Farmblade Builds for vMA! How to make your Maelstrom farming less painful and cheaper!

Izaki

Greetings,

So I threw together some builds for the cheapest and least painful Maelstrom farm runs possible. I've tried stamina sorcerer, but the fact that I had to use too many potions per run (30 ish) kinda turned me away from that class for farming. So I came up with builds for magicka and stamina nightblades with the sole purpose of farming vMA. Why nightblades? They have the most sustain, so you don't really NEED potions. They have the highest ultimate generation which means your ultimate is always ready for important adds. They have the highest burst which is essential for easy vMA runs. They have mobility which allows for easy kiting.

Keep in mind these builds can also be used for easy first clears for those having trouble on the night blade class.

So we'll start off with probably the easiest class to do vMA on: magicka nightblade. In the spoilers I have put some comments. I will do the stamina nightblade setup in a separate post below.

MAGICKA FARMBLADE
RACE
Anything goes. I'm a High Elf. The best race for all PvE content in terms of pure damage, is probably Dark Elf. Breton works too.

POTIONS, FOOD, MUNDUS, SIGILS, ETC.
The whole point of this build is to spend the least possible time, money and sweat per run.
- Attribute points: 12 health, 52 magicka. 17k health is generally what you'd want to shoot for in trials and end-game PvE in general. You could also, just put all attributes into Magicka and use a health enchantment on a piece of gear.
- I use normal generic magicka potions. I only use them to get ultimate faster (Catalyst passive). There were situations where I didn't use a single potion for the whole vMA run! Talk about saving gold! You don't need them for sustain at all. On average I use around 20 potions per run. That's like 400 gold per run. So basically the quest reward refunds all that potion cost.
- You might have noticed that I don't have any sources of Major Sorcerery (I don't use Sap Essence on the portals anymore). You don't need it, you can still burn and skip most mechanics (I burn the Stage 8 boss in one go every time).
- Take the defensive and offensive sigils to skip mechanics. Remember, you're not going for a score, you're farming for that sweet weapon that you need so much to finish off your BiS build!
- Food is Witchmother's Potent Brew (Magicka + Health + Magicka Recovery).
- Mundus is the Thief.
The repair cost, is refunded by the gold in the chests (if you decide to take it, I don't). I usually need to repair once per run, at the end of Stage 6.

GEAR
We are using staves on both bars. I threw together some gear that I had lying around:
- 2 Grothdarr (Head and Shoulder)
- 4 Infallible Aether (Jewelry and 1 body piece or weapons)
- 5 Julianos (All body pieces or 4 body pieces and weapons)

All enchanted with max magicka glyphs on the body pieces and spell damage glyphs on the jewelry. If you don't have Infallible Aether, you can use Willpower and a random staff. Nothing special in terms of gear. You can also use Twice-born Star instead of Julianos, there really isn't much difference, the health bonus is very nice. Grothdarr is very strong for stages with a lot of adds, if you manage to get adds to stand in the proc, they melt. You can also use Infernal Guardian it, will target all the annoying things (Strangers, Sentries, Trolls, Webspinners, Venomcallers, Totems, etc.) and most of the time it kills them by itself.
Make sure your weapons are Sharpened and you're wearing 6 Light and 1 Heavy pieces.

SKILLS
Inferno Staff Front Bar:
- Impale
- Swallow Soul/Funnel Health
- Blockade of Fire
- Inner Light
- Merciless Resolve
- SOUL HARVEST

Inferno/Lightning Staff Back Bar:
- Refreshing Path
- Crippling Grasp
- Harness Magicka
- Inner Light/Sap Essence
- Siphoning Attacks
- SHOOTING STAR/ELEMENTAL RAGE

