Finished vMA for the first time

VyersReaver

Ok, yeah it is kinda a brag post, but holy crap that was hard. Magicka NB, 260CP, full Legendary Julianos Divines (enchanted for Magicka) + Legendary Grothdarr Divines/Impenetrable (enchanted for Health), plus two Legendary Sharpened Inferno Staves (one with flame enchant, other with weapon/spell damage). Blue quality Moondancer jewelry. And to top it all off - Vampire Stage 4.

I probably could make it a little bit easier with going to Vamp Stage 1, but alas. Next time I will.

Got... Charged 2H Axe. Useless.

Gotta say, hardest part is probably the last boss, especially those Daedroths breathing fire (duh). You know when they USUALLY prepare to breathe and when they do, they breathe standing still? Well those guys don't f*** around, they FOLLOW you when burping. Have to time ult just for them, next time I will also probably have Mages Guild ult instead of Destro. Stage 8 (however ridiculous it sounds with 25% more incoming fire damage) is probably the easiest.

I will rest for couple of weeks before trying it again though. Need to restore the nerve endings. And need that Stave.

Holy s***.

VyersReaver

Also, I died about 200+ times. Don't be discouraged.

I had a question though: it didn't give me a final score. WTH? I tried to do it with as little Sigils as possible, and I don't even get the score? Ludicrous.

Upright_man

Did you leave during the vMA or do it all in one hit?

Must be completed in one to get a scoring run.

Congrats on the completion.

Run around the fire breathing daedroths (Crem Guards) in a tight circle to avoid a large chunk of that fire damage.
After you initially burn boss and he teleports away from middle to spam you, grab defense sigil and let him burn himself. you should still have defense sigil active when first CG spawns so you can just obliterate him.

@Lukums1 bro give this guy your advice and make his 2nd clear twice as simple.

VyersReaver

Oh, didn't know that. I just spammed Harness when it was melting in my ult. I think the winning try I didn't even grab the Defense Sigil. After the upstairs phase it kinda gets easier with Golden Ghosts. I think I stunned him and finished the fight with Execute.

And yeah, I left twice. First time at Stage 2, then at Stage 3. Then I did all of it in one go.

Lukums1

@Upright_man
@VyersReaver

Will do.

Engage boss - await the teleport
When he does back up and grab the defensive sigil positioning yourself between boss and the sigil.
Engage mage to the left while bosses attacks get reflected back at him kill mage
Prepare for CG on bosses ass (pop darkness) keep defensive buffs up mitigate all the fire breath (plus you should have approx 5-7 seconds of the defensive sigil before you may get in trouble
Once you kill CG boss should of been pushed to the 71% (let's assume)

I won't speak about the top crystals as that's all the player but keep in mind never swap directions if you can help it as the meteors will always fall behind you if you move in a constantly 1 way direction.
You should also strife your camera towards boss side stepping as it's easier to see when to roll. Over time this will be second nature you won't even need sound or looking at the boss when to roll.

When you come down, if you come down on top of boss he will AOE 1 KO if he is distant you'll need to interupt him the first thing you to, while you're new kill the add summoner walking to middle. After that grab the healing sigil (prepare for cg) healing sigil up for 25 seconds approx, kill CG ( defensive buffs up ) and back on boss for the kill.

Follow this will make your life a million times easier.

Luke

BNOC

At 260CP I'd be more worried about the crem guard when you come down from the crystals (you're probably getting 1 still? if not 2)

Save the defence sigil for when you're down and take it straight away as the boss starts his channel, you want to burn that 70% HP to execute range as quickly as possible so you're not getting multiple crem guards out - One at the start of the round stacked on top of the boss whilst he AOE's shouldn't be an issue - If it is then take another sigil, but not the defence one.

If a crem guard is out and has started breathing fire, make sure it dies before you go anywhere as the debuff will stay on you and combined with other damage, will cause serious problems.

Once your damage is high enough to not worry about the crem guards, that fight is a doddle.

