Help requested for my pet sorc in Maelstrom

Locriana

Hixtory wrote: »

Hoarvors appear every 10 secs, you just need to be aware of them. Look for them, and a tip I can give you, when you hear the swarm incoming, look around there is a freaking webspinner trying to web one of your free pillars.

Another thing, kill the hoarvors, yeah is easier and more effective to kill them in the pillar but if you dont manage to do it that way, or you kill it far from a pillar, go to the poison sack it leaves and throw it to any webbed pillar.

How do you throw that poison sack? Is there an aiming process? Cause I'm not seeing it. I'll get a brief synergy, but activating it (if I even can) just seems to explode it, I haven't seen a mechanism for aiming it at a pillar.

Locriana

Jaimeh wrote: »

Also, if you can spare the magicka leave DOTs preemptively on the empty pillars, in case you don't see the webspinner in time.

Good idea, I'll try that.

Even if I manage to keep enough pillars light to escape the spiders, there comes a time the boss one-shot kills you. As I understand it, you have to get all the pillars lit to avoid this, to wind down her attacks and also have time to do some real damage.

But I have not been able to get anything close to all the pillars lit up. Is that a necessary mechanic? Because it doesn't seem possible to me, not enough hoarvors, or else my pets are killing them. I've seen a couple of them crawl back into holes! I don't know if those holes are spawn points, but it would be good if anyone knows anything about the spawn points.
About fifty tries later...I still can't see the spawn points for the hoarvors.

Locriana

And I really think the unwebbed pillars are a bug. Because when faced with no lit pillars and no webbed ones either, I've dragged a hoarvor to one anyway (one that doesn't appear webbed) and killed it, and that gets the pillar lit.

dpencil1

Locriana wrote: »

Hixtory wrote: »

Hoarvors appear every 10 secs, you just need to be aware of them. Look for them, and a tip I can give you, when you hear the swarm incoming, look around there is a freaking webspinner trying to web one of your free pillars.

Another thing, kill the hoarvors, yeah is easier and more effective to kill them in the pillar but if you dont manage to do it that way, or you kill it far from a pillar, go to the poison sack it leaves and throw it to any webbed pillar.

How do you throw that poison sack? Is there an aiming process? Cause I'm not seeing it. I'll get a brief synergy, but activating it (if I even can) just seems to explode it, I haven't seen a mechanism for aiming it at a pillar.

It's a reticle effect, like casting Liquid Lightning. If you have instant cast turned on, then just aim your crosshairs at the pillar and press the synergy button.

Saint314Louis1985

if youre having trouble on stage six, i would advise one of two things.

1) try to just burn the boss and ignore the pillars. use dmg sigil if needed. (make sure you have 1 unwebbed pillar in case spiders spawn. if you kill her fast enough, you dont have to worry about enrage.

2) do the exact opposite of number one. hardly do any damage to the boss until you are able to get all pillars lit and stun her. just focus the adds and keep pillars clean. if you can stun her once (as long as its not right as the fight starts), you shouldnt have to worry about the enrage mechanic. as soon as she is stunned, go all out damage on her until the end of the fight.

GrigorijMalahevich

There are like one million guides of petsorcs in vMA... I think OP is trolling.

I did flawless on my magsorc with 327cp using seducer and lich... Your build has 10k more magicka, c’mon...

Jaimeh

Valera Progib wrote: »

There are like one million guides of petsorcs in vMA... I think OP is trolling.

I did flawless on my magsorc with 327cp using seducer and lich... Your build has 10k more magicka, c’mon...

There are many reasons why somebody might be having a lot of trouble in vMA: from individual aptitude, to understanding mechanics, having a properly built character, a good connection, etc. That you were able to do it at that level, does not negate the fact that it’s a very challenging content, as evidenced from the number of posts of players who are struggling with their first clear. Guides can help someone so far; they then have to figure out for themselves why they are not getting through a stage, and come up with a strategy to approach it. At the same time though, guides might give a player ideas for dealing with mechanics that they might not have realized beforehand, or build suggestions. When I went for the flawless achievement with my magblade, I initially used @Alcast’s ‘Azura’ build for vMA, which was very helpful, but I realized I needed more survivability, so I tweaked it accordingly. Meta change all the time, and there’s a place for guides, because not everyone can do a given content at the same speed as everybody else.

Locriana

Valera Progib wrote: »

There are like one million guides of petsorcs in vMA... I think OP is trolling.