Nothing special here. Keep the DoTs down at all times, especially Refreshing Path as it is basically your primary heal along with Funnel Health. The spectral bow proc of Merciless Resolve is a huge burst tool so refresh it straight after you fire it. Because you're using a double destruction staff setup, you can move Blockade to your back bar and Harness Magicka to your front bar if you're not too confident.
Now for the ultimates...
Soul Harvest is a must have on the front bar. It's main purpose is the 12 ultimate per kill. Couple that with the Fighter's Guild passive (Banish the Wicked), on Daedra rounds, you get 21 ultimate per kill! Its also a very powerful ultimate for mini-bosses. The 6 second Empower it provides is huge. One of my favorite ultimates in the game.
I have tried both Shooting Star and Elemental Rage, one thing I can say is that its really all personal preference. I use Elemental Rage with a shock staff on my back bar to get the extra 2 seconds out of this insanely strong ultimate. Keep in mind, that most of the time, whatever you've dropped the Destro Ult on, will die before the duration is through. Most of the time, if I place it correctly, I can clear 2 waves of adds with just one ultimate use. Its also great for bursting down bosses. Another reason to use Thunder Rage over Fiery Rage, is that all Daedra take additional shock damage, so those Crematoria Guards, Valkyn Tephra, the Ash Titan all melt as soon as you drop this ultimate. If you decide to use Shooting Star, you can use a Inferno Staff on the back bar.
Rearming Trap is a great boost to your DPS and a good kiting tool, so you can definitely use it.
Sap Essence will give you Major Sorcerery if you apply on a portal, so its very good as well. It also gives you even more AoE options.
Keep Siphoning Attacks up 100% of the time. It'll save you potions.

CHAMPION POINTS:
I don't bother changing my CP from my usual trial setup.
- MAGE:
56 Elemental Expert, 52 Elfborn, 48 Master-At-Arms, 44 Thaumaturge, 3 Staff Expert, 7 Spell Erosion
- THIEF:
75 Arcanist, 75 Tenacity, 30 Warlord, 30 Tumbling
- WARRIOR:
56 Ironclad, 49 Hardy, 49 Elemental Defender, 33 Thick-skinned, rest into Bastion
This is my set-up, probably not the best, but it works just fine for me!


So this is it for the Magicka Farmblade. Hope you enjoyed it and start farming! If you haven't yet done Veteran Maelstrom Arena, this build will work perfectly fine for that purpose.

Izaki

Sorry for copying and pasting some stuff from the Magicka Farmblade!

STAMINA FARMBLADE

RACE:
I'm a Khajiit, which is the maximum damage race currently. You'll have better sustain with Redguard. Wood elf and Orc work fine too.

POTIONS, FOOD, MUNDUS, SIGILS, ETC.
The whole point of this build is to spend the least possible time, money and sweat per run.
- I use normal generic stamina potions. I only use them to get ultimate faster (Catalyst passive). There were situations where I didn't use a single potion for the whole vMA run! Talk about saving gold! You don't need them for sustain at all. On average I use around 20 potions per run. That's like 400 gold per run. So basically the quest reward refunds all that potion cost. Weapon Power potions are way over-priced on Xbox EU, so its not worth using those for farming.
- Take the defensive and offensive sigils to skip mechanics. Remember, you're not going for a score, you're farming for that sweet weapon that you need so much to finish off your BiS build!
- Food is Stamina and Health.
- Mundus is the Thief.
The repair cost, is refunded by the gold in the chests (if you decide to take it, I don't). I usually need to repair once per run, at the end of Stage 6. Stamina Nightblades are very mobile so if you kite properly, you will avoid a lot of damage, thus avoiding the repair cost.

GEAR:
The gear for a stamina nightblade, isn't quite as easy to get. But I believe that without Vicious Ophidian, there's no point in even trying vMA. It makes sustain and mobility issues history, saving you a lot of pain. I use a Two-Handed weapon for farming vMA, but don't even think of it if you're going for a score. The reason for a 2H, is the easy access to Major Brutality and a burst heal. This is a very unorthodox setup, but it does make runs very easy.
Maelstrom Weapons setup:
- 5 Vicious Ophidian (Jewelry, Head and Shoulders)
- 5 Night Mother's Gaze (Body pieces)
- vMA Battle-Axe and Bow