Also, blue Moondancer Jewellery is alright but I think you'd do better with 3 Willpower IMO, unless you're running a Moondancer staff - I've seen Infallible be run (4 set, 1 staff 3 jewellery, 1 MSA staff) but I think Moondancer is better for a flat increase.

Burning Spellweave is also really good for you, better than Julianos, but wait with that until you know spawns and how to time it.

VyersReaver

Ran it second time, got my score... for 2 hours 51 minutes score was lower than 300k =(

I am doing crystals in one go, I am not falling on them. Get only one CG during initial phase (ult him with the healer and boss).

Then I catch three Golden Ghosts and stun both CG and boss close together so that I can AoE them (also with ult), by then I ignore all adds and Execute boss.

BNOC

That's good for a second run.

Keep doing it, the more you do it the easier it all becomes.

Don't just blindly complete it though, pay attention to where adds are spawning and try to create a path for yourself by prioritising adds that give you trouble and or the ones that are static as you can AOE them all down together that way.

These days I think less people are good at MSA because it's become too easy and the 50 deaths people used to have per round is cut down a lot, dying in my opinion is the best way to learn the arena so pay attention to your deaths.

Remember as well, a sigil is less of a knock on score than a death - If it's not the first wave, then by the time you've ressed you've lost about 3k score.

Death: 1k
Every 40 seconds of time: ~2k

Grats on the one-run complete, good luck on getting into the leaderboards.

shack80

Easiest way for the last boss for sorc:

Hit him with AOE, DOT's and light attacks. When he teleports, cast Destro ulti on him. Destro ulti will kill the daedroth and the mage and will take him to 71% which will make him teleport upstairs.

Take out the crystals, remember to block his attacks and keep on eye for the shield stone.

When you get back down, make sure you get all the golden ghosts. You can basically just keep hitting him with light attacks, force pulse and remember to block when needed. Just keep on eye for the ghosts. You dont need to worry about the ritual, you can get him down before the ritual is completed.

When you get the last golden ghost stun him and hit him with all you got. Like on the first phase, but drop the ulti as soon as he is stunned. Remember to have all you buffs ready and but all the AOE and DOT's you have.

Thats it.

For the stamina nightblade:

But rearming trap to where he spawns. Buff yourself. Drop caltrops, arrow barrage, hit him with incap, poison arrow. Swap to main bar and hit him with blood craze, surprise attack and light attacks. He should be down to 70% before he teleports. Therefor he wont spawn the daedroth and can get to upstairs before the daedroth. If the daedroth spawns he will die when you destroy all the crystals, but if he fire breaths you then you need to kill him before going up.

Basically the rest will go like with the sorc. When back down, get the ghost, stun and anhilate.

Lukums1

Where the advice is good above I strongly, advise you follow what I said.

You should never have the CG from coming off crystals because the first one would of died within a reasonable time.

There is zero chance of you dieing if you collect the defense sigil in phase 1 (before the crystals)
There is zero chance of you dieing once coming down from crystals interrupting - kill mage - collect healing sigil - kill cg (25 seconds healing going on from sigil) burn boss.

Where destro ultis will get the boss to 70% on a mage toon it's a million times safer to use suppression field as it nullifies the fire breath and 80% of the time you can collect the mage/cg and boss together stunning and mitigating all incoming damage while pushing boss to phase.

Again just 2 cents and I love seeing new tatcis.

You're doing fine so just keep it up pay attention to where the problem areas are and hit sigils to keep you alive lower those deaths first then lower the sigil useage to increase your vMA score.

Luke

GrigorijMalahevich

Gratz.

For leaderboards - Don't even bother with the score until you can do the arena in less then an hour.

Let the grind begin!

GrigorijMalahevich

Gratz.

For leaderboards - Don't even bother with the score until you can do the arena in less then an hour.

Let the grind begin!

Tempah

Have fun farming for the staff

D0ntevenL1ft

Got a precise inferno staff on my second run through and I'm happy to accept thats the best inferno staff i will ever get. Next run i just want my sharpened 2h and then a sharpened bow (already have dagger) so i can stick to pvp and leave the arena for good

BNOC

Lukums1 wrote: »

Where the advice is good above I strongly, advise you follow what I said.

