Pointers on vMA?

SBC

Hey guys. So I made a heavy attack sorc for the sole purpose of vMA so I have a dedicated character to just farm it with when I want to. I ran normal just to get the feel for it and basically walked through it. I started Veteran and round 1 and 2 were pretty smooth, just had a few close calls due to me letting shield fall. My problem was on round 3. That boss wrecked me 10-15 times and I accepted that I was doing something wrong. With water electrified, pets not holding aggro, her taking my shields out in 1 to 2 shots, and the ranged adds, I last maybe 15 seconds. That entire time I am simply spamming shield until I have no Magicka. I'm running Spinners and Necropotence, and I believe I went with Spinner staves. I got the staff in charged with shock. Damage wasn't so much the big issue though.

I guess my question is, does anyone have some pointers for running this thing with a heavy attack sorc? I haven't really messed with the sigils so I'm not sure how they work, but I believe I read somewhere that they only last like 60-90 seconds. Not sure how well that would work if I couldn't DPS her down within that time.

Just tried it again. Every time she does call lightning followed by strike. It immediately kills me when at full health and shield. Sigil of defense with shields pets and food. She still kills me in seconds

davey1107

I play vmsa on a magplar, so I'll stick to general tips and leave the sorc specific stuff to others.

Sigils: USE THEM. You aren't penalized anything, it's what they're there for. You need to reapply them every round...I'm not sure they're on a timer other than that. Note that haste not only buffs your speed, but your REGEN SPEED. If you need help in early rounds with regen, this can help. For the boss fight you're mentioning...maybe defense.

Target priority: VMSA success depends a lot on learning the order things come out in and which get first priority. In this level, for me thenrange adds go first, then stranglers, then boss.

I can't play vmsa without harness magicka on my front bar. It's just too resource intensive, and while it's not the best ward the magic return is invaluable.

This particular boss

Play like a nightblade: this boss gave me horrible trouble at first too. Then I realized I was playing like I do in 99% of the content - face to face, taking damage and trying to dps while healing and warding. Then I realized she's the sort of boss my nightblade would rek and so I played more like that, getting behind her and waiting for her cone attacks to get in my primary dps. She's still a pain, but when I started dipping into my stam pool to dodge her and bypass 1/3 of her hits, things went better.

Good luck! Oh, and I found this guide invaluable when I was learning it:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/233356/joys-a-bit-old-guide-to-beating-maelstrom-arena/p1

Glass

I made this build, i hope it helps https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/329720/easiest-vma-build-magicka-sorc-full-flawless-run-homestead-patch

SBC

davey1107 wrote: »

I play vmsa on a magplar, so I'll stick to general tips and leave the sorc specific stuff to others.

Sigils: USE THEM. You aren't penalized anything, it's what they're there for. You need to reapply them every round...I'm not sure they're on a timer other than that. Note that haste not only buffs your speed, but your REGEN SPEED. If you need help in early rounds with regen, this can help. For the boss fight you're mentioning...maybe defense.

Target priority: VMSA success depends a lot on learning the order things come out in and which get first priority. In this level, for me thenrange adds go first, then stranglers, then boss.

I can't play vmsa without harness magicka on my front bar. It's just too resource intensive, and while it's not the best ward the magic return is invaluable.

This particular boss

Play like a nightblade: this boss gave me horrible trouble at first too. Then I realized I was playing like I do in 99% of the content - face to face, taking damage and trying to dps while healing and warding. Then I realized she's the sort of boss my nightblade would rek and so I played more like that, getting behind her and waiting for her cone attacks to get in my primary dps. She's still a pain, but when I started dipping into my stam pool to dodge her and bypass 1/3 of her hits, things went better.

Good luck! Oh, and I found this guide invaluable when I was learning it:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/233356/joys-a-bit-old-guide-to-beating-maelstrom-arena/p1

Sweet I'll definitely read that guide. My closest run before I went to bed I got her to about 1/4 left and she smashed me again. I need to take those stupid plants out quick I guess because I'm so slow I can't even get off the island to target adds before my magicka pool is wiped out. I'll read that guide and learn the spawns a bit more.

Glass wrote: »

I made this build, i hope it helps https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/329720/easiest-vma-build-magicka-sorc-full-flawless-run-homestead-patch

I remember seeing this a bit ago before I found the one I'm using now. I'll definitely try this one. How pertinent is the master staff? Could it be swapped for something different there or should I definitely focus on finding a vdsa group?