the chambers and pull the trigger once. The more times you spin and pull, the more likely you are to die.

Lashiing

seems like you're just getting unlucky
here's how i clear this boss:

buff
dots in the middle
lure boss into dots
dps dps dps
2 shield guys spawn
kill one
stand next to other and reapply dots on boss
dps dps dps
scream ends, kill shield guy
look around for venomcaller, usually quite easy to kill
finish boss

if im too slow i get another round of shield guys so i just repeat the kill one, dps boss
usually finish boss before i need to kill the second

CultOfMMO

spawning underneath shield yea thats bs, no argument there.

its a legitimate design flaw that ZOS hasnt addressed yet, but to be honest....

its only happened twice in like 60 ish runs for me

also, enraged scream kills the venom caller, you dont have to leave the shield

DRXHarbinger

Trick is plan your attack on the minders. If you haven't had a summoner for a while wait it out, kill it and then kill the minder. Easy work that way, you can then also lure a minder to a nice safe spot.

wellerrocks

I have completed this about 10 times, just needed a rant. Grinds my gears how the plants blow up and within the shields and nothing can be done!

Bandit1215

L2p issue for the archers, but yeah the plants spawning on shield is really dumb.

Kutsuu

Sometimes you just have the bad luck that a minder is standing on top of a poison plans when they stop to put up the shield. You can control this to some degree if you're mindful by making them chase you (away from the plant they're on top of), but sometimes it happens. I've also had plenty of instances where I ambushed a venomcaller and during the animation they spawned poison on top of themselves. You have this slow motion "noooooo!" moment as you inevitably teleport into the poison.

Either way it's not really broken as much as it is just RNG.

CreepyPahuska

Plant spawns inside the shield ? Why don't you quickly get out of the shield and rupt the boss's scream for example ? It's not broken, it's not dumb either. When it happens you just need to react quickly. Your ability to deal with unpredictable events is what makes you a good player. Claiming that it's broken, bugged or whatever instead of finding a solution is what makes you the exact opposite

Reorx_Holybeard

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

Plant spawns inside the shield ? Why don't you quickly get out of the shield and rupt the boss's scream for example ? It's not broken, it's not dumb either. When it happens you just need to react quickly. Your ability to deal with unpredictable events is what makes you a good player. Claiming that it's broken, bugged or whatever instead of finding a solution is what makes you the exact opposite

If you interrupt the boss when he's screaming doesn't he enrage and then one-shot you? I've only interrupted him a few times by accident and have never survived long after that so I assume that is the case. Thus the frustration of a plant exploding under the shield being an automatic wipe as there's nothing you can do. A magic class can keep shielding up for a few seconds before the venom is terminal but if the boss has just started screaming you won't survive until the end.

CreepyPahuska

I've had to interrupt him a few times and it never resulted in a one-shot. he might very well enrage if you rupt him (didn't payed attention to the red aura), meaning he'll do more damages, but that doesn't mean it is necessarily an OS.
Anyway, there is always a way to deal with this kind of thing. Everyone has access to a ranged interrupt, everyone has shields (although stamina shields are probably weaker... but there is Vigor as well.), etc...

There are plenty of frustrating things in this game, especially in vMA, but that doesn't mean it's broken, bugged, dumb, whatever. I would even say that it's part of the fun

shezof

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

I've had to interrupt him a few times and it never resulted in a one-shot. he might very well enrage if you rupt him (didn't payed attention to the red aura), meaning he'll do more damages, but that doesn't mean it is necessarily an OS.
Anyway, there is always a way to deal with this kind of thing. Everyone has access to a ranged interrupt, everyone has shields (although stamina shields are probably weaker... but there is Vigor as well.), etc...

There are plenty of frustrating things in this game, especially in vMA, but that doesn't mean it's broken, bugged, dumb, whatever. I would even say that it's part of the fun

i dont think you have knowledge about vMSA.if you interrupt the boss while he screams he will one shot you.also that arena is the dumbest of them all and needs a rework.basically you die if you run out of luck.