I did flawless on my magsorc with 327cp using seducer and lich... Your build has 10k more magicka, c’mon...

I'm happy for you, I'm sure you are a great player, and I'll never be as good as you at ESO, no doubt.. Enjoy your abilities -- I mean that sincerely, it must be great!.
There are probably one or two areas in life where I excel and you don't -- just sayin. Maybe so, maybe not, who cares. That's life.

For some reason I seem to like to attempt things that are difficult for me, go figure. I do like the challenge of this game. Perhaps I have unresolved psychological issues... lol...

And I have studied videos -- sometimes they help, sometimes it just doesn't happen on my screen the way it is happening in the video -- I don't know if it's an old video, if there have been updates, whatever. A lot of those videos are also done on PC version. I have Xbox. Yes, there's a difference. There's lag, there's a big difference between operating a controller and a PC. Xbox gets very buggy sometimes, and a reset will help. Sometimes it's just me --hard to tell.
The way the content goes may have some differences as well. I don't know.

I really appreciate advice from kind people who know more than I do. There's a lot of great advice here which has helped, and I thank everyone who is willing to give advice and not treat me like an idiot, even if I may be one.
I hope it helps someone else who does a search on the subject.

FrancisCrawford

@Locriana -- one left over thing from your original post is that you were mixing up:

• The sorcerer Storm Calling ultimate skill Overload (which I use in the Energy Overload morph)
• The Molag Kena monster set property "Overkill"

Overload is a toggle skill that in essence changes your weapon from what you're carrying (presumably) a staff to magical lightning fists. Its two main effects are:

• Your basic attacks become much more damaging.
• Your skill bar can change.

To make the skill bar change happen, toggle Overload, then go into the usual UI for changing skills. Later, when you're in combat and toggle Overload, your skill bar will change to the edited version.

Problems with Overload include:

• It can be laggy to toggle.
• It can be laggy to attack with.
• You often have to reset the Overload skill bar when you first log in.
• At one point it was nerfed.

Still, I usually equip Energy Overload because there isn't a lot of room on my skill bars after whichever I am running at the moment among:

• 2x2 pets
• Hardened/Empowered Ward
• Power Surge
• Elemental Drain
• Daedric Prey
• Blockade
• Liquid Lightning

Overload gives me a strong single-target attack against ranged adds or mobile bosses, and the Overload bar is also often the only place I have to stash Endless Fury/Mage's Wrath.

Arbit

I'm a magwarden, and I'm struggling with stage 9 of maelstrom arena too. just letting you know you're not alone man.

Locriana

Just leaving an update here... I left vMA alone for many months, made another sorc just to dedicate to vMA experimentation, so I could leave my original sorc vet trial ready.
Went back in with my new sorc, solved this and the next stages, and now I'm at final boss.
I found myself using somewhat different set-ups on especially the boss rounds of each stage. (The earlier rounds of each stage are not too much of a problem usually.) Some bosses rounds need more finesse, and some benefit from pulling out all the dps you can.
What I lack in quickness I try to make up in skill strategies and usually it ends up working when I hit the right combo.

The final boss is proving difficult to solve, but I keep hammering away at it. It's seeming quite impossible to me at the moment, but I'm still getting in there and trying to learn how to handle it. Today I think I managed to bring together the righ approach to at least get up top consistently (provided I have an ulti ready when the deadroth comes out). But up top I keep getting killed by necrotic blast while I'm trying to dps the crystals and get behind the wall and avoid the comet aoes....well...you all know I'm sure :-/

Any advice on final boss for a petsorc is certainly welcome. I appreciate the help so far and maybe others trying to clear Maelstrom for the first time can benefit from the info here. If I beat it I'll add what I did!

When people say it's all about knowing the mechanics, that is only half of it. Solving how to deal with the mechanics while surviving is the other half, and that can be different for everyone.

Thanks everyone for your contributions.

John_Falstaff

I have no experience with a sorc, just to be upfront, but here are some general thoughts on what worked for me.

