MagSorc vMA Non Trial Gear

Croblasta

I just bought ESO Plus and I would like to start running vMA. I'm a mag sorc with 225 CP and I've read a lot of the guides for gear/cp/skills/machanincs but I have one question.

Most of the gear listed is trial gear that I don't have yet. currently running TBS/Willpower/Llambris

My question is should I craft a sharpened staff that does not provide set bonuses or incorporate the staff into a set and drop monster set/willpower?

Im also open to a different monster set/jewelry/weapon set that would help specifically for vMA.

Other than that, I know it's a lot of death and practice.

Thanks for you help!

Lukums1

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

Koolio

I've gotten lazy and just run it in my Pvp gear.
Infernal Guardian Seducer inpen willpower and maelstrom staff Sharpened Ice(doesn't break the build). It's more about when and where than gear and cp. You will struggle until it just clicks and it becomes easy. Good luck.

Lukums1

Koolio wrote: »

I've gotten lazy and just run it in my Pvp gear.
Infernal Guardian Seducer inpen willpower and maelstrom staff Sharpened Ice(doesn't break the build). It's more about when and where than gear and cp. You will struggle until it just clicks and it becomes easy. Good luck.

Where I agree with Koolio slightly. In relation to positioning and know when and where to move around collecting sigils etc. All this I explained in my video guide FYI.

The gear will help with crit which then will help with survive ability.
THE CP will help with bastion - the amount of damage you can mitigate as well as hardy/elemental defender.

You have to play as as heavy offence than survive.

In saying this you should run as what I stipulated above, this will grant you the maximum damage output for burst phases during all VMA bosses.

With 400 + CP you could change julianos for TBS but it comes down to personal preference.

Luke

FriedEggSandwich

Lukums1 wrote: »

Koolio wrote: »

I've gotten lazy and just run it in my Pvp gear.
Infernal Guardian Seducer inpen willpower and maelstrom staff Sharpened Ice(doesn't break the build). It's more about when and where than gear and cp. You will struggle until it just clicks and it becomes easy. Good luck.

Where I agree with Koolio slightly. In relation to positioning and know when and where to move around collecting sigils etc. All this I explained in my video guide FYI.

The gear will help with crit which then will help with survive ability.
THE CP will help with bastion - the amount of damage you can mitigate as well as hardy/elemental defender.

You have to play as as heavy offence than survive.

In saying this you should run as what I stipulated above, this will grant you the maximum damage output for burst phases during all VMA bosses.

With 400 + CP you could change julianos for TBS but it comes down to personal preference.

Luke

I recommend running vma with zero cp in bastion. I was advised to do this by someone on the forums a while ago and it's very effective. The difference in ward value between 0cp and 100cp in bastion is 4-5k depending on magicka. Imo 4-5k more ward is not worth 100cp in pve. Those cp serve you better spread over hardy, ele defender and thick skinned. You can achieve 20% damage reduction for you and your ward this way, and 15% less damage from dots (assuming 561cp) which stacks with the 20% from hardy/ele def. With 0cp in bastion and 45k magicka my ward is still 21k which is plenty considering it takes at least 20% less damage. Not sure if this advice is still relevant for someone with 200+cp.

I agree that crit is important for survival, surge has a 1s cooldown afaik so you should be critting at least once per second to heal reliably.

Croblasta

So should I run dual wield on both bars?

Can you also explain the difference between "front bar" and "back bar"?

Do you want to spend most of your time on the front bar and put buffs on back bar?

Looks like I'm gonna switch to Julianos as well.

DRXHarbinger

Croblasta wrote: »

I just bought ESO Plus and I would like to start running vMA. I'm a mag sorc with 225 CP and I've read a lot of the guides for gear/cp/skills/machanincs but I have one question.

Most of the gear listed is trial gear that I don't have yet. currently running TBS/Willpower/Llambris

My question is should I craft a sharpened staff that does not provide set bonuses or incorporate the staff into a set and drop monster set/willpower?

Im also open to a different monster set/jewelry/weapon set that would help specifically for vMA.

Other than that, I know it's a lot of death and practice.

Thanks for you help!

That's what I use on my Sorc although I prefer guardian. Bunch anything up and they crit for 13k and it's aoe. So 39k damage just for hitting ward. That's the exact health the regular trash has. I just use a regular sharp staff with power glyph.

Skills is easy. Staff bar, shock, frags, ward, inner light, aegis and overload.

Sword bar. Fury, liquid, aegis, surge and dark exhange, spam that in between waves and you'll never need potions. Overload.

Overload bar. Ward, surge, liquid, aegis and inner light. Easy mode vma. Gets me 550k score anytime.

Can try elegant and Kena build but good luck getting the swords.

Croblasta

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

So you're saying drop Willpower and go 5 piece elegence?

Do they need to be swords? What is the differnce between the swords and the other one handed weapons?

Lukums1

Croblasta wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

So you're saying drop Willpower and go 5 piece elegence?

Do they need to be swords? What is the differnce between the swords and the other one handed weapons?

Drop willpower 100%.

You don't need swords... people saying swords makes me cringe I don't have the money to invest for some 5% extra damage honestly especially when you're hitting 50k + overloads (anyway) LOL... stupid waste.

Try get sharpen on any weapon of elegant personally I have mace sharpen and dagger sharpen got them very cheap.

At worst precise works a treat also still hitting for that 45-50k mark and you'll be critting more often.

I don't agree which was stated above in 0 in bastion not on your CP or the skill level.

The shield is a life saver end of story. You want flawless and easy clears 100 into bastion split between hardy/elemental defender. Or very least 80 into bastion.

