What should a DE VMA Magsorc gold?

CurvedSwords123

Hi guys. I'm a firebased Dark Elf sorc (lightning staff primary w fire enchant), (fire staff off bar with w wep enchant...going to be replaced by VMA fire staff eventually).

Other details:
-5 piece necro (non monster set armour)
-2 piece maw of infernal (GATOR-MAN I CHOOSE YOU!)
-4 Piece mother's sorrow (jewlerry and staves)

What I'm definately golding:
-my mother's sorrow lightning staff
-my vma off bar fire staff (when I get it)
-gold Kuta enchants on everything.

What I'm thinking of not golding:
-my necro 5 piece cloth armour
-unsure of whether or not to gold maw of infernal

My main question:
I hear ppl usually don't gold their armour, but I'm uncertain of the benefits of golding monster sets. If it's a significant boost to my GATOR-MAN I want to go ahead and make the investment.

So...what do you guys think?

Taleof2Cities

In general, the rule of thumb is to gold out weapons first and gear second ... even though the difference between purple and gold is minimal on every weapon and every piece of gear in the game.

If your heart's set on a Maw 2-piece, then a better setup (in my opinion) would be to swap out Mother's Sorrow for a 3-piece Willpower jewelry set once you have a vMA lightning staff. Remember that you're already getting a healthy critical chance boost from the 1-piece vMA staff bonus. If you decide to take this advice, then you wouldn't need to gold the Mother's Sorrow staff.

The trait on the vMA lightning staff to be farmed doesn't matter ... as trait change is coming next month when the new transmute system goes live.

For gear, vMA is considered end game. So, my opinion would be to gold them out after weapons. That includes the monster set. My Sorc runs everything gold for vMA ... including three (3) pieces of gold Necropotence jewelry.

CurvedSwords123

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

In general, the rule of thumb is to gold out weapons first and gear second ... even though the difference between purple and gold is minimal on every weapon and every piece of gear in the game.

If your heart's set on a Maw 2-piece, then a better setup (in my opinion) would be to swap out Mother's Sorrow for a 3-piece Willpower jewelry set once you have a vMA lightning staff. Remember that you're already getting a healthy critical chance boost from the 1-piece vMA staff bonus. If you decide to take this advice, then you wouldn't need to gold the Mother's Sorrow staff.

The trait on the vMA lightning staff to be farmed doesn't matter ... as trait change is coming next month when the new transmute system goes live.

For gear, vMA is considered end game. So, my opinion would be to gold them out after weapons. That includes the monster set. My Sorc runs everything gold for vMA ... including three (3) pieces of gold Necropotence jewelry.

Interesting, yeh I went with mother's sorrow as I was desperate to squeeze out some extra crit. I didn't know VMA staves give crit chance. I better read up on it. Do you prefer Illambris to Maw?

pdebie64b16_ESO

CurvedSwords123 wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

In general, the rule of thumb is to gold out weapons first and gear second ... even though the difference between purple and gold is minimal on every weapon and every piece of gear in the game.

If your heart's set on a Maw 2-piece, then a better setup (in my opinion) would be to swap out Mother's Sorrow for a 3-piece Willpower jewelry set once you have a vMA lightning staff. Remember that you're already getting a healthy critical chance boost from the 1-piece vMA staff bonus. If you decide to take this advice, then you wouldn't need to gold the Mother's Sorrow staff.

The trait on the vMA lightning staff to be farmed doesn't matter ... as trait change is coming next month when the new transmute system goes live.

For gear, vMA is considered end game. So, my opinion would be to gold them out after weapons. That includes the monster set. My Sorc runs everything gold for vMA ... including three (3) pieces of gold Necropotence jewelry.

Interesting, yeh I went with mother's sorrow as I was desperate to squeeze out some extra crit. I didn't know VMA staves give crit chance. I better read up on it. Do you prefer Illambris to Maw?

I have Illambris on my mag Sorc but i dont see it proc much, Maw and Grothdarr procs much more. And i think you better off with 4 pieces Moondancer/Aether instead of Mothers Sorrow.

