Oh VMA, my dear and lovely Virtual MAdness!

Insandros

Well i just finished my second run of the day... lots of you will so *** hate me

Got my lightning precise for my back bar staff on 59th run, and just got my sharpened inferno for my front bar on my 64th run :S

seedubsrun

I'm a little vMA bummed out these days. I've done about 100 or so runs looking for a lightning staff. I got one in powered my second run and none at all since. I do have 2 sharpened infernos, nirnhoned, precise, infused, powered, and charged though. Every resto trait, every frost trait (which I've been using on my frost warden).

I've taken to just going for a leader board score and trying to get my flawless (which has been more frustrating than not getting another lightning staff). I had my first real shot at leader boards the other day but 2 hours before they closed for the week I got knocked off by 300 points. I don't really care what my score is as long as it gets me to the bonus weekly rewards.

Now with HotR coming I'm hearing all kinds of things about vMA weapons parsing pretty much the same as crafted/overland weapons. If the score doesn't matter to me and the weapons will soon not be as special as they were I just have the potential for my flawless run to try for. I can see myself getting to round 9, dying on something dumb (like getting CC'd in front of a Crematorial Guard), and throwing my controller through my tv. So that's something to look forward to.

Anyway, there's some great positivity in this thread about vMA and I've always been a big advocate of this kind of content. Cheer me up denizens of the forum. Give me something that gets me jazzed for vMA again.

Insandros

seedubsrun wrote: »

I'm a little vMA bummed out these days. I've done about 100 or so runs looking for a lightning staff. I got one in powered my second run and none at all since. I do have 2 sharpened infernos, nirnhoned, precise, infused, powered, and charged though. Every resto trait, every frost trait (which I've been using on my frost warden).

I've taken to just going for a leader board score and trying to get my flawless (which has been more frustrating than not getting another lightning staff). I had my first real shot at leader boards the other day but 2 hours before they closed for the week I got knocked off by 300 points. I don't really care what my score is as long as it gets me to the bonus weekly rewards.

Now with HotR coming I'm hearing all kinds of things about vMA weapons parsing pretty much the same as crafted/overland weapons. If the score doesn't matter to me and the weapons will soon not be as special as they were I just have the potential for my flawless run to try for. I can see myself getting to round 9, dying on something dumb (like getting CC'd in front of a Crematorial Guard), and throwing my controller through my tv. So that's something to look forward to.

Anyway, there's some great positivity in this thread about vMA and I've always been a big advocate of this kind of content. Cheer me up denizens of the forum. Give me something that gets me jazzed for vMA again.

@seedubsrun

lol your controler on the tv part made me smile I'm totaly like you, when i do runs in ultisession, not caring about dieing i have fun, but each time i do a onesitting run trying to get flawless, i get angry... so now, i might only do a single run trying to get to the leaderboard, is i do, well so what, if i don't cool... but now it's just a matter of clearing it trying to get stuff as i don't have much else to do ing ame until friends gets on. In other words, when i run it to clear it i'm having way much more fun and enjoy is more than when trying to clear it for flawless or one setting, since i don't care about using sigil on those multi session runs...

seedubsrun

Insandros wrote: »

seedubsrun wrote: »

I'm a little vMA bummed out these days. I've done about 100 or so runs looking for a lightning staff. I got one in powered my second run and none at all since. I do have 2 sharpened infernos, nirnhoned, precise, infused, powered, and charged though. Every resto trait, every frost trait (which I've been using on my frost warden).

I've taken to just going for a leader board score and trying to get my flawless (which has been more frustrating than not getting another lightning staff). I had my first real shot at leader boards the other day but 2 hours before they closed for the week I got knocked off by 300 points. I don't really care what my score is as long as it gets me to the bonus weekly rewards.

Now with HotR coming I'm hearing all kinds of things about vMA weapons parsing pretty much the same as crafted/overland weapons. If the score doesn't matter to me and the weapons will soon not be as special as they were I just have the potential for my flawless run to try for. I can see myself getting to round 9, dying on something dumb (like getting CC'd in front of a Crematorial Guard), and throwing my controller through my tv. So that's something to look forward to.