- Don't try to burst the crystals down in one go; land DoTs on them and keep camera turned in such a way that you see when the boss prepares to lobe the skull at you.
- Skulls are dodgeable. Magicka classes probably prefer shields, but I roll-dodge, and the window for roll-dodge is huge - when he 'hunches' before attack, good three or even four seconds before toss, a roll-dodge already ensures that he'll miss.
- There's a cadence to that fight. Land dots on crystals, avoid the skull, and start advancing towards the wall (usually counter-clockwise, there's enough time to meet the wall moving towards you as opposed to chasing it and spending stamina). You can try to update dots (not necessarily on the same crystal) while at it. So it goes - damage, skull toss, wall, skull toss, damage... By the way, go into settings and crank up camera field of view way up to 130 (from default 110), it doesn't hurt to see more things around you (I change back after arena, I find 110 more naturally looking for normal gaming).
- Not managing to down all crystals in one session up there is okay. I usually get almost two down, but I don't wait for third wall - churn becomes too strong, and wall too fast, so just buff up and jump down into center of the arena. If shield sigil is available, grab it at once before taking on the Crematorial Guard. So yes, consistently killing CGs and not getting under a ghost touch or clanfear attack while at it is a task on its own.

Then you probably have to play out mechanics from previous rounds (the cultist trying to invoke the golem, the CGs, the golden ghosts). I have enough damage to bypass it and burn the boss after jumping down and before CG spawns, so I can't say how it goes from there on if you play things as intended.

ReachHalo

I know your pain... i have been the one reading forum advice and watching youtube clips to try and work out vMA, and then getting to the last boss... ugh, my first time was horrible and stressful. While i have completed the arena about 20 times now on pet sorc, i still have issues every now and then, like last night where it took me about 10 deaths to kill final boss - sometimes it just doesn't go well...

Anyway, my approach to Stage 9 is kind of based on the famous one bar pet sorc on you tube - not the rotation, just the method...

- buff with surge and boundless
- blockade, liq light, pulse, then ward
- - boss appears
- elemental drain, daedric curse
- spam crushing shock
- boss teleports
- interupt, drop ulti
- boss and daedroth that appears burn
- kill summoner, then clanfear on the portal
- buff up, ward and go upstairs - i have used the healing sigil at times before going up

- elemental drain, blockade, liq light on first crystal, then block or roll dodge skull
- curse and pulse crystal, maybe heavy attack
- crystal dies, and get behind wall
- while the above is going on, warding as needed or as much as possible, and keeping surge and boundless storm up when lapsed

- buff up while behind wall, repeat the above for other two crystals. Damaging with Surge up as well as ward will keep you alive as long as you're not being snared. Keep your dots on the crystals so surge can mitigate the huge soul churn damage.
- try and buff up just before last crystal is destroyed.

- when you enter third phase downstairs, interrupt boss, grab gold ghosts and dodge attacks for two more teleports. Ensure you are dotting and at least heavy attacking boss. Just before third teleport, grab defence sigil, and daedroth will spawn near him, and just drop ulti and destroy both. The reflection damage should help end it here.

That is pretty much how i completed it in my first ten or so attempts. I think the main thing in beating this round for the first time is resource management and sigil use. You should definitely save the defence one until third phase.

I have said this in other posts on vMA, if you can beat Stage 5 and 7, then you will beat this boss. Best of luck to you and keep us all updated

jaws343

When i run a Pet build through here, I usually only use the volatile familiar. Having both pets isn't really necessary.

Your gear is fine, but I would actually recommend running skoria instead of illambris since there is so much movement. Or even shadowrend or maw. Zaan can also work pretty well to single target bosses or priority adds.

I usually run this setup if I have a pet:

Front bar:
Volatile
Empowered Ward
Curse
Crushing Shock
Endless Fury
Meteor/Storm Atro

Back Bar
Harness magicka
Liquid Lightning
Wall of elements
Crit Surge
Volatile
Destro Ult

I find having a shield on both bars is extremely helpful. That way you are never caught on a bar without defense. Also, You can drop some of the spell damage enchants and just run mag recovery. Having resources will be more beneficial than pumping out a bit more damage. You are going to want to kill as many things as possible with endless fury and crushing shock/WOE for the magicka return.