CurvedSwords123

pdebie64b16_ESO wrote: »

CurvedSwords123 wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

In general, the rule of thumb is to gold out weapons first and gear second ... even though the difference between purple and gold is minimal on every weapon and every piece of gear in the game.

If your heart's set on a Maw 2-piece, then a better setup (in my opinion) would be to swap out Mother's Sorrow for a 3-piece Willpower jewelry set once you have a vMA lightning staff. Remember that you're already getting a healthy critical chance boost from the 1-piece vMA staff bonus. If you decide to take this advice, then you wouldn't need to gold the Mother's Sorrow staff.

The trait on the vMA lightning staff to be farmed doesn't matter ... as trait change is coming next month when the new transmute system goes live.

For gear, vMA is considered end game. So, my opinion would be to gold them out after weapons. That includes the monster set. My Sorc runs everything gold for vMA ... including three (3) pieces of gold Necropotence jewelry.

Interesting, yeh I went with mother's sorrow as I was desperate to squeeze out some extra crit. I didn't know VMA staves give crit chance. I better read up on it. Do you prefer Illambris to Maw?

I have Illambris on my mag Sorc but i dont see it proc much, Maw and Grothdarr procs much more. And i think you better off with 4 pieces Moondancer/Aether instead of Mothers Sorrow.

I find ppl are very polarized over maw. A bit ago ppl were passionate over it's ability to Crit and over performance, now ppl are saying "back in the trash heap" due to the monster set being fixed (no other set can Crit). Personally I love maw, like u said it procs all the time. I just feel like it's a good way to utilize my Dark Elf fire passives. Aether eh? Is it BOE? Is it expensive? I don't think I can stomach more farming. Thx for ur input.

Taleof2Cities

CurvedSwords123 wrote: »

I find ppl are very polarized over maw. Personally I love maw, like u said it procs all the time.

There's nothing wrong with running a build that isn't meta. Especially if you like it ... and especially if it ruffles the feathers of the sometimes outspoken Trials crowd.

dpencil1

Maw is still one of the strongest, if not THE strongest monster sets for pet sorcs, thanks to Daedric Prey.

vMA destro staves don't give any extra crit chance. They give spell damage. The resto staff gives crit, I believe.

4 piece trials set wins, particularly Infal Aether if you want some crit.

And as for golding, I gold everything. You don't have to be cheap about it. Making enough money to buy the wax or just farming lots of silk isn't terribly difficult.

CurvedSwords123

I'm thinking of using my illambris set for the last boss in ice lvl...trying to proc my daedroth is getting me killed for the first time

SoLooney

maw of the infernal is still good dps but it doesnt crit anymore and it can get pretty distracting, esp to tanks, plus it can get stunned and die, i dont find it too reliable.

ilambris is still good despite the nerf. yes gold weapons first. and gold armor if you can, it all adds up

CurvedSwords123

SoLooney wrote: »

maw of the infernal is still good dps but it doesnt crit anymore and it can get pretty distracting, esp to tanks, plus it can get stunned and die, i dont find it too reliable.

ilambris is still good despite the nerf. yes gold weapons first. and gold armor if you can, it all adds up

Thx for ur input. Well boys. Good news is I defeated the ice chick my second day going at her. Bad news is I got stuck on the spider chick literally right after. Pretty frustrating. I'm not able to stun her like I see ppl doing on YouTube. So I guess I have a few questions:
-Any VMA Magsorc still run thief for the purposes of buffing Crit Surge & pets? Or are even the VMA pet specs going to apprentice or mage now?
-For the spider boss in VMA, what is everyone's strategy for positioning the hoarvers by the obelisks? I am currently throwing the shells, and it is getting me murdered when the boss is between 40-50% health every single time.
-I heard throwing a shell at the spider chick resets her 1 shot timer, is there truth to this?
-In ur opinions what is the best monster set for a fire based de pet-magsorc? I have them all besides Infernal Guardians.