Anyway, there's some great positivity in this thread about vMA and I've always been a big advocate of this kind of content. Cheer me up denizens of the forum. Give me something that gets me jazzed for vMA again.

@seedubsrun

lol your controler on the tv part made me smile I'm totaly like you, when i do runs in ultisession, not caring about dieing i have fun, but each time i do a onesitting run trying to get flawless, i get angry... so now, i might only do a single run trying to get to the leaderboard, is i do, well so what, if i don't cool... but now it's just a matter of clearing it trying to get stuff as i don't have much else to do ing ame until friends gets on. In other words, when i run it to clear it i'm having way much more fun and enjoy is more than when trying to clear it for flawless or one setting, since i don't care about using sigil on those multi session runs...

You're totally right. When I sit down just for a plain ole completion I enjoy myself a lot more. Maybe I'll just take a break from the leader board/flawless venture and get back to just experiencing the content, maybe try a different build or two, and then get back to getting that title

Exodium

Insandros wrote: »

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

Well after 300 + runa no light destro sharpen. Aftet next patch changea, i quit VMA wil be using precise instead :-) although higher critical Will be easier to obtain.

@Lord_Dexter
Knowing ZoS way of thinking man, i bet you, last patch we had, they arelady changed the RNG % on precise drops, so people anticipating it, trying to get it, already have trouble with them I have so many Nirn... people say it's gonna be in PvP next patch... to bad i don't pvp much We'll see, maybe my infused lightning will be good next patch, who knows, i might ever get a precise or sharpened until next patch... i dream My RNG lucks simply stick to gettiing the 7 fragments of the robe and dwemer pet in Vvardenfell lol

EDIT: Who knows man, i might be able to kick ass with my defensif inferno

Is a precise/lightning vma lightning actually good? I've got one and its been sitting in my bank for a year cause I always thought you'd rather a fire one to backbar cause of burning damage.

How can I make use of it??

red_emu

I never even finished normal MA. Can not be arsed farming gear for it.

hitman2nine

@Insandros welp my luck ran out this afternoon. Ran into a nasty set of daggers. Lol charged and powered.

Insandros

w

hitman2nine wrote: »

@Insandros welp my luck ran out this afternoon. Ran into a nasty set of daggers. Lol charged and powered.

lol yeah, all dagger i had are crappy, got 2 times daggers, decisif and such... only weapons i didn't get nirnhorn so far. but the shorter the weapons, the more i stay away from them :P

hitman2nine

Insandros wrote: »

w

hitman2nine wrote: »

@Insandros welp my luck ran out this afternoon. Ran into a nasty set of daggers. Lol charged and powered.

lol yeah, all dagger i had are crappy, got 2 times daggers, decisif and such... only weapons i didn't get nirnhorn so far. but the shorter the weapons, the more i stay away from them :P

Popped another restro n decided that it was finally enough for the night. I'm telling you though zos has that thing set to drop restro's way more than anything else.

Insandros

hitman2nine wrote: »

Insandros wrote: »

w

hitman2nine wrote: »

@Insandros welp my luck ran out this afternoon. Ran into a nasty set of daggers. Lol charged and powered.

lol yeah, all dagger i had are crappy, got 2 times daggers, decisif and such... only weapons i didn't get nirnhorn so far. but the shorter the weapons, the more i stay away from them :P

Popped another restro n decided that it was finally enough for the night. I'm telling you though zos has that thing set to drop restro's way more than anything else.

yep that cathegory of weapon has a more % chances set to them even thought they say no

Asardes

I try to keep my sessions short, 1-1.5h. It's always at the end of the day when I've done the more important activities, like crafting writs and riding training. And that's after 8h work and and 2h on the road. When I start playing it I'm actually pretty bored and tired, so I don't give it a lot of importance. I really don't care if I finish or what loot I get, it's simply to fill that time with something since I don't run trials or dungeons anymore. I've reduced the play time to the minimum that still allows me to keep the routines going. Hopefully I will get better at it with time and will be able to finish one run within that hour. With new characters finishing horse training around December I will be able to further optimize my play time down to 1.5h/day in total, or even less.

nine9six

I did another run last night and it took me 3 hours. I'd stop in between Stages and watch Pre-Season NFL. I did die a bunch of times on the Final Boss. For some reason, even though I know *exactly* what to do, I manage to derp so hard when going for the 3 Crystals.