CreepyPahuska

Well... if you'd rather question my knowledge than your own skill, it's your problem. In the end, I'm the one who doesn't have to worry about his luck because he can rupt the boss and live to tell about it, and you're the one who cries and complains, and desperately ask for a rework that will most likely never happen (come on... we're all aware of that aren't we ?)

(PRO TIP : in order to one shot you, the boss actually needs to be able to hit you. Just sayin'...)

TheDarkRuler

Vaults of Umbrage is THE random arena.
You can get lucky with the poison plants and have a easy walk through.
Or they can toxify the s*** out of you.

andryuhav

UmbRAGE it is, lol. I say - leave it in it's current state, seems fun to me. I always ruin my flawless runs here, but on the other hand - i really enjoy the felling when i get it finished without a death.

Lashiing

Autolycus

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

The timing of the Venomcallers and the mage adds is something you can control. It is contingent upon your pace, primarily your dps (how quickly you kill adds, thus how quickly the next ones spawn), but there are a couple of other factors too. The critical knowledge for this mechanic is two-fold:
1. Venomcallers spawn based on a timer.
2. Mage adds spawn relative to the boss's health.

The best way to overcome this hurdle is to force the Venomcallers to come out when you want them to. For the boss fight specifically, don't go all-out damage on him at the beginning. It's okay to do some steady damage to him and reduce his health. I think the mage adds spawn somewhere between 60-70% of the bosses remaining health. So, I suggest getting him down to 75-80%, then deliberately wait for the Venomcaller to spawn. Kill it, then force the boss into the next phase with the mage adds.

Additionally, I find it's easiest to always tackle the mage add furthest from where the boss spawns first. This forces both the boss and the other mage add to stack together (relatively speaking, they aren't always right on top of each other, but close) in the center, allowing you to stand right next to the boss and go all-out damage while standing in the bubble. You should even be able to use AoE dots with no issue. Abilities like Boundless Storm / Hurricane can be used, just be mindful of the add's health. If it's close to full health when you first move into the protective bubble, he likely will not die from just Boundless Storm / Hurricane alone.

OneKhajiitCrimeWave

Khajiit had this happen twice in 2 attempts and was close to giving up, then on the 3rd time it went so smoothly that Khajiit thought this one had fallen to sleep and was dreaming of a perfect run.

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

(PRO TIP : in order to one shot you, the boss actually needs to be able to hit you. Just sayin'...)

PRO TIP: When the Behemoth enrages he will hit seriously hard. Learned the hard way on a Magsorc clear when this one cleverly crushing shock weaved the boss. Humble Khajiit has not since repeated the mistake.

This one has also noticed a lack of a vMA run through on your Youtube channel (there are some good videos on there of group content but not solo).

When you go to post one up walker, please show Khajiit how you enrage the Behemoth and then avoid him. Khajiit would very much like to see.

daemonor

Autolycus wrote: »

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

The timing of the Venomcallers and the mage adds is something you can control. It is contingent upon your pace, primarily your dps (how quickly you kill adds, thus how quickly the next ones spawn), but there are a couple of other factors too. The critical knowledge for this mechanic is two-fold:
1. Venomcallers spawn based on a timer.
2. Mage adds spawn relative to the boss's health.

The best way to overcome this hurdle is to force the Venomcallers to come out when you want them to. For the boss fight specifically, don't go all-out damage on him at the beginning. It's okay to do some steady damage to him and reduce his health. I think the mage adds spawn somewhere between 60-70% of the bosses remaining health. So, I suggest getting him down to 75-80%, then deliberately wait for the Venomcaller to spawn. Kill it, then force the boss into the next phase with the mage adds.

Additionally, I find it's easiest to always tackle the mage add furthest from where the boss spawns first. This forces both the boss and the other mage add to stack together (relatively speaking, they aren't always right on top of each other, but close) in the center, allowing you to stand right next to the boss and go all-out damage while standing in the bubble. You should even be able to use AoE dots with no issue. Abilities like Boundless Storm / Hurricane can be used, just be mindful of the add's health. If it's close to full health when you first move into the protective bubble, he likely will not die from just Boundless Storm / Hurricane alone.

pls stop posting misonfarmation. the argonian shielders DO NOT come based on a boss health. go fire up a vma speedrun on youtube, ull see these guys manage to get away with only 1 set of adds spawning. if your dps is bad you might have to face 2 or even 3 spawns of shielders

Shaiba

OneKhajiitCrimeWave wrote: »

When you go to post one up walker, please show Khajiit how you enrage the Behemoth and then avoid him. Khajiit would very much like to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPnB8BTefQU

You're welcome Thx to me you have your video proof (took me at least 2 secs to find that video, hard work here ).