Cheers and Thanks.

timmayyyboy

It also will turn on you during the netch fight in darkshade lol. Not terribly damaging but funny still

Lexifer452

Just chipping in my two cents. My mag sorc is the only character i've managed to complete vma with so far. So my magsorc, both petsorc and caster-style depending on how I feel like playing, got rid of thief immediately after the decrease of crit chance. Currently swapped my julianos out for twice born once again and am running apprentice and lover to pretty great effect. I like the raw base damage increase a lot. Don't even have more than a couple percentage in elfborn now as a result of the new lower crit chance I have. Crit chance is around 45% now, I believe, with major prophecy but without thief. Not as high as I used to like having it, 60-65% with thief and major prophecy before, but I find it still does the job with respect to crit surge healing.

Sometimes I end up running a precise inferno staff with sharp lightning just to boost the crit surge healing a bit when I feel I need it. Force shock weaving more when I need to heal more steadily.

CurvedSwords123

Lexifer452 wrote: »

Just chipping in my two cents. My mag sorc is the only character i've managed to complete vma with so far. So my magsorc, both petsorc and caster-style depending on how I feel like playing, got rid of thief immediately after the decrease of crit chance. Currently swapped my julianos out for twice born once again and am running apprentice and lover to pretty great effect. I like the raw base damage increase a lot. Don't even have more than a couple percentage in elfborn now as a result of the new lower crit chance I have. Crit chance is around 45% now, I believe, with major prophecy but without thief. Not as high as I used to like having it, 60-65% with thief and major prophecy before, but I find it still does the job with respect to crit surge healing.

Sometimes I end up running a precise inferno staff with sharp lightning just to boost the crit surge healing a bit when I feel I need it. Force shock weaving more when I need to heal more steadily.

Thx for insight. I appreciate information from Magsorcs who have managed to complete VMA. I will be going at it again this weekend. For now I'm practising using overload bar with my stamsorc before I face the spider lady again. It's really disheartening getting randomly 1 shot from her.

Taleof2Cities

CurvedSwords123 wrote: »

Thx for insight. I appreciate information from Magsorcs who have managed to complete VMA. I will be going at it again this weekend. For now I'm practising using overload bar with my stamsorc before I face the spider lady again. It's really disheartening getting randomly 1 shot from her.

@CurvedSwords, the Spider Daedra boss is on a timer mechanic. So, if you don't unlock all five (5) of the pillars by killing the hoarvor bugs next to them ... you will be one shot. It's OK to miss a hoarvor or two. However, if you miss too many and don't reset the pillars you'll get the one shot.

It does help to have two pillars or one pillar left to unlock going out of round 4 into the final boss stage. That's a lot easier than trying to unlock all five during the final boss round.

Read up online or watch some videos if you would like more info.

Lexifer452

Honestly I wouldn't bother with overload man. I run shooting star on inferno staff bar for extra magicka and add control when I know I can build it back up in time and thunderous rage for everything else, ie. Bosses and dps burns. Overload is always to twitchy for me in vma. One second your doing one the next you try to come out to reapply buffs or something and it lags and boom, dead. Lol.

Seriously though. But hey if you can manage it fine I can see it being beneficial in certain stages.

All that said I've only managed to do vma once since the sustain nerfs in morrowind. Haven't tried a lot lately but it got harder for me and so I decided to give it a break for awhile until I have the time and inclination to get back in there and tackle it again. I do still need to get shock and fire staves in preparation or transmutation system. Haven't even gotten bad trait one yet. Did get two sharpened frost staves and a buttload of bad trait frost staves. Drives me nuts. Lol.

Best of luck though man. You will get it I'm sure. Pet sorc is the number one easiest class and playstyle to complete it with. Just hang in there and try not to get frustrated. Best advice anyone can give is take breaks when things start getting annoying and young u feel that itch start to creep up your arm to throw your controller. Have a smoke, walk around, whatever. Definitely helps once you come back and try again. I tried and tried and tried on my mag dk for ages then broke down, leveled a sorc and tried the necropotence magicka stacking build. Godsend for that first completion. Was working on non-necropotence runs before morrowind.

