VMA Dilemma!

ESOMark

Alright, so I have been doing some VMA recently and have come to standstill. I have not been doing too bad on my stam dk but I feel like I could do better if I had VO armor, just that I never can seem to find a group to run trials . I am running dw and bow for my stam dk which does a good amount of damage just find myself dying very quickly, only heals I have are vigor and then obsidian shield to reduce damage taken.

The question I have been asking myself is whether I should keep trying with my stam dk or switch to mag dk, or even try vma on my magplar which is only level 24 so I would have to level the character up for awhile.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you

Lukums1

Hey Mark,

DK Stam is fine I normally hit 510-520 these days score runs granted it's much harder but until you have VO do the following.

Run max heal + regen food - ensure you have 18.5k HP (whatever you need to do to get you there)

Run NMG this way you can have to constantly apply breath (thats what I do)

I never use shield on my stam dk EVER.

I setup like this:

Rapid/claw/breath/ blades (aoe) reduction/rearming trap - rend
poison inject/endless hail/ harden armor/caltrops/vigor - magma shell

Can post a video if it helps you tonight.

Luke

ESOMark

@Lukums1 a video would be awesome! Is there nay armor I can substitute for VO cause I'm not sure I'll be able to get it?

WarpigFunk

@ESOMark where is your standstill? Can probably help with some tactics to make it go smoother.


I can assure you without equivocation that having VO is not going to solve the issue. I dont have a stormproof DK, so for sure Lukums can give you MUCH better tactical advice, but I do have clears with both mag and stam characters - and as far as strategic advice goes, I can tell you what I tell anyone struggling with VMA - all you really need to get your first clear is a hefty commitment - like dying over and over and over in maelstrom doesn't mean you're "stuck" it means you're learning.
Thats just the barrier to entry in there. Even if you have the best gear you will struggle pulling a first clear.

The other day I was farming skyreach - and after a few clears I got bored and decided to hit up Maelstrom - After clearing it in around an hour and 5 minutes or so which is totally normal for me - I realized the entire run I'd been wearing a full set of crappy Julianos training gear with my cp all messed up to get the treasure hunter passive ... I'd normally be running full gold Necropotence / 4 pc Moondancer / divine ilambris ... But I had Spinner/ Julianos, no monster set - and all crappy training traits. Didn't realize under my costume that I never swapped gear until after the clear ... and bottom line, my time and deaths through the full clear were totally within the range of normal for me - not the best run ever, certainly not the worst.

Gear is almost (not totally) negligible in there. It's all about mechanics, priorities, and positioning/timing ... all of that comes with experience - and for maelstrom, much of that experience is gained at the business end of a re-spawn.

Marsgodofwar

@WarpigFunk this is the advice I wish had gotten. I am still working on my first clear but I put off starting for the longest time trying to get the perfect gear.

I started this past Friday and just finished stage 7 last night. I'm running around with 5 necro, 5 julianos and Kena shoulder many less than stellar traits as well as a cp150 staff.

Yea better gear would help but it won't carry me through this thing. Just time, effort and determination.

PS: I can easily get a cp160 staff since it's julianos it's just that I didn't realize it was 150 till halfway through and now I'm determined to at least try to make it through with this just to prove the above point.

WarpigFunk

Marsgodofwar wrote: »

@WarpigFunk this is the advice I wish had gotten. I am still working on my first clear but I put off starting for the longest time trying to get the perfect gear.

I started this past Friday and just finished stage 7 last night. I'm running around with 5 necro, 5 julianos and Kena shoulder many less than stellar traits as well as a cp150 staff.

Yea better gear would help but it won't carry me through this thing. Just time, effort and determination.

PS: I can easily get a cp160 staff since it's julianos it's just that I didn't realize it was 150 till halfway through and now I'm determined to at least try to make it through with this just to prove the above point.

Well ... to be fair, gear is def not the end all be all in there, BUT at least having a 160 weapon golded out, will make your life a bit easier. Stuff will just die a little quicker, save you some resources etc ...

You dont need to go get BiS sets or anything, but yea, wouldn't hurt to have your weapons at least being max'd, even if they're just random items, not part of any set or anything. Not necessary... just convenient.

Marsgodofwar

WarpigFunk wrote: »

Marsgodofwar wrote: »

@WarpigFunk this is the advice I wish had gotten. I am still working on my first clear but I put off starting for the longest time trying to get the perfect gear.

I started this past Friday and just finished stage 7 last night. I'm running around with 5 necro, 5 julianos and Kena shoulder many less than stellar traits as well as a cp150 staff.

Yea better gear would help but it won't carry me through this thing. Just time, effort and determination.

PS: I can easily get a cp160 staff since it's julianos it's just that I didn't realize it was 150 till halfway through and now I'm determined to at least try to make it through with this just to prove the above point.