I can confirm @CreepyPahuska did vMA and rupt behemoth and live after that. Why would someone lie about this ? You guys are strange Knowing him I don't think he'll upload a video just to proove something to a stranger on the web.

How to avoid boss's attacks ? Kitting him is one solution. Well-timed dodges work too.

CreepyPahuska

OneKhajiitCrimeWave wrote: »

Khajiit had this happen twice in 2 attempts and was close to giving up, then on the 3rd time it went so smoothly that Khajiit thought this one had fallen to sleep and was dreaming of a perfect run.

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

(PRO TIP : in order to one shot you, the boss actually needs to be able to hit you. Just sayin'...)

This one has also noticed a lack of a vMA run through on your Youtube channel (there are some good videos on there of group content but not solo).

When you go to post one up walker, please show Khajiit how you enrage the Behemoth and then avoid him. Khajiit would very much like to see.

The purpose of my youtube channel is only to store videos of my friends and I doing group content, so that we can review our runs afterward, see our mistakes and improve ourself.
To be honest, I'm certainly not going to make the effort of interrupting him, dodging his attacks and recording that (thus risking to ruin my vMA score) just to prove to an internet stranger that I'm right.

Thanks to @Shaiba you have your proof that it's possible to avoid the attacks. I still fail to understand why you need a video proof to believe that it can be done...

Brrrofski

This is the worst round by far. Just too much going on. I'd rather do round 9 twice in all honesty.

Lukums1

https://www.twitch.tv/lukumms/v/100148367

My Stam flawless run -

Don't interrupt the boss. You'd be silly for doing so end of story.

You can place the 2nd add right next to boss as shown in my video and kill the 1st no need to interrupt.

If you interrupt and ENRAGE the boss and not do the mechanics properly you're more likely to die from the aoe hit or the bite.

Anywho. Gg.

This round 7 is all about timing.
80% skill 20% luck

OneKhajiitCrimeWave

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

The purpose of my youtube channel is only to store videos of my friends and I doing group content, so that we can review our runs afterward, see our mistakes and improve ourself.
To be honest, I'm certainly not going to make the effort of interrupting him, dodging his attacks and recording that (thus risking to ruin my vMA score) just to prove to an internet stranger that I'm right.

Thanks to @Shaiba you have your proof that it's possible to avoid the attacks. I still fail to understand why you need a video proof to believe that it can be done...

Khajiit did not NEED proof. Khajiit was simply interested to see someone live and kill the boss once he was enraged.

Kiting the boss in that arena is not exactly ideal (Risky, Risky) to do with the mushrooms so wanted to see if there was another way you were talking of doing it.

Qbiken

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

U know that the venomcallers die when the boss does his scream right?? So unless you´ve extreme bad luck you can almost always stand inside a shield with a mushroom inside the shield.

the_man_of_steal

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

that stinksssss! how many times did a plant spawn inside the bubble for you?

Autolycus

daemonor wrote: »

Autolycus wrote: »

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

The timing of the Venomcallers and the mage adds is something you can control. It is contingent upon your pace, primarily your dps (how quickly you kill adds, thus how quickly the next ones spawn), but there are a couple of other factors too. The critical knowledge for this mechanic is two-fold:
1. Venomcallers spawn based on a timer.
2. Mage adds spawn relative to the boss's health.

The best way to overcome this hurdle is to force the Venomcallers to come out when you want them to. For the boss fight specifically, don't go all-out damage on him at the beginning. It's okay to do some steady damage to him and reduce his health. I think the mage adds spawn somewhere between 60-70% of the bosses remaining health. So, I suggest getting him down to 75-80%, then deliberately wait for the Venomcaller to spawn. Kill it, then force the boss into the next phase with the mage adds.