Lol ah ***. Now I wanna go get back into it and start running it again. Damn you's slightly related forum threads. :P

Lexifer452

Also. Taleoftwocities is right about the pillars. For me, I always try to get four pillars dewebbed before the boss round then hit the fifth once the boss comes out. Then do what damage I can as quick as I can. After that if you can get the pillars again great but I tend to just lay it on the boss after the first pillar stun and try to dps race her down before she gets to enraged. Shield up constantly and heavy attack plus elemental blockade rinse repeat with a thunderous rage when it builds up. Its been a while since I was in there but I'm pretty sure it can work like that if you can manage to stay alive through her attacks and any adds that spawn. I seem to remember killing her a few times with only one pillar stub anyways. I could be wring but I'm fairly sure its doable. A second pillar stub would be the safest way I guess though. Unless you keep getting overwhelmed before enough hoarvors spawn. Then i'd suggest trying to simply nuke her down as fast as possible and ignore the pillars after the initial pillar stun is over.

Lexifer452

Saw your other question about flame-specced petsorcs. Good monster sets for fire damage are Islamist, grothdarr and scoria. You don't like specing more into shock damage though? I've found its a lot easier to do more damage focusing on hock than flame when it comes to sorcerers. I like fire damage for my mag dk a lot better. Seems more natural.

Either way illambris is probably the best bet. If you're maining a flame staff you will still get shock pros from the familiar pulse and force shock plenty in addition to the flame pros from heavy and light attacks, as well as force shock.

For via though you can't go wrong with the simple petsorc playstyle. Hardened ward between shock full heavy attacks while laying down ground aoes, elemental blockade and liquid lightning and throwing out familiar pulse when its timer runs out. If you're just looking for a first completion I would highly recommend trying this playstyle. Easy mode once you get the hang of it. Simple rotation too. I usually go familiar pulse, liquid lightning, elemental blockade, FHA, repeat. Hardened ward after FHA's or when you not need to reapply shield. Gets boring after awhile but definitely a safe way to play maelstrom for the most part. Except stage nine up above. I always have to get a bit more creative than spamming heavy attacks on that one.

Sorry for all the posts. I kept going back and seeing something else I wanted to comment on instead of reading through everyone's posts and then replying.

In any case I hope these ramblings of mine are of some use to you. Vma can be absolutely brutal. I know I was all over these forums and gamefaqs and tamriel foundry for months while I was attempting maelstrom just looking for any kind of insights and strategies and what have you before I managed to get my first completion. It took a long while for me but petsorc was wonderful for getting it done.

Actually on the tamriel foundry sorcerer theorycrafting forum there is a great sorc build by alanarre, I think thats his name. I believe he has both petsorc and caster sorc loadouts written out. Very good. That's actually what helped me get that first completion. You'll know it when you see it I think but i'll post a link sometime tonight or tomorrow if you need help finding it.

I'm out for now though. Take it easy guys.

CurvedSwords123

Lexifer452 wrote: »

Saw your other question about flame-specced petsorcs. Good monster sets for fire damage are Islamist, grothdarr and scoria. You don't like specing more into shock damage though? I've found its a lot easier to do more damage focusing on hock than flame when it comes to sorcerers. I like fire damage for my mag dk a lot better. Seems more natural.

Either way illambris is probably the best bet. If you're maining a flame staff you will still get shock pros from the familiar pulse and force shock plenty in addition to the flame pros from heavy and light attacks, as well as force shock.

For via though you can't go wrong with the simple petsorc playstyle. Hardened ward between shock full heavy attacks while laying down ground aoes, elemental blockade and liquid lightning and throwing out familiar pulse when its timer runs out. If you're just looking for a first completion I would highly recommend trying this playstyle. Easy mode once you get the hang of it. Simple rotation too. I usually go familiar pulse, liquid lightning, elemental blockade, FHA, repeat. Hardened ward after FHA's or when you not need to reapply shield. Gets boring after awhile but definitely a safe way to play maelstrom for the most part. Except stage nine up above. I always have to get a bit more creative than spamming heavy attacks on that one.