Locriana

Thanks for these really excellent advices, and @ReachHalo your run-through description is sooo helpful, I will read it a couple times next try for sure!.
@John_Falstaff that camera idea is great! Don't know if possible on Xbox, bui will check it out. Cadence advice much appreciated.
One thing new is I've found Accelerate, the psijic skill, to be very helpful indeed for getting around the CGs and especially to get the gold ghosts. I took a break to do the psijic skill line, and this one is incredibly useful in vMA, especially if you are running mother's sorrow with necro, and have a high crit rate as it increases crit damage also. Anyone considering using Accelerate in vMA, don't morph it! The cast time totally negates the benefit in vMA (and everywhere else as far as I'm concerned.) You don't want to stand there a second and a half to have 9 seconds of speed instead of 3. These are small arenas, so 3 seconds is enough to boost you to wherever the ghost is. And the extra crit damage lasts 12 seconds.
I can't wait to use this on another run-through on the argonian poison round! Boundless storm there always got the shield argonian killed, so I couldn't use it on that boss round...

That's said, boundless storm might be more useful here. Will try.

Also, I've switched out my mother's sorrow for torugs pact for this round, as someone else was advising...it makes you tankier, and with infused staves with a weapon damage enchant on aoe bar, and shock enchant on the other, I was hoping it would make up for less crit and spell damage. Not so sure about that.
What do you all think about this?
I moved to mother's sorrow from infallible aether at some point in Maelstrom when I realized I wasn't getting in enough heavy attacks on specific enemies to make it worthwhile. And I needed to add in power surge. You see mostly I'm a trials player, and what works there isn't necessarily the best for vMA. (in vet trials I chug spell power pots and use ward only and rely on the healer) Here I have to provide my own heals, and need a potion that includes heals.
I also have a set of mechanical acuity, some of it gold, and wondering if anyone has used that in vMA, and if so, is it worthwhiel?
I have a lot of gold necro staffs, nirnhoned and infused, have been using a nirnhoned on the aoe bar, but gave it up for infused for this torugs pact arrangement. I also have a fire nirnhoned. Haven't used it yet on this.
I do think my dps is better with mother's sorrow and one nirnhoned staff. And heals. But needing tristat-food instead of blue food for stamina here makes health more of a problem.
With torugs I can also have a heavy chest and use my light Valkyrie Skoria hat. Though I can borrow a heavy from my magblade...she'll be very upset... lol...

From these possibilities, what do you all think is the better option for this final boss?
It seems to boil down to tankier with some burst damage, or more solid dps and better crit heals.

Thanks!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Locriana wrote: »

Thanks for these really excellent advices, and @ReachHalo your run-through description is sooo helpful, I will read it a couple times next try for sure!.
@John_Falstaff that camera idea is great! Don't know if possible on Xbox, bui will check it out. Cadence advice much appreciated.
One thing new is I've found Accelerate, the psijic skill, to be very helpful indeed for getting around the CGs and especially to get the gold ghosts. I took a break to do the psijic skill line, and this one is incredibly useful in vMA, especially if you are running mother's sorrow with necro, and have a high crit rate as it increases crit damage also. Anyone considering using Accelerate in vMA, don't morph it! The cast time totally negates the benefit in vMA (and everywhere else as far as I'm concerned.) You don't want to stand there a second and a half to have 9 seconds of speed instead of 3. These are small arenas, so 3 seconds is enough to boost you to wherever the ghost is. And the extra crit damage lasts 12 seconds.
I can't wait to use this on another run-through on the argonian poison round! Boundless storm there always got the shield argonian killed, so I couldn't use it on that boss round...

That's said, boundless storm might be more useful here. Will try.

Also, I've switched out my mother's sorrow for torugs pact for this round, as someone else was advising...it makes you tankier, and with infused staves with a weapon damage enchant on aoe bar, and shock enchant on the other, I was hoping it would make up for less crit and spell damage. Not so sure about that.
What do you all think about this?
I moved to mother's sorrow from infallible aether at some point in Maelstrom when I realized I wasn't getting in enough heavy attacks on specific enemies to make it worthwhile. And I needed to add in power surge. You see mostly I'm a trials player, and what works there isn't necessarily the best for vMA. (in vet trials I chug spell power pots and use ward only and rely on the healer) Here I have to provide my own heals, and need a potion that includes heals.
I also have a set of mechanical acuity, some of it gold, and wondering if anyone has used that in vMA, and if so, is it worthwhiel?
I have a lot of gold necro staffs, nirnhoned and infused, have been using a nirnhoned on the aoe bar, but gave it up for infused for this torugs pact arrangement. I also have a fire nirnhoned. Haven't used it yet on this.
I do think my dps is better with mother's sorrow and one nirnhoned staff. And heals. But needing tristat-food instead of blue food for stamina here makes health more of a problem.
With torugs I can also have a heavy chest and use my light Valkyrie Skoria hat. Though I can borrow a heavy from my magblade...she'll be very upset... lol...