Additionally, I find it's easiest to always tackle the mage add furthest from where the boss spawns first. This forces both the boss and the other mage add to stack together (relatively speaking, they aren't always right on top of each other, but close) in the center, allowing you to stand right next to the boss and go all-out damage while standing in the bubble. You should even be able to use AoE dots with no issue. Abilities like Boundless Storm / Hurricane can be used, just be mindful of the add's health. If it's close to full health when you first move into the protective bubble, he likely will not die from just Boundless Storm / Hurricane alone.

pls stop posting misonfarmation. the argonian shielders DO NOT come based on a boss health. go fire up a vma speedrun on youtube, ull see these guys manage to get away with only 1 set of adds spawning. if your dps is bad you might have to face 2 or even 3 spawns of shielders

In any case it doesn't change the strategy, which works. I have plenty of experience to justify my post here, and I don't need youtube when I can speed/flawless run myself. Share your own experience, maybe I am mistaken. But this is how it works for me and many other people with which I've discussed this extensively. Makes sense though, lower dps will see more adds throughout the course of the fight, so there may be a timed mechanic to it.

Dagoth_Rac

Autolycus wrote: »

daemonor wrote: »

Autolycus wrote: »

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

The timing of the Venomcallers and the mage adds is something you can control. It is contingent upon your pace, primarily your dps (how quickly you kill adds, thus how quickly the next ones spawn), but there are a couple of other factors too. The critical knowledge for this mechanic is two-fold:
1. Venomcallers spawn based on a timer.
2. Mage adds spawn relative to the boss's health.

The best way to overcome this hurdle is to force the Venomcallers to come out when you want them to. For the boss fight specifically, don't go all-out damage on him at the beginning. It's okay to do some steady damage to him and reduce his health. I think the mage adds spawn somewhere between 60-70% of the bosses remaining health. So, I suggest getting him down to 75-80%, then deliberately wait for the Venomcaller to spawn. Kill it, then force the boss into the next phase with the mage adds.

Additionally, I find it's easiest to always tackle the mage add furthest from where the boss spawns first. This forces both the boss and the other mage add to stack together (relatively speaking, they aren't always right on top of each other, but close) in the center, allowing you to stand right next to the boss and go all-out damage while standing in the bubble. You should even be able to use AoE dots with no issue. Abilities like Boundless Storm / Hurricane can be used, just be mindful of the add's health. If it's close to full health when you first move into the protective bubble, he likely will not die from just Boundless Storm / Hurricane alone.

pls stop posting misonfarmation. the argonian shielders DO NOT come based on a boss health. go fire up a vma speedrun on youtube, ull see these guys manage to get away with only 1 set of adds spawning. if your dps is bad you might have to face 2 or even 3 spawns of shielders

In any case it doesn't change the strategy, which works. I have plenty of experience to justify my post here, and I don't need youtube when I can speed/flawless run myself. Share your own experience, maybe I am mistaken. But this is how it works for me and many other people with which I've discussed this extensively. Makes sense though, lower dps will see more adds throughout the course of the fight, so there must be a timed mechanic to it.

I would not be surprised if the shield mage adds do not stack. They are part of a special mechanic to survive boss scream, not traditional, "Let's throw more mobs at player to overwhelm them." So if you hit the boss health threshold for second set of adds, but first set of adds are still up, you may not get double shield mage adds.

In other words, it is possible for the mage adds to both be health based and to get fewer of them the faster you burn boss. I have no hard proof of this. But it would explain how you can seemingly delay mage adds until after Venomcaller, which would not be possible if mage adds were on a strict timer.

Autolycus

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Autolycus wrote: »

daemonor wrote: »

Autolycus wrote: »

wellerrocks wrote: »

This arena is completely broken.

The plants spawn inside of the shields when taking covers, there is nothing you can do. Venomcallers spawn in the opposite side when shielding so they cannot be killed, even with ranged weapons.

Needs a rethink imo...

The timing of the Venomcallers and the mage adds is something you can control. It is contingent upon your pace, primarily your dps (how quickly you kill adds, thus how quickly the next ones spawn), but there are a couple of other factors too. The critical knowledge for this mechanic is two-fold:
1. Venomcallers spawn based on a timer.
2. Mage adds spawn relative to the boss's health.