Non-Maelstrom Weapons setup:
- Velidreth/Molag Kena/Kra'gh/Selene (Head)
- 5 Vicious Ophidian (Jewelry and 2 body pieces)
- 5 Night Mother's Gaze (4 body pieces and weapons)

So we aren't using a monster set. This isn't a problem in the slightest, because your burst is high enough anyway to the point where you can one-shot/two-shot most adds. Spriggan, Twice-born Star or Hunding's Rage work great too. My personal favorite in terms of stamina gear is Twice-Fanged Serpent, but it simply offers too much penetration for mobs in vMA, so you're wasting half of the set bonus.
I'm using a Battle Axe, for the chance to proc a Bleed on the tougher adds, its a nice source of extra damage and in my opinion, its better than the flat damage increase of the Greatsword. I'm using the Double Ravage Health poison (Larva + Nirnroot + Nightshade) on my Maelstrom Battle-Axe, it is a very strong DoT that helps with the burn on bosses.
If you don't have Maelstrom weapons, you can use Night Mother's Gaze weapons (or whatever 5 piece set you decide to use) with a Weapon Damage enchantment and a one piece Monster set piece (Velidreth, Molag Kena, Selene).
Vicious Ophidian, like I said, is a must have. You don't need to have it in gold quality jewelry, blue quality is just fine for farming. So go and farm those Normal Trials!

SKILLS:
Two-Handed Front Bar:
- Killer's Blade/Reverse Slice
- Surprise Attack
- Vigor
- Camouflaged Hunter/Relentless Focus
- Rally
- SOUL HARVEST

Bow Back Bar:
- Endless Hail
- Poison Injection
- Rearming Trap
- Razor Caltrops
- Siphoning Attacks.
- BALLISTA/DAWNBREAKER OF SMITING

Rally is the reason we use a Two-Handed weapon instead of Dual Wield. Its a very good burst heal for those who aren't too comfortable with vMA on a stamina build (myself included, I'm averaging 2-3 deaths per run). This burst heal, turns the arena into a piece of cake. I can even survive the Poison plants on Stage 7, by spamming Rally and keeping Vigor up, while I get to the cleansing pool. It also gives us Major Brutality, something we don't have access to when using Dual Wield, it saves us the potion money.
Surprise Attack is a given.
You can chose between Killer's Blade and Reverse Slice. Killer's Blade does a lot more damage and gives a very nice heal for killing something, which is great as you don't have to lose momentum to apply Rally. Reverse Slice gives you some huge AoE potential. Its up to you. I switch between both depending on the stage. Up until round 7 I use Reverse Slice, then I switch to Killer's Blade.
I keep Vigor on the front bar, simply because there is no space for it on my back bar. Keep it up as much as you can, aka ALL THE TIME.
Camo Hunter is here for the Major Savagery and the passive weapon damage. Or you could use Relentless Focus for a long range nuke and Minor Berserk. Both are equally effective. I prefer the latter as I'm a Khajiit, if you're not a cat, use Camo Hunter.
The whole back bar doesn't need much explaining. Siphoning Attacks are your sustain. I keep it up 100% of the time, just because I feel like it.
Ultimates... Soul Harvest is a must have on the front bar. It's main purpose is the 12 ultimate per kill. Couple that with the Fighter's Guild passive (Banish the Wicked), on Daedra rounds, you get 21 ultimate per kill! Its also a very powerful ultimate for mini-bosses. The 6 second Empower it provides is huge. One of my favorite ultimates in the game.
On the back bar, the most effective ultimate is Ballista for bosses and Dawnbreaker for adds. I tend to keep Dawnbreaker for the whole run, and I spam Soul Harvest on bosses. Ballista will allow for the most impressive burns on bosses, if you can switch it in for boss rounds only, do that for sure.

ABOUT TWO-HANDED COMBOS:
Basically, you fully charge a heavy attack into a Surprise Attack and a light attack into the execute. This is what you're doing for most adds. Actually, for most adds, you don't even need to execute. You get stamina back for the heavy attack, so the combo is pretty much free in stamina cost as you also get stamina from Siphoning Attacks and Vicious Ophidian. For tougher adds, open with the same combo, except instead of executing, you do a few light attack and Surprise Attack weaves. Obviously, keep all your DoTs up at all times.