From these possibilities, what do you all think is the better option for this final boss?
It seems to boil down to tankier with some burst damage, or more solid dps and better crit heals.

Thanks!

On a sorc, I honestly think you are tankier in MS than in torugs. Your resistances dont apply when you have a shield up, and the spell crit from MS will make your heals from surge better. If you need some more health, slide some attribute points or make one of your enchants healthy.

Gear is not really the issue. Any two damage sets will do the trick. Personally, I would go with Necro and either julianos or MS, the difference will be negligible. This fight is perhaps the most punishing fight from a mechanics standpoint in the whole game. A misstep is most likely a wipe.

If you are getting upstairs consistently, then awesome. I think this is the most demanding part of the fight when I go in with a new class or spec. The upstairs just takes practice. Few tips and tricks:

First, make sure you are zoomed out and always keep your camera so you can see the boss. His heavy attacks are very telegraphed. You can either block or dodgeroll. If you have the stamina, I honestly prefer to roll them, but if you stamina is out, block. Even with no stam, you wont get knocked back. The patterns of his attacks are very predictable.

Second, watch your feet. You simply cant get caught in the aoe or you will get stunned and wrecked.

Third, Dont focus on a particular cyrstal, order is irrelevant. Cast all your ground dots on the one that is closest to you when you go up stairs, and work on it until the shield spawns. I would avoid using ultimates. You should be able to kill one before the first wall spawns, but if you cant, get to the wall as a priority moving counter clockwise (as it moves clockwise). Once safe, attack whatever cyrstal is nearest to you and repeat.

Forth, dont be afraid to use tri-pots or stamina/imov/speed pots. You can also grad the speed sigil before going upstairs as it also boosts all primary stat regen. You can even consider purple food for this fight, but I dont think its necessary.

Finally, Dont be afraid to hop down on purpose. If get to the third wall, it is moving pretty fast. I think you are better jumping down prepared to fight a guard (you should have an ulti by this point), then getting knocked into the lava only to have a guard in your face when you get out. You can repeat this as many times as needed. The wall speed will reset, the crystals health will not.

Once you are downstairs, the biggest thing is dont panic. This is actually the easiest part of the fight, but you will probably freak out and die the first few times, its cool, we all did.

I think your best move is to go straight for the shield and power sigil. Gold ghosts are a priority, but really you just need to DPS the boss. The first time, you should probably take out the first summoner, but your really shouldnt need to. You can also slot rearming trap and put it in his path, it will by you a lot of time if you want to ignore. Save your Ulti and the ghost synergy for the the guard, which will spawn right after the third ghost. Once you stun, if you feel like you can push the boss, go for it, but I recommend just focusing the guard, then finishing the boss on your first time.

Locriana

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

On a sorc, I honestly think you are tankier in MS than in torugs. Your resistances dont apply when you have a shield up, and the spell crit from MS will make your heals from surge better. If you need some more health, slide some attribute points or make one of your enchants healthy.

Gear is not really the issue. Any two damage sets will do the trick. Personally, I would go with Necro and either julianos or MS, the difference will be negligible. This fight is perhaps the most punishing fight from a mechanics standpoint in the whole game. A misstep is most likely a wipe.

If you are getting upstairs consistently, then awesome. I think this is the most demanding part of the fight when I go in with a new class or spec. The upstairs just takes practice. Few tips and tricks:

First, make sure you are zoomed out and always keep your camera so you can see the boss. His heavy attacks are very telegraphed. You can either block or dodgeroll. If you have the stamina, I honestly prefer to roll them, but if you stamina is out, block. Even with no stam, you wont get knocked back. The patterns of his attacks are very predictable.

Second, watch your feet. You simply cant get caught in the aoe or you will get stunned and wrecked.

Third, Dont focus on a particular cyrstal, order is irrelevant. Cast all your ground dots on the one that is closest to you when you go up stairs, and work on it until the shield spawns. I would avoid using ultimates. You should be able to kill one before the first wall spawns, but if you cant, get to the wall as a priority moving counter clockwise (as it moves clockwise). Once safe, attack whatever cyrstal is nearest to you and repeat.

Forth, dont be afraid to use tri-pots or stamina/imov/speed pots. You can also grad the speed sigil before going upstairs as it also boosts all primary stat regen. You can even consider purple food for this fight, but I dont think its necessary.