The best way to overcome this hurdle is to force the Venomcallers to come out when you want them to. For the boss fight specifically, don't go all-out damage on him at the beginning. It's okay to do some steady damage to him and reduce his health. I think the mage adds spawn somewhere between 60-70% of the bosses remaining health. So, I suggest getting him down to 75-80%, then deliberately wait for the Venomcaller to spawn. Kill it, then force the boss into the next phase with the mage adds.

Additionally, I find it's easiest to always tackle the mage add furthest from where the boss spawns first. This forces both the boss and the other mage add to stack together (relatively speaking, they aren't always right on top of each other, but close) in the center, allowing you to stand right next to the boss and go all-out damage while standing in the bubble. You should even be able to use AoE dots with no issue. Abilities like Boundless Storm / Hurricane can be used, just be mindful of the add's health. If it's close to full health when you first move into the protective bubble, he likely will not die from just Boundless Storm / Hurricane alone.

pls stop posting misonfarmation. the argonian shielders DO NOT come based on a boss health. go fire up a vma speedrun on youtube, ull see these guys manage to get away with only 1 set of adds spawning. if your dps is bad you might have to face 2 or even 3 spawns of shielders

In any case it doesn't change the strategy, which works. I have plenty of experience to justify my post here, and I don't need youtube when I can speed/flawless run myself. Share your own experience, maybe I am mistaken. But this is how it works for me and many other people with which I've discussed this extensively. Makes sense though, lower dps will see more adds throughout the course of the fight, so there must be a timed mechanic to it.

I would not be surprised if the shield mage adds do not stack. They are part of a special mechanic to survive boss scream, not traditional, "Let's throw more mobs at player to overwhelm them." So if you hit the boss health threshold for second set of adds, but first set of adds are still up, you may not get double shield mage adds.

In other words, it is possible for the mage adds to both be health based and to get fewer of them the faster you burn boss. I have no hard proof of this. But it would explain how you can seemingly delay mage adds until after Venomcaller, which would not be possible if mage adds were on a strict timer.

I can only say from my own testing and experience that higher dps certainly means fewer mage adds in total throughout the course of the fight. If I remember correctly, having a mage add up does not prevent additional mages from spawning throughout the course of the fight. But feel free to correct me (anyone) if I'm mistaken.

I may have over-stepped my bounds here when I presumed they are timer-based vs. health-based, but I didn't do so without reason. I've done this fight (Idk how many times at this point) with both high and low dps, on different classes (mag and stam) and I've deliberately tested this mechanic to see how much control I have over the mage adds.

In my testing I aimed to confirm one thing: Can I wait to spawn the mage adds until after the Venomcaller comes out? The ultimate goal here is to eliminate the threat of a Venomcaller entirely so that it doesn't coincide with the mages' shield phase. We do have control over this. I've found the RNG components of this round to be much more manageable with knowledge of this level of control.

In some of my previous clears I went all-out dps and ended up spawning the mage adds (which appear to me to be based on % health) simultaneously with Venomcallers (very clearly on a timer) and it almost always results in death. It takes only a single spore to pop at your feet whilst standing in a mage's shield to ruin an entire flawless attempt - and we all know how frustrating that can be. In other runs (including both my own experiences, and those of my friends and guildmates who I've discussed this with) those mage adds have been spawned prior to the Venomcallers, and I've seen the Venomcaller spawn mid-scream.

In any case, the intent here was to inform, not misinform, because deliberate misinformation is just plain stupid. I mean, why would I do that, and what do I have to gain by deliberately telling wrong info? The mage adds consistently spawn at the ~60-70% threshold for me, but I've not made note of the exact % for all of my runs, so I can't say with 100% certainty. I wouldn't be surprised if it were actually both time- and health-based. For example, 65% or 30 seconds, whichever comes first.

SilverWF

Vault of umbrage was created by (let's be really polite here) idiot.
This is 100% random, there is just nowhere to show your skill

Hixtory

Holy necro, Batman!!!