You should never have the CG from coming off crystals because the first one would of died within a reasonable time.

There is zero chance of you dieing if you collect the defense sigil in phase 1 (before the crystals)
There is zero chance of you dieing once coming down from crystals interrupting - kill mage - collect healing sigil - kill cg (25 seconds healing going on from sigil) burn boss.

Where destro ultis will get the boss to 70% on a mage toon it's a million times safer to use suppression field as it nullifies the fire breath and 80% of the time you can collect the mage/cg and boss together stunning and mitigating all incoming damage while pushing boss to phase.

Again just 2 cents and I love seeing new tatcis.

You're doing fine so just keep it up pay attention to where the problem areas are and hit sigils to keep you alive lower those deaths first then lower the sigil useage to increase your vMA score.

Luke

The only reason I have suggested to do it differently than that is because:

1. The boss goes up at 70% and it seems like a waste (to me) to use a defence sigil and reflect the channel when you're only 15-20% in.
2. When you come down from the crystals you can pick the defence sigil up straight away, ignore the channel (boss is taking big damage and getting closer to execute phase) and collect your first ghost, it's a nicer setup (personally)

You mentioned negate, which is a good idea (as a last resort) before the crystals, but if you're using that you'll definitely have to deal with a CG and that's not where you want to be, you want to be avoiding that if you can.
Also, if you're going to negate I'd not bother wasting the defence sigil as well, one or the other, if you have to.

I would never recommend playing it too safe though as time is damage lost and damage taken (even reduced, if you were too slow and got another CG out for example)

Getting to execute as soon as your down is a bigger deal than getting to the crystals imo, nobody (I hope) is seeing more than 1 CG before the crystals (If they even are at all, I know I haven't in a long time) and getting him to 70% HP whilst he's channelling and not really doing a whole lot is a piece of cake.

That's my reasoning but it's whatever works for people I guess and your suggestions are just as useful.

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're doing fine so just keep it up pay attention to where the problem areas are and hit sigils to keep you alive lower those deaths first then lower the sigil useage to increase your vMA score.

This is the best advice ^

VyersReaver

Ok, third time clear. 1:47, only used ONE Sigil and no Vitality Bonus left.

The Sigil I used was on Ash Titan (Stage 9 Wave 5), because he spawns 3 dudes and it is just unfathomable to survive that barrage (boss and 3 dudes) and deal any kind of damage. Got final boss on second try though. First died because I didn't kill CG with AoE on the final phase, got stunned by the boss and melted.

By run 5 I hope to leave with SOME Vitality Bonuses and complete it under an hour.

Still no Staff (figures). Got second 2H Axe.

BNOC

Lukums1 wrote: »

You're doing fine so just keep it up pay attention to where the problem areas are and hit sigils to keep you alive lower those deaths first then lower the sigil useage to increase your vMA score.
Luke

BNOC wrote: »

Remember as well, a sigil is less of a knock on score than a death - If it's not the first wave, then by the time you've ressed you've lost about 3k score.

Death: 1k
Every 40 seconds of time: ~2k

Reduce your deaths by using sigils and your score will actually improve (if you're not sigil-happy)

VyersReaver

Oh, the problem is not that I just don't wanna use Sigils, it's just that it is too late when I need one

Lukums1

VyersReaver wrote: »

Oh, the problem is not that I just don't wanna use Sigils, it's just that it is too late when I need one

That's a common mis-conception.

Sigil is 750 points a death is 1000 THEN you also have to equate for the time! which is so costly it's not funny generally a death IMO is 3000-4000 points that's from experience.

Just use the sigils, identify key problem arenas for example:

I have to this day 1 issue remains:

Round 4 -3, 2 spheres that spawn the deaths on these adds as so huge it's not funny even with buffs up and healing going that can easily hit upwards of 18k with a combo SO if I don't have suppression field to completely stun I dodge roll between and collect the defense sigil to mitigate the damage. This is only true for my NB as DK and Sorc you can take the hit generally.

Always never feel too proud to obtain sigils they go a long bloody way.

Luke