Finally, Dont be afraid to hop down on purpose. If get to the third wall, it is moving pretty fast. I think you are better jumping down prepared to fight a guard (you should have an ulti by this point), then getting knocked into the lava only to have a guard in your face when you get out. You can repeat this as many times as needed. The wall speed will reset, the crystals health will not.

Once you are downstairs, the biggest thing is dont panic. This is actually the easiest part of the fight, but you will probably freak out and die the first few times, its cool, we all did.

I think your best move is to go straight for the shield and power sigil. Gold ghosts are a priority, but really you just need to DPS the boss. The first time, you should probably take out the first summoner, but your really shouldnt need to. You can also slot rearming trap and put it in his path, it will by you a lot of time if you want to ignore. Save your Ulti and the ghost synergy for the the guard, which will spawn right after the third ghost. Once you stun, if you feel like you can push the boss, go for it, but I recommend just focusing the guard, then finishing the boss on your first time.

Thanks for this. Every time someone writes how they think of this fight, I pick up something that helps. I haven't been turning my camera toward the boss upstairs, too busy watching my feet for aoes, putting dots on the crystals, and trying to find the wall. Too bad I can't practice this part without having to go through the first bit, because if I don't have my ulti for the 1st part I have to wipe a couple times to build it. Tiring. I know, practice, practice...

I think I've been afraid to use the sigils too soon, so timing advice on that is good.

It's pretty frustrating to go in there with my dps so low compared to what I'm used to. I *should* be able to burn things faster, and I run out of magicka on top of it from shielding against the bleeping Daedroths. There is the bar switch lag too, so it's difficult to keep up power surge and get to crushing shock when needed....but too many skills to fit on 2 bars much less one, even with taking off inner light, those who do this with one bar and just aoes, I don't get that. I've had to enchant a ring with spell cost reduction (I hear it's more efficient than regen), so my spell power is embarrassingly low... Part of me wants to just run in there with my trials setup and burn everything, but I don't think I'd survive to do it...lol
I don't usually slot power surge, and certainly not boundless storm, but both are needed here.
I find myself seriously considering a temporary non-pet build for just this boss...as I'm too busy to pulse the pet often enough here! But frags are out, I have enough to watch without looking for frags procs, and I'm not used to it.

The main problem I'm facing now is when I hop back down or get thrown off the top (I usually don't die up there), I immediately face another fire-breather before I even see a gold ghost, and my resources are usually not enough to get through that. I tried hardened instead of empowered Ward for awhile but switched back because the duration and magicka recovery boost of empowered Ward were missed. I'm fantasizing now about grabbing my Seducers set off my pvp healer and giving that a go....like, absolutely no crit or spell power from armor, only magic and recovery...hmmmm....Because one ring isn't enough. Witchmothers would be great but less health and less magicka...

It feels like I need to find a balance in these stats that I'm not finding. I heavy attack every chance I get but it takes time, while things are wrecking me and I need to shield. Maybe a heavy attack focused build with a lot of CP put into staff expert?
That might be dumbed down enough for me...

Just thinking aloud here, thanks for listening, if anything else occurs to anyone, please say. I find when I complete these stages after much difficulty it's because I listen and try to follow advice and in doing that find my own particular variation to work with my strengths and weaknesses., it takes a hell of a lot of trial and error to even get to the point where you find out what works and what can maybe be left out. I'd like to keep it simple and still do enough dps, interrupts, speed.....you get the picture.

scionix90

Locriana wrote: »

Hey. I'm really frustrated in Maelstrom. The thing is, I got past Sehts flywheel on vet once with relative ease, I must've got lucky or something. My quest got deleted I had to start over several times until I could even get the quest back, and now I can't get past it. I've tried so many times.

I'd really love some advice -- not the ultimate meta build because I don't have Maelstrom staffs obviously, I haven't got through it on vet yet. But something doable at my level of play and build.

My pet sorc build, with usual skill bar setup, works well other places, I know I'll have to change some things:
5 necro, 4infallible aether, 2illambris. All divines except reinf. shoulders. Spell damage Mundas stone (which I changed to spell crit for Maelstrom)
All large pieces yellow. Jewelry with kuta spell dam. enchants, two purple one yellow.