Sorry for all the posts. I kept going back and seeing something else I wanted to comment on instead of reading through everyone's posts and then replying.

In any case I hope these ramblings of mine are of some use to you. Vma can be absolutely brutal. I know I was all over these forums and gamefaqs and tamriel foundry for months while I was attempting maelstrom just looking for any kind of insights and strategies and what have you before I managed to get my first completion. It took a long while for me but petsorc was wonderful for getting it done.

Actually on the tamriel foundry sorcerer theorycrafting forum there is a great sorc build by alanarre, I think thats his name. I believe he has both petsorc and caster sorc loadouts written out. Very good. That's actually what helped me get that first completion. You'll know it when you see it I think but i'll post a link sometime tonight or tomorrow if you need help finding it.

I'm out for now though. Take it easy guys.

Thx for ur input buddy. Yeh I'm def liking illambris for VMA. With Maw I find I'm concentrating too much on proccing GATOR-MAN; with Ilambris, I just jump around and fight, and before I know it there are these little storm clouds every where...lol.

Lexifer452

From what I understand, these days, there are a bunch of people touting maw of the infernal as a great dps monster set for pet sorcs but that only works in target dummy parses. In actual battles he ends up getting stunned and/or killed too much to be of any real use. Against a stationary target skelly though with curse on it and all his attacks connecting I'm sure it adds a fair amount of damage to the score. 2-4k dos from what I'm seen. For me though, what good is a set that requires a stationary target who isn't attacking you to be good, ya know?

That said adding maw to a pet sorcs existing pets can be pretty entertaining to run around with. Entourage. Lol. Having three (or four with NC pet) creatures running around with you.

CurvedSwords123

Lexifer452 wrote: »

From what I understand, these days, there are a bunch of people touting maw of the infernal as a great dps monster set for pet sorcs but that only works in target dummy parses. In actual battles he ends up getting stunned and/or killed too much to be of any real use. Against a stationary target skelly though with curse on it and all his attacks connecting I'm sure it adds a fair amount of damage to the score. 2-4k dos from what I'm seen. For me though, what good is a set that requires a stationary target who isn't attacking you to be good, ya know?

That said adding maw to a pet sorcs existing pets can be pretty entertaining to run around with. Entourage. Lol. Having three (or four with NC pet) creatures running around with you.

I agree. Gator man is awesome in solo world pveing, and in pledge HMS. In trials or VMA, I'm loving Illambris. Concentrating on proccing him is getting me killed a lot, and when I he isn't there a u feel naked, I also hate a the fact he procs where I understand are and has to run to the enemy. Other than that he seems really tanky, I haven't seen him die once, I have seen him get stunned quite a lot which is incredibly annoying. Maybe I will try Groth at some point, ppl are suggesting I do...but to me this set seems like it was made for a melee range mag dk.

CurvedSwords123

CurvedSwords123 wrote: »

Lexifer452 wrote: »

From what I understand, these days, there are a bunch of people touting maw of the infernal as a great dps monster set for pet sorcs but that only works in target dummy parses. In actual battles he ends up getting stunned and/or killed too much to be of any real use. Against a stationary target skelly though with curse on it and all his attacks connecting I'm sure it adds a fair amount of damage to the score. 2-4k dos from what I'm seen. For me though, what good is a set that requires a stationary target who isn't attacking you to be good, ya know?

That said adding maw to a pet sorcs existing pets can be pretty entertaining to run around with. Entourage. Lol. Having three (or four with NC pet) creatures running around with you.

I agree. Gator man is awesome in solo world pveing, and in pledge HMS. In trials or VMA, I'm loving Illambris. Concentrating on proccing him is getting me killed a lot, and when I he isn't there a u feel naked, I also hate a the fact he procs where I understand are and has to run to the enemy. Other than that he seems really tanky, I haven't seen him die once, I have seen him get stunned quite a lot which is incredibly annoying. Maybe I will try Groth at some point, ppl are suggesting I do...but to me this set seems like it was made for a melee range mag dk.

Excuse the grammer errors. Still getting used to this phone's autocorrect...