Well ... to be fair, gear is def not the end all be all in there, BUT at least having a 160 weapon golded out, will make your life a bit easier. Stuff will just die a little quicker, save you some resources etc ...

You dont need to go get BiS sets or anything, but yea, wouldn't hurt to have your weapons at least being max'd, even if they're just random items, not part of any set or anything. Not necessary... just convenient.

Definitely don't disagree with ya on the weapon, it was more of an accident at first that turned into a personal challenge haha.

Upright_man

ESOMark wrote: »

Alright, so I have been doing some VMA recently and have come to standstill. I have not been doing too bad on my stam dk but I feel like I could do better if I had VO armor, just that I never can seem to find a group to run trials . I am running dw and bow for my stam dk which does a good amount of damage just find myself dying very quickly, only heals I have are vigor and then obsidian shield to reduce damage taken.

The question I have been asking myself is whether I should keep trying with my stam dk or switch to mag dk, or even try vma on my magplar which is only level 24 so I would have to level the character up for awhile.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you

I guess my question here is.. what stage are you stuck on?
Or is that you want to clear it faster?

ESOMark

@upright_man I'm stuck on the stage with the ice, i believe it's round 5

Upright_man

Oh Yeah, that's a fun one alright. Especially as a melee stamina character.

So are you stuck on a specific wave of trash or the boss?

ForsakenSin

@ESOMark

the way i finished this the first time it took me a long time and lots of swearing but i managed to find the way

the 3 island you have
1 has a health bar
2 that one there is a shield and damage
3 has speed

you want to go to speed one get the boss there two adds will spwan one is archer and other with sword you can kill them by the time boss comes to the island ,

As i can remember the once when the boss drops to 75%, 45% and %10 he will destroy the island and you want to run the the second island with health use it , you can interrupt the trolls or run towards them bash kill it and then run back to the island .

Once when there is only one island left with the shield and power use the shield as adds will appear that will be using range attacks and those range attacks will be deflected back so focus on boss... once when the shield is down pick up power at 10% roll out of the island before she smashes the island by this time you have saved up your ult and just demolish her.


it took me a long long time to finish this one on my 1st go ... i was rage quitting swearing , and one night i just killed her.

Lukums1

Please pelase please watch my vMA guide

It shows you how to make the ice round so stupid easy...

You don't need VO I did vma in blue training gear in first person.. following my own guide step by step.

Yes you need to watch the environmentals and cleaves but it will help you a stupid amount.

Go to my twitch page and find both vMA guides it tells you exactly what to do and when, ( its for mage ) but the strat is the same on ALL classes I promise you this.

Dump the max/max go regen food and ensure 18.5 k hp the rest will come

Chiefpoppasquat

Question I'm on spider stage when is optimal time to have all the lights dewebbed only had like 30 mins before work today got close tho

Upright_man

Well i dont usually find theres an important time to de-webb during the rounds. i normally clear all but one on the round right before the boss and agro a hoarver when im finishing the last mob. then when boss spawns i kill hoarver on the last pillar so it stuns the boss while i beat the crap out of her with no risks.

Lukums1

Chiefpoppasquat wrote: »

Question I'm on spider stage when is optimal time to have all the lights dewebbed only had like 30 mins before work today got close tho

More specific please:

None on round 1-2.

BUT on round 3 you wanna wait for the second set of adds as the mini boss goes into lightning form and a million times harder to kill with suppression field and extra resistances.

Round 4 (DO NOT deweb)

Boss Round - At 80% is the time when you wanna unweb the last one

REASON: At 75% she spawns the lurker at 80% you can effectively BURN the remaining HP or be left with 100-150k which generally dies from a heavy and DOTS you can also back up at that point after the burn to hit the defense sigil to ensure the quick and clean kill.

Luke

WarpigFunk

Chiefpoppasquat wrote: »

Question I'm on spider stage when is optimal time to have all the lights dewebbed only had like 30 mins before work today got close tho

Me personally I trigger the stun on 3rd round when the dude with the 2-hander spawns. And again when he spawns on the 4th round. And then usually once more during final boss. If you don't have serious burn you kind of have to trigger the stun on final boss to keep it from enraging and hitt you with 60k+ spit damage.

hesobad

Yeah I would definitely switch to magplar or pet sorc. Both classes are extremely strong. Mag DK is good too. Literally on a mag sorc I have zero sustain issues and consistently pull 30 to 40k dps. When on a Magplar I have constant resource issues, but on AoE fight 3 or more targets I can pull 50k + dps with Burning spellweave, grothdarr, willpower jewelry and a Gold sharpened swords and fire staff.. It is absolutely crazy. Mag DK is harder to play than both Mag Sorcs and Magplars, but have better resource management than magplar, less resource management than magsorc.