My DPS is low so I panic a bit due to the DoT and the Wall. If I get knocked-down before I get all 3 Crystals, it's a wipe. There's just too much down there for me to deal with and I need to save the Defensive and Speed Sigil for the actual Boss Fight.

When I do make it down to the ground again, it seems like *every* damn Golden Ghost spawns right next to the Boss. Then *** starts getting out of hand and I die.

I swear this was much, much easier the first time I ran it. I'm going to try to go a little more Offensive @ the cost of Sustain and see if that helps me any.

I received a Precise Frost Staff.

seedubsrun

After the comment from @Insandros yesterday I decided to go home and do a good ole super chill low expectations run. Score wouldn't matter, deaths wouldn't matter, maybe I get a good drop at the end, maybe not. Anyway, I ended up with my best score ever so far and am almost certain I'll stay on the leaderboards through the week so I can check that off my ESO bucket list. Next stop is a place on the all time leaderboard. Got me a bit excited for vMA again!

Insandros

nine9six wrote: »

I did another run last night and it took me 3 hours. I'd stop in between Stages and watch Pre-Season NFL. I did die a bunch of times on the Final Boss. For some reason, even though I know *exactly* what to do, I manage to derp so hard when going for the 3 Crystals.

My DPS is low so I panic a bit due to the DoT and the Wall. If I get knocked-down before I get all 3 Crystals, it's a wipe. There's just too much down there for me to deal with and I need to save the Defensive and Speed Sigil for the actual Boss Fight.

When I do make it down to the ground again, it seems like *every* damn Golden Ghost spawns right next to the Boss. Then *** starts getting out of hand and I die.

I swear this was much, much easier the first time I ran it. I'm going to try to go a little more Offensive @ the cost of Sustain and see if that helps me any.

I received a Precise Frost Staff.

@nine9six

What class again you're having?
What i do is, when fight start, i get behind the damage sigil. But before the boss portal appears, as soon as the sigil appear, i grab it, drop my aoe on the boss portal, when he appears, pop magika harness to swalow his small attack, i drop Elemental Drain on him, start cranking a heavy attack, as my heavy attack is ranking, i click my spamable attack, so as soon as the heavy attack goes, the spamable skill does go as well.... mostly as my heavy attakc is ready, he'S about to do his skull bullet, i then roll-dodge and my attack goes, i then try to do as much damage as i can as he still stands in the center, trying to get him as close as possible to 70%, if he teleport, i rush to him while droping aoe skill on him, if he sparkle, i interupt him, but be carefule, as you get close to him he as well might do his aoe skill around him....

if close to 70% give him a few attacks, but careful the Cremetarial Guard is about to spawn, so i start attacking him, while refreshing magika harness when he starts breathing fire.... usualy when thi happens, it's close to the portal behind the healing sigil.. so spot the heling sigil before the fight an exept him to usualy teleport close to it.... by droping your aoe on him there is chances it will damage also the healer if he his close and mostly the faucheclan giving you acess to heaven phase... once boss is upstairs and daedroth his dead, portal is active and the healer is till there, trying to kill him while moving around not to get hit by the spike coming out of the ground... if healer is not dead and next Crem. Guard appears, i don'T take anychances and simply use the portal to get up there....