Front bar: lightning infused staff, flame enchant. I also have a sharpened return health staff I can substitute. All yellow and kuta enchants
Bound aegis/volatile familiar/power surge/liquid lightning/blockade storms/shooting star

Back bar: lightning nirnhoned staff, spell damage enchantment. Yellow, kuta enchants
Bound aegis/ inner light/shock clench (or crushing shock)/volatile familiar/daedric prey/thunderous rage

What can I change to get through vet Maelstrom? I found normal pretty easy. And vet not bad until the boss on Sehts flywheel. I understand the mechanics here pretty well, but doing it is another matter. I stay under the boss when green, use my destro ult, between work on adds. But I get killed at some point. Usually I get the boss pretty far down. If I have enough shields and heals on my bars I don't have room for enough dps, and vice versa.

I've tried changing up a lot of things, using engine guardian and or twilight matriarch to stay alive, of course I have to add hardened ward somewhere.
I don't want to completely change my whole skill setup because I've trained in this set up for dps for trials and it's very confusing to have a completely different setup. I'm not trying for flawless or anything too grand. I'd just like to get through it and have a chance at a staff, etc. I'm actually really interested in it. I've watched videos but not with pet builds.

Also, it seems there is some lag which can make it slow to change bars, so I seem to need hardened ward on both bars, plus power surge on one.

Even with changing to the thief Mundas stone I'm only getting 45% crit, which I don't really understand why it's so low with all but one divines. Of course necro is based on magicka not crit so there's that.

I do have a set of Julianos lying around, should I sub that for infal? Then back bar star would be nirnhoned fire instead of lightning. It would really change the build from the off balance, and dps would be lower.

Advice that's not a complete remake would be gratefully accepted. Surely there is something I can do with what I have going already that is not too much of a stretch, so I can use what I've been training in to some extent?

Thanks
Oh I should add I'm cp 649 of that helps, and I do have various armor sets stashed like moondancer and mothers sorrow, martial whatever, and can make most crafted sets. Kind of a pack rat. No elegance though. I have molag kena and most monster sets, but I don't understand the talk about an overload bar, as it seems they are speaking about three bars when we only have two. I get the Kena overload feature, but it seems overly complicated and requires more magicka... master alchemist experimenting with potions. Tri-pots seem best tho spel crit, magicka and health could help... can make tri-food or witchmothers..

I don’t think I saw hardened ward on your front bar? On my magsorc I cleared it very easily with front bar lightning staff with power surge, ward, wall of elements, vol familiar and crushing shock. Only went to back bar for liquid lightning and Daedric mines. Keep surge up and spam hardened ward, and apply your pets ability a lot for aoe dmg and that big stun. Also if I were you I’d use lover stone, noticed a damage increase instead of using apprentice. Also had necro and m. Sorrow on both bars with 2 diff monster sets. Domih piece for stamina and magic, and another monster piece that gives more max magic. So you can cast a little more and sprint and roll a little more.

Locriana

scionix90 wrote: »

I don’t think I saw hardened ward on your front bar? On my magsorc I cleared it very easily with front bar lightning staff with power surge, ward, wall of elements, vol familiar and crushing shock. Only went to back bar for liquid lightning and Daedric mines. Keep surge up and spam hardened ward, and apply your pets ability a lot for aoe dmg and that big stun. Also if I were you I’d use lover stone, noticed a damage increase instead of using apprentice. Also had necro and m. Sorrow on both bars with 2 diff monster sets. Domih piece for stamina and magic, and another monster piece that gives more max magic. So you can cast a little more and sprint and roll a little more.

good ideas @scionix90 though I think you quoted my op here from about a year ago...heh heh...which is kind of awesome because all that stuff i was having trouble with then is a breeze now, so it gives some perspective. I left vMA alone for quite awhile until my recent return to it. Now I'm determined to beat it because I feel I can do it, and I'm making a lot of progress.

And I definitely use Ward now (empowered morph, with points in bastion), and harness magicka, one on each bar. Can't be caught without a shield on each bar. Which takes up space for say inner light, but you can't dps if you're dead, so there's that...

Still, what you say is important in general. Often it comes down to finding the right bar setup for different bosses, for me anyway. I'm not a teenager anymore, far from it, so I don't have lightning reflexes (it happens), and I have to think about how to get what I need fast to react to specialized situations. Which often means learning a different bar combo for a boss, which does complicate things but I am getting more flexible that way. But it means I have to rely on thought instead of muscle memory and that's a handicap because think9ng about which buttons to push is much slower than conditioned reflex.