CHAMPION POINTS:
For vMA only:
- MAGE:
100 Mighty, 56 Precise Strikes, 31 Thaumaturge
- THIEF:
100 Warlord, 87 Tenacity
- WARRIOR:
70 Hardy, 89 Elemental Defender, 27 Thick-skinned, 1 Quick Recovery
This is my set-up, probably not the best, but it works just fine for me!

This is my Stamina Farmblade! Hope you enjoyed it and you can start farming! If you haven't yet done Veteran Maelstrom Arena, this build will work perfectly fine for that purpose.

Sovaso

Great! Bookmark it.

Schmetterfrosch

Good Work.
TY

gentomann

so did you run the magicka setup on housing? does the increased cost of strife matter?

Izaki

gentomann wrote: »

so did you run the magicka setup on housing? does the increased cost of strife matter?

I'm on Xbox so the patch hasn't dropped for me yet, but I don't expect the cost increase to be an issue with the extra CP we get. It is still much cheaper than Force Pulse and I never have any sustain issues on my Sorcerer, so on a Nightblade its even less of a problem.

Standard

I know you said VO is a must, but is there absolutely anything I could use in its place if I'm very familiar with the class?
I just don't have the guilds or friends to farm the trial. I'm on Xbox as well, so if you know of anything after patch, I can work towards that. I just need to start farming VMA to get the weapons I need haha

Skinzz

I dont have VO to this day but i still put up good scores with agility jewelry and maelstrom weapons

Morgul667

Thanks mate appreciated

Izaki

Standard wrote: »

I know you said VO is a must, but is there absolutely anything I could use in its place if I'm very familiar with the class?
I just don't have the guilds or friends to farm the trial. I'm on Xbox as well, so if you know of anything after patch, I can work towards that. I just need to start farming VMA to get the weapons I need haha

Sure you can replace it with Agility and a monster set! Velidreth is by far the most effective in there. Or you could even use another 5 piece like Leviathan or something like that. At this point I think you'll need to chug potions though. Its a real pain doing it without VO. Its fairly easy to farm normal trials, so its your best bet. The free sustain and free mobility it provides makes runs easier. So yeah I'd suggest working towards VO first and then towards vMA weapons

Standard

IzakiBrotherSs wrote: »

Standard wrote: »

I know you said VO is a must, but is there absolutely anything I could use in its place if I'm very familiar with the class?
I just don't have the guilds or friends to farm the trial. I'm on Xbox as well, so if you know of anything after patch, I can work towards that. I just need to start farming VMA to get the weapons I need haha

Sure you can replace it with Agility and a monster set! Velidreth is by far the most effective in there. Or you could even use another 5 piece like Leviathan or something like that. At this point I think you'll need to chug potions though. Its a real pain doing it without VO. Its fairly easy to farm normal trials, so its your best bet. The free sustain and free mobility it provides makes runs easier. So yeah I'd suggest working towards VO first and then towards vMA weapons

Do you know of any guilds on Xbox that run those during the day?

Izaki

Standard wrote: »

IzakiBrotherSs wrote: »

Standard wrote: »

I know you said VO is a must, but is there absolutely anything I could use in its place if I'm very familiar with the class?
I just don't have the guilds or friends to farm the trial. I'm on Xbox as well, so if you know of anything after patch, I can work towards that. I just need to start farming VMA to get the weapons I need haha

Sure you can replace it with Agility and a monster set! Velidreth is by far the most effective in there. Or you could even use another 5 piece like Leviathan or something like that. At this point I think you'll need to chug potions though. Its a real pain doing it without VO. Its fairly easy to farm normal trials, so its your best bet. The free sustain and free mobility it provides makes runs easier. So yeah I'd suggest working towards VO first and then towards vMA weapons

Do you know of any guilds on Xbox that run those during the day?

There are plenty. A lot of people just get groups together in area chat in the main cities. Also most trading guilds have people getting together for normal trials

Standard

OK. Thank you for your help