You can also grab the healing sigil just as you get close to them to give you a chance, or simply before going up, which can give you a chance up there.... While being up there, i usualy try to damage all 3 crystals, not just one, since each crystal you destroy makes the wall circle faster... so i get 3 crystal low, byt the time the second wall appears, one is mostly destroy and two others close to it.. this way i don't need to sprint and run to stay behind the wall... you can dot one, run to another with spamable skills and medium attack or light attack... would give you a bit more hint if i'd know what class you'Re using...

When last crystal is about to blow... rebuff and expect the push down... When i get pushed down in lava (i dont jump by myself in case i missed last crystal) i take a look around and when sigil spawns, i spot the defensiv sigil.. if he's close to me, i grab it, while looking around for the yelow ghost spawning, if yellow ghost is far from boss, i grab speed/regen sigil, if he might be enclosing fast to the boss, i then rush to the ghost, grab it, then go for the speed/regen sigil... If on the other side, i drop close to the speed/regen sigil i then grab it, and rush while sprinting to the defensive sigil while spaming magika harness to avoid his channeling killing me until i get defensive sigil.... the trikc is always stand closer to the boss so if ghost spawn close to him, you grab it, but move around, looking around to spot where ghost spawn.. focus the boss, drop aoe on him, roll dodging his skull attack...

When summoner spawn, kill him, priority one... by that time you should had grabed 3 ghosts, take a lok at the boss, if he start chaneling cancel him, your defensiv sigil should be clsoe to wear off by now... as soon as the portal for the crem. guard appears close to the boss, pop your Spectral Explosion, drop aoe on them, but, focus the cremguard to kill it asap before they unstun.... keep moving around, looking around for coming yellow ghost, if needed 3 more for another explosion repeat... summoner first, crem guard.. as well as healer, if you see him beaming the bos for heal interrupt him....

That's the process i do, usualy mostly got it one shot.. but once in a while i skrew up on upper phase and i'm a bit offset from wall, get pushed down, and being nervous i get skrew by crem guard...

Another tip... get yourself tri-stats potions, when you see your health going 50% on upper phase or magika being low, pop it, it'll give you back health, magika and stam to roll-dodge... and if *** happens while being on 3rd pahsre down again, grab one again...


I'm no expect, but this procedure makes me do it easy now.. until i get better and forget sigils.. but for now, i grab them, i ratehr get a lower score when i go in for a one-sitting, then being on that fight for an hour... the more you do it, the less nervous you'll get and less action will be in paniking mode etc... important is keeping buffs up, magika harness.. magika harness on upper side does grab away lots of the dot dmg, so keep it up.... if i can do it, you can.. i can now most of the time do that fight with one life.. or sometimes 2... versus an hour of time tries when i first start doing it... now takes me about 12-13 minutes the entire stage 9... it's slow, but way better than 2 hours as it used to take. again the more you run it, the easier and less stressfull it get...

hitman2nine

Got my flawless this morning. Trust and believe it does get better and quickly if you become one with the arena. 4th defending bow was the drop though.

nine9six

Hey man, thanks for that info. It never crossed my mind to burn the 3 crystals evenly as to prevent the wall from going faster, and then finish them off in close succession.

-_-

I can get to the Crystal Phase every time without fail. It's super-easy if I have an Ultimate up, but I can still get there 95% of the time without it.

I'm a Magicka Templar, so the Healing is what's saving my ass.

I'm working on burning-through Stage 1 - 8 right now, so I can get to the Final again. When I do I'm going to try to put to use that information. I'm sure I'll panic and wipe a good number of times...but practice is practice.

That's the only fight I have an issue with. Poison Flower RNG, aside.

Wish me luck! I'll report back when I've cleared it again. Might not be until tomorrow. Having friends over tonight.

hitman2nine

Good luck @nine9six. That poison stage is a pain to all of us because of rng. Just keep at it.

nine9six

Thanks, man!

All in all, I find the whole instance to be a lot of fun. I'm not 'chasing loot' yet, so I can imagine doing all of this to never get what you're chasing could be a bit disheartening.

hitman2nine

That was the same way I was when I first started shortly after that it turned into a completely different game for me because I knew that I could beat it, but wanted to be able smash it. I have all classes mag & stam of each so if it's usable I have somewhere for it to go you know. It's kind of like the lottery.... can't win if you don't play!