But maybe I have to rely on a most-of-the-time bar, and a maybe-if-I-can-get-to-it bar, something like you describe here sounds good.

And yes, switched to lover Mundas. I like to crunch the numbers so I adjusted CP points and added up sources of spell pen. It's recommended 12k pen for Maelstrom, for reasons I don't need to go into here. I'm working with that figure. Wish I could get ele- drain reliably useable in there because that would be a magicka return and debuff. Some people use it. People without lag issues I guess.

ReachHalo

@Locriana Yep, i too had to scrap inner light to make way for other skills - the double barring pet things really pi**e* me off- so i lost a fair bit of crit to take it down to around 40%. So after Summerset, i just use infused Julianos staves (lightning front and inferno back) to give the 800 or so crit, to get me back up towards 50%. I often prefer these to the Maelstrom staves i now have, but that is of no use to you just yet lol... soon hopefully

Locriana

ReachHalo wrote: »

@Locriana Yep, i too had to scrap inner light to make way for other skills - the double barring pet things really pi**e* me off- so i lost a fair bit of crit to take it down to around 40%. So after Summerset, i just use infused Julianos staves (lightning front and inferno back) to give the 800 or so crit, to get me back up towards 50%. I often prefer these to the Maelstrom staves i now have, but that is of no use to you just yet lol... soon hopefully

Yes I've been wondering if the staff counting for 2 now makes Maelstrom weapons obsolete...that would be ironic.
But really, I just want to do this thing, it's a mission. It's also enjoyable really, in some I hope not masochistic way...lol...

John_Falstaff

I think Maelstrom bow and destruction staff are still best in slot (on backbar), so it probably won't change for a while; but the gap is somewhat smaller now.

About switching Mundus - you should balance your options, because self healing scales off weapon/spell power (and doesn't scale off penetration), and in many cases you need incoming healing in vMA, since there's a lot of damage you just can't avoid.

Locriana

Oh how interesting....
Been doing some testing, and if you lay down blockade of storms, then switch over to the back bar which I put inner light on, that blockade starts doing more damage, and crits more. So having it on one bar will definitely improve damage on both bars when it comes to aoes...which is a lot of what we are doing.
It even procced the illambris rain of fire with the fire enchant on that back bar, without me doing a single light attack, just switching bars.
I think I'll try to do without boundless storm and replace it with inner light. Boundless storm is very expensive and I think was draining my magicka too quickly for what little dps it gave. Yes it is some protection, but not nearly as much as the Ward.

Also, experiments showed even though I'm using lover stone, ele drain still adds a lot of dps to those aoes with its debuff. The numbers went up significantly. Plus it will give magicka back passively, it seems "restore 300 magicka per second while damaging them"
That would be on all those aoes going on ele drained targets (at no magicka cost), not just staff attacks.

I knitted a set of Twice Born Star. Here's why. It adds health, stam, and magicka, so it eliminates the need for a tristat food here. And I can use all magicka enchanted armor.
Plus I can use Lover AND Apprentice stones/
Always wanted to try that, now I have a reason....

Ok, yes, I'm into theory crafting. It's half the fun.

ReachHalo

@Locriana i would recommend boundless storm for the boss in Stage 9 - not for any defenses it provides, but it does give you the burst of speed that you may need at times. This is especially in the crystal phase where you may need to make it behind a wall and boundless gives that boost. Also, with its animation, I find casting boundless and surge consecutively allows me to know when surge has run out, as they pretty much last for the same duration.

In regards to lag and elemental drain, i don't quite know what you mean here. Never experienced lag when using that skill... however vMA can be quite laggy at times, especially with bar swaps and skills castings. I play on x box na from Australia, so i have laggy times often. Combine this with clunky controls and it's sometimes a recipe for disaster in vMA lol.

Ostacia

I'm just really getting started on Maelstrom, but have made it to lvl 5 vMA using the following 2 resources:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/381682/joys-new-and-improved-guide-to-beating-maelstrom-arena

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/400833/one-bar-easy-vma-magsorc-build-updated-for-summerset-no-trial-monster-set-maelstrom-weapon-needed/p1

I need more cp to go further, I think. Good luck to you!

Locriana

Final boss. I put dots on the crystals, I ele drain the crystals. I heavy attack the crystals, I pet pulse. I get up there a THIRD time and there is VERY little damage on those crystals. WTF does it take???