This is dependent on skill and magicka as it will effect the power of your harden ward.

Luke

FriedEggSandwich

Lukums1 wrote: »

Croblasta wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

So you're saying drop Willpower and go 5 piece elegence?

Do they need to be swords? What is the differnce between the swords and the other one handed weapons?

Drop willpower 100%.

You don't need swords... people saying swords makes me cringe I don't have the money to invest for some 5% extra damage honestly especially when you're hitting 50k + overloads (anyway) LOL... stupid waste.

Try get sharpen on any weapon of elegant personally I have mace sharpen and dagger sharpen got them very cheap.

At worst precise works a treat also still hitting for that 45-50k mark and you'll be critting more often.

I don't agree which was stated above in 0 in bastion not on your CP or the skill level.

The shield is a life saver end of story. You want flawless and easy clears 100 into bastion split between hardy/elemental defender. Or very least 80 into bastion.

This is dependent on skill and magicka as it will effect the power of your harden ward.

Luke

Yeah it affects the power of your hardened ward, that's what the tootlip on bastion suggests, my argument was the return you get for your 100cp investment into bastion wasn't big enough to be a no-brainer. I even outlined the approximate return for your 100cp in bastion and it doesn't amount to any more than 5k more ward. Test it yourself. If you feel that 100cp in bastion is worth 4-5k more ward rather than at least 10% more damage reduction globally then go for it. I took the advice of someone more experienced than me and it worked out well for me. I have a 21k ward and the hardest hit I can take in vma is 13k from shatter. You don't need to spend 100cp in bastion for a 26k ward at the expense of global damage reduction.

Edit: @Lukums1 you do realise that the percentage damage reduction from hardy, elemental defender and thick skinned also applies to any ward, right? This is what I mean by global damage reduction; if you take 20% less magic damage from 70cp in ele defender then your ward will also take 20% less magic damage.

Also thick skinned combined with hardy and ele defender will allow the double damage reduction of dots. If you have a fire dot like the crem guard breath then you take n% less damage from the fire and then also n% less damage because it's a dot. These are the reasons I put more value into hardy etc than bastion.

Lukums1

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

Croblasta wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

So you're saying drop Willpower and go 5 piece elegence?

Do they need to be swords? What is the differnce between the swords and the other one handed weapons?

Drop willpower 100%.

You don't need swords... people saying swords makes me cringe I don't have the money to invest for some 5% extra damage honestly especially when you're hitting 50k + overloads (anyway) LOL... stupid waste.

Try get sharpen on any weapon of elegant personally I have mace sharpen and dagger sharpen got them very cheap.

At worst precise works a treat also still hitting for that 45-50k mark and you'll be critting more often.

I don't agree which was stated above in 0 in bastion not on your CP or the skill level.

The shield is a life saver end of story. You want flawless and easy clears 100 into bastion split between hardy/elemental defender. Or very least 80 into bastion.

This is dependent on skill and magicka as it will effect the power of your harden ward.

Luke

Yeah it affects the power of your hardened ward, that's what the tootlip on bastion suggests, my argument was the return you get for your 100cp investment into bastion wasn't big enough to be a no-brainer. I even outlined the approximate return for your 100cp in bastion and it doesn't amount to any more than 5k more ward. Test it yourself. If you feel that 100cp in bastion is worth 4-5k more ward rather than at least 10% more damage reduction globally then go for it. I took the advice of someone more experienced than me and it worked out well for me. I have a 21k ward and the hardest hit I can take in vma is 13k from shatter. You don't need to spend 100cp in bastion for a 26k ward at the expense of global damage reduction.

Edit: @Lukums1 you do realise that the percentage damage reduction from hardy, elemental defender and thick skinned also applies to any ward, right? This is what I mean by global damage reduction; if you take 20% less magic damage from 70cp in ele defender then your ward will also take 20% less magic damage.

Also thick skinned combined with hardy and ele defender will allow the double damage reduction of dots. If you have a fire dot like the crem guard breath then you take n% less damage from the fire and then also n% less damage because it's a dot. These are the reasons I put more value into hardy etc than bastion.

Ok seeing as you wrote a fair amount I shall do the same. I like these discussions.

I understand where you're mitigating damage from all sources.

I prefer knowing and I do... exactly when a ward needs to be applied. Mitigating damage from all sources 100% of the time is (I'm not sure what's coming so I'll play super defensively).

At the end of the day placing points into what you're doing and what I'm doing is virtually the same deal.
Things die way to quickly to cause any significant damage especially swapping to overload on a magicka sorc.

I understand you're testing things and trying new things and that's great. As the wise BEAR once said trial and error is always a good thing. If it works for you go for absolute gold.

I'm just stating what works for me and you're just stating what works for you can't argue with you there at all.

On that note wall of elements liquid lightning (down before guard spawns) 1 hit from crystal shard and maybe a heavy it's dead it rarely even gets the chance to breath fire at all. I suppose that comes with experience. Hence why I have my champion points allocated in those positions.

Tell you what I'll go for a score run tonight and give solid feedback to your take and the options that someone else have given you.

I'm experienced I would say by now, and I haven't stopped learning new ways and better alternatives and if this is the go, I'll be sure to commend you and the person who offered such advice. I shall report back.

Thanks for your write up. Always a pleasure to have a constructive discussion with someone.

Luke

FriedEggSandwich

Lukums1 wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

Croblasta wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

So you're saying drop Willpower and go 5 piece elegence?

Do they need to be swords? What is the differnce between the swords and the other one handed weapons?

Drop willpower 100%.

You don't need swords... people saying swords makes me cringe I don't have the money to invest for some 5% extra damage honestly especially when you're hitting 50k + overloads (anyway) LOL... stupid waste.

Try get sharpen on any weapon of elegant personally I have mace sharpen and dagger sharpen got them very cheap.

At worst precise works a treat also still hitting for that 45-50k mark and you'll be critting more often.

I don't agree which was stated above in 0 in bastion not on your CP or the skill level.

The shield is a life saver end of story. You want flawless and easy clears 100 into bastion split between hardy/elemental defender. Or very least 80 into bastion.

This is dependent on skill and magicka as it will effect the power of your harden ward.

Luke

Yeah it affects the power of your hardened ward, that's what the tootlip on bastion suggests, my argument was the return you get for your 100cp investment into bastion wasn't big enough to be a no-brainer. I even outlined the approximate return for your 100cp in bastion and it doesn't amount to any more than 5k more ward. Test it yourself. If you feel that 100cp in bastion is worth 4-5k more ward rather than at least 10% more damage reduction globally then go for it. I took the advice of someone more experienced than me and it worked out well for me. I have a 21k ward and the hardest hit I can take in vma is 13k from shatter. You don't need to spend 100cp in bastion for a 26k ward at the expense of global damage reduction.

Edit: @Lukums1 you do realise that the percentage damage reduction from hardy, elemental defender and thick skinned also applies to any ward, right? This is what I mean by global damage reduction; if you take 20% less magic damage from 70cp in ele defender then your ward will also take 20% less magic damage.

Also thick skinned combined with hardy and ele defender will allow the double damage reduction of dots. If you have a fire dot like the crem guard breath then you take n% less damage from the fire and then also n% less damage because it's a dot. These are the reasons I put more value into hardy etc than bastion.

Ok seeing as you wrote a fair amount I shall do the same. I like these discussions.

I understand where you're mitigating damage from all sources.

I prefer knowing and I do... exactly when a ward needs to be applied. Mitigating damage from all sources 100% of the time is (I'm not sure what's coming so I'll play super defensively).

At the end of the day placing points into what you're doing and what I'm doing is virtually the same deal.
Things die way to quickly to cause any significant damage especially swapping to overload on a magicka sorc.

I understand you're testing things and trying new things and that's great. As the wise BEAR once said trial and error is always a good thing. If it works for you go for absolute gold.

I'm just stating what works for me and you're just stating what works for you can't argue with you there at all.

On that note wall of elements liquid lightning (down before guard spawns) 1 hit from crystal shard and maybe a heavy it's dead it rarely even gets the chance to breath fire at all. I suppose that comes with experience. Hence why I have my champion points allocated in those positions.

Tell you what I'll go for a score run tonight and give solid feedback to your take and the options that someone else have given you.

I'm experienced I would say by now, and I haven't stopped learning new ways and better alternatives and if this is the go, I'll be sure to commend you and the person who offered such advice. I shall report back.

Thanks for your write up. Always a pleasure to have a constructive discussion with someone.

Luke

Thanks for the detailed response. Yeah I realise there's not much in it either way, but math aside, back when I was still fresh to vma but max cp I was struggling with certain aspects of it with 75cp in bastion. I happened to post in a vma related thread what I was struggling with and one response I got was the advice to take all cp out of bastion and distibute it between hardy etc. I followed the advice and immediately noticed just how much easier it was to survive, night and day. I take no credit for this advice but I can't deny that it worked. So this is the reason I pipe up when I see people advise 100cp in bastion for pve. Pvp is a different matter but I still don't believe stacking 100cp there is good value for your cp. I would be interested to see what you think of the 0cp in bastion vma run.

The way I see it if you're not used to the spawns yet then it's plausible you will need to use your ward more. This inevitably lowers your dps. So anything you can do to reduce the frequency of ward casts is good for players new to the arena.

Lukums1

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

Croblasta wrote: »

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're right on the money.

I did my first clear with the similar CP.

Run the following though "it will be easier"

Julianos / elegant / Llambris ( I prefer valk skoria ) as it's a heat seeking buffed missile from death - TRASH FLAME SHARPEN STAFF GOLD

Elegant dual wield.

Due to your low CP you'll need all the "Cheese" you can get.
Later on you can make changes to your gear.

A lot of practice.

Watch my walkthrough below in my signature it will help you a *** ton.

Luke

So you're saying drop Willpower and go 5 piece elegence?

Do they need to be swords? What is the differnce between the swords and the other one handed weapons?

Drop willpower 100%.

You don't need swords... people saying swords makes me cringe I don't have the money to invest for some 5% extra damage honestly especially when you're hitting 50k + overloads (anyway) LOL... stupid waste.

Try get sharpen on any weapon of elegant personally I have mace sharpen and dagger sharpen got them very cheap.

At worst precise works a treat also still hitting for that 45-50k mark and you'll be critting more often.

I don't agree which was stated above in 0 in bastion not on your CP or the skill level.

The shield is a life saver end of story. You want flawless and easy clears 100 into bastion split between hardy/elemental defender. Or very least 80 into bastion.

This is dependent on skill and magicka as it will effect the power of your harden ward.

Luke

Yeah it affects the power of your hardened ward, that's what the tootlip on bastion suggests, my argument was the return you get for your 100cp investment into bastion wasn't big enough to be a no-brainer. I even outlined the approximate return for your 100cp in bastion and it doesn't amount to any more than 5k more ward. Test it yourself. If you feel that 100cp in bastion is worth 4-5k more ward rather than at least 10% more damage reduction globally then go for it. I took the advice of someone more experienced than me and it worked out well for me. I have a 21k ward and the hardest hit I can take in vma is 13k from shatter. You don't need to spend 100cp in bastion for a 26k ward at the expense of global damage reduction.

Edit: @Lukums1 you do realise that the percentage damage reduction from hardy, elemental defender and thick skinned also applies to any ward, right? This is what I mean by global damage reduction; if you take 20% less magic damage from 70cp in ele defender then your ward will also take 20% less magic damage.

Also thick skinned combined with hardy and ele defender will allow the double damage reduction of dots. If you have a fire dot like the crem guard breath then you take n% less damage from the fire and then also n% less damage because it's a dot. These are the reasons I put more value into hardy etc than bastion.

Ok seeing as you wrote a fair amount I shall do the same. I like these discussions.

I understand where you're mitigating damage from all sources.

I prefer knowing and I do... exactly when a ward needs to be applied. Mitigating damage from all sources 100% of the time is (I'm not sure what's coming so I'll play super defensively).

At the end of the day placing points into what you're doing and what I'm doing is virtually the same deal.
Things die way to quickly to cause any significant damage especially swapping to overload on a magicka sorc.

I understand you're testing things and trying new things and that's great. As the wise BEAR once said trial and error is always a good thing. If it works for you go for absolute gold.

I'm just stating what works for me and you're just stating what works for you can't argue with you there at all.

On that note wall of elements liquid lightning (down before guard spawns) 1 hit from crystal shard and maybe a heavy it's dead it rarely even gets the chance to breath fire at all. I suppose that comes with experience. Hence why I have my champion points allocated in those positions.

Tell you what I'll go for a score run tonight and give solid feedback to your take and the options that someone else have given you.

I'm experienced I would say by now, and I haven't stopped learning new ways and better alternatives and if this is the go, I'll be sure to commend you and the person who offered such advice. I shall report back.

Thanks for your write up. Always a pleasure to have a constructive discussion with someone.

Luke

Thanks for the detailed response. Yeah I realise there's not much in it either way, but math aside, back when I was still fresh to vma but max cp I was struggling with certain aspects of it with 75cp in bastion. I happened to post in a vma related thread what I was struggling with and one response I got was the advice to take all cp out of bastion and distibute it between hardy etc. I followed the advice and immediately noticed just how much easier it was to survive, night and day. I take no credit for this advice but I can't deny that it worked. So this is the reason I pipe up when I see people advise 100cp in bastion for pve. Pvp is a different matter but I still don't believe stacking 100cp there is good value for your cp. I would be interested to see what you think of the 0cp in bastion vma run.

The way I see it if you're not used to the spawns yet then it's plausible you will need to use your ward more. This inevitably lowers your dps. So anything you can do to reduce the frequency of ward casts is good for players new to the arena.

Haha not a problem.

I actually went the complete other way. My first clear was 220CP and oh my god I've never done anything in ANY game as hard as that clear was.

I put as much as I could into bastion to get me by.

However, back in the day I was running health/regen food so this also was a huge contributing factor with me running bastion and not disregarding it.

Cheers mate.

Luke

X3ina

Julianos/Elegant/Kena - For high cp experienced players (When you use OL enemies/bosses just melt...)
Julianos/Elegant/Ilambris - For any players (Good for killing trashmobs IF you stay still and don't move them)

Elegant swords - not a problem if you're on pc, download harvest map addon, get players data and go chestfarming (with treasure hunter passive unlocked).

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S. shields don't have resistances so it doesn't matter if you have 100 points in hardy/elemental defender/thick skinned or not, but i strongly advice you to not put ANY points in bastion (you just can't have your shields up 100% uptime it is such a waste to your dps and resources imo)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

FriedEggSandwich

X3ina wrote: »

Julianos/Elegant/Kena - For high cp experienced players (When you use OL enemies/bosses just melt...)
Julianos/Elegant/Ilambris - For any players (Good for killing trashmobs IF you stay still and don't move them)

Elegant swords - not a problem if you're on pc, download harvest map addon, get players data and go chestfarming (with treasure hunter passive unlocked).

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S. shields don't have resistances so it doesn't matter if you have 100 points in hardy/elemental defender/thick skinned or not, but i strongly advice you to not put ANY points in bastion (you just can't have your shields up 100% uptime it is such a waste to your dps and resources imo)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

Hardy, Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Expert Defender don't count as 'resistances'. They're a flat damage reduction that is calculated before anything else. This is necessary in pvp because Elemental Expert, Mighty, Thaumaturge, Melee Weapon Expert and Staff Expert all increase the damage from respective damage types against damage shields. So if the aforementioned damage reduction trees didn't apply to your wards it would be pretty unbalanced, don't you think?

So putting 70cp into Hardy will decrease the damage you take from physical attacks by about 20%, but will also decrease the damage your wards take by the same amount. You're free to test this.

As I mentioned earlier the difference between 0cp in bastion and 100cp in bastion, with 45k magicka, is just an extra 4-5k on your ward. That's what, 1 or 2 more hits? So you spent 100cp to be able to take 1 or 2 more hits. Whereas you could spend those cp making all your wards at least 20% stronger against all damage.

With 0cp in bastion and 45k magicka my hardened ward is 21k. This is more than enough to absorb a few hits giving surge time to heal, which is all you need your ward for.

Also spinners > julianos in vma. The extra 4k penetration adds more damage than the extra 6% crit.

X3ina

Messed up with crit sry xD

Yeah, spinner is beast in solo content and divines parts are cheap enough btw

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

X3ina wrote: »

Julianos/Elegant/Kena - For high cp experienced players (When you use OL enemies/bosses just melt...)
Julianos/Elegant/Ilambris - For any players (Good for killing trashmobs IF you stay still and don't move them)

Elegant swords - not a problem if you're on pc, download harvest map addon, get players data and go chestfarming (with treasure hunter passive unlocked).

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S. shields don't have resistances so it doesn't matter if you have 100 points in hardy/elemental defender/thick skinned or not, but i strongly advice you to not put ANY points in bastion (you just can't have your shields up 100% uptime it is such a waste to your dps and resources imo)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

Hardy, Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Expert Defender don't count as 'resistances'. They're a flat damage reduction that is calculated before anything else. This is necessary in pvp because Elemental Expert, Mighty, Thaumaturge, Melee Weapon Expert and Staff Expert all increase the damage from respective damage types against damage shields. So if the aforementioned damage reduction trees didn't apply to your wards it would be pretty unbalanced, don't you think?

So putting 70cp into Hardy will decrease the damage you take from physical attacks by about 20%, but will also decrease the damage your wards take by the same amount. You're free to test this.

As I mentioned earlier the difference between 0cp in bastion and 100cp in bastion, with 45k magicka, is just an extra 4-5k on your ward. That's what, 1 or 2 more hits? So you spent 100cp to be able to take 1 or 2 more hits. Whereas you could spend those cp making all your wards at least 20% stronger against all damage.

With 0cp in bastion and 45k magicka my hardened ward is 21k. This is more than enough to absorb a few hits giving surge time to heal, which is all you need your ward for.

Also spinners > julianos in vma. The extra 4k penetration adds more damage than the extra 6% crit.

Couple of things, first you only really need one sharpened elegant weapon, it does NOT matters if it is a sword, the passives from dual wielding go away in overload. Then get one piece of divines armor and then make a sharpened staff of julinanos and a sharpened one handed weapon of julinanos for your back bar.

Then there is spinners vs julinanos. There are bosses in vMA that only have 9k spell resistance. So you get that through the light armor passives and having sharpened weapons, so spinners is a waste for a good chunk of the bosses, including the last one, as they only have 9k resist.

FriedEggSandwich

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

X3ina wrote: »

Julianos/Elegant/Kena - For high cp experienced players (When you use OL enemies/bosses just melt...)
Julianos/Elegant/Ilambris - For any players (Good for killing trashmobs IF you stay still and don't move them)

Elegant swords - not a problem if you're on pc, download harvest map addon, get players data and go chestfarming (with treasure hunter passive unlocked).

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S. shields don't have resistances so it doesn't matter if you have 100 points in hardy/elemental defender/thick skinned or not, but i strongly advice you to not put ANY points in bastion (you just can't have your shields up 100% uptime it is such a waste to your dps and resources imo)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

Hardy, Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Expert Defender don't count as 'resistances'. They're a flat damage reduction that is calculated before anything else. This is necessary in pvp because Elemental Expert, Mighty, Thaumaturge, Melee Weapon Expert and Staff Expert all increase the damage from respective damage types against damage shields. So if the aforementioned damage reduction trees didn't apply to your wards it would be pretty unbalanced, don't you think?

So putting 70cp into Hardy will decrease the damage you take from physical attacks by about 20%, but will also decrease the damage your wards take by the same amount. You're free to test this.

As I mentioned earlier the difference between 0cp in bastion and 100cp in bastion, with 45k magicka, is just an extra 4-5k on your ward. That's what, 1 or 2 more hits? So you spent 100cp to be able to take 1 or 2 more hits. Whereas you could spend those cp making all your wards at least 20% stronger against all damage.

With 0cp in bastion and 45k magicka my hardened ward is 21k. This is more than enough to absorb a few hits giving surge time to heal, which is all you need your ward for.

Also spinners > julianos in vma. The extra 4k penetration adds more damage than the extra 6% crit.

Couple of things, first you only really need one sharpened elegant weapon, it does NOT matters if it is a sword, the passives from dual wielding go away in overload. Then get one piece of divines armor and then make a sharpened staff of julinanos and a sharpened one handed weapon of julinanos for your back bar.

Then there is spinners vs julinanos. There are bosses in vMA that only have 9k spell resistance. So you get that through the light armor passives and having sharpened weapons, so spinners is a waste for a good chunk of the bosses, including the last one, as they only have 9k resist.

I've heard that but I'm not sure, zos haven't confirmed whether vma was subject to resistance increase or not afaik. I've run vma with combinations of julianos + elegant, julianos + spinners and elegant + spinners. There's not much in it really but I have an easier time with elegant and spinners, despite surge being slightly more reliable with julianos. I realise that it will over penetrate at least some of the arena, but because it's hard to prove just how much penetration you do need I've just settled for what seems to be slightly faster. So I admit I shouldn't have made that statement with as much conviction, apologies.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

X3ina wrote: »

Julianos/Elegant/Kena - For high cp experienced players (When you use OL enemies/bosses just melt...)
Julianos/Elegant/Ilambris - For any players (Good for killing trashmobs IF you stay still and don't move them)

Elegant swords - not a problem if you're on pc, download harvest map addon, get players data and go chestfarming (with treasure hunter passive unlocked).

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S. shields don't have resistances so it doesn't matter if you have 100 points in hardy/elemental defender/thick skinned or not, but i strongly advice you to not put ANY points in bastion (you just can't have your shields up 100% uptime it is such a waste to your dps and resources imo)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

Hardy, Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Expert Defender don't count as 'resistances'. They're a flat damage reduction that is calculated before anything else. This is necessary in pvp because Elemental Expert, Mighty, Thaumaturge, Melee Weapon Expert and Staff Expert all increase the damage from respective damage types against damage shields. So if the aforementioned damage reduction trees didn't apply to your wards it would be pretty unbalanced, don't you think?

So putting 70cp into Hardy will decrease the damage you take from physical attacks by about 20%, but will also decrease the damage your wards take by the same amount. You're free to test this.

As I mentioned earlier the difference between 0cp in bastion and 100cp in bastion, with 45k magicka, is just an extra 4-5k on your ward. That's what, 1 or 2 more hits? So you spent 100cp to be able to take 1 or 2 more hits. Whereas you could spend those cp making all your wards at least 20% stronger against all damage.

With 0cp in bastion and 45k magicka my hardened ward is 21k. This is more than enough to absorb a few hits giving surge time to heal, which is all you need your ward for.

Also spinners > julianos in vma. The extra 4k penetration adds more damage than the extra 6% crit.

Couple of things, first you only really need one sharpened elegant weapon, it does NOT matters if it is a sword, the passives from dual wielding go away in overload. Then get one piece of divines armor and then make a sharpened staff of julinanos and a sharpened one handed weapon of julinanos for your back bar.

Then there is spinners vs julinanos. There are bosses in vMA that only have 9k spell resistance. So you get that through the light armor passives and having sharpened weapons, so spinners is a waste for a good chunk of the bosses, including the last one, as they only have 9k resist.

I've heard that but I'm not sure, zos haven't confirmed whether vma was subject to resistance increase or not afaik. I've run vma with combinations of julianos + elegant, julianos + spinners and elegant + spinners. There's not much in it really but I have an easier time with elegant and spinners, despite surge being slightly more reliable with julianos. I realise that it will over penetrate at least some of the arena, but because it's hard to prove just how much penetration you do need I've just settled for what seems to be slightly faster. So I admit I shouldn't have made that statement with as much conviction, apologies.

It is remarkably easy actually, at least for the bosses, as there is the two-handed ultimate that gives you added resist based on the targets.

Someone did this and you can see the receipts here- http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/stamina-nightblade-pve-dps-guide-for-dark-brotherhood/

More specifically here- http://i.imgur.com/NDA6oux.jpg

FriedEggSandwich

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

X3ina wrote: »

Julianos/Elegant/Kena - For high cp experienced players (When you use OL enemies/bosses just melt...)
Julianos/Elegant/Ilambris - For any players (Good for killing trashmobs IF you stay still and don't move them)

Elegant swords - not a problem if you're on pc, download harvest map addon, get players data and go chestfarming (with treasure hunter passive unlocked).

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S. shields don't have resistances so it doesn't matter if you have 100 points in hardy/elemental defender/thick skinned or not, but i strongly advice you to not put ANY points in bastion (you just can't have your shields up 100% uptime it is such a waste to your dps and resources imo)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

Hardy, Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Expert Defender don't count as 'resistances'. They're a flat damage reduction that is calculated before anything else. This is necessary in pvp because Elemental Expert, Mighty, Thaumaturge, Melee Weapon Expert and Staff Expert all increase the damage from respective damage types against damage shields. So if the aforementioned damage reduction trees didn't apply to your wards it would be pretty unbalanced, don't you think?

So putting 70cp into Hardy will decrease the damage you take from physical attacks by about 20%, but will also decrease the damage your wards take by the same amount. You're free to test this.

As I mentioned earlier the difference between 0cp in bastion and 100cp in bastion, with 45k magicka, is just an extra 4-5k on your ward. That's what, 1 or 2 more hits? So you spent 100cp to be able to take 1 or 2 more hits. Whereas you could spend those cp making all your wards at least 20% stronger against all damage.

With 0cp in bastion and 45k magicka my hardened ward is 21k. This is more than enough to absorb a few hits giving surge time to heal, which is all you need your ward for.

Also spinners > julianos in vma. The extra 4k penetration adds more damage than the extra 6% crit.

Couple of things, first you only really need one sharpened elegant weapon, it does NOT matters if it is a sword, the passives from dual wielding go away in overload. Then get one piece of divines armor and then make a sharpened staff of julinanos and a sharpened one handed weapon of julinanos for your back bar.

Then there is spinners vs julinanos. There are bosses in vMA that only have 9k spell resistance. So you get that through the light armor passives and having sharpened weapons, so spinners is a waste for a good chunk of the bosses, including the last one, as they only have 9k resist.

I've heard that but I'm not sure, zos haven't confirmed whether vma was subject to resistance increase or not afaik. I've run vma with combinations of julianos + elegant, julianos + spinners and elegant + spinners. There's not much in it really but I have an easier time with elegant and spinners, despite surge being slightly more reliable with julianos. I realise that it will over penetrate at least some of the arena, but because it's hard to prove just how much penetration you do need I've just settled for what seems to be slightly faster. So I admit I shouldn't have made that statement with as much conviction, apologies.

It is remarkably easy actually, at least for the bosses, as there is the two-handed ultimate that gives you added resist based on the targets.

Someone did this and you can see the receipts here- http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/stamina-nightblade-pve-dps-guide-for-dark-brotherhood/

More specifically here- http://i.imgur.com/NDA6oux.jpg

I saw the forum thread and those figures and I'm still dubious, they don't line up with what I experience, which is why I mentioned a zos confirmation; I would accept that. Regardless, those figures don't actually indicate what makes for a quicker run. According to the figures 3 of the bosses have 18k, 3 have 12k and 3 have 9k, so taking this at face value what is the perfect amount of penetration for the whole arena, assuming you don't switch gear for bosses? 12k? 15k? The lower you go the slower those 18k bosses will be, which is a third of the arena. I didn't read the whole article you linked so apologies if that's mentioned in there. 6% crit isn't particularly significant compared to the damage you would lose from under penetrating the majority of the arena. I will try it with julianos and elegant again today to see if I was mistaken, but I did run with that setup for quite a while and my performance has been better since switching to spinners. Maybe that's just because I've improved. Whatever the result the differences are small so it's probably not worth worrying about.

code65536

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

6% crit isn't particularly significant compared to the damage you would lose from under penetrating the majority of the arena.

Julianos also gives you slightly higher base damage (299 SD > 129 SD + 967 max mag).

Concentration and sharp weapons gives you about 10K penetration. You're already overpenetrating the 9K enemies, and if you use Spinner, you'll be gaining about 2K penetration against the 12K enemies and the full 4K against the 18K enemies for class/guild abilities.

Destro staff light/heavy attacks, Force Pulse, and Blockade gain penetration equal to 10% of the enemy's resistance from the destro staff passive. So against the 12K enemies, you now have 11.2K penetration without Spinner, and against the 18K enemies, you'll have 11.8K penetration. So for destro staff damage, only the 18K enemies would benefit from Spinner.

Finally, if you run ele drain for sustain (e.g., magdk, and some magsorcs do this too), that's another 5K penetration, in which case, Spinner's just trash in every round.

At the end of the day, this means that Spinner is useful only in a few rounds of vMA, and even then, it's only marginally better than Julianos. Not useful in rounds with lower resistance, which probably makes it not that useful in vMA in general. Not useful in dungeons or trials (because there will always be Pierce/Ele up). Why would anyone waste their time and gold with this set for PvE is beyond me.

FriedEggSandwich

code65536 wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

6% crit isn't particularly significant compared to the damage you would lose from under penetrating the majority of the arena.

Julianos also gives you slightly higher base damage (299 SD > 129 SD + 967 max mag).

Concentration and sharp weapons gives you about 10K penetration. You're already overpenetrating the 9K enemies, and if you use Spinner, you'll be gaining about 2K penetration against the 12K enemies and the full 4K against the 18K enemies for class/guild abilities.

Destro staff light/heavy attacks, Force Pulse, and Blockade gain penetration equal to 10% of the enemy's resistance from the destro staff passive. So against the 12K enemies, you now have 11.2K penetration without Spinner, and against the 18K enemies, you'll have 11.8K penetration. So for destro staff damage, only the 18K enemies would benefit from Spinner.

Finally, if you run ele drain for sustain (e.g., magdk, and some magsorcs do this too), that's another 5K penetration, in which case, Spinner's just trash in every round.

At the end of the day, this means that Spinner is useful only in a few rounds of vMA, and even then, it's only marginally better than Julianos. Not useful in rounds with lower resistance, which probably makes it not that useful in vMA in general. Not useful in dungeons or trials (because there will always be Pierce/Ele up). Why would anyone waste their time and gold with this set for PvE is beyond me.

I just ran vma with julianos and elegant again and wasn't any faster overall than I would be with spinners and elegant. Some sections were faster, others seemed slower and more of a slog, overall I was a bit slower and I died 5 times which is about average for me (15.8k hp). I didn't even feel much more survivable with the extra crit.

I was wrong about the 6%, it's actually only about 4% more crit from julianos. Surge heals felt slightly more snappy. I took screenshots of the difference in character sheets between the two setups. Julianos has more spell damage as you say but spinners gives about 1k more magicka, the spell damage outweighs the magicka but it's marginal. The spell pen for julainos is much lower though; I went from fully penetrating 2/3 of the arena, and almost fully penetrating all of it, to fully penetrating just 1/3 of the arena. I can see how julianos is better for the trash but I'm arguing that it isn't any quicker overall, and might still be slower; I can't really conclude properly from just one run of it, I might be having an off day.

Either way, like I said, the difference isn't huge and not worth worrying about. Spinners certainly isn't a trash set for solo pve though. Regarding elemental drain; I don't have room for it in vma, I have 2 toggles.

Here is the char sheet for 5 julianos, 5 elegant, 1 sharpened vma ice staff on front bar, and 2 sharpened torugs swords on back bar:

Front Bar:



Back Bar:

And here is the char sheet for 5 spinners, 5 elegant, 1 sharpened vma ice staff on front bar, and 2 sharpened torugs swords on back bar:

Front Bar:


Back Bar:

Croblasta

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

X3ina wrote: »

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

Couple of things, first you only really need one sharpened elegant weapon, it does NOT matters if it is a sword, the passives from dual wielding go away in overload. Then get one piece of divines armor and then make a sharpened staff of julinanos and a sharpened one handed weapon of julinanos for your back bar.

Can you explain the reasoning for Elegant staff vs Jul staff? I'm not opposed to farming it but getting Jul weapons and 1 sharp elegant 1h would definitely be easier.

How did you get up to 20k health? Undaunted?

I think I'm gonna go Jul/Ele/Monster and then get to work.

I've really enjoyed all the theory crafting and had no idea about the reasoning for DW and the 5% damage increase with swords.

Is the idea to be in the back bar as little as possible and/or to pop overload?

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

Okay so first off, if it works for you, it works for you, I run vMA with a master lightning staff and use shock reach as my spammable, just because I have ran it so many times with force pulse, I really don't like the animation of it. I understand that it is better DPS but I have more fun with julinanos /elegant/ valkyn and my sharpened master lightning staff. Other then reach as a spammable, I run a pretty straightforward overload build.


So take what I say with that in mind.

Croblasta wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

X3ina wrote: »

For main bar i would advice sharpened fire elegant staff over anything ... even vma fire staff (if non sharp)

P.S.2. Make sure you have about 20k health for the first time you go there, and utilize the sigils.

Good luck!

Couple of things, first you only really need one sharpened elegant weapon, it does NOT matters if it is a sword, the passives from dual wielding go away in overload. Then get one piece of divines armor and then make a sharpened staff of julinanos and a sharpened one handed weapon of julinanos for your back bar.

Can you explain the reasoning for Elegant staff vs Jul staff? I'm not opposed to farming it but getting Jul weapons and 1 sharp elegant 1h would definitely be easier.

How did you get up to 20k health? Undaunted?

I think I'm gonna go Jul/Ele/Monster and then get to work.

I've really enjoyed all the theory crafting and had no idea about the reasoning for DW and the 5% damage increase with swords.

Is the idea to be in the back bar as little as possible and/or to pop overload

The reason for a crafted staff on one bar and and crafted one handed on the other is that it is infinitely easier to get a piece of divines armor( you can got any of the five body pieces) then a sharpened elegant fire destro and sharpened one handers. Much cheaper too.

I don't run 20k health on my sorc, with undaunted maxed and nothing into health, I have 17.5k health, more then enough for me. But when I use skoria, that goes up 1k, so you have that option.

There is only one damage skill that you would ever have on the dual wield bar that swords would matter, that is mages fury, otherwise you are just dropping liquid lightning and going right back to force pulse spammin.

The passive twin blade and blunt goes away when you go into overload, eberythjng else stays the same, ie spell damage and the weapon traits(sharpened).

schnooty

Read the post about how mitigation works.

Some mitigation comes before the shield and some after.

Crits don't affect the shield.

Max mitigation from resists is around 33k

The various sources of mitigation are multiplicative, not additive, so you don't get a flat % for each source of mitigation.

CP points can get half of the full effect from one third the max cp you can put into a skill (37 points nets you 12.5% reduction in Hardy and Elemental Defender), so it's best to spread the points around in your trees for maximum benefit.

It appears to me that a balanced approach to your character is best.

Good luck!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Trials gear is not required for VMA and isnt even BIS if you have it. Build like this and thank me later. Other than Llambris, everything is crafted or BOE (Also, Lambris is best on sorc, so you are good there):

Jewelry: Elegant
Head Shoulders: Llambris
Chest, Legs, Waist, Gloves, feet: 4 TBS and 1 Elegent
Front Bar: TBS SHARP staff
Back Bar: TBS SHARP Sword, Elegant Sharp DW weapon.

Enchants: Magic, Spell damage, Spell power (for staff, doesnt matter on DW).
Traits: Divines and Sharp (Sharp is so OP its not even funny. All other weapon traits suck).
Weight: 5/1/1 (light) with unduanted passives
Mundus: Thief + Shadow (You could sub in julianos for a hair more DPS instead of TBS and just go thief, TBS is better when learning for the stats).

The only expensive thing on this list is a sharp elegant DW weapon. As the DW passive doesnt impact overload, it doesnt matter whether its a sword, dagger, axe or mace.

The result: 5 TBS, 4 Elegent, 2 LLambris on front bar, and 5 TBS, 5 Elegant, 2 Llambris on back bar. You wont lose the TBS bonus when you swap as long as you have TBS weapons on both bars. This also allows you to ensure you have the sharpened trait. NEVER run a staff that isnt sharpened. You can get by with your elegant DW weapon being another trait, but sharp is best.

This will give you very solid front bar DPS and when you go to overload from your back bar, you will get the 20% elegent bonus. It really is the best of both worlds. Even if you had all the trial gear available to you, you wont beat this setup. Elegent jewelry and armor is less 10k each. You can get random Elegent weapons for about that, and sharpened ones for 150-250k. Worth the price if you have the gold. I have every trial piece and VMA sharp inferno, but I dont use them because this is still better in VMA.

Edit: I wanted to look up stats.
Front Bar: 18447 Health, 46,798 Magic, 11,272 Stamina, Spell Damage 2456, Spell Crit, 58.7%, Magic Recovery 853
Overload Bar: 18447 Health, 46,132 Magic, 11,272 Stamina, Spell Damage 2925, Spell Crit, 58.7%, Magic Recovery 842

This is self buffed with Power Surge and Inner Light (major sorc, major proph). The Spell Damage looks low, but remember we are running shadow mundus with TBS. We are also running a Spell Power Glyph on our staff that procs for 348 spell damage. And lastly, our overloads are getting a twenty percent Buff. My overloads crit for 44.1k on mammoths, with no other penetrations buffs.

darthsithis

So no burning spell weave? I was doing 5x bsw, 2 ilambris, 3 aether jewelry, maelstrom destro aether destro.

I'm going for flawless as I have done leaderboards. I want that title so badly I know the mechanics...idk why I keep dying like only 2x per run.

I used to do 5x elegant 2x kena 3 aether, 2 torugs, and maelstrom staff, but the sustain kinda stunk. Anyone got advice for a flawless run? I'll run whatever gear I gotta, I just seriously get to round 8 and die from some dumb crap. Idk tho ppl at burning spell weave is what's in right now. Disagree?

Lukums1

Personally...

I love the 5 julianos 5 elegant 2 valk skoria...

I generally flawless it and leadboard everyweek easily...

If you're dieing from round 8 do what I did and identify exactly where and then hit the sigil coming up to the RNG spot.

For example round 8-4 with the mini boss hits like a truck pulls you into the circle etc etc. If you get the defensive sigil exactly when the 2 malee guys die it's virtually impossible to die here.

I'm just stating for an example.

Where I do like TBS I find losing the crit especially on a magicka sorc is not worth the loss for the extra cirt damage.

I rather have the sustain hands down with more crits the more you'll heal.

Again my 2 cents.