CastaLyron

I've only cleared it 3 times. Started on it week ago or such. First time I was surprised I was not dying more, until last stage final boss. Died so many times, clearing it felt like luck in the end, took me like 3 1/2 hrs total run... sigh. 2nd time much easier and 3rd time even more. I still hate the last boss, a small mistake feels so incredibly punishing.... but getting the hang of it more. Only crap weapons drop of course, so goal is just to get better and die less. I could not stand to do it more than a few times a week I think. Don't have the time to farm hardcore, like in my young days lol. Also I would probably start cursing RNG gods at that point...

Insandros

nine9six wrote: »

Hey man, thanks for that info. It never crossed my mind to burn the 3 crystals evenly as to prevent the wall from going faster, and then finish them off in close succession.

-_-

I can get to the Crystal Phase every time without fail. It's super-easy if I have an Ultimate up, but I can still get there 95% of the time without it.

I'm a Magicka Templar, so the Healing is what's saving my ass.

I'm working on burning-through Stage 1 - 8 right now, so I can get to the Final again. When I do I'm going to try to put to use that information. I'm sure I'll panic and wipe a good number of times...but practice is practice.

That's the only fight I have an issue with. Poison Flower RNG, aside.

Wish me luck! I'll report back when I've cleared it again. Might not be until tomorrow. Having friends over tonight.

@nine9six

I sure can't help you there with some tips then out of the classes i tried the place with, my templar is the one i gave up on stage 5, because it takes too long to do stuff, i keep dieing. :S

GL, but you'll clear.. as i kept telling myself as i kept doing the arena and came across stages that gave me much trouble.. « i might die a few times, ut i know for sure now thta i can and will clear it » That stage is a pain, at first, it gave me trouble, i hated.. then it became easy, was clearing it no deaths or with one deaths.. and since a few runs, for some reasons it gives me trouble again, stupid RNG... stuff like getting knocked back by the boss range earthquake which i failed to avoid, and knocking me back on a flower exploding att he same time and, exploding over the decursing pund... go figure

nine9six

I'm getting better and better. Last night I got a Sharpened 1H Axe and an Infused Dagger.

I am going to try to get a run in this morning before I start working on my Honey Do list lol.

Asardes

Well one thing I've figured out for sure, if I keep dying where I didn't die before it means that I'm tired and I need to go and rest, and come back another day. It's really simple.

nine9six

haha yeah I was barely able to hold my eyes open last night. But I managed to only need to do the Final Boss fight about 10 times instead of the usual 30+ lol.

Croblasta

Does anyone have issues with vMA during in game night? I die ALOT more and it generally seems more laggy with the 2-4 second lag spikes where everything freezes.

If it's during the day, typically finish with less than 15 deaths in 1.5 hours.

hitman2nine

For the most part I have seen the best time to try and run is during the week or early in the morning because weekends are always going to be a lag fest. Haven't really paid attention to in game time though.

Asardes

Haven't really seen any periods laggier than others, but sometimes can be from the client itself. For example I've seen the game become laggy after playing for extended periods, after I've gone trough numerous areas and characters. I can't even close it normally but need to end the process from the manager. Once I restart the game it's back to normal. I suspect the game simply keeps too much junk data instead of deleting it, and that's why it becomes laggy.

Illurian

Insandros wrote: »

Yah it's Resto staves week-end in vMA, 3 in a row. TY ZoS, i now need 10 healers to use them all.

I actually want the resto staff. I don't even care about the trait. But nope, decisive battle axe instead.

hitman2nine

@Illurian I'm sure that your of the few people in this forum that is hoping for that weapon. I wish that I could give you one of mine lol.

Asardes

Well, I've finally done it on my Sorcerer, around 2h run time and ~330K score. I will be going on Templar next. Stamina classes are